IPL recently announced that the salary cap for players will be axed and that the game’s biggest stars could then expect staggering $14-15 million IPL contracts.
It would definitely create a free market, much like the soccer’s English Premier League, where franchises with unlimited buying power can spend much more on a player than the $1.65 million paid to M. S. Dhoni this year.
However, Ricky Ponting who played in IPL recently before going back to Australia insisted that the scrapping of the salary cap could ruin the tournament by allowing the mega-rich franchises to grab all the big boys.
“I have heard there may be no salary cap, but I’m not sure if that will be good for the IPL,” Ponting said to Herald Sun, Australia.
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils at Bangalore
Bangalore and Deccan are out of the race for the throne but they could be the King makers now. Apart from Deccan, Bangalore also have matches left with Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai and they could well catch the leg of one of these teams to kill their semi final dreams.
Men at the Helm
Rahul Dravid hasn’t been able to do much because his batters have disappointed consistently. Sehwag has shown confidence in his boys but the incidents like arguing with umpires at Jaipur, the break in play at Delhi breaking Venu Gopal’s flow and delaying covering of pitch when rain set in against Punjab have left a sour taste in mouth. But as far as his team goes, he has led them well and been aggressive, instinctive and innovative.
We have the bat
On paper the Bangalore batting might be even a little higher than Delhi but apart from Dravid each and everyone has failed. They would like to salvage some pride. Delhi on the other hand would need one of, Sehwag and Gambhir to fire otherwise they might not have enough runs on the board.
We have the ball
Both are pretty good bowling units but Bangalore missed Steyn badly in the last match. His pace prevents oppositions to take the attack in the early overs. Batters on both sides will find it difficult to play with the same flow as they could have against other oppositions.
Patrolling Party
Delhi are the best fielding unit in the competition and they have proved it time and again. In the last match the fielders took some sensational catches and one could have gone just to watch the Daredevils field. Bangalore on the other hand have been patchy. While they have had some sensational catches been taken by Dravid, Kohli, Jaffer and Steyn, they have conceded many free runs in some matches.
High on betting meter
On most betting meters they are placed at the same level. Kolkata are marginally lower on a few owing to their vulnerable batting.
Who gets the tick?
Delhi have the upper hand but a good spell from Zaheer or Steyn up front could knock two or three and expose Delhi’s vulnerable middle order. Bangalore would like to give their home crowd something to cheer about and look forward to, for the next season.
Seasonal Nor-wester Storms disrupted DLF IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings and once again Duckworth Lewis method was used which awarded the win to Chennai on the basis of run rate.
Knight Riders started off badly with the loss of Salmun Butt, Hafeez, Ganguly and Hussey - the major bats but managed a moderate score of 145 for the loss of 5 wickets.
Chennai opened with a firm stand between Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming who played steadily given the low target.
Chennai managed to maintain there league position while Knight Riders slipped into further uncertainty. Ntini bagged the MOM award for his superb spell of 4 for 21 with a hat-trick in which he bagged Hafeez, Ganguly, Das and David Hussey - all important wickets.
In the other match Mumbai Indians continued their dream run with a straight win against Deccan Chargers who once gain failed to make it in their home ground. However, R P Singh got the purple cap while Dwayne Bravo who leaves shortly bagged the man of the match award with 3/24.
Sahid Afridi once again failed to make any mark with his bat while it was not a lucky day for Gilchrist and Sachin and the crowd missed fireworks badly except for a momentary blasting by Sanath Jayasuriya.
Rajasthan Royal boys arriving fresh from a short vacation at Goa, became the first IPL team to ensure its berth in the semifinals of the DLF IPL league. Also Shane Warne – Rajasthan Royals Captain has moved to the top of the Indian Premier League wicket-taking charts, claiming three scalps to guide the Rajasthan Royals to a 65-run win over Bangalore in Jaipur yesterday.
The Match started with a brief moment of silence in memory of the recent blast victims and a donation by the IPL and Camera crew for the victims to the Chief Ministers relief fund.
The legendary Australian legspinner’s 3-23 off four overs took his tally to 14 wickets in 10 matches, while helping restrict Bangalore to 9-132 off 20 overs chasing Rajasthan’s handy 1-197.
While talking to a Kolkata daily on Friday after the fateful match at the Wankhede Stadium, Shah Rukh Khan said that these things happen, teams do end of loosing badly and this time they got taken apart, and its sad for him when that happened to his own team.
When asked whether this happening in Mumbai, his own base made it a bigger disappointment, he said that he does not have any regional issues with the team, in fact he does not believe in regionalism, but what bothers him is that the team lost both its matches with the Mumbai Indians. He also said that they should have been able to cover their weaknesses and for him the bottom-line is that its not nice to lose to any team.
