Halfway into the tournament, it’s time to assess how the teams have been doing. Cricinfo has its report card ready
Sriram Veera06-May-2009Chennai Super KingsRetirement seems to have worked wonders for Matthew Hayden, who has 289 runs at 41.28 for the Chennai Super Kings•AFPThings have begun to perk up after a slow start. Their bowlers were struggling and, by the end of the fifth game, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided it was time for experiments. The bowling line-up started to change: Sudeep Tyagi and Albie Morkel opened and Shadab Jakati, the left-arm spinner, was drafted in. L Balaji was given the task to bowl with the old ball while Joginder Sharma and Manpreet Gony were dropped. And in the batting, M Vijay was drafted in for Parthiv Patel. The changes worked and Chennai won their next three games to storm to the top of the table.Defining moment: It came after the loss to Deccan Chargers in Durban. “We are running out of ideas, we don’t know where to bowl and what to bowl,” was Dhoni’s frank assessment. “This is our best bowling line-up in paper. But it’s not working and now it’s time to change and experiment.”Best player: Matthew Hayden, with 289 runs at 41.28.Biggest let-down: Andrew Flintoff. He struggled with the bat and the ball and Chennai’s form actually started to turn around after his exit.Ins and outs: Flintoff left for England within a week of the tournament after suffering a knee injury. He was anyway slated to leave on May 1 for the West Indies series.Kings XI PunjabThe most disciplined team. They were badly hit by injuries but have gelled as a unit to keep turning in regular wins. Only Yuvraj Singh has scored over 200 runs but four others have scored more than 100, the most in any side. The bowling looked weak on paper but Irfan Pathan has starred with the ball, often taking early wickets to unsettle the opposition. The spinners Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar have done well and Yusuf Abdulla too has turned in a couple of good cameos. And Yuvraj, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, along with the coach Tom Moody, have led the side well.Defining moment: When the team sat together after the first two losses and charted the way forward. They then won a close game against Bangalore – with Ravi Bopara and Yuvraj taking them home – which set off their revival.Best player: Irfan Pathan with ten wickets and Yusuf Abdullah with 14. They have worked brilliantly as a pair. Irfan has often struck crucial blows with the new ball and Yusuf has kept his nerve in the end overs.Biggest let-down: No one actually. If anything, they would like Yuvraj to be more consistent. He is their main power player but has accumulated only 208 runs at 29.71.Ins and outs: Bopara, the only Englishman to perform in the IPL, has left but Brett Lee, James Hopes and Sreesanth will be more than handy additions.Delhi DaredevilsThey have lived up to their pre-tournament billing of being favourites and have the best win-loss ratio, winning five of their seven games. And the best news is that their stars are yet to fire. Only Tillakaratne Dilshan has accumulated more than 200 runs and only Ashish Nehra has taken ten wickets but they have kept winning.Defining moment: No single moment but they have won all the tight games they’ve been involved in and each time someone has put his hand up – whether it’s Nehra with the ball or Dilshan with the bat.Best player: Dilshan. One of the more under-rated players on the international circuit has expertly steered the middle-order out of several mini-crises. Last year, Delhi suffered because of middle-order problems and this time they were really tested by the failure of the top order but Dilshan has stood up to the challenge.Biggest let-down: The hyped opening pair of Virender Sehwag (avg of 21.75) and Gautam Gambhir (avg of 28.00)Ins and outs: Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah have left for the home series against West Indies but that won’t make much of a difference because they never got to play a game. The biggest news so far is that Glenn McGrath hasn’t got a game either.Deccan ChargersIs the Deccan Chargers batting too dependent on Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs?•AFPThey proved to be the tournament’s dark horses, winning their first four games. But they lost the next three, possibly because their batting is top-heavy, depending too much on Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs.Defining moment: Their fifth game. It was a close finish against Delhi with Fidel Edwards, their strike bowler, going up against Dilshan. As the match hurtled towards its climax, Edwards lost his cool, argued with the umpires over wide calls, got into a sledging game with Dilshan and generally lost the plot. Dilshan plundered 17 runs in the 19th over, bowled by Edwards, to win the game. It was Deccan’s first loss and they are yet to win after that.Best player: RP Singh with 13 wickets at 13.23. He has bowled with the new ball but has really surprised with his accurate death bowling.Biggest let-down: VVS Laxman with 19 runs at 3.80. He has been repeatedly getting out to soft dismissals and is going through a horror run.Ins and outs: Edwards has left after a fine tournament. Andrew Symonds is expected to make an impact when he joins the team after their ninth game.Royal Challengers BangaloreIt’s been a fascinating ride for Bangalore. They upset the defending champions in the first game but returned to last year’s form for the next few. Rare occurrences like five first-ball dismissals and two second-ball dismissals left the team wondering what had hit them. However, they kept working hard in practice and the coach was willing to try different combinations. The appointment of Anil Kumble as captain after Kevin Pietersen’s departure seems to have changed the team’s fortunes; they have won three in a row now to move to fifth in the points table.Defining moment: Mark Boucher held his nerve to win a close game against Kolkata Knight Riders to fetch Bangalore their second win. It was a game that should have been won without much sweat but Bangalore threatened to fold under pressure. Lucikly for them, their opponents were simply worse than they were and that win provided the momentum. Kumble became captain in the next game and they have gone from strength to strength.Best player: Kumble, with ten wickets at an economy rate of 5.82. The man refuses to fade away without a fight. And then there’s his captaincy.Big let-down: Pietersen and Jesse Ryder. Pietersen averaged around 15 and Ryder 8. The two biggest picks of the year were expected to be part of the team’s revival but they have failed.Ins and outs: A struggling Pietersen left and the in-form Rahul Dravid, who had returned to India mid-tournament for the birth of his second child, has rejoined the squad. Nathan Bracken will bolster their bowling if he joins them this week.Mumbai IndiansLasith Malinga is using the IPL brilliantly to show his skills after a long injury lay-off•Associated PressThe Tendulkar syndrome has hit the team. They are yet to get out of the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya and have lost quite a few close games. Tendulkar has scored over 200 runs but when he has failed, so has the team.Defining moment: It will come the day they win a game without a contribution from the two big stars. They have talent in JP Duminy, Dwayne Bravo, Abhishek Nayar and Shikhar Dhawan, who have the potential to turn things around. But will they?Best player: Lasith Malinga with 11 wickets at a staggering economy rate of 4.83. He is back from a long injury lay-off and is using the IPL brilliantly to show his skills. The slinger has rarely been collared.Biggest let-down: Harbhajan Singh. Just three wickets so far.Ins and outs: No disruptions for them.Rajasthan RoyalsThe top-order batting had been the chief worry but Graeme Smith’s return to form and Naman Ojha’s successful stint as opener would have eased concerns. Yusuf Pathan has lorded around the park and the entry of Lee Carseldine at the top has added further stability to the top order. They won three tight games, a sign that the captain Shane Warne is still weaving his magic with his band of young men.Defining moment: The Super Over game against Kolkata. It highlighted two of their biggest strengths – Warne as captain and Pathan the batsman. Like Delhi, they have rarely lost a close game. But unlike Delhi, they have lost easily in a few games.Best player: Yusuf Pathan with 181 runs at a strike rate of 161.60. He has played a hand in all their wins.Biggest let-down: Graeme Smith who, till his revival against Punjab on Tuesday, had 65 runs at an average of 13.Ins and outs: Kamran Khan has been asked to undergo rehab for his action but he was already doubtful with a knee injury. Shane Watson will bolster their batting when he joins them this week.Losing front: Kolkata Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum has just 85 runs at 10.62•AFPKolkata Knight RidersA team drowned by controversies – the multiple-captaincy theory, an under-pressure coach, a struggling captain and even a fake blogger – have been hit even worse by poor on-field performances. There hasn’t been a single moment that sticks in the mind, nor a passage of play that has convinced observers that they are turning the tide.Defining moment: With two runs required from two balls against Rajasthan, Sourav Ganguly, who had guided the chase brilliantly, fell going for a big shot. Had they won that, they might have found the momentum they were desperately seeking.Ins and outs: Chris Gayle has left for England and Sourabh Sarkar has come in for the injured Anureet Singh. David Hussey’s all-round skills will be available after Australia’s Twenty20 game against Pakistan in the UAE this week.Best player: Brad Hodge, who with 240 runs at 40 is third on the run-scorers’ list. He hasn’t found much support from the other batsmen, though.Biggest let-down: Brendon McCullum has just 85 runs at 10.62. He said he’d quit if the team didn’t make semi-finals. While he may have intended it positively, he could be seen as a weak, emotional captain reacting to severe pressure.
