IPL 5: The Worst XI

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 andre russell, cricket, dinesh karthik, harbhajan singh, IPL 5, kumar sangakkara, manish pandey, manpreet gony, parthiv patel, ravindra jadeja, saurabh tiwary, sourav ganguly, sreesanth, worst xi, yusuf pathan

The IPL is finally over, and KKR were deserving champions. What better way to celebrate its conclusion than by applauding the best pointing and laughing at the worst performers? For every Dwayne Bravo, there's a Ravindra Jadeja lying around.

One's matter, the other anti-matter. There's no big bang, of course.

Here's my list. If you think someone else is more deserving of a spot, put it down in the comments and I'll be sure to argue against it.

1) Paul Valthaty (30 runs @ 5.00): I've heard of sophomore slumps, but this is ridiculous. A high score of 13 and a strike rate of 58 in six innings - he looked as comfortable as an armless man at a high-fiving convention. He can most certainly be blamed for Punjab's slow start to season.

IPL 5 Final Preview: CSK vs KKR

Saturday, May 26, 2012 chennai super kings, cricket, final, gautam gambhir, IPL 5, kolkata knight riders, ms dhoni, preview

So, it's that time of the year again when Chennai and Dhoni lift the IPL trophy.

OR IS IT?

Okay.

Even though it looks like there's no way this will end otherwise, not everyone agrees on this. Because it's also the battle between Indian cricket's two most rabid fan bases. No other fans get as riled up as Kolkata's and Chennai's, even though the latter likes to portray a sense of being the #knowledgeableChennaicrowd. Not that being intelligent and angry are mutually exclusive, of course. And please don't bring up Mumbai fans - there's always that sense of detachment, and it's all about Sachin anyway.

IPL 5: Final Qualifier (CSK vs DD) Preview

Thursday, May 24, 2012 chennai super kings, cricket, delhi daredevils, IPL 5, mahela jayawardene, ms dhoni, preview, suresh raina, virender sehwag

Delhi Daredevils

Just two games to go, and the IPL's finish line is within licking distance (I don't know what happens at the end, I've never won a major race). It won't seem that way for the Delhi Daredevils, though. They first have to knock out the Chennai Super Kings (the resurgent defending champions), only to then face a team that just defeated them. Fortunately for Delhi, they have rarely had two bad games in a row this season. And unfortunately for them, they now have to have two very good ones back to back, and both in Chennai.

Despite the bowling performance against KKR, theirs is still the right combination to go in with. Pawan Negi is handling the lone spinner's position well, and Delhi's only other options in that department are other left-arm spinners Shahbaz Nadeem and ROFLMAO van der Merwe (I may have got something wrong in that sentence). Their pace attack also seems like the type that will rattle the CSK line-up as long as they don't dish up too much filth - which, to their credit, they haven't been doing.

IPL 5: Random gifs from the CSK-MI Eliminator

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 chennai super kings, cricket, dwayne bravo, gifs, IPL 5, kieron pollard, ms dhoni, mumbai indians

This is a lot easier than trying to describe these shots.

Give it some time, it's a heavy page.

Comic: Vinay Kumar laments

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 cricket, cricket comics, spot fixing, vinay kumar

He's still a millionaire.

Click to enlarge.

The IPL so far (part 2)

Friday, May 11, 2012 chennai super kings, cricket, delhi daredevils, indian premier league, IPL 5, kings xi punjab, kolkata knight riders, mumbai indians, rajasthan royals, review, royal challengers bangalore

We're heading into the latter stages of the IPL - and by that I mean there are only 20ish games to go and just over two weeks left! In other words, it's the perfect time to speculate on things such as whether Ganguly's imminent retirement to the bench is temporary, or if Shane Watson thinks he is competing with Dale Steyn as a bowler, or if James Franklin holds the secret recipe to the best vada pav ever. I'd pick him for every game too, if he possessed such secrets.

Or, you know, who is likely to make the - er - playoffs. I didn't pay much attention last year, but from what I understand, the top two sides will play a warped game that will turn out to be a virtual semifinal for its winner (let's call them D for neutrality) and a virtual quarterfinal for its loser (K). The sides placed third and fourth will play a virtual quarterfinal - the winner gets to play another virtual semifinal against K, and the loser is out for good. The winner of this game goes through to the final to face D. Simple, really. This is the table as I write this:

Team	M	W	L	T	N/R	Pts	NRR
Delhi	12	9	3	0	0	18	+0.977
Kolkata	12	8	3	0	1	17	+0.6
Bangalore	13	7	5	0	1	15	-0.058
Mumbai	12	7	5	0	0	14	-0.198
Chennai	13	6	6	0	1	13	+0.081
Rajasthan	13	6	7	0	0	12	+0.184
Mohali	12	6	6	0	0	12	-0.309
Pune	14	4	10	0	0	8	-0.348
Hyderabad	13	2	10	0	1	5	-0.717

So, who's going to the playoffs?

The Certain

If these two sides mess up from here, they deserve to be surrounded by bowling machines and be bombarded. Without protection. (Why isn't this a recognized punishment? I'll have to become a coach one day just to try this method.)