IPL Buzz !!!

The IPL 2.0 kick starts on 18th April in the “Diamond country” South Africa. As the wickets in SA would offer pace & bounce, it would be a contest between bat and ball eliminating the slam bang cricket. As a batsman you would need decent technique to negotiate the seam movement,& as a bowler you have a chance to exploit the weaknesses of the batsman. It would be an acid test for our domestic flat track bullies. Also since 24 of 59 matches are played in Durban of which 12 would be 4:30 pm starters, so there might be possibility of “win the toss win the game” kind of scenario if the “tide factor” of Durban comes into play; i.e. ball swings prodigiously under lights in Durban due to tide effect.

Rajasthan Royals owe all its success to Tanvir’s opening spells and Watson’s all round performance backed up with captaincy skills of Warne 2.0, with now their services unavailable Warne would have to come up with a Warne 3.0 in rebuilding the empire. Smith & Yusuf Pathan would hold the key again; Munaf has improved in last couple of months, watch out for the Tornado Kamran Khan.

Chennai Super Kings might emerge as the IPL king this time. Hayden’s fulltime service; Raina’s ability to pace innings, Albi Morkel’s hard hitting skills, Dhoni’s netagiri, Goni’s ability to hit the deck hard, Ntini's home adv, Murli’s guile could be fatal. Flintof's presence would be felt. Hope fully baccha patel & jogger Balaji won’t screw up this time around.

Kings XI Punjab’s marched into the semis thanks to Marsh and Hopes, now with their availability looking bleak coupled with absence of Brett Lee and Sreesanth onus would be on UV and Desi bowlers to step up. One can only feel for a team whose strike bowler would be Irfan Pathan. No wonder UV is already complaining.

Delhi Daredevil’s success story was no rocket science; won all the matches when the top 3 fired. And this time around Gauti is far more consistent & Warner would be an ideal replacement for Dhawan, Owais Shah and Collingwood would be handy. Addition of Delhi lad Nehra would bolster their pace attack along with McGrath and Maharoof. De Villier’s home experience will be useful. Absence of Shoab Malik would be a blessing in disguise, Karthick has left some unanswered questions.

Mumbai Indians probably have the best opening pair in Jayasuriya n Tendulkar; either of them can win the match single handedly. We all know about Bravo’s contributions with bat n ball. Hopefully Duminy’s 950k would be justified, Zaheer, Bhajji, Malinga, Dhaval &Co hopefully would fill the void in Pollock’s absence.

Bangalore Royal Challengers this time won't be Royally Challenged; first they got to wipe off the test team tag under their captain KP. It would be nice to see how KP would gel with Chanderpaul around especially after their verbal spat. Ryder and Taylor would give them a bit of fire power; Kallis needs to get out of his test match mood.

Kolkata Knight Riders will have ride on Mccullum n Gale. They will miss the services of Aktar,Gul,Hafeez,Ponting,DJ Hussey who played a crucial role last time. Not sure how much Mortaza can find his way. Buchanan would eventually find 4 decent players through his 4 captain theory. Poojara would be the player to watch out.

Deccan Chargers need to recharge their batteries as they look like a overpriced minnow team. They will need Gibbs,Gilly,Rohit,RP to fire each and every time if they want to stay in the competition.

So tune into SETMAX (INDIA) Saturday 4 PM and Enjoy Chennai Super Kings take on Mumbai Indians & KP's RCB muscle the spin on Shane's RR at 8 PM