Cricket: Buzz, Hype and hold it.

Well IPL has been under way. It was hype like no other. BCCI may not know many things about cricket, Indians still don’t have an official website but they know the revenue side of it. There is a herd of people who know who to milk this cow. They have done all it takes, to set it rolling and the euphoria has picked up among the masses like never before. The evidence is on the fact the stadiums are running mad full even on weekdays so that’s the proof and if they are watching it from the stand one can relax on the sofa in the drawing room and see Nehra from Mumbai Indians being bashed by his former team-mate Sehwag or Robin Uthhapa taking a bow …

I will be covering Sundays matches albeit briefly.

Well it was a show downs featuring the underdogs versus the favourites. Royals and Indians were tagged a as underdogs while their opponents, Super-Kings and Dare-Devils were both on a continuous winning streak.

Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils.

Well minus Harbhajan … and Tendulkar, I don’t think Mumbai Indians have enugh fire power in bowling. I know there is Pollock but he is not running thru sides and is very predictably short of what was previously McGrath-Pollock zone. He isn’t enough in the zone. But Dhaval Kulkarni looks good. The top order for them isn’t firing. Jayasuriya should bat for a bit more longer. Uthappa is Montoya of cricket he will get starts and will get a very good first turn ie Montoya hardly completed enough race. The point I am putting across is Uthappa will fall off favours soon if he isn’t being there at the end.
Dare Devils seemed to be slipping out of the drivers seat when Pollock smacked Asif for three sixes in an over. I have a perception that Pollock the batsmen is enjoying more than Pollock the bowler, there is the case of sending him up in the order may be around the 12 over mark so that he can cream the bowling at the death. Sehwag is in prime form it doesn’t matter whats the score, if it is there to be hit, he will smack it and smack in a very broad looking middle of the bat. He seems to be just playing it with such ease while some shots looks like he is pumping iron. He got out to a wrong time to what one would call an innocuous delivery and ambitious shot. His wicket turned the tide and Mumbai India went on the kill and won by 29 runs a very good margin indeed.

Chennai Superkings vs Rajasthan Royals.

They were down from the first ball … Parthiv was dismissed on the very first delivery of the match. I think in the hindsight Dhoni missed a trick here he ought to be there when it was one down. He came in too late, by the time he came momentum was with Rajasthan and Warne cleaned him up much to my dismay. It was a beauty though; I think Dhoni might be proud to have snicked that. Chennai managed a 110 and Rajasthan cruised too an 8 wicket victory.

Will he wont he?

Among the big four (Dravid Tendulkar, Ganguly Laxman) he alones is still to play his first IPL match, While Laxman has had couple of decent outings off late but there is still more. Tendulkar will bring lots of confidence to the team. I loved when TV channels were airing Pollock’s interview and someone asked him about Tendulkar, he just replied that he doesn’t want to change a winning combination, really witty that.