IPL players in ICC nominations for 2008

Here is the list of ICC nominations for 2008 along with which team they play for in IPL. (I have left out 'Women's Player of the Year', 'Spirit of Cricket' and 'Umpire of the Year' to make it relevent for IPL)

Cricketer of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Bangalore) (Winner)
Mahela Jayawardena (Mohali)
Graeme Smith (Jaipur)
Dale Steyn (Bangalore)

Test Player of the Year

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Bangalore)
Mahela Jayawardena (Mohali)
Jacques Kallis (Bangalore)
Dale Steyn (Bangalore) (Winner)

ODI Player of the Year

Nathan Bracken
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai) (Winner)
Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai)
Mohammad Yousuf

Emerging Player of the Year

Stuart Broad
Ajantha Mendis (Winner)
Morne Morkel (Chennai)
Ishant Sharma (Kolkatta)

Associate Player of the Year
Ryan ten Doeschate
Alex Obanda
Niall O'Brien
Thomas Odoyo

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year

Chris Gayle (Kolkatta)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai)
Brett Lee (Mohali)
Yuvraj Singh (Mohali) (Winner)

Teams with total number of nominations:

Bangalore - 5
Mohali - 4
Chennai - 3
Kolkatta - 2
Jaipur - 1
Mumbai - 1

Hyderabad and Delhi have no nominations. But what's surprising is, Bangalore with the maximum nominations i.e. 5 didn't do well in IPL. If Nathan Braken had played in the IPL then this number would've been 6. It may not be surprising for some because 3 of its nomination are in 'Test Player of the Year' category!

Eventual champions Jaipur have 1 nomination in 'Cricketer of the Year' while runners-up Chennai have 3 nominations in more Twenty20 relevent categories 'Twenty20 International Performance of the Year' and 'Emerging Player of the Year'.

Update: Bangalore wins 2 awards with Chanderpaul winning the top honor with the "Cricketer of the Year" award while Steyn got "Test Player of the Year" award. Dhoni from Chennai team wins the "ODI Player of the Year". Yuvraj from the Mohali team wins "Twenty20 International Performance of the Year" award.

Links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/7603843.stm
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/368724.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080910/wl_sthasia_afp/cricketiccawards

$1.2m for 1 run!

$1.2m for 1 run! That's what both the finalists might have thought just before the last ball of the match.

What a final! It could not be better than that. This happens when two much worthy team reaches the final. Just like T20 World Cup. And the full credit goes to the captains of both the teams - Shane Warne and MS Dhoni. They both have been fantastic in making quick decisions and being very open to their team mates. They clearly understand that this format of the game is more about committing fewer mistakes than the opponent rather than just doing right.

Of course both the team performed to the best of their abilities and it was a neck-to-neck competition; if not for Chennai's batsmen forgetting to take singles till the 15th over and some poor display in fielding as well, the match would have a different finish.

But I still feel, Dhoni's leadership skills are way ahead of any other captain of present day. His straight attitude, cool headedness, knowledge of the game, decision making power and aggression is just perfect. Throughout the final match there was not a single moment when the match looked imbalanced. If it is just the last ball making the winner then only for the record's sake Rajasthan Royals' will keep the trophy; Chennai, too, well deserved it.

No one has ever seen a loosing captain in the history of cricket gathering his players together immediately after the loss to appreciate their efforts and telling them they have fought well; that is a sign of great leadership.

Having said all that, Royals are the champions and their consistent record throughout the long tournament was only justified by this final win; hats off to Warne and the boys!

The best captain have lost it to the best team.

- Kumar

 

New feature: Color Scorecard

One thing that everybody enjoys is playing with colors. And no matter how dirty it gets, it always brings pleasure.

Here we were playing with colors for our popular scorecard and finally it came up well today.



I will try to help you look around in this newly painted scorecard.

• The whole match is one accordion with two panes for each of the innings.


• You can click on the inning headers (with team names) to see the inning details.


• On the left side of the inning details is the list of batsmen and bowlers with their short statistics in the bracket against their names.


• On the right hand side is the ball-by-by run details for all the 20 overs allotted for an inning. The numbers 1 to 20 at the beginning for each row indicates the over number while those on the extreme right, the boxed numbers indicate total runs scored off that particular over.


• Positioning the mouse over the batsman name will display his full name in a tool-tip (see snapshot above - Ricky Ponting) and at the same time highlight all the balls he has faced in that inning. The same behavior applies for bowlers, too. We are working further to display more details in the mouse-over tool-tip e.g. how the batsman got out, how many boundaries he hit etc.


• Similarly you can position the mouse on one of the ball on right and see the bowler and batsman for it getting highlighted from the list on left. Now, isn't that fun?


• Each wicket is shown by underlined Capital Red letter 'W'.


• Other abbreviations used are: lowercase 'w' for WIDE; lowercase 'n' for 'NO BALL' and lowercase 'b' for 'BYES'. The bold numbers indicate boundaries scored by the batsmen.


• Yea, and finally those light orange bars!! The higher the runs scored off an over, the bigger the bar. So, how do you like that idea of combining numbers with figures in the same place for quicker understanding?

That's it for now! We will keep you updated as we go on adding cool features to this website for you.

Cheers!

Semi-final probables

Yuvraj's team winning their last match against Deccan Chargers have now fixed their berth in the semis along with Rajasthan Royals.



So with 6 matches to be played before semis, nothing can move these two teams - Royals and Kings XI Punjab.

Kolkata standing at 11 and one match to play has no chance as any result (win, loss, tie) or no-result from today's match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi DareDevils is going to put at least one of the team at or above 14 where Knight Riders can't reach.

Banglore and Hyderabad fighting for the last two positions, nothing can move these two teams as well. All they can do now is to make this tournament a little more interesting by disrupting the 3rd and 4th positions. If in Tuesday's match Deccan Chargers beat Chennai and the next day Bangalore also manages to achieve the same feat against much stronger Mumbai Indians, the equation of this tournament will be a lot interesting to look at.

In any condition, today's game between DareDevils and Indians is crucial for both of them; because if Chennai wins one of the remaining two battles then this game will decide the 4th position for semis.

Now lets look at the possibilities of these three teams, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. Chennai has two games in hand one against the front-runner Jaipur and the other one against the bottom-runner Hyderabad; so at least one win, which is possible looking at their history in this tournament, will put them at 16. And if they loose both of their matches they will have to hope for Mumbai to loose all of theirs, too. Mumbai is playing against two stronger teams in their remaining 3 matches and it must win at least two to secure its birth in semis. They will be confident against Banglore in their last match and knows that beating Jaipur won't be an easy task. That leaves them all out in the center with today's battle against DareDevils. Now where does the Delhi team stand? It has got only one match and that too against Mumbai Indians. Loosing this game will be the end of road for them. Though it has a better bowling squad and Gambhir-Sehwag pair to its advantage; no one can really be sure against an opponent with in-form demolishing-man Jayasuriya and the likes of Sachin and Uthappa.

Overall Chennai and Mumbai stand better chances than Delhi. Delhi winning its only remaining match doesn't confirm its reservation as it still will have to hope for Mumbai to lose at least one of their two.

New feature: Match home

Now that we have score boards for all the completed matches, there is a match home for all the matches as well. This displays our beautiful score card along with some statistics about the match and also the details about man of the match.

Navigation
There are 2 ways we can navigate to this place. The first one is from fixtures link at the top. Just mouse over that link and it slides down all the fixtures. Then mouse over any team or the day in the calendar and choose which score card you want to see and then click on it.

The second way is to click on any team and it opens up the team home. On the right hand side we have a list of all fixtures. All completed matches are striked out along with a link to their score cards. When you click on it, it takes you to its match home.

Features
This match home is still a bare minimum one. It could have a lot more details like:

• More details about the 'Man of the match' performance
  
• Highest scorer (Orange Cap)
  
• Highest wicket taker (Purple Cap)
  
• Number of sixes and fours hit in that match
• A bar chart of overs with total runs scored off it
• etc..
  

We are working on all these features at the moment. In the meantime if you think we can display some information, please let us know.

New feature: Scoreboard and Beautiful Numbers

We introduced our most awaited feature a few days back. We were so busy with the development that we couldn't even blog about it. Here is how it looks like:

Beautiful numbers

Numbers are quite boring if presented in plain text or even in a tabular form like some cricket websites do. The idea behind our score card is to prettify the numbers and make them look good. I mean compare that with the one below:

Which one looks better?

At on outset the the score card has 2 windows, one for each inning. The name of batting side appears as the title of the window. You can click on any title to open its scoreboard. Each window has slots for all 20 overs of the inning. Every ball in the over is plotted in its respective over. It also shows how many runs were scored off each ball. If some one is out on that ball, a big red 'W' is shown. On the left hand side all the batsman in that inning are displayed on their batting order of appearance. Below them is the list of all bowlers who has bowled at least one ball.

Some numbers are highlighted in the screen shot above. That's because I have moved my mouse over Rahul Dravid. When I do that the scorecard highlights all the runs scored by that batsman. It visually shows you how many runs were scored off each ball he has faced, which ball of the over and inning was it. Isn't it good? Or how about knowing who played a particular ball and who was the bowler when I mouse over 38th ball of the inning?

This applies to bowlers as well. For example when I mouse over Gony, it shows me all the overs he has bowled, how many runs were scored off each ball, total runs scored off each over and also what were the over numbers.

All the wicket taking deliveries are shown with a red 'W'. Just mouse over on top of it and it shows you who was the bowler of that delivery and who got out off that ball.

At the far right of each over, there is a total. It shows how many runs were scored off that over. There is a color coding for that number. Gray indicates total runs scored were less than 5. Blue means less than 9 runs and red is more than 9.

On a negative side there are few bugs as well. For example in some places the over total is not right. We'll get it fixed as soon as we can. Please bare with us for this inaccuracy.

We are still trying to improve this score board and build upon our 'Beautiful Numbers' philosophy. Stay tuned for more!

Let us know what you think of this feature. You have any other idea for the score card? Please let us know. We'll do our best to make the score card truly revolutionary if its not already!

Update 1: Erroneous over totals are fixed now. Along with the over totals there was another error. The no-balls weren't getting displayed properly in the scoreboard. Even that's fixed now.

Punjab thrills…Mumbai spills

As it turned out it was once again The Dew Vs Mumbai Indians. The dew factor has scared. Harbhajan so much that once again he opted to bowl after winning the toss.

The Punjab Kings seeking to open their account in this tournament seized the opportunity with both hands.

A standout performance with the bat from Kumar Sangakkara ensured that the team could notch up a very challenging score.

When the Mumbai Indians came out to bat the prevailing belief was they had a good chance of chasing it down and winning, what turned their plan upside down was probably their memory of the match against Chennai and the ease with which they knocked down 200 odd runs but what they did not take into account was the difference in the bowling attack.

Punjab Kings had one Mr Brett Lee who had other ideas and in a fast and furious opening spell knocked over 2 wickets and conceded a meager 5 runs in 2 overs.

If the start was bad there was worse to follow for the visitors, Piyush Chawla who was introduced in the 7th over, strangled the duo of Dwayne Bravo and Robin Uthappa, who were doing a fair job of resurrecting the innings by bowling his 4 overs on the trot, picking up 2 wickets and conceding 16 runs.

Chawla’s introduction could be termed as a brilliant move on the part of the captain or a ploy to bowl him before the dew set in, whatever be the motive it broke the back of the visitors and from thereon it was a downhill journey for the Mumbai Indians and for the Punjab Kings the smiles emerged, broadened and remained.

The Punjab Kings displayed a lot more intensity especially Brett Lee, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena, this augurs well for the team as their young captain needs all the support he can get to take this team forward.

Yuvraj Singh is a fantastic batsman and brilliant fielder but has no record to show as a captain and commanding respect on the field from such a diverse set of players is a tough ask, the support of the overseas pros becomes all the more important in this context.

As Harbhajan said during the presentation ceremony “captaincy is tough when you are losing and not when you are winning”.

The Royals triumph

A disappointing match if you are a supporter of the Hyderabad team.

The comment by the skipper that he is happy with the effort of the boys is vague and conciliatory. They had no business losing the match after claiming 7 Royals wickets and reducing them to the near impossible task of chasing 23 runs of the last over.

The aim is to play to win and not to pat yourself on the back that the effort was good or better than the previous outing and they lost because the opposition put in a better performance.

This team is not going for the jugular but is playing in fits and starts, Afridi & RP Singh bowled one good over, the debutant Kalyankrishnan had 2 good overs.

The Hyderabad team had the best chance to open their account, after the exceptional batting by Symonds powered them to a 200 + plus total, the pressure applied was not consistent and chasing appeared a breeze.

In the soul searching that the Hyderbad team will undertake it will help them a great deal if they analyzed the previous match between Chennai and Mumbai.

Reputations and past performance do not win matches but performance on the day does.

To repeat the obvious, Cricket is a team game and each individual needs to be told what his role is whatever his stature maybe and therein lies the role of the leader.

In stark contrast the Rajasthan Royals batted to a plan and despite losing wickets at the wrong time, came out worthy winners and have made everyone sit up and take note.

It has been a sad journey for the Deccan Chargers hailed by experts as the 2nd best team before the tournament commenced.

An interesting match coming up between the Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings, both teams have not opened their accounts.

- Mahesh Packiaraj

The Super Kings do a Houdini

The best match of the tournament. It was riveting stuff and had all the ingredients of a nail biter with a fairy tale ending for the home team and its hordes of supporters.

What saved the day for the Super Kings was probably the dew.

Mumbai Indians won the toss and would have batted but for the threat of the dew, batting first against a team like the Chennai Super Kings gives the opportunity to go after their bowling which is their weak area and also prevent their strong batting from running up 200 + scores.

The batting line-up did justice to their reputation and ran up yet another 200 + score and from thereon Mumbai was on the back foot. Despite this it was a fantastic effort from the Mumbai team with their stand in captain infusing his teammates with the never say die spirit he is known for.

Mumbai was also in the hunt due to the paucity in the Super Kings bowling attack.

Bowling is an important component, even in T20 cricket, as was amply demonstrated by Shane Warne for the Rajasthan Royals and then Mohammad Asif and Rajat Bhatia for the Delhi Daredevils in the last couple of days.

The Chennai team was found wanting in this area.

A team needs more than 5 regular bowlers.

In today’s match 3 of the 5 Super Kings bowlers bled runs, Murali averaged 11 runs per over, Jacob Oram 14 and Palani Amarnath 15, Chennai had no choice but to bowl their full quota as the sixth or seventh bowler were the likes of Raina and Badrinath who can bowl off spin but the conditions would not have favored them.

The Chennai think tank needs to quickly address this if they are to book a place in the semis.

- Mahesh Packiaraj (The Viper)

Daredevilry to the fore

Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi a team which can boast such a line-up should be putting up an emphatic batting display and not what happened at Hyderabad against Sehwag’s Daredevils.

So what is going wrong for the Deccan Charger’s and what is going right for the Daredevil’s?

The DareDevil’s bowling is managed by Glen Mcgrath and Mohammad Asif, probably the best in business when it comes to accuracy and the toughest to take to the cleaner’s.

Complementing this duo they have the likes of Maharoof and emerging quickies YO Mahesh, Pradeep Sangwan and the steady bowling of Delhi player Rajat Bhatia. The good news for the Daredevils fans does not stop here they also have one Mr Daniel Vettori in their armoury.

The Batting line-up is almost Indian with the exception being Shoaib Malik and this strategy could be a winner as the competition is being played on Indian pitches.

Though the Delhi batters have not been stretched, Shikhar Dhawan the Delhi left-hander has been most impressive and could become a player to watch and if he continues his good showing he could well be in the running for the opener’s slot in the national team which neither Jaffer or Gambhir or Uthappa have cemented.

The biggest let down for the Deccan Charger’s would be the batting.

Either Shahid Afridi or Rohit Sharma could partner Adam Gilchrist.

The bowling lacks teeth…barring Chaminda Vaas there is no else who is intimidating. RP Singh alternates between the brilliance and the mediocre and the back up is with the likes of Sanjay Bangar, Andrew Symonds, Pragyan Ojha and Afridi….not at all reassuring if you are a DC supporter.

It could be tough going for the Chargers……
- Mahesh Packiaraj (The Viper)

Who will you put your money on for the semis?

Watching the Rajasthan Royals get the better of a star studded Punjab Kings I was reminded of a conversation with a fellow cricket aficionado. In any tournament predicting winners is an integral component. The IPL has 8 teams and most of them are well balanced at least on paper with the Rajasthan Royals appearing the weakest of the lot. So we looked at other factors which could differentiate the also-rans from the winners.

Our list for the semi is Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Rajasthan. We picked these ahead of the rest on the basis of their leaders. To use an often abused cliché, its all about leadership, be it business or sports.

These 4 teams are headed by aggressive and street smart individuals and 2 of them have proved themselves at the international level and the other 2 were always touted as brilliant captaincy material but did not get an opportunity to prove their skills

Leadership in the IPL context is more of a challenge as the incumbent does not have the luxury of leading a set of people with a common denominator….same state or country. The IPL outfits are a heady mix of high caliber, high visibility international stars from different climes and unknown local players, getting them to work together as a unit is in itself a challenge in leadership.

Additionally both Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni are known for their ability to pick players with potential and give them the room to perform and deliver a key attribute which assumes added importance in the context of picking a local player over an international star.

The other two Sehwag and Warne are unknown’s in the realm of leadership at the international level but in the limited chances they have had have amply demonstrated they belong to this league.

So here’s to the semis and to the prediction and above all here’s to an exciting time ahead.

- Mahesh Packiaraj (The Viper)

New features: Team standings, personalization, updated team logos

We have added a new feature today. There is a new little box (we call them portlets) for team standings. It displays the points table. It's sorted by points. So the leader is always at the top.

This change also appears in your 'My Team' window as seen below.


We have also added few personalization features. When a user logs in or sets his home team, some parts of the site will be personalized. At the moment the personalization is restricted to highlighting your team in the list of other teams. For example, see the following screen shots.




We have also updated the team logos. Now we have better quality logo's for all teams.

That's all for today. Let us know what you think. We are working hard to improve the site. We'll publish as and when we complete them. Stay tuned.

We've launched!

We've launched IPLeague.in at last! Ahead of others. That makes us the first full-fledged professionally developed portal dedicated to IPL. The site is not 100% complete yet in terms of functionality. But nonetheless the site contains a lot of useful information. It contains details about the teams, their prices, owners, players, coaches, and fixtures. It also lets you register and choose a home team.

Our goal was to launch it as soon as possible. In fact we wanted to launch it as early as April 10th. Barely 3 weeks from start. But there was too much to be completed. We had to cut down on our feature list to launch. Anyway here it is. Please give it a try and let us know what you think. We'll do our best to make this site a useful resource for IPL fans.

We'll continue to add more features in the coming days to make the site more useful.