Like a parrot, see? (there's no analogy here, move along)
Couch Talk 196 with Simon Taufel
6 years ago
Showing posts with label kieron pollard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kieron pollard. Show all posts
IPL 5: Random gifs from the CSK-MI Eliminator
This is a lot easier than trying to describe these shots.
Give it some time, it's a heavy page.
Give it some time, it's a heavy page.
The Mumbai Indians win the CLT20: stats and other stuff
For the first time in the T20 Champions League's rich, three-year-old history, a team that didn't win its domestic competition has been crowned the champion of champions. Just in case you doubt the accuracy of that fact, I've compiled a list of all the winners. Please take your time to go through it, however long and tedious it may seem.
Year
|
CLT20 Champions
|
Domestic Champions
|
2009
|
New
South Wales
|
Yes
|
2010
|
Chennai
Super Kings
|
Yes
|
2011
|
Mumbai
Indians
|
No
|
Sarcasm aside, this is actually a half-decent achievement for the Indians (Mumbai Indians, that is... I will never get over how stupid a name that is for the franchise). I would have taken any sort of win after, you know, that series. A pretty exciting CLT20 was exactly the sort of thing most Indian (Team India, not Mumbai) fans needed after being battered in Tests and ODIs. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it was... actually, I'm not going to say it at all, I'll have someone do it for me.
Thanks, Cliche Correspondent Ravi Shastri.
Nope, not until you've perfected faking laryngitis. (terrible execution of dark humor here)
Anyway, it was a good tournament, mostly because I only tuned in towards the latter stages - my first game was RCB's record chase. It's quite the underdog story for Mumbai, actually, once all the talk about flouting the rules or whatever has been extinguished. No, Somerset, you weren't the underdogs, because you really should have been the favorites to beat Mumbai. I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but you've gotta accept that, despite having a well settled team, you really did lose to an IPL side missing half its regular XI.
The India-England ODI's are a few days away, which is another post for another day. I'll leave you with some stats relating to Mumbai's CLT20 performance.
- Mumbai took the idea of T20 being a batsman's game, and bitchslapped it into unconsciousness. Their highest run scorer was Kieron Pollard, who scored 123 runs at 20.5, just over one-third the number of runs scored by David Warner, the top-scorer (328).
- Pollard also scored one of Mumbai's two fifties, the other one coming from Aiden Blizzard.
- Among those who actually made runs, Lasith Malinga had the second-highest strike rate (183.78) in the CLT20, with the highest being Kevon Cooper's 191.17.
- Lasith Malinga made exactly as many runs (68) as Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina, in the same number of innings.
- Mumbai's bowling stats, on the other hand, are pretty impressive. Malinga (10) and Abu Nechim Ahmed (8) are both among the top five wicket takers, and Harbhajan (7) sits just outside that.
- In that top five wicket takers' list, though, Malinga (20) and Ahmed (17.4) are the only ones not to bowl 24 overs.
- This has nothing to do with Mumbai, but Trinidad's spin duo of Badree and Narine have a combined economy rate of 4.46 rpo in the 48 overs they bowled. Wow.
___________________________________________________________________________
If you liked this, like us on Facebook
And/or follow me on Twitter
If you liked this, like us on Facebook
And/or follow me on Twitter
The Mumbai Indians are winning
Two games into the IPL, and they've hardly been tested, mainly due to the strong bowling unit. Malinga has been great with his yorkers-on-demand, and the early wickets he has provided have allowed the back-up dancers bowlers to build on the pressure. Bhajji, Murtaza, Munaf and Pollard have done a great job though - they've ensured that MI haven't needed the hittables, Sathish and Sharma, to turn their arm over. Having that many options, plus Franklin or Symonds, is a good sign for when Malinga leaves for the England tour.
Only the top 4 batsmen - Jacobs, Sachin, Rayudu, Sharma - have had to bat so far, so we haven't really seen how explosive the rest of the line-up (Symonds, Pollard, Franklin, Sathish) can be. When they all do come off, it will be beautiful. Or ugly, if you're on the receiving end. Looking at you, Delhi and Kochi.
I didn't do any sort of preview for the IPL because of theapocalypse exams, so this'll have to do. Mumbai look a good bet to top the table a second year in a row, and they might even be motivated enough to win the whole thing.
PS. The blog now looks different, as you may have noticed. Vote on the poll to the left on which you liked better - the previous red or the current blue. Or don't, there isn't a gun to your head. Or is there? Look behind you! Just vote.
Only the top 4 batsmen - Jacobs, Sachin, Rayudu, Sharma - have had to bat so far, so we haven't really seen how explosive the rest of the line-up (Symonds, Pollard, Franklin, Sathish) can be. When they all do come off, it will be beautiful. Or ugly, if you're on the receiving end. Looking at you, Delhi and Kochi.
I didn't do any sort of preview for the IPL because of the
PS. The blog now looks different, as you may have noticed. Vote on the poll to the left on which you liked better - the previous red or the current blue. Or don't, there isn't a gun to your head. Or is there? Look behind you! Just vote.
The ultimate "stupid, stupid me" moment
Today, Pollard was, for once, allowed to bat higher up the order.
Result? He had twice as long to wreak havoc than he usually does.
His promotion was probably a combination of several reasons, like
- MI was playing a team from the Carribean
- MI is almost out anyway
- The team management thought, "What the heck, we've tried everything else anyway" (they haven't)
- Everyone else was too full from breakfast
Which brings up an important question: Is his thought-voice as thin as his speaking voice?
Anyway, I doubt he's thinking what we think he's thinking. Think.
Even with Pollard out of the cage at #3, the total was 184. Around the same as the other games.
MI won this because of their bowling. And Guyana's batting sucks. Like a straw.
India v Zimbabwe and other stuff that doesn't matter
India play Zimbabwe tomorrow in the first match of a tri-series. There are so many reasons not to bother with this series.
For one, it involves Zimbabwe, which is still a long way from a quality side. And there's Sri Lanka. Again. Between all the tests, ODI's, T20I's and the IPL, our players and their players are either sick of each of other or really good buddies. I suspect the former.
I also don't care much for ODI's. It's sort of a confused format - we know that tests are long and batsmen are all blocky, and we know that T20's are slambangy and really short. I don't know why, but for some reason I can watch five whole days of test cricket, and still am unable to sit through 100 overs of an ODI.
But I will be watching this tri-series, or at least India's games. One obvious reason is that India's playing. Another is that this mass resting of players actually has me intrigued - I don't think I've ever seen an Indian side devoid of its stars. The fact that Suresh Raina - who has only recently cemented his spot in ODI's - is the skipper, will go some way in showing us what we can expect from the future.
Sri Lanka hasn't rested as many players as India, and we can be sure that the 'bounce us out' strategy will be employed at some point by them as well as Zimbabwe. ODI's may be less manic than T20's, but this is a superb test of temperament for the likes of Raina, Kohli, Karthik and Rohit Sharma. Yusuf Pathan has a good chance of doing well this series, but he's still rubbish. Kieron Pollard has a similar reputation as a slogger and is doing a far better job than Yusuf. Naman Ojha is not ready for this level, and Jadeja lacks confidence as well as any sort of definition of his role.
The quicks will be observed closely, none more so than Umesh Yadav, seemingly the only bowler in India who bowls 140+ right now. Vinay Kumar is an old-school Indian medium pacer whose strength lies in accuracy, while I see limited opportunities for Pankaj Singh and Ashok Dinda.
PS. Also, this blog has been added to http://cricket.superblogroll.com, the blogroll for Cricket Blogs.
