IPL-3 re-visisted….

IPL-3 re-visisted….

Ah finally… .I find some time to blog !!! And this again is a self-imposed duty, despite having my plate full with redundant activities. Just for the sake of a break and to update my blog that has been starving since 6 months !!

Let me be frank, I do not like this T20 form of cricket very much – would always like ODI and Test cricket. However it could well be within a few years that the 50-over format may go for a DLF MAXIMUM !!! And that would be a ‘CITI Moment of Success’ for T20 cricket… :). There you go… The ICC World T20 is already underway and yet the IPL’s not left my thoughts.

Its déjà vu time now… with reference to - http://prashanthnayak.blogspot.com/2009/05/ipl-season-2-re-visited.html

So here I go listing down the moments that charmed me (and also irritated me… ) -

The Match of the tournament – 5 games stood out for me – Rajasthan v Deccan at Nagpur, Chennai v Kings XI at Chennai, Rajasthan v Mumbai at Brabourne, and the Final. By narrow margin I would go for the Final, thanks to numerous swings of balance it had.

The Jaw Dropping moment of the tournament – This came very early in the IPL-3 season when Yusuf Pathan went berserk against the Mumbai Indians bowlers with a 37-ball-100. An innings Shahid Afridi would be proud of.

However a special mention goes to Murali Vijay’s 127 against Rajasthan at Chepauk. Some of his strokes reminded me of Ricky Ponting’s fabulous 140 at the Bullring in the 2003 ICC ODI WC Final.

Also 3 cheers to Harbhajan’s Pyrotechnics against the Chargers at the DY Patil Stadium.

The Best commentary Quote - Yet again Harsha Bhogle walks away with this prize. In the opening game between KKR and Deccan, referring to a slog that VVS Laxman played, Harsha went on to say - “This is like Lata Mangeshkar trying Rock ‘n’ Roll”. And while later when VVS got out for a similar shot , he said - “Lata Mangeshkar should not sing Rock ‘n’ roll” ….

The most clichéd words said – A new entrant to this year’s list was – Karbonn Kamaal Catch. However the winner was - “There you go.. the MRF blimp”

The Ice-man - No prizes for guessing this one !! Mahendra Singh Dhoni for taking CSK to the semis at Dharamsala with those 2 monstrous hits off Irfan Pathan. Not to forget, the Mohammed Ali thump on his helmet after the win !!

The SOUTH AFRICANS - With due respect to the Proteas, the chokers tag this time went to the Kings XI Punjab. After all, they brought back something from their visit last year to SA in 2008 !!

The Best Media Coverage for the season – We all missed the Fake IPL Player badly…didn’t we ??

Captain of the Tournament – Look no more beyond MSD !! Chennai were a match away from going out of the tournament and MS rallied his troops to lift the title. His calculated chase at Dharamsala, the strategy of givng Ashwin the new ball, kicking off the onslaught in the Final with Raina… all stand out. And who can forget placing the straight mid-off in the form of Hayden to snap Pollard in the Final…

Statement of the Tournament – MS Dhoni saying to Harsha Bhogle - “Chennai people are so warm. They even come to me and speak in Tamil whenever I stop in the ‘red light areas’ on my bike”. Oh goodness… what a slip of tongue that was !!!

Check it out here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPSzlOKBBGU&feature=related

The Glamour quotient – I never bothered to see what the IPL parties had in them. So I will stay with what I saw during the games. With Mandira only making special appearances, many people would have had their eyes on the Deccan Chargers’ low profile owner Gayatri Reddy. The cameras surely did though !!

The Mandira moment – Angad Bedi filled in for Mandira this year with his bloopers. The most notable one was at the big room of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Referring to a portrait of India’s spin quartet, Angad said- “Here are India’s spin quartet – Bedi,Chandra,Prasanna and Chandrashekar” !!! Wonder what Venkatraghavan had to say about this to Bishen Bedi :)

The Joker – Sreesanth had his moments again this year, swearing at batsmen and clapping at umpires. In a KKR v Delhi game at the Eden Gardens, Dinda got a healthy edge off Sehwag to the keeper and after a vociferous appeal, Rudi Koertzen slowly moved his left hand forward with index finger protruding. He surely must have been joking to have shoved it into his pocket !!!

The Guffaw moments – Suresh Raina trying to pull out Doug Bollinger’s transplanted hair, Harmeet Singh sending back Rohit and finally sacrificing his wicket, when the latter had to get back on strike in a crunch moment vs Rajasthan…these two come immediately to mind

Catch of the Tournament – This IPL has been a galore of top class catches. Memorable ones are by David Hussey, AB de Villiers, Doug Bollinger, Rohit Sharma, Dravid, Tendulkar… I may look a bit parochial but I would go for Sourav Ganguly’s catches simply because this was a different DADA than the one we’ve seen in the last 15 years.

Narrowly beating David Hussey and Doug Bollinger’s efforts…

Ego-hurting moments – Muralitharan must have had several of them when he was clouted by Indian domestic players for towering sixes.

Biggest BOO’s - These are reserved for the MRF blimp which was doing nothing at all and for those advertisements between balls (not overs mind you !!! )…

New Entries -

The Romantic moment – Sachin Tendulkar kissing his clenched fist in celebration after pulling off a scorcher at slip off Harbhajan to dismiss Adam Gilchrist at Navi Mumbai.

The Jai-Veeru show – Undoubtedly this goes to the duo of Kevin Pietersen and Virat Kohli.

Most surprised owner - Mumbai Indians owner Nita Ambani must’ve had the biggest surprise when Harbhajan Singh lifted her See the pic below…. :)

Ah ! I have seen this before moment – Kumar Sangakkara dropping a running catch against Royal Challengers at Mohali. Do we see shades of Brendon McCullum here ???

The Biggest DLF Maximum – For those who don’t know, its the biggest sixer !!. Robin Uthappa hitting Brett Lee over Midwicket at Mohali was the biggest I have ever seen in recent times(both in terms of height and distance)

Praveen Kumar’s hatrick was also a standout performance.

On an Ending note the brightest aspect of this year was the way with which Tendulkar, Kallis, Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly, Warne showed the world that T20 is not only for the young lot !!

But yet again, It was sad to see bowlers carted all around the park, with Malinga, Steyn, Kumble, Ojha, Mishra,Ashwin giving moments to cheer for bowlers community !!

Alright…here I sign off with the hope that IPL comes back next year free from all the mess !!!