IPL 2009

I know I am a little late in sharing my views about IPL 2009. This time the IPL shifted to South Africa because the IPL dates clashed with the elections in India. Providing sufficient security to the players was not possible because of this. Also after the terror attacks at Mumbai on 26/11 and again attacks in Pakistan while Sri Lankan Cricket Team was toruing there Lalit Modi could not take the risk of having the games in India. So from the security point of view it was a wise decision of having the IPL matches outside India.

8 teams faced each other and played 56 interesting league matches before semi-finals. The neck to neck competition between the teams to make their position in the top 4 was evident. One cannot forget the tie breaker between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Night Riders. Another interesting match was between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians where the win came on last ball for Rajasthan Royals.

This time the entertainment from the bollywood camp was less. Infact the cheerleaders also didnt add much spice to the game of the cricket. This time the IPL was more about cricket and less about drama. Drama like the last year where Preity Zinta hugging Yuvraj Singh became a news. Where Harbhajhan slapped Sreeshant or Shah Rukh Khan jumping in the stand with all the bollywood stars with him. Although this time Shilpa Shetty took the franchise of last season IPL winners Rajasthan Royals. But still that omph factor of bollywood stars and cheerleaders was missing.

Semi-finals again were an interesting one. Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super kings lost their matches in the semi-finals even though they were the top 2 teams after the league matches. In the first semi-final Delhi Daredevil played against Deccan Chargers and it looked that Adam Gilchrist had decided that he will let the world know that he is still the best player. His batting in the semi-finals was unstoppable and that made Deccan Chargers win the game. The other semi-final was between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super kings. Chennai Super kings had made it to the finals last year and this time also most people thought that Chennai Super kings will be one of the teams in the finals. Infact till the 15 overs of chase by Royal Challengers Bangalore everyone would have felt that Chennai Super kings will win the match. But then its 20-20 cricket and in the last 5 overs Royal Challengers Bangalore turned the game and finally win it.

In the finals Deccan Chargers and Royal Challenger Bangalore fought with each other for the IPL 2009 title. The match was really amazing. After the win in semi-finals Adam Gilchrist wanted more and it was clear from the way he played. Also the way he made his team play it evident that he wanted that IPL trophy. Last year no one expected that Rajasthan Royals will win but they won. Same was the case with Deccan Chargers as they were the last team in the IPL 2008. But changing the captain of both the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers proved that still old is gold. Both Anil Kumble and Adam Gilchrist did a wonderful job as captains and rose to a level of being the top 2 teams in the IPL 2009 season.

After all its cricket and anything can happen in the game and this IPL season made one thing clear expect the unexpected. Who knows in the next season of IPL Kolkata Knight Riders become the winner. Well in this season they are the ones to be the last team. I am being hopeful and there is nothing wrong that. There is a long way to go till IPL 2010. Hopefully the next season will also be exciting but there should be some hindi movies also being released during the IPL season. It was really a dry spell for bollywood movies in this year's IPL season. IPL rocks and I must admit that the entire season was fun-filled. :)