A Twist and A Tale....

In a country where low quality scripts in television are a norm, IPL has well and truly disobeyed the rulebook. And if anything till today wasn’t a good enough proof then today was full of it.

First in an upset of the tournament, champions were knocked out of the tournament by a team that barely looked like winning all season and then the battle of kings looked all set to go to the northern state but instead ended up going down south. If in the first match Warne’s winning combination wasn’t able to live up to reputation they so very earned last time then in the second one Dhoni just gave yet another proof why he is a safest bet amongst all at this time.
So now where does this leave us with points table? Delhi with strong early performances sits firmly on top. They have had two prolific inform batsmen in Ab and Dilshan while Karthik is showing some signs of class that Chappel must have seen in him. Amit Mishra continues to impress in shortest version as well. It’s so good to see players giving ball so much air and imparting so many revolutions on them. Bhajji take few cues, quicker ones will hardly do the trick for you. Delhi is followed by MSD’s very strong Chennai ruled by batting powerhouse Hayden and not only a batsmen Raina but also the bowler Raina. MSD himself isn’t doing that bad either. Then we have two resurgent teams who occupied last two positions last season. Deccan although haven’t tried anything fancy or new throughout, have been able to put together a team that has gelled well and has a good set of Indian guys who on themselves can take team to a win. Rohit, RP , Ojha continue to shine under able leadership of Gilly who himself is still setting the lawn on fire. On the other side we have Bangalore with a fairy tale like comeback. What a season they have had. First they saw highest priced player taken up in the team followed by sacking of their captain. Then we saw angry x-captain showing what he is made up of in the first game itself. A classy and steely performance I must say. But that did a little good as did their new captain as their campaign looked in trouble till another Indian veteran took up the charge and changed the fortunes. Luckily they have also got tournaments one of the most successful stories in Ross Taylor who just got back in form at right time. That man has got one hell of a bat swing at an unbelievable speed and a beautiful ability to get low and under the lower full tosses and to hit them out of the park. Man I wish I could hit one like him.

Then we have Kings Punjab with a very indifferent season with lots of crests and troughs in their graph. Their captain btw has two hat-tricks this season but they had Appam Ch**** to negate all that and much more. Really why would they play him or anyone as a matter of fact? Then we have team of Aila (I must say I am mighty impressed by Fake IPL player and his names) which could make just about everything correct into a dirty and ugly mess. Aila himself had indifferent season with the bat and his captaincy has never been short of serious questions. I mean why drop Pinal Shah when he scored some good runs, why put youngsters at the top when you have tried and tested batsmen who can do the job and why bowl dhawal kulkarni when any of your spinner can bowl much much better than him. If they win tomorrow they might end this season with exactly same position but anything below 4 would hardly please the highest priced franchise owners representing a city that has been benchmark in providing top class cricketers. Then we might have Champions lying almost at the bottom. Big Sister hasn’t been lucky for them neither have been Asnodkar and lesser known Indian Co. Big Pathan was their only hope and he couldn’t always be expected to be win matches on his own. After all Big sister is paying all 17 members not just him. In retro they might regret the fact of sending Kaif back who could have played a anchor they so dearly missed. But Warne magic still continues and the flight the drift the guile the spin is still intact. A True legend and a great mascot of his art he is. And then to the stars of the show and undoubtedly the biggest bunch of losers. KKRs had problems everywhere and in everything except loosing which they religiously did until they realised that they can spoil somebody’s party and they did it by knocking down champions today. Mind just goes back to 3 narrow last over losses they had and what would have happened if they had won them. And on top of all this they had this Fake IPL player who has been the real star of the tournament. Hats off to you man, am in love with your writing.

And any guesses who is going to win this time. No No, am not guessing this now. As I know this isn’t a bollywood script which can be guessed just by looking at a poster. Am gonna see it through to know. But whoever wins it the real champion is cricket which has almost certainly been taken a notch above and the money isn’t doing this game any harm for sure.