The Day 9 at IPL 2009 - Delhi join Deccans at top..

The Day 9 of IPL 2 – Delhi and Mohali Emerge Victorious

The day 9 of the IPl 2 had two ganes which both escaped from rains.. It was the frist game that I watched from ball to ball.. any doubts anyone that I support Delhi Daredevils..yet I ma here to first lambaste my hero – Virender Sehwag. First of all he is not doing any great to his reputation .. his scores in the second and third games are far from what one expects the swashbuckling Sehwag. Second, why on earth can not he find place for Glen McGrath.. he may be old.. yet I can vouch that he could be the most successful bowler in such south African conditions.. thirdly.. David Warner deserved a game after his stupendous efforts in the second game where he actually clicked as a substitute.. I know with only four foreign players being allowed it is difficult enough to pay heed to my second and third requests.. Yet I would not mind if he could make adjustments in the fourth game to accommodate both Warner and McGrath.. in place of Nannes and Vettori.. not contesting the genius of the two men.. it is better for Delhi to experiment a bit to surprise the opposition with its plans.. I would thus not mind having the following combination at work in the game #4 against Rajasthan Royals-

Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Tilkaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, AB de Villiers, Bhatia, Karthik, Mishra, Sangwan, Glen McGrath and Nehra

I had to include Bhatia to incorporate the extra bowler in the side and he is a useful bat as well.. I am little at pain to leave out Vettori and to some extent even Nannes (for his beautiful first ball dismissal of Kallis yesterday.. yet one can not be sentimental in such matters.. they have plenty of games ten more to be precise to get their chances.. surprise the opposition with new combinations all the time.. by bowling someone who is a batsman.. (guess who!).

Yes, the win yesterday was due to Tilakratne Dilshan and the experiment of playing two regular spin bowlers.. it was heartening to see the way Dilshan paced his innings.. he is having far better tournament than in the previous edition.. if he continues the way he does Delhi would remain a formidable combination for all the teams in the IPL 2. Yes.. Viru don’t have to follow me word for word.. I know you are bigger cricketing genius than an Abhaya Sharma could ever be.. my only cricket credibility comes from being a student of Hindu College who produced Sunil Valson, Hari Gidwani and Tilak Raj and Subir Gupta.. I also had witnessed some of the best palyers from St. Stephens on the other side of the road – including Arun Lal, Kirti Azad and Pravin Oberoi and Piyush Pandey..

Now coming back to Yuvraj Singh’s fine win over Rajasthan.. The younger of the Pathans put all his experience behind him over his more prominent (T20 player) yet less experienced in terms of matches played Yusuf.. The other major factor in their win was provided by Sangkara and penetration powers of Abdulla.. to be frank I had not heard of him before.. ( before the IPL 2).. He has some substance in him.. Yuvraj like Sehwag is having poor time with the bat.. somehow the captains here have been a bit of failure.. are they overburdened with strategizing.. time to think for four or multiple captains theory by Buchanan.. if ganguly had not opposed him.. he could well have replaced McCullum in a couple of games.. barring Gilchrist and Sachin to some extent rest of the captains have yet to deliver truly.. yes the genius of Warne included amongst the list of failures.. though he did manage that fine win in the tenth game with his experiment with Kamran Khan and Yusuf Pathan in the Super over.. he is still to deliver primarily with his bowling abilities..

If I were to suggest alternative captains.. I would not mind picking Sangkara for KXIP, McGrath for Delhi, Dravid and Ganguly for RCB and KKR respectively, Graeme Smith and Harbahjan for Rajasthan and Mumbai respectively.. not as a punitive measure for the present captains but for relieving them off the pressures that has been affecting their utility to the teams.. Though I must say that Warne is by far the smartest captain even in this edition and his team’s position..

Yet I must say that the day 9 was a good cricketing day where spin department proved yet again that not only is T20 having a role for bowlers it probably has bigger role for quality spinners.. Kings XI have replaced Mumbai Indians from top 4 teams.. yet they have to work hard in order not to be replaced by another team including Mumbai.. My observations at the beginning are really getting some footings in the tournament..

The best performers I feel so far have been Tilakratne Dilshan with the bat and RP Singh with the ball.. there has not been any outstanding fielder so far in my view.. even Raina is fielding below par.. though he did involve in couple of important run outs.. have organisers asked to be less alert in the field.. Kohli did took two good catches yet the catching has generally been poor..

IPL 2 is getting into grooves and it is going to be tough for every team to match the every other team in business like manner.. Viru.. I do not believe in winning combinations theory.. either you experiment further or you perish.. that is true for all the teams.. yet I find that RCB, KKR and RR are probably out of contention already.. unless they pull out some big wins against the top five teams..

I know it is suicidal to predict and regret your words.. but speculations besides statistics are the two important factors for which I love cricket as much as I do..

So in all probabilities we can assume that Delhi should be able to beat Deccan Chargers in the finals.. it would be difficult especially when Symonds too returns to their side in a week’s time or so.. Kings too should find the return of Marsh and Hopes as a matter of raising their hopes to pip one of the Mumbai or Chennai for a place in the semi-finalists.. whichis still very far away..

Cricket love of South Africans was on greatest display in some of the last four or five games.. was it the weekend syndrome.. I doubt.. Is the reason for rookies not able to perform is the lack of home crowd support.. I again doubt..