League tables are becoming meaningless!

the flair captains have been doing well at the ipl. adam gilchrist was able to sneak overs out of a very limited attack against mumbai indians, shane warne got one out of rob quiney and from time to time will get abhishek raut to turn his arm over but perhaps the most dramatic example of this has been the decision of ms dhoni to go to suresh raina in the game against the kings xi.

dhoni has done this before, when he got raina inside the power play and turned the situation around. but there are two aspects to raina's two astonishing overs against yuvraj and jayawardene when the match seemed to be slipping out of the super kings' grasp. one, that raina was able to bowl the line he did (flat and full on leg stump against yuvraj) and that he had the cricketing acumen to know what to do in a situation like that. two, that dhoni believed in raina's acumen.

often it is not the possession of skill but the ability and confidence to deliver it when it most matters. interestingly, harbhajan is possessed of far greater skill than raina when it comes to bowling off breaks but at the ipl, he is not using the skill that he has. eventually it comes down to the state of mind and that is where the dhonis, gilchrists and most visibly the warnes are scoring-putting their players in the right frame of mind. (to compare player performances visit https://www.castrolcricket.com/IPL-2009/compare_players)

the other observation, and one that is a bit worrisome, is that far too many catches are going down. if i was in charge of indian cricket, and i loved it deeply, i would be on the line to some of my coaches asking what is happening to young indian players.

but to return to the ipl, here is my hypothesis. in terms of qualification, i fear that the league stage is either already meaningless, or will soon be rendered irrelevant, since out of the mid-table jostling, four teams have taken clear steps ahead and short of a complete collapse, rajasthan royals, deccan chargers, chennai super kings and delhi daredevils will be standing on the 22'nd of may. (to know more about your team's performance visit https://www.castrolcricket.com/IPL-2009/teams )