Tag Archives: champions league

Mumbai Indians and Cheating

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Ducking Beamers links to this controversy about Suryakumar Yadav, who apparently forgot the script and went and scored a big unbeaten century days after he was removed from the Mumbai Indians team because of injury. It looks pretty silly for the Mumbai Indians, but I think there are better explanations than the Mumbai management trying to cheat to win the Champions League.

The more innocent explanation is that the Mumbai Indians had a higher standard for playing in the tournament. Very likely to some extent since we are talking about an international club tournament. If Yadav had been out of shape, he may have failed a fitness test. Also a batsman selected for one of the top IPL teams in the country would obviously have some talent. Playing in an under-22 tournament would be easy pickings for him. I remember when we used to play street cricket and if an “older brother” came along and asked to allow him to play, we would ask him to play left-handed or give the other team extra batsmen so that there was no unfair advantage.

Another explanation is that the business people felt that Suryakumar Yadav was one of the more dispensable members of the team and they would want someone who had a more recognizable name. I am not sure that the current team fielded by the Mumbai Indians does achieve more pull, but maybe that was their thinking.

In any case, I don’t think that Mumbai cheated to gain an advantage. To gain one extra player would not have been enough. Also, the lack of complaining by the other teams shows that this was not a big deal in their opinion.

Too Many Close Matches at the Champions League Twenty20

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So here are the results of the matches played so far:

  • Warriors won by 3 wickets (with 0 balls remaining)
  • Cape Cobras won by 7 wickets (with 16 balls remaining)
  • Mumbai Indians won by 3 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
  • Warriors won by 50 runs
  • Somerset won by 5 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
  • Mumbai Indians won by 1 wicket (with 0 balls remaining)
  • South Australia won by 19 runs
  • Match tied (New South Wales won the one-over eliminator)
  • Chennai Super Kings won by 4 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)

Out of 9 matches so far, 6 matches have gone to the wire with the match being decided with 2 balls or less remaining and one match even going to the Super Over. What the heck is going on? A few theories:

  • Unlike national teams (Australia v Bangladesh), players of the same level of skills are not playing on the same team, so teams are more evenly matched.
  • Twenty20 is a format that allows teams to come back from the dead. So the chasing team can attempt a dying burst of crazy strokes after being placed in an impossible position and still come back to win.
  • There is massive fraud happening so that the organizers can make this a more meaningful tournament.

I am more inclined towards the last theory, but I cannot see how you can get so many people to play along without any rumors leaking out. Still the whole thing makes little sense statistically.

Dhoni’s Misfortune Continues

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I was not intending to post much on the Champions League. For some reason, it doesn’t seem as compelling as the IPL. But they had a few interesting games, especially the one between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, where the latter seemed all at sea until some lusty hitting by Lasith Malinga in the last few overs took Mumbai past the finish line.

When the tour from hell ended for India in England where they failed to win every single international match, I thought the nightmare was over for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. It was the only major aberration in a spectacularly successful captaincy career. So perhaps he would get back to India and then captain CSK to the Champions League trophy and set everything back on track again. And then beat England in the return ODI series and so on.

But things don’t seem to be going according to plan back in heaven. Chennai lost their first home game of the season. And Dhoni missed a stumping of the eventual match-winner Malinga at a crucial time in the match. In the England series, there were times when India had the upper hand, but failed to take advantage. The story seems to be repeating.

Hopefully, this is not the start of a trend. CSK did show good form throughout the match and they should be able to take it and win the next few to reach the semis. Mike Hussey has been able to carry on the good form in the Sri Lanka test series to the Twenty20 match. As long as Chennai can win the next few, …

Kolkata Qualify for Champions League Next Phase, Huh?

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What a strange qualifying tournament for the Champions League! You have 6 teams, only 3 of which will advance to the next round. And what do the organizers do? They create two groups of three teams in which the group toppers advance, but then the 2nd placed teams are compared to obtain the 3rd qualifier.

Weren’t there other alternatives such as:

  • Have a single group of 6 teams and the top three go on to the next stage.
  • Have the 2nd placed teams play an extra match against each other.
  • Let all the teams into the main tournament and increase the number of groups.

Why have these meaningless 6 matches in the first place? Well, the real reason is so that there are 4 Indian teams out of 10 playing in the tournament which is hosted in India. So in the initial stages, 14 of the 20 matches will feature an Indian team and that will increase the viewer ratings (hopefully).

But Kolkata needed to qualify to fit the organizer’s plans. They needed to win at least one match and only lose the other by a small margin or so. They managed to just barely win the first match and in the second, they knew how much they needed to score (if they lost) to make the cut off. Whereas if there was an actual playoff, maybe they wouldn’t have fared so well.

Pitiable and one reason why Twenty20 continues to earn little respect.

Champions League So Far

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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.

All About the Champions League Teams

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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.