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.