fans gather.

I don't see anyone stopping us now this IPL. We've found our rhythm. Bumrah took a 5er. The entire batting line up clicked. Even HaPa hit a few 6s.

We've peaked at the right time.

@Stan AFwas right all along. We just needed one good game to get back into our groove.

We're back.

I know I run the risk of being trolled re:this thread if  don't do well. Kind of like @punjabi_khota's legendary thread.

But We are so winning this IPL.

I wonder if LSG makes economic sense at all. Is there a distinct set of audience for it? You might say gangu belt, but there is already Delhi in it. 

Winners RCB: Rs 20 crore

Runners-up PBKS: Rs 12.5 crore

Third-placed Mumbai Indians: Rs 7 crore

Fourth-placed Gujarat Titans: Rs 6.5 crore

Orange Cap winner (Sai Sudharsan): Rs 10 lakh

Purple Cap winner (Prasidh Krishna): Rs 10 lakh

Emerging Player winner (Sai Sudharsan): Rs 10 lakh

Most Valuable Player (Suryakumar Yadav): Rs 15 lakh

Super Striker of the season (Vaibhav Suryavanshi): Rs 10 lakh and Tata Curvv car

Fantasy King of the season (Sai Sudharsan): Rs 10 lakh

Best Catch winner (Kamindu Mendis): Rs 10 lakh

Most Dot Balls (Mohammed Siraj): Rs 10 lakh

Super Sixes (Nicholas Pooran): Rs 10 lakh

Fours of the season (Sai Sudharsan): Rs 10 lakh

Fairplay Award (Chennai Super Kings): Rs 10 lakh

Pitch and Ground (Delhi Capitals home ground New Delhi): Rs 50 lakh

List of award winners in the RCB vs PBKS final

Player of the Match (Krunal Pandya): Rs 5 lakh

Super Striker (Jitesh Sharma): Rs 1 lakh

Most Dot balls (Krunal Pandya): Rs 1 lakh

Most fours (Priyansh Arya): Rs 1 lakh

Fantasy King (Shashank Singh): Rs 1 lakh

Most Sixes (Shashank Singh): Rs 1 lakh

Such a sad end to what should have been a day of joy in Bangalore. 

In 2022, IPL become a 10 team event where past no longer mattered (apart from to loyal franchise fans who judge their teams based on old dynamics). Since 2022, new teams such as GT have been most consistent. 
 

Moving forward, which teams will become or be seen as dominant? 
 

Sanjiv Goenka and his family paid a visit to the temple one day before the Indian Premier League season officially resumed.

should have donated pant to tirupathi temple as well  

I hear virat kohli then.. "cup namdalla"

what does he say?

Dropped by to share this.

Now South joins West - CSK, RCB, and SRH. 
 

(KKR, the only team from the East has won the trophy too). 

Sa

Save the dates

Less go

Hero to ENTERTAIN

Calling fellow fans @Gollum @Lone Wolf @vice @punjabi_khota and many more closet fans

If they can't get past a team which has choke king Kohli, aka Mandeep Singh of playoffs (averaging in early 20s with a SR of mid 120s across 15 innings in playoffs/knockouts), they're not gonna win anything.

PBKS should call it quits and focus on their rivalry with Delhi (DC) where the two bottom feeders can fight over bragging rights between the two. They can create an Ashes type of rivalry within IPL and let other teams worry about winning the tournament.

GT has looked superb when it plays to its potential but in the last few games, the team hasn’t looked sharp - compounded by probably complacency and playing knocked out teams who play in a nothing to lose fashion esp. when batting first without pressure. On top of that, the fielding has been casual too at times. Overall, it in the last few games, it appears as if GT takes a step forward and then a step backward, not building momentum. 
 

Heading into the playoff, GT needs to pull up its socks and recapture its intensity that sets it apart from other teams. 

Other major issue is the unavailability of Jos Buttler for the playoff but it also serves as an opportunity for Kusal Mendis to make his mark in IPL. 

Preferred team for playoff: 

Gill

Sai S

Mendis 

Rutherford 

SRK

Tewatia 

Shanaka or Coetzee 

Rashid

Arshad 

Sai K

Siraj

Krishna 

Depending on form and pitch, there could be a case to play Sundar as well. 
 

Go Wolves … let’s get the 2nd title in 2025

Let the howl rock the town  

Prasidh Krishna

Kartik Tyagi

Avesh Khan

Navdeep Saini

Shivam Mavi

Kamlesh Nagarkoti

Akash Singh

Would be nice if a new pacer, not known to us, performs well and bowls quick among Indians.

Punjab vs RCB.

whats yours?

The IPL 2025's new venues for playoffs and final have been announced. Hyderabad and Kolkata were initially supposed to host the last four games before the one week suspension of the tournament. Now, Mullanpur and Ahmedabad will be hosting the playoff stage matches. "After 70 action-packed league-stage matches filled with energy, drama, thrill, and entertainment; the spotlight will shift to the New PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh as it gears up to host the much-awaited Qualifier 1 - featuring the top-two ranked sides on Thursday, May 29th followed by an engrossing Eliminator clash on Friday, 30th May," the BCCI said in a press stament.

"The excitement will elevate further as Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium, the world's largest cricket stadium in the world will host an electrifying Qualifier 2 and the grand Final. The Qualifier 2, to be played between the loser of Qualifier 1 and the winner of the Eliminator, will take place on Sunday, June 1st. The highly-anticipated summit clash, which will crown the winner of the 18th Season of TATA IPL, is set to be played on Tuesday, June 3rd."

The BCCI also divulged the reason behind changing the IPL playoff venues. "The new venues for the Playoffs were decided by the IPL Governing Council keeping in mind the weather conditions and other parameters," it said.

There was another shift in venue in one of the IPL 2025 matches. "The TATA IPL Match No. 65 between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) has been relocated to the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, due to unfavourable weather conditions in Bengaluru," the BCCI statement said.

https://sports.ndtv.com/ipl-2025/bcci-breaks-silence-on-moving-ipl-2025-final-from-kolkata-to-ahmedabad-keeping-in-mind-8462595

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/ipl-2025-1449924

Biggest Disappointment: Complete lack of fast-bowling talent on display. Last year we had the exciting emergence of Rana and Yadav. While Rana is still in the picture, Yadav's unavailability has been a huge blow. And to top it all, there don't seem to be any new options. New seamers like Kamboj have emerged, but they are just that - seamers. It is still Bumrah and the dwarfs. There is no accurate, consistently 140+ speedster on the horizon and that is a huge regression.

 is cementing their @ss to the bottom of the table already  

P.S. - Now I've opened a thread on him watch him become MVP this season and lead LSG to the playoffs 

Original OP follows:

==

It's that time of the year!!! With the playoffs close to completion, it is time to pick the most worthless player of IPL 2025. This will be our 14th consecutive year for this thread theme. 

Here are winners from prior years:

2024: Hardik Pandya

2023: Deepak Hooda

2022: Rohit Sharma

2021: Nicholas Pooran

2020: MS Dhoni

2019: Yusuf Pathan

2018: Glen Maxwell

2017: Shane Watson

2016: David Miller

2015: Yuvraj Singh

2014: Chris Gayle

2013: Kumara Sangakkara

2012: Yusuf Pathan

*REMEMBER*

The most worthless player is a player who is earning big bucks, but performing miserably poorly. The more the bucks and the poorer the performance, the more worthless they are.

P.S. If you think that I missed someone, let me know and I will evaluate and determine if we need to add them to the poll.

a) if CSK does well, it earns him another season to play for the fans 

b) if CSK does not do well, it becomes his responsibility to bring it back on the track in the next season 

So in either situation, he plays “one more season”! 

 

Since retirement is a decision b/w Dhoni and CSK, I am ok in either way - whether he hangs his boot or straps them back on! 

You can put in your preferred 15 on daily basis ,make changes at all points

This season has already given us enough to make our own squad ,which you think can represent us in next T20 WC

So knowing about the conditions ,nature of pitches in India, there behaviour in span of innings please design your 15

You all are most welcome

Suryavanshi OTOH has been a perfect foil to Jaiswal, giving RR a quick start and hitting a 6 every 4 deliveries! He's averaging 32.5 with a SR of 215! These numbers are mind-blowing as Suryavanshi has only played 6 matches and this is the debut season for the 14 year old!

Despite such a prolific opening contributions - both in terms of average & runs scored and SR, RR middle order hasn't been able to finish off games. A middle order of Parag, Jurel and Hetmeyer has been found wanting time and again. At least Parag has contributed with the ball and has been able to make a couple of match-winning contributions with the bat but Jurel and Hetmeyer have been disappointing. If RR middle order had supported their openers, RR would be in the  playoffs with at least 4 winnable games lost by their incompetent middle order.

Quote

IPL MEDIA ADVISORY

May 15, 2025

PBKS, GT, and LSG announce replacements

Punjab Kings, Gujarat Titans, and Lucknow Super Giants have announced player replacements, which are as below.

Punjab Kings name Kyle Jamieson as a replacement for the injured Lockie Ferguson

Punjab Kings (PBKS) have picked Kyle Jamieson as a replacement for Lockie Ferguson, who is ruled out of the remainder of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 due to a hamstring injury.

The right-arm Kiwi pacer will join PBKS for INR 2 Crore.

Gujarat Titans sign Kusal Mendis as Jos Buttler set to leave for national duties

Gujarat Titans (GT) have picked Kusal Mendis as a replacement for Jos Buttler, who is set to leave for national duties on May 26, 2025, following GT's last league-stage game against Chennai Super Kings on May 25, 2025. The replacement will be effective from May 26, 2025.

Mendis will join GT for INR 75 Lakh.

Lucknow Super Giants rope in William O’Rourke

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have roped in New Zealand pacer, William O’Rourke as an injury replacement for Mayank Yadav.

Yadav sustained a back injury and is ruled out for the remainder of the season.

William O'Rourke will be his replacement at a reserve price of INR 3 crore.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricket-videos/ipl-2025-rcb-vs-kkr-manish-pandey-break-could-help-patchy-kkr-1486117

This was the beginning of our dominant run from 2013. The pace duo of Malinga/Johnson was lethal. Good Low scoring thriller. 

Apparently this is csk's ....... score in IPL History.  Those days even a 150 score was pretty much defendable.

Good times

Who are the others duds of IPL 2025 ?

There has been a lot of debate over MS Dhoni's batting spot in Chenai Super Kings playing XI this IPL season.

After three defeats in four matches, Chennai Super Kings find themselves languishing at the 9th spot on the IPL 2025 points table. The five-time IPL winners though started their season with a win over Mumbai Indians at home but have since lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals – two of these defeats coming at Chepauk.

The common feature of these defeats has been CSK‘s failure to chase down targets. While against MI, they did win by four wickets, they lost to RCB by 50 runs, RR by 6 runs and then DC by 25 runs. Their openers have failed to stitch together a significant partnership so far with their top-order also underperforming.

Another criticism that CSK have been facing is the batting spot of their stalwart MS Dhoni who has often come to bat quite low in the order and at times when the fate of the game has nearly been sealed.

Against DC, Dhoni was in the middle by the 10th over but that was only because CSK had lost half their side by then and needed 110 runs more to win in 52 deliveries.

The need of the hour was big hits but Vijay Shankar (69* off 54) and Dhoni (30* off 26) failed to accelerate as DC completed their first win over CSK in Chennai since IPL 2010.

After CSK’s latest batting failure, former India opener Wasim Jaffer feels that if Dhoni isn’t captaining the franchise and continues to bat this way, he should make way for a youngster now.

“Yes, if Dhoni isn’t captaining, then it hurts a little seeing him (bat) this way," Jaffer said on ESPNcricinfo in response to whether the former CSK skipper needs to drop himself from the playing XI.

Jaffer attributed Dhoni’s struggle to playing limited cricket.  The 43-year-old retired from international cricket in 2020 and only plays in IPL now.

“Obviously, Dhoni doesn’t play a lot of cricket so it’s not easy. That’s why he bats so low but when you’ve lost five wickets inside 10 overs then Dhoni has no other option (but to bat) since there’s just Ashwin behind. It was good to see that at least Dhoni batted at no. 7 today," he said.

However, Jaffer said CSK have bigger problems to worry about that the form of Dhoni.

“The biggest concern is that your top-order is not making runs. It doesn’t feel like they are in the race while chasing. They lost last game by 40 odd runs, this by 25 runs. This isn’t the CSK of old. Whenever CSK picks a player, you expect him to perform well. But this hasn’t been the case this time around be it Tripathi or Deepak Hooda. They’ve been off colour," he said.

“I feel for the fans – they turn up in huge numbers. I haven’t seen CSK play this bad at home," he added.

Rabada - will likely get opportunities soon unless not in best form 

Rutherford 

need to find match winning form with the playoff just a few games away! 

Go Wolves!  

will attract more cricket fans! 

People act like he bats like Steve Smith or Rahane. His actual numbers since 2023 are 50/156. That's as good as they come. 

I know some freak batsmen are going at 170+ strike rate, but it isn't his fault. Every pitch isn't a 300 pitch. And Jaipur and Ahmedabad have been relatively low scoring till last year. His strike rate is three points below Jaiswal, who I believe is a more aggressive batsman. 

Even hardcore Dhoni fans are triggered

7 for a reason