Interesting Start to IPL Season 2

must admit i was a bit intrigued by the choice of sachin tendulkar as man of the match. in his favour he got two things right - an assessment of what a good score is and the decision to go with sanath jayasuriya for an extra over that produced the wicket of the dangerous jacob oram. but the score he thought was right could not have been achieved without abhishek nayar who is as fine a striker of a ball as you will see in india. that was one of the game breakers in the mumbai indians v chennai super kings game. the other was the spell harbhajan bowled in the middle overs. he was outstanding and the wicket of flintoff was the killer blow for the super kings. that spell also meant that the job in the end overs was that much easier though you cannot take anything away from the three excellent end-overs from bravo, zaheer and malinga, whose return to international cricket marks one of the most staggering comebacks in recent times.

the castrol index would have, rightly, ranked malinga and abhishek above tendulkar but sometimes adjudicators tend to go for substance rather than quick game changing bursts. it is a subjective decision and part of the mystique of sport. maybe the difference between the 'how' and the 'how much' i talked about in the previous blog. (arvind iyengar's excellent analysis on this site illustrates this better)

chennai will make some changes. murali for thushara seems the logical one if it is coupled with balaji for ashwin. dhoni seems to like playing six bowlers though i believe a bowling all-rounder is really what he needs. joginder sharma is not that man.

finally, warne's first over showed why england must be relieved he is not playing the ashes. with warne it doesn't seem to matter much - the 'how' and the 'how much' always seem to tally - whether he is playing cricket or poker!! and by beginning with mascarenhas he played another excellent hand. any guys out there able to figure out how we quantify captaincy into the Castrol Index? we'd love to hear.

- Harsha