May Madness (Updates at the end of the post)

A cricket post after a long long time, since May promises to be a cricketing month. I absolutely love this year's IPL so far. Quite a bit of twists and turns, plus plenty of drama in the past couple of weeks already.

The perennial problems for most cricket fans are to choose a favorite team, and also to decide whom to support in a clash between two other teams. For example, my hometown is Chennai; I have spent the last 8 years before coming to US in Bangalore; and, my favorite cricketer, Sachin, plays for Mumbai. So, among the 8 teams, I needed to form an hierarchy of sorts, which is the following. What is yours?

#1: Mumbai Indians - Sachin's

#2: Chennai Super Kings - My hometown team

#3: Royal Challengers Bangalore - Team from my favorite Indian city

#4: Rajasthan Royals - For Warney!

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#5: Deccan Chargers - For Gilly & Gibbs

#6: Delhi Daredevils

#7: Kings XI Punjab

#8: Kolkata Knight Riders

I am very happy that my least favorite team is loitering at the bottom of the points table. From the time of the 'multiple captaincy theory', I love every controversy that has erupted there. Saurav 'Huge attitude' Ganguly was removed from the captaincy - quite good news; 'Fake IPL player' - Superb fun; 'Kolkata' removal from the team's name - WOW!! And, now, the news of Shah Rukh trying to sell off the team - Good for him!

It is amazing how Deccan chargers - a team every team had fun rolling over last year, has now made a complete turn-around while the current champions Rajasthan Royals are were struggling at 7th place, while the runners-up Chennai are at 6. The first two days of the month have already produced some great nail-biter climaxes. A total anti-thesis to last year when there was gulf between the table-leaders and the strugglers. One look at the points table says that except the miserable Kolkata, all the other 7 teams are within 2 1 points of each other. This, with the tournament at the half-way stage, is a perfect scenario for a thrilling second half in a fortnight.

Also, when everyone who could wield a bat made merry in the first edition, mostly those who have a good technique are able to score in the current one. In fact, the 'Man of the match' winners for the first 8 matches were all proper and proven test players. Also, looking at the success of retired veterans like Kumble, Gilchrist and Hayden, there is definitely a scope for experienced and talented cricketers in the mad world of 20-20.

Tomorrow's Today's matches: Punjab vs Kolkata - I expect Punjab to roll over Kolkata, which should push Punjab from 6th to 2nd position; Mumbai vs Bangalore - Though Mumbai is the team that I would love to see winning (catapulting it to the top rank), a win by Bangalore would take them to the third place and pull down Mumbai to fifth.

Update: Though it was unpleasant to see Mumbai losing a match, Bangalore's win has truly opened up the table. Four teams with 8 points and 3 with 7! And, to maintain the balance, I am routing for Chennai to win tomorrow's match against Deccan chargers, thus leaping from 5th to 1st spot.