Going into the final round of games last weekend, as many as six of the eight teams had realistic ambitions of finishing in the top two of the Indian Premier League table. For the first time in a 14-game season, even the top side lost as many as five matches, and the final game between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians was effectively a tussle to finish second and avoid sixth.
Mumbai, the tournament’s form team with seven wins in their last eight after starting 0-4, prevailed easily, leaving Hyderabad to reflect on the rain that cost them so dearly in their penultimate match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Tom Moody, the Hyderabad coach, is hardly alone in thinking that Duckworth-Lewis in its present guise just doesn’t work for matches reduced to a six-over hit-out.
Topping the table were Chennai Super Kings, the only team to have made the play-offs every single season since the tournament’s inception in 2008. The spot-fixing scandal and the conflict-of-interest issues relating to N Srinivasan may have tarnished the brand, but on the field, they are the Barcelona of the IPL. Like the Catalan club in Europe, until this week, you have to go back to 2011 for their last title triumph, but the core group remains so formidable that few will look past them in the big games.
Brendon McCullum has left for England and a Test series, and Chennai will call on Michael Hussey in his place. Half a decade ago, he was perhaps the most complete batsman in the game – the World Twenty20 semi-final heist against Pakistan providing ample proof. Now, he’s a ring-rusty veteran who will turn 40 three days after the final on Sunday.
In a scheduling quirk that is one of the major irritants about the competition, second-placed Mumbai get to host the first qualifier against Chennai. The team that loses will get a second chance in Ranchi, MS Dhoni’s hometown, against the winner of the Bangalore-Rajasthan Royals eliminator. If the teams captained by Virat Kohli and Steven Smith are to go all the way, they’ll have to summon up three wins in five days, a Labour of Hercules in Indian midsummer heat and humidity.
Both Bangalore and Rajasthan, however, will just be glad that they’re there, having routinely missed out on this stage of the competition in recent seasons. Not since 2010, when Lalit Modi, the brain behind the league, was given his suspension letter within minutes of the final ending at the DY Patil Stadium on the outskirts of Mumbai, has the competition seen such a stampede for play-off spots.
Back then, four teams finished on seven wins each, behind Mumbai (10) and the now-defunct Deccan Chargers (eight). Rajasthan, who finished seventh, would have finished second if they hadn’t limped to the finish with three straight losses. This time, as many as 22 of the 56 group games went to what Sir Alex Ferguson liked to call ‘squeaky bum time’. As much as a level playing field, it also spoke of the World Cup fatigue that has clearly affected those whose teams went deep into that competition.
The unfavourable weather conditions have taken a greater toll on the bowlers. Of the five leading wicket-takers, only Mitchell Starc played for a team that reached the last four of the World Cup. Dwayne Bravo, who tops the list with 20 wickets, and Yuzvendra Chahal, the leggie who has been pivotal to Bangalore’s campaign, didn’t even make the squads. Mitchell McClenaghan, whose bustling left-arm pace has been at the heart of the Mumbai revival, has used this opportunity to work off the frustration of riding the pine during the showpiece event on home soil.
As ever, the IPL has unveiled a clutch of promising Indian players. None has made a greater impression than the Mumbai-born Shreyas Iyer, whose 439 runs were one of the saving graces of another desperately disappointing Delhi Daredevils season. Unlike some of the earlier IPL success stories, who exited the stage as quickly as they entered – remember Rajasthan’s Swapnil Asnodkar and Kings XI Punjab’s Paul Valthaty? – Iyer has already shown through his Ranji Trophy displays that he can tailor his game to suit the format.
Mumbai, who didn’t pick him, can point to the hard-hitting Hardik Pandya, whose father took him and his brother to Kiran More’s academy in Baroda when he was just five years old. And when not posing for pictures with Mr Instagram, Chris Gayle, Sarfaraz Khan, another Mumbai talent but playing in Bangalore colours, has shown that he can muscle the ball a long way.
Given the play-off scenario, the smart money would be on Mumbai or Chennai, but look no further than Bangalore for the flutter. Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Gayle are third, fourth and seventh in the run-making charts. It’s hard to think of a more intimidating top three. With Starc continuing to show why there are few better white-ball bowlers in the game, and away from the postage-stamp-sized Chinnaswamy Stadium where they have often struggled to contain opposition batsmen, they might just buck the trend of sports teams in red having a miserable 2015.
