Still, Mumbai Indians > Chennai Super Kings

The IPL is over for the year. Chennai Super Kings are the champs, by virtue of winning one match, the final. The Mumbai Indians dominated the entire season, and booked their place in the semis quite early. Chennai barely made it, and only did so because Sangakarra said, "Hey, Sreesanth isn't here, so why don't I toss the ball to the next most hittable bowler!"

Anyway, I'd prefer not to dwell further on Sachin's brain-fart in keeping Pollard out too late, so let's see how my pre-season predictions fare against the final positions.

          Team                              My Prediction    Final position

Kolkata Knight Riders                      6th                      6th

Rajasthan Royals                              8th                      7th

Deccan Chargers                               3rd                      4th

Kings XI Punjab                                 5th                      8th

Chennai Super Kings                   Runner-up           Champs

Delhi Daredevils                             Champs                 5th

Royal Challengers Bangalore             4th                    3rd

Mumbai Indians                                  5th               Runner-up

Not too bad, my KKR foresight was spot-on, and my major miscalculations were about Punjab, Delhi and Mumbai. Oh well.

Players whose stock rose include: Murali Vijay, Saurabh Tiwary, Naman Ojha, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, T Suman, Michael Lumb, Vinay Kumar, R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Harmeet Singh (as a legspinner), Rusty Theron, Iqbal Abdulla.

Special mention: Umesh Yadav consistently hit the 140 kph mark. How long until he becomes a 130-er who bowls short? I guess he's lucky not to be in the spotlight.

Players who sank (and stank): Manish Pandey, Yuvraj Singh, Matthew Hayden, Yusuf Pathan (to some extent), Adam Gilchrist (too many quickfire 15's and ducks), Ishant Sharma, Sanath Jayasuriya, Manpreet Gony, Sudeep Tyagi, RP Singh, T Dilshan.

And that's a wrap, on to the World Cup.