12 days into the IPL and there have been many a hit and miss in the tournament. This piece reviews the moments of the tournament for each of the teams.
Hits:
The batting of the Delhi DareDevils was supposed to revolve around the likes of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, but the opposition has been in for a shock so far. In most of the games, it has been the unlikely pair of Tillakaratne Dilshan and A.B. de Villiers who have stolen the thunder and shown the path to the victory. The bowling has been anchored by Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes – another surprise who was selected over Glen McGrath.
Misses: Not too many of them either, but Sehwag and Gambhir’s continuous run of low scores has caused enough headaches for the team management at the top of the order. Sehwag has gone into one of his favourite modes of trying his level best to throw his wicket away, while Gambhir’s penchant to open the face of the bat has landed him in trouble and the edges to the slips.
Hits:
Their comeback after two successive losses is worth a mention. After two rain-curtailed matches in which Punjab had to bite the dust, their bowling came together and went on to help the team win three in a row. Yusuf Abdullah has been the star performer with the ball, where as Ravinder Bopara and Kumar Sangakkara have done their bit with the bat.
Misses: Rain has been rather cruel to the Punjab team, but the biggest miss in their first couple of losses was the lack of bowling options. Brett Lee is injured, so is S. Sreesanth, Jerome Taylor missed out on the trip and Irfan Pathan’s form was looking downhill. For now though they have coped well and are third on the points table.