Bowlers called the shots in IPL

The 10th edition of the Indian Premier League couldn’t have ended in a better fashion. After 44 days and 59 matches across 10 venues, the tournament saw a befitting finale, with a resilient Mumbai Indians emerging champions for the third time, the most by any side in the brief history of the tournament. This was only the second time in the tournament that a team finishing on top of the points table in the league phase has gone on to win the title, after Rajasthan Royals did so in the inaugural season. In a format where batsmen rule the roost, it was the bowlers who had the final say in a low-scoring summit clash that had everyone watching on the edge of their seats with both teams in with a chance to win till the last ball of the match. Rising Pune Supergiant, in only their second and most probably their last year, gave a good account of themselves by reaching the final but lack of big-match experience seemed to work against them. While there was no shame in Pune bowing out in this manner after a stuttering start, IPL-10 will be remembered for the no-show from the tournament’s biggest showstoppers — Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The dynamic trio of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and A B de Villiers was expected to take the tournament by storm once again but its failures saw last year’s finalists finish at the bottom of the league. Equally disastrous was the campaign by last season’s league table-toppers Gujarat Lions who finished just one spot above RCB even as Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils maintained their middling performances. This season also saw some brilliant Indian young talent stamp its class. Rishabh Pant was most impressive with his swashbuckling batting but there were quite a few to give him the company — Mumbai’s Nitish Rana and Krunal Pandya, Pune’s not-so-young Rahul Tripathi and Washington Sundar and RCB’s Pawan Negi caught the attention. Though David Warner led the batting charts, Indians dominated the bowling with the top three slots being occupied by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat and Jasprit Bumrah. Kolkata’s Sunil Narine made more news for his batting than his bowling while M S Dhoni showed that his batting prowess and fan following were still intact.

On the flip side, there were rumours of match-fixing while the 1.27 am finish to the Eliminator in Bengaluru raised debates about the IPL playing conditions and the suitability of the D/L method in the T20 format. Overall, it was another
successful edition and IPL XI is pregnant with uncertainties with regard to player retention and the future of Pune and Gujarat. The show, however, must go on.