Matt Kabir Floyd reflects on the business end of the IPL season as Hardik Pandya’s move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians did not work out for all parties.
After weeks of hard work, the business of IPL is almost over. There’s no benefit in this championship going out of the blocks only to be passed on the last lap. T20 may be the shortest international tournament, but the IPL is more like a marathon than a sprint.
Mumbai and Punjab never really looked like hanging on, while Gujarat fell behind in challenging for a top-four spot.
The team had reached the finals in each of its first two years and was starting to look like it might be creating the next IPL dynasty. But Hardik Pandya’s decision to return to Mumbai seems to have dented the Titans’ aura.
Not only will they miss his inspirational leadership, but also his running. Strangely, Hardik’s captaincy seemed to make the Indian team weaker and even ended up being booed by a section of his own fans, which is almost unheard of in India. Rarely does a move have such a bad outcome for both teams!
Gujarat may have declined, but Rajasthan is an expert in decline. At least they’ve won enough this year to still qualify for the play-offs, but their four-match losing streak doesn’t exactly inspire confidence heading into the knockout stages.
This has happened many times during the IPL season and it is not just a coincidence. Lack of depth is certainly a major factor – while the Royals’ starting lineup looks very strong, the quality of the bench has dropped significantly. I hope I’m wrong, but I’d be surprised if they turn things around and make the finals.
The Sunrisers, on the other hand, seem to have found their mojo again. A slight wobble of three defeats in four raised some concerns, but the destruction of the Supergiants by Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma sent another dire message to the rest of the tournament.
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IPL Highlights: Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets, achieving the target of 166 in just 58 balls!
I think they might even finish in the top two ahead of Royals, who have to face table-topping Kolkata in their final group game. If they do, the first qualifying match between Knight Riders and Sunrisers is sure to be a blockbuster affair with runs, runs and more runs!
Delhi and Lucknow’s negative net run-rate means you can rule them out of the play-offs, which leaves us with just Royal Challengers and Super Kings. guess what? They play each other on Saturday. It will be a winner-take-all game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, which has arguably the best atmosphere in the competition and is a stadium not to be missed.
IPL bids farewell to England T20 World Cup players
It’s a pity that England’s T20 World Cup players have bid farewell and the dust has settled on them in the IPL. It’s a fun old game for them.
There were a lot of lows but there were also some huge highs, namely four centuries scored by an English player, the most in a season.
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Phil Salt showed his ability against Delhi Capitals by hitting five sixes in Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL match, achieved a huge victory
Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Will Jacks proved on the day that they could be as devastating as any batsman in the world, with Phil Salter being the most consistent of them all .
Sam Curran continues his full recovery, Moeen Ali was underused and Liam Livingstone was underwhelming before injury.
But spare a thought for Reece Topley – who had to bat on the flattest deck of the smallest stadium in a year of unprecedented turmoil for batsmen. Reese, keep your heads up and hope it will be easier for the pitchers in the World Cup!
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