***Official*** IPL 2009

[Scaly piscine]

Dunno why Dhoni does this tip tap rubbish so much. The first year or so of his international career he would have just cleanly hit the ball and score at a much faster pace - which was what was needed here.

 

[pasag]

Dunno why Dhoni does this tip tap rubbish so much. The first year or so of his international career he would have just cleanly hit the ball and score at a much faster pace - which was what was needed here.

Yeah noticed that a while back, seems much more reluctant to go for a tonk these days. I think with his newfound maturity he seems to think of himself as an anchor, but really he's much more valuable most of the time just going all out.

 

[pasag]

146 from 20 overs. Should be very interesting, no favourites at this stage for mine. Chennai will be very disappoined with that though after the start they had.

 

[ret]

70 odd runs in the last 10 tells the story .... Dhoni and Raina partnership was slow

146 could turn out to be a fighting total considering BRC would be batting for a place in the final .... Jakarti would be the key

Will be happy to see CSK in the final but won't feel bad if B'lore makes it as that would mean that the bottom placed teams of last version would be in the final this time around!

 

[pasag]

Such crap from van der Merwe.

Should have sent Taylor in.

 

[pasag]

How nice are these shots from Pandey?

 

[ret]

Panday looks like their best batsman [despite B'lore having Kallis and Dravid]

 

[Smith]

Yeah noticed that a while back, seems much more reluctant to go for a tonk these days. I think with his newfound maturity he seems to think of himself as an anchor, but really he's much more valuable most of the time just going all out.

Agreed he was a flop show today. However he has scored 332 runs @ 41.5 this tournament at a SR of 127 which is far ahead of other luminaries like Hodge, Tendulkar, Duminy, Dilshan, Gibbs, Sharma etc.

 

[pasag]

Agreed he was a flop show today. However he has scored 332 runs @ 41.5 this tournament at a SR of 127 which is far ahead of other luminaries like Hodge, Tendulkar, Duminy, Dilshan, Gibbs, Sharma etc.

Yeah he's obviously a great player, would just like to see a little bit more of his cavalier and destructive batting at times.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Agreed he was a flop show today. However he has scored 332 runs @ 41.5 this tournament at a SR of 127 which is far ahead of other luminaries like Hodge, Tendulkar, Duminy, Dilshan, Gibbs, Sharma etc.

He's generally coming into bat later in the innings than most of them. His SR should be up in the 140s - but it's not because he fannies about trying to get bat through with not outs. Seems to me like he's trying to do a Michael Bevan when he has a significantly different skill subset.

 

[alternative]

Dravid!!!

 

[Pratters]

Dhoni chould have played Bailey and dropped Oram

Yes, no question.

 

[Pratters]

I was fatigued b because of work and didn't watch the match uptill the 7th-8th over of the Bangalore inning. I hope Bangalore win and we have an underdog win the tournament again.

 

[Smith]

He's generally coming into bat later in the innings than most of them. His SR should be up in the 140s - but it's not because he fannies about trying to get bat through with not outs. Seems to me like he's trying to do a Michael Bevan when he has a significantly different skill subset.

Dhoni is a unique player. He started out as an out and out slogger in cricket, and was quickly sorted out by the opposition in regards to his deficiencies which were glaringly obvious. Thanks to the fact that India found a bunch of youngsters who could do a similar damage in the middle order like him, India needed someone in the middle who could shore up things when trouble ensued.

Agreed, his SR has come down from the lofty perches when he debuted. But his averages and overall addition to the team has soared ever since he switched to the Bevan mode as you suggested. This is evident from the figures below.

As		Matches	Runs	Avg	SR	100s	50s
Captain		51	1908	57.81	85.1	1	16
Not captain	84	2477	44.23	96.26	3	14

Those are exceptional figures, and his SR despite the accusation that he has slowed down considerably after becoming captain is still a very much creditable 85. And his consistent run with the bat is what has ensured India tremendous success in ODIs of late. I think India needs Dhoni of today than Dhoni of 2004/05, and that's precisely what he is delivering.

 

[alternative]

Yes, no question.

Also reckon Murali should have been bowling few overs ago too.

 

[Smith]

Brilliant display from Pandey. Guess India unearthed yet another World class talent here. Hopefully he does go the distance and not just limit it to pointless T20s.

 

[pasag]

Dhoni is a unique player. He started out as an out and out slogger in cricket, and was quickly sorted out by the opposition in regards to his deficiencies which were glaringly obvious. Thanks to the fact that India found a bunch of youngsters who could do a similar damage in the middle order like him, India needed someone in the middle who could shore up things when trouble ensued.

Agreed, his SR has come down from the lofty perches when he debuted. But his averages and overall addition to the team has soared ever since he switched to the Bevan mode as you suggested. This is evident from the figures below.

As		Matches	Runs	Avg	SR	100s	50s
Captain		51	1908	57.81	85.1	1	16
Not captain	84	2477	44.23	96.26	3	14

Those are exceptional figures, and his SR despite the accusation that he has slowed down considerably after becoming captain is still a very much creditable 85. And his consistent run with the bat is what has ensured India tremendous success in ODIs of late. I think India needs Dhoni of today than Dhoni of 2004/05, and that's precisely what he is delivering.

Yeah but this is Twenty20s where a Gilchrist is more valuable than a Bevan.

No doubt he's one of the best limited overs players on the world, but he could really elevate his game further, imho, if he would channel that earlier destructiveness when required (because we all know he can). Basically I think his philosphy has gone too much further in the other direction and doesn't have the exact balance just yet.

 

[Smith]

Yeah but this is Twenty20s where a Gilchrist is more valuable than a Bevan.

No doubt he's one of the best limited overs players on the world, but he could really elevate his game further, imho, if he would channel that earlier destructiveness when required (because we all know he can). Basically I think his philosphy has gone too much further in the other direction and doesn't have the exact balance just yet.

He has played some blinders when needed as far as T20s too are concerned. However, I fully subscribe to your view that he needs to stop worrying in T20s like he does in ODIs about possibility of collapses, around which it seems he has modelled his current batting strategy on.

That said, Dhoni is not a guy who can or did thwack it out from ball one. Even in ODIs back in 2005, he used to take his time to settle down and launch the attack. So I think it is more to do with his inherent batting abilities, and perhaps we are asking for too much from him to expect him to constantly average in the 140+ SR. There is simply no time for him to do that in T20s, or if he wants to, he has to come in 1 down.

 

[alternative]

Dammit Dravid.

 

[pasag]

Murali being awesome here, the only thing standing in the way of the fairytale.