Kridaya Cricket Blog

An all-round performance by Brett Lee (5 sixes and 2 early wickets) did the unbeaten T&T in. Unlike the Cape Cobras, New South Wales were much more professional in the field and didn’t give any chances away to the West Indian team. Sweet revenge for an earlier loss to them in the tournament when it mattered.

As one user on Cricinfo said, Australians now own the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Champions League. The two teams which have won the Indian Premier League have both been captained by retired Australian players. Is there anything left for Australia to win?!

Maybe the Twenty20 World Cup, but that is coming up next year and Australia will surely win that. Perhaps in the same manner that they took a few attempts to win the Champions Trophy and now you cannot take it away from them.

On one hand, this domination is amazing. On the other hand, it is boring. Cricket needs some new narratives than, “Australians win again!” For years now, we have seen India and South Africa (and at one time, even England) challenge the dominance of the Australian team, but the depth of the talent in Australia is simply too much.

In a way, Australia is like the Brazil of cricket. There will be setbacks once in a while, but Australia have made a habit of coming back strongly from them.

Trinidad and Tobago continued their unbeaten run in the Champions League with another comprehensive victory over the Cape Cobras.

With the exit of all the Indian teams, the fans seem to have turned towards supporting T&T. What better than supporting a West Indies team against one from Australia!

But New South Wales are pretty good at what they do. If it weren’t for Pollard’s stunner, NSW would have won their previous tie against T&T. And T&T reached the finals today via some extraordinarily sloppy fielding by the Cobras.

Anyway, the best two teams will fight it out for the Cup. In that sense, the Champions League is vindicated.

I don’t follow local Australian cricket. The only time I remember two Australian teams playing against each other was when the Australians decided to field two teams in the World Series Cup (Australia and Australia A) way back in the mid-1990s. That was a very short-lived experiment.

So this time, I was hoping for a good match between the two teams, but it didn’t prove to be so. New South Wales cranked up 169/7 on a tricky pitch and the Victoria response was over by the time they struggled to 12/3 after 5 overs. It was a surprising move to bring Hauritz on very early, but he did the trick getting two wickets in the first over.

It will be good if Trinidad and Tobago win their match tomorrow and have a re-match against NSW. The last match between the two sides was a stunner, as T&T looked dead until an astonishing 18-ball 54 from Kieron Pollard did the Australian side in. I just hope that they have a good pitch for the last match.

It is interesting how you start forming loyalties once the tournament progresses. At the beginning of this Champions League, I had no idea about any team other than the IPL ones. But now, I am cheering for T&T. It may be worthwhile to have a longer Champions League and a smaller IPL. Contrast that with the World Cup where you already know the teams and so you don’t need a lot of unnecessary matches.

Andrew Hughes has a few:

The Dance-Off

For reasons that are not immediately apparent, watching people dance badly on television has become very popular in certain parts of the world. What better way to cash in on this trend than by introducing a ballroom dance competition to settle tied cricket matches. Each team will choose one pair of players to dress up in spangly suits and silly grins and perform in front of a celebrity panel of dance floor dynamos, including Ravi ‘Rumba’ Shastri and Sunny ‘Samba’ Gavaskar. Watch out for Kolkata’s fabulous couple of captivating captains, Sourav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum. Their foxtrot is something to behold.

That is much better than the Eliminator any day.

Technically, Bangalore are still alive after today’s loss against Victoria. But they have only one match left (against Delhi Daredevils). They need to win that, hope Cape Cobras lose to Delhi and Victoria, and then they manage to squeeze through on Net Run Rate (which is terrible right now). Doesn’t look very likely. In any case, either Delhi or Bangalore will be eliminated in this round and probably both.

At this point, Victoria has 4 points and are also very likely to qualify, unless they lose to the Cobras, Delhi beats both Bangalore and Cobras and NRR comes into play.

I think the IPL teams could have done a better job if they had a few weeks to prepare for the tournament. But the Champions Trophy was there and the teams never got together. It will be strange if there are no Indian semifinalists in a home tournament. And a big blow to the IPL’s glamor.

Today had a good thriller between Trinidad & Tobago and the Deccan Chargers. For the second time, the Chargers lost a match they should have won and have crashed out. This is kind of the way they played the first IPL, though I thought being the 2009 IPL champions would have made them change their ways. Maybe only in South Africa, not back home.

Anyway, the second round starts. We have two leagues each with four teams. I was under the impression that the two qualifiers from each group would go into different leagues. The reason being that it was not a Super Six or Super Eight league with all the qualifiers. So it made sense to move the teams into the leagues based on their seeding and their position at the end of the first round.

Apparently, this is not the case. The top two from each group move into the same league and play matches against a top two from another group. And then whoever tops the league move into the semis. This is almost the equivalent of having a first round league with 6 teams and then selecting the top two to go to the semifinals. Except of course, that we don’t get 5 matches involving the bottom placed teams.

On one hand, this makes sense. You probably get more high-quality matches. You eliminate 10 matches, thus saving five days from the schedule.

On the other hand, with the 3-team groups, one poor match can mean elimination for a good team. To come back from a loss means having to worry about the run rates in matches you are not part of. Second, a home team like Deccan Chargers is eliminated too early, leaving fans high and dry. Also even though some teams are worse than others, they all contains stars. Consider Wayamba, full of the Sri Lankan players. They are gone now after just two matches.

It would be nice to have an extended league phase so that we can get to know the teams and get behind some of them. Having 5 matches each allows for changes in fortunes and lots of predictions, making things fun.

I suppose the next Champions League may be different with more teams (including teams from Pakistan). They should have at least two teams from each country and restrict India to two. They should at the very least have the first round with groups of four or more. 2 matches and out is not good.

Have the organizers told the teams to fake a tie so that fans can see how an Eliminator looks like? Well, thank you, but no thanks.

The Eliminator is just as ridiculous as the Super Over and belongs in the same dustbin of history as the Golden Goal did in soccer.

It would be more meaningful to toss a coin to find the winner than take pot luck from six balls.

And what is the point in having it in the group stage, when you could use points and net run rate to decide the team to go to the next stage?

Of course, it is even worse in the knockouts where an international trophy can get decided by pure luck.

Considering the limited amount of time required, why not play five overs each with all ten wickets available and no restrictions on who can bowl those overs?

The Champions League reminds me of some courses I took for my Masters. Instead of easing into the subject like most courses, you get swamped with assignments, papers, tests and more tests. It was hardly a couple of days after the Champions Trophy ended that we got this spectacle of the Champions League starting. Within a blink of an eye, five matches have been completed, one team already into the second round, and we don’t even know the names of all the teams yet.

The IPL teams have all lost in the first match and must win their next matches. Only Bangalore are assured of a spot if they win. The others have to wait for the results of the other match in their group and see if they can qualify on points or have to rely on NRR. It will be strange if all three got out in the first round as the matches are taking place in India. And perhaps a shock to the tournament organizers.

I really wish there were more time to understand the teams and the players. Right now, by the team you get to know the teams, the tournament will be over. Yes, it is that short – the tournament ends in another 12 days. I actually like the short duration, but not the small gap between it and the Champions Trophy.

So this is what I understand. We have 12 teams playing in 4 groups. The top two from each group advance to the next round. They have pre-fixed seedings (ala T20 World Cup style) for these teams – so venues are already set. This is what has happened so far:

Group A: Just got started

• Deccan Chargers (India) 153/9 (20 ov) lost by 1 wicket to Somerset (England) 157/9 (20 ov)

Group B: Just got started too!

• New South Wales (Australia) 144/6 (20 ov) win by 53 runs against Eagles (South Africa) 91/9 (20 ov)

Group C: Now we are talking! Cape Cobras (South Africa) qualify for the next round. BRC (India) and Otago (NZ) to fight out for the remaining spot

• Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) 180/4 (20 ov) lost by 5 wickets to Cape Cobras (South Africa) 185/5 (19.4 ov)
• Cape Cobras (South Africa) 193/4 (20 ov) win by 54 runs against Otago (New Zealand) 139 (17.1 ov)

Group D: Back to getting started

• Delhi Daredevils (India) 98/8 (20 ov) lost by 7 wickets to Victoria (Australia) 100/3 (16.4 ov)

So the remaining teams are

Group A: Trindad and Tobago (West Indies)
Group B: Sussex (England)
Group D: Wayamba (Sri Lanka)

Pakistan is the major nation without an entry in this competition.

I cannot believe that the Champions League is starting just days after the Champions Trophy. What the heck?

Anyway, the only teams I know properly are the Indian sides from the IPL: Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers. What I am not sure of (and perhaps everybody else) is who will play during the competition, especially with all the injuries going around.

For your comprehensive guide to all the teams, visit our friends at Holding Willey to get to know your Twenty20 Champions League teams.

I am expecting one of the IPL teams to win considering that they cornered most of the talent. But you cannot rule anyone out in T20 matches.