The second season of the IPL is finally here and what a start it has been to the tournament! After a splendid opening ceremony, we saw the two finalists from last year being beaten comprehensively. The matches so far have been a pleasant change from last year where the sole aim of the teams was to outhit each other. We have already seen that that strategy won’t work this year. The conditions seem much more helpful for the bowlers, especially the seamers. And batsmen will actually need to focus on playing themselves in, not missing out on the bad deliveries and playing some daring and innovative shots once set. It will, rather happily, not be a situation of step on front foot and swing the bat.
What this means for the teams
In this edition, the teams that will succeed will be the ones whose seamers can bowl tight in the initial overs – and garner wickets for the spinners bowling later. More importantly, the teams in the final four will be the ones that have their batsmen scoring the most singles and twos in the process of getting set. While we will see the occasional 100 from 40 balls knock, we will more likely see the 60 from 40 balls with 30 runs in boundary hits. And as this becomes the key, the teams that can save the singles and cut down the twos will be more successful. We will see a twenty20 tournament that will be a throwback to the era of one day cricket before WC96. Where the ‘Dean Jones’ kind of batsman is preferred to the ‘Kris Srikkanth’ kind. Finally, as most people point out, the performance of the senior cricketers in the teams will be critical especially in the first half of the tournament. Based on all this and the way the next few matches go, where do the teams stand? Who do we think are the favourites ? Watch this space for more…
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