IPL Bloopers

[Arjun]

The IPL is coming to an end, and it's had its fair share of thrills, so let's make a list of all the 'spills' that have happened. Maybe it's something that happened in a match. Maybe it's a set of things that happened in a match. Maybe it's a strategy itself. Put it in. Please don't list the shifting of the IPL to South Africa as one, as it's too big for this theme. Here's my own list, in no particular order.

Knights and African Angels: This is Reality TV EPIC FAIL like no other. There was a reality show known as Knights and Angels, which was a hunt for India's best cheerleaders for KKR. A similar show was done for CSK as well. The winners were announced. The tickets were booked. Then came the news of the shift, and the demand that South Africans should be cheerleading, and all these glamorous efforts went in vain.

How many captains? Fine, which one? This was one of Bucks' weird proposals. It was a huge controversy, which ended with the replacement of the KKR captain, Ganguly, with last year's star performer, McCullum. We know what happened since.

T20 specialist- and no better: Tyron Henderson was picked up for a lot by the Royals. They picked a team on value for money, rather than reputation, and picked up one of the best T20 all-rounders around. Tyron was picked on the back of some splendid form. Then came that first match, and he was never seen again on field in the tournament. He now joins Luke Ronchi and Cameron White in the list of highly-rated T20 players who have failed in the IPL.

Mumbai's show of cash: The Ambanis picked up JP Duminy for a massive price tag, and the relatively practical Kyle Mills for very little. They opted for batsman over bowler, and while he was good alone, the team got nothing as there was a soft spot in the bowling attack.

An even bigger show of cash: Chennai bid for Flintoff at a massive price. He had few matches to play, was helpless with the ball and did little of note with the bat, and then got injured towards the end of his stay. Bangalore spent as much on KP, then the coach replaced Dravid as captain with KP. The expensive new captain was a failure, scoring few runs with his team losing a lot. The best players in this IPL have cost less than four lakh rupees.

Mumbai Indians' batting order: Is that order? We have the most attractive T20 opening combination misfiring, then one is dropped, then both are sent lower down the order, then one stays down, crunching them in the first few overs.

Kaif goes home: Rajasthan Royals spent a princely sum on him, and yet, based on his dismal form on flat wickets last year, sent him back. That pinched them heavily, as they struggled to put up convincing collective scores against top bowlers on wickets not so full of runs or a little dodgy. Worse, they're left with virtually no proper Indian batsman. This is yet another case of a filmstar-owned team sending back domestic Indian players without any proper reasoning.

'Shakespeare' and 'Hanger' go home: Shah Rukh Khan sent back Indian domestic players in this season as well, and it couldn't have been more ill-timed. They sent back the steady Akash Chopra, who could have been useful in these bowler-friendly conditions. They sent back Sanjay Bangar, who could provide a few big hits lower down and steady-medium-pace, or at least some useful inputs to play in South Africa. That left them with weaker local replacements. Let's not talk of their failing internationals yet. Sorry about the FIP reference.

World XI Knight Riders? This was possibly the most ill-conceived comment by Bucks we've ever heard. He complained that the IPL rule of four overseas players was hurting his team, and wanted to pick more. Then how were other teams doing so well within the same limit? He's obviously pessimistic about his Indian players, and FIP has been among many who have observed it. His internationals, though, have been well below par, and had no more than one good outing or two each.

Freak IPL Pundit: What appears to be a joke by an anonymous blogger has unsettled that one particular team in question, and seems to get a whole lot of unnecessary attention. The amount of comments per entry is obnoxiously large. Questions are asked about which player from that team it is. I think it's that fat nut from the Sprite KKR advertisements shown in India.

Mandira Bedi: For viewers based in India, this is a walking-talking blooper. A special mention goes to the volume of technical glitches and bloopers in that channel's coverage.

Predict your phone bills: The more correct you are, the more you stand to win. The more you try to win this SMS game, the more you lose in your phone bills than your actual prize. Thankfully it's gone.

KKR Fielding: A collection of bloopers.

Mumbai Indians' running between wickets against RR: They ran out...of the match

Hayden's innings against Mumbai: Two strange reverse-sweeps had strange results. His conventional batting, however, was supreme as ever.

Strategy Breaks: This was brought in as a consequence of the IPL getting shifted. It now seems longer than the break between innings.

Mumbai batsmen (second dig) against Deccan/RCB batsmen against Punjab: Conceded hat-tricks to part-timers.

Asnodkar's hit-wicket: Sums up his performance this season.

Ganguly's 'OTF': He almost handled the ball, then handled Harmeet Singh.

Six and six: Munaf Patel bowled a no-ball that went for six, overstepping, so a free hit on the next ball, which also went for six. This took that RR/KKR match into the super over.

Power Failure: This happened in a KKR/DC match. Their first match. The same thing happened in last year's IPL as well.

Malinga's wide: It missed everything. Except the boundary.

There was one collective blooper involving the Chennai team against (possibly) Deccan, where there was bad running and worse attempts to run out at least one batsman. I have forgotten about that. Feel free to add some more.

 

[ret]

Mumbai's show of cash: The Ambanis picked up JP Duminy for a massive price tag, and the relatively practical Kyle Mills for very little. They opted for batsman over bowler, and while he was good alone, the team got nothing as there was a soft spot in the bowling attack.

you sound like a broken record! Even when Zak was fit, you wanted Mills in at the cost of Duminy, which is laughable and considering that he has done better than some of the other bats

it's not the bowling alone that has let MI down but their inability to handle pressure situations and get the best out of whats available to them .... Even if MI had left Duminy out and played an attack with Malinga, Zak, Bhajji, Mills and Bravo, it would have struggled when Jayasuriya and Tendulkar didn't fire as expected!

T20 specialist- and no better: Tyron Henderson was picked up for a lot by the Royals. They picked a team on value for money, rather than reputation, and picked up one of the best T20 all-rounders around. Tyron was picked on the back of some splendid form. Then came that first match, and he was never seen again on field in the tournament. He now joins Luke Ronchi and Cameron White in the list of highly-rated T20 players who have failed in the IPL.

So you are saying that Henderson failed because he got one game, especially when he is competing for two overseas spots as the other two are permanently taken by Warne and Smith! .... I guess Morteza is a flop too, so is Ntini as they didn't get enough games

 

[Furball]

Kolkatta Knight Riders.

Just an immensely epic fail from start to finish in this year's IPL.

 

[four_or_six]

Warney drinking that beer from the spectator when fielding on the boundary was classic.

 

[Arjun]

Kolkata Knight Riders in this match against Deccan were a blooper. How did they lose THIS?

Maybe Mashrafe...

 

[GIMH]

Interested in seeing that wide from Malinga, sounds epic, is it on utoob?

 

[Manee]

Don't think so. Was epic though.

 

[Manee]

Kolkata Knight Riders in this match against Deccan were a blooper. How did they lose THIS?

Maybe Mashrafe...

Mashrafe was worth a game, but judging by that T20 record and having seen him play, I'd guess his length and style of 'kiss the pitch' bowling would mean he is fodder for batsmen willing to swing through the line.

 

[Arjun]

One more- Harbhajan tried to run out some batsman in a dramatic fashion, but dropped the ball out of harms way before trying to dislodge the bails.

Warney drinking that beer from the spectator when fielding on the boundary was classic.

That was more than any blooper. That was ugh!

Mashrafe was worth a game, but judging by that T20 record and having seen him play, I'd guess his length and style of 'kiss the pitch' bowling would mean he is fodder for batsmen willing to swing through the line.

I always thought expensive Bangladesh players were wet crackers, but thought this one was good. Didn't expect so many no-balls and wides, though that last-over no-ball wasn't (entirely) his fault.

So you are saying that Henderson failed because he got one game, especially when he is competing for two overseas spots as the other two are permanently taken by Warne and Smith! .... I guess Morteza is a flop too, so is Ntini as they didn't get enough games

Mortaza is a flop, and we have seen it now. Tyron was hyped up as a phenomenal T20 all-rounder, a larger-than-life figure and a talisman for Middlesex. In fact, some spokespersons even said that the RR team management were unhappy with 'Yusuf Pathan wasting five deliveries a match' so they went in with someone even more aggressive, so they chose him. So much was riding on his performance, but he was gone after that first match. He's at best a T20 specialist and even here, he got owned by that 'Test team in disguise', so you get a hint.

 

[ret]

Mortaza is a flop, and we have seen it now. Tyron was hyped up as a phenomenal T20 all-rounder, a larger-than-life figure and a talisman for Middlesex. In fact, some spokespersons even said that the RR team management were unhappy with 'Yusuf Pathan wasting five deliveries a match' so they went in with someone even more aggressive, so they chose him. So much was riding on his performance, but he was gone after that first match. He's at best a T20 specialist and even here, he got owned by that 'Test team in disguise', so you get a hint.

If one game makes someone a hit or a flop then McCullum will be a hit because he got 80 odd in one game

That's not how team selections are done. 2ndly, Tyron and YP don't even compete for places! .... selecting a playing 11 is abt finding the right combinations, you need openers, you need bowlers, you need WK and you need bowlers.

It's not like you are going to play 10 T20 specialist all-rounders and a wk in the 11. You have to see who is better suited to open the batting, the bowling and so on, along with finding the right balance with the overseas players. For e.g. it will usually be b/w Harwood and Morkel when they are looking for a new ball option, it will usually be b/w Dimi and Henderson, if they are looking for an additional T20 all-rounder. Playing Harwood over Morkel or Dimi over Tyron doesn't make the other one a flop.

Going by your logic even Mills and Ashraful would be flops because they didn't even get a game so far! I don't think anyone can be judged based on limited [or zero] opportunities that they get. In cricket, there is a saying of giving someone a decent run before judging them

 

[Athlai]

Duminy has top scored in 5 of Mumbai's games. More than all his Indian teammates combined.

As for failures of internationals in the T20 an Indian player has top scored 26 times for their team so far in IPL2 (one was highest equal with an overseas player) while an overseas player has top scored 57 times.

 

[Arjun]

If one game makes someone a hit or a flop then McCullum will be a hit because he got 80 odd in one game

That's not how team selections are done. 2ndly, Tyron and YP don't even compete for places! .... selecting a playing 11 is abt finding the right combinations, you need openers, you need bowlers, you need WK and you need bowlers.

It's not like you are going to play 10 T20 specialist all-rounders and a wk in the 11. You have to see who is better suited to open the batting, the bowling and so on, along with finding the right balance with the overseas players. For e.g. it will usually be b/w Harwood and Morkel when they are looking for a new ball option, it will usually be b/w Dimi and Henderson, if they are looking for an additional T20 all-rounder. Playing Harwood over Morkel or Dimi over Tyron doesn't make the other one a flop.

Going by your logic even Mills and Ashraful would be flops because they didn't even get a game so far! I don't think anyone can be judged based on limited [or zero] opportunities that they get. In cricket, there is a saying of giving someone a decent run before judging them

It's not so much them getting one bad match as the chain of events on the way to that. Mortaza was the subject of a heated bidding war between SRK and Ness-Preity, and was picked up by SRK for a princely sum you don't associate with someone from Bangladesh. The USP of most Bangladeshi players, either here, or in these fantasy games, is that they come cheap and generate good value for money. Mortaza was exactly the opposite. He's not so much the failure as the whole idea behind bidding for him, then not playing him until now, and him having a terrible match.

Henderson was picked as backup for Watson, and Pathan would be second to him, batting below him like he did below Watson. They could have gone in with some good specialist batting options, but instead opted for him. He did well in the T20 matches in England before making the IPL team. With Watson missing more or less all of the IPL, and the impact that it eventually had on them, we'd expect Tyron to play a major part in the series. Then he had that one match and was sitting on the bench. If this is what happened, they shouldn't have bid for him in the first place and made statements about Yusuf wasting so many deliveries. Fair, they needed some proper specialist batsmen, but they made that other blooper of sending back Kaif.

 

[Smith]

It's not so much them getting one bad match as the chain of events on the way to that. Mortaza was the subject of a heated bidding war between SRK and Ness-Preity, and was picked up by SRK for a princely sum you don't associate with someone from Bangladesh. The USP of most Bangladeshi players, either here, or in these fantasy games, is that they come cheap and generate good value for money. Mortaza was exactly the opposite. He's not so much the failure as the whole idea behind bidding for him, then not playing him until now, and him having a terrible match.

Henderson was picked as backup for Watson, and Pathan would be second to him, batting below him like he did below Watson. They could have gone in with some good specialist batting options, but instead opted for him. He did well in the T20 matches in England before making the IPL team. With Watson missing more or less all of the IPL, and the impact that it eventually had on them, we'd expect Tyron to play a major part in the series. Then he had that one match and was sitting on the bench. If this is what happened, they shouldn't have bid for him in the first place and made statements about Yusuf wasting so many deliveries. Fair, they needed some proper specialist batsmen, but they made that other blooper of sending back Kaif.

Henderson was picked as cover for Watson. I don't understand why the big fuss. Also Kaif is one of the most underperforming batsmen in RR, and rightly sent back. He cannot be a slogger. He is a good fielder but fielding alone cannot guarantee a position in T20s.

 

[Arjun]

Duminy has top scored in 5 of Mumbai's games. More than all his Indian teammates combined.

As for failures of internationals in the T20 an Indian player has top scored 26 times for their team so far in IPL2 (one was highest equal with an overseas player) while an overseas player has top scored 57 times.

For someone so much more expensive than Hayden, Gilchrist and Yusuf Pathan, he's not been as effective. Besides, they have six very good bowling options (Zaheer, Mills, Malinga, Bravo, Harbhajan and even Dilhara) but they still didn't play a full bowling attack even once, because they had to accommodate him. Consequently, they had to keep going back to Dhawal or Raje or Sanath or Tendulkar to finish that quota, and as we saw in the last match, that gave it away. They spend big money on an overseas batsman, because of which they were compelled to play a weak bowling attack, and it has pinched them.

Besides, most teams are doing well within the four-overseas-players rule. It's only Kolkata who seem to have a problem, to the level of Bucks complaining in the media. They sent back some top Indian players midway a little while ago, which indicated that they're more focussed on their overseas players than the Indians. As for the overseas players top-scoring, it's mostly Hayden and Duminy, who have five over 50, and AB, who has the only century and two over 50, followed by Dilshan. Outside of that, it's a dicey issue as there are many who have scored a fifty or two, but that doesn't give anybody an excuse to keep Indian players out of the mix.

Oops...where are we headed now???

 

[Arjun]

Henderson was picked as cover for Watson. I don't understand why the big fuss. Also Kaif is one of the most underperforming batsmen in RR, and rightly sent back. He cannot be a slogger. He is a good fielder but fielding alone cannot guarantee a position in T20s.

Royals have gone into this event with a whole lot of T20 specialists, and almost all of them have been below par while facing top opposition. In the IPL, we find proper batsmen doing well, notably in the second season. Kaif is a proper batsman. Seeing the likes of Asnodkar, Raut and Ojha (bar those two fifties) struggle may give a hint. Watson was a full-fledged all-rounder who got all matches for them last season, but his cover, Henderson, was benched after the first match, as they had to fit in Quiney or Carsledine, just to strengthen the batting. You don't pick a T20 specialist in great form and then bench him for most of the tournament.

 

[Arjun]

New one- Murali Kartik dropped that sitter off Ishant Sharma's bowling. Nine times out of ten, that catch would be taken.

 

[Smith]

Duminy has top scored in 5 of Mumbai's games. More than all his Indian teammates combined.

As for failures of internationals in the T20 an Indian player has top scored 26 times for their team so far in IPL2 (one was highest equal with an overseas player) while an overseas player has top scored 57 times.

Duminy's strike rate is however a let down. If he hogs strike for so long, he better justify that with a better strike rate. His current strike rate translates to around 6.7 per over, which is not exceptional. And on an average he faces atleast 5 overs in every Mumbai Indians innings, adding just 33 runs to the score. He's often been guilty of reducing the MI run rate to a canter in the middle of innings. Although Bravo with his SR of 107 is also a partner crime. MI seems to consist of run gatherers than bashers, and the highest SR of 127 for any batsmen to have scored above 100 runs (Nayar) is testimony to this. MI batsmen having more than 100 runs have the following strike rates:

[B]Player		Runs	Balls	SR	Per over[/B]
Duminy		363	319	113.79 	6.83 
Tendulkar	318	262	121.37 	7.28 
Bravo		218	203	107.39 	6.44 
A Nayar		189	148	127.70 	7.66 
Jayasurya	221	191	115.71 	6.94 

[B]Top 5 total	1309	1123	116.56 	6.99 [/B]
				
[B]MI Total	1625	1427	113.88 	6.83[/B] 
				
% of Top 5	81%	79%

In other words, the Top 5 batsmen have hogged 80% of total MI strike and yet have scored only at about 7 per over which is strictly mediocre.

I shall try and do a similar analysis for other teams.

 

[Athlai]

Duminy's strike rate is however a let down. If he hogs strike for so long, he better justify that with a better strike rate. His current strike rate translates to around 6.7 per over, which is not exceptional. And on an average he faces atleast 5 overs in every Mumbai Indians innings, adding just 33 runs to the score. He's often been guilty of reducing the MI run rate to a canter in the middle of innings. Although Bravo with his SR of 107 is also a partner crime. MI seems to consist of run gatherers than bashers, and the highest SR of 127 for any batsmen to have scored above 100 runs (Nayar) is testimony to this. MI batsmen having more than 100 runs have the following strike rates:

[B]Player		Runs	Balls	SR	Per over[/B]
Duminy		363	319	113.79 	6.83 
Tendulkar	318	262	121.37 	7.28 
Bravo		218	203	107.39 	6.44 
A Nayar		189	148	127.70 	7.66 
Jayasurya	221	191	115.71 	6.94 

[B]Top 5 total	1309	1123	116.56 	6.99 [/B]
				
[B]MI Total	1625	1427	113.88 	6.83[/B] 
				
% of Top 5	81%	79%

In other words, the Top 5 batsmen have hogged 80% of total MI strike and yet have scored only at about 7 per over which is strictly mediocre.

I shall try and do a similar analysis for other teams.

I have all the top scorers in matches on file for betting purposes. In terms of Mumbai

Tendulkar has top scored 3 times
Duminy 5
Jayasuriya 1
Bravo 2
Rahane 1

Nayar despite being solid has not once outshone his teammates.

 

[Smith]

Royals have gone into this event with a whole lot of T20 specialists, and almost all of them have been below par while facing top opposition. In the IPL, we find proper batsmen doing well, notably in the second season. Kaif is a proper batsman. Seeing the likes of Asnodkar, Raut and Ojha (bar those two fifties) struggle may give a hint. Watson was a full-fledged all-rounder who got all matches for them last season, but his cover, Henderson, was benched after the first match, as they had to fit in Quiney or Carsledine, just to strengthen the batting. You don't pick a T20 specialist in great form and then bench him for most of the tournament.

I fully agree that selection of Quiney, Carseldine etc over Henderson was perplexing.

Also, I disagree about Kaif. There is a minimum guarantee guess that can be made about his batting and that is he can never score at SRs of 130+. And since he is a middle order batsman, he also cannot be of value as an accumulator unlike say an opener. Asnodkar has more chances of turning a match with a rapid 50 from 30 odd deliveries than a Kaif's 50 from say 48 balls.

 

[Smith]

I have all the top scorers in matches on file for betting purposes. In terms of Mumbai

Tendulkar has top scored 3 times
Duminy 5
Jayasuriya 1
Bravo 2
Rahane 1

Nayar despite being solid has not once outshone his teammates.

Top scoring is a bit of irrelevant in T20s are they not? Because batsmen coming in at No. 1 to 4 have are at far more advantage of scoring more than a person coming in at No.5 and below. All the top scores for MI, Duminy, Tendulkar, Jays bat in the top 4 while Nayar usually bats at No.6. Nayar won a game on his own against Chennai superkings, and almost won against RR (stroking about 10 per over for almost 10 overs). He is also critically underused as a bowler by Tendulkar, who instead has a strange tendency to go back to Raje, himself etc.