Impressive performance and consistently playing good cricket was ultimately what won the day. No amount of expensive foreign coaches and expensive players could do the job for the team automatically. Much has been written in the cricket news about the futile investments that English players Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff proved to be. Among the coaches as well, Mumbai Indians probably had the best deal with a separate bowling coach in Jonty Rhodes but still could not come up with a performance any better than last but one. And clearly some Aussie coaches are better than others. Deccan Chargers coach Darren Lehmann and Delhi Daredevils coach Greg Shipperd certainly did a great job for the team, but as for KKR coach John Buchannan; well less said the better….

The so called aged players clearly showed their class this year: so Anil Kumble could not make that diving stop at the boundary as well as some of the younger players, but he certainly showed the youngsters a thing or two about taking wickets and being stingy with runs. Kumble’s captaincy was another hit of the tournament. Royal Challengers Bangalore won two out of six games that KP captained; Kumble won 7 out of 10 and reached the finals to boot. Shane Warne won more than one game by sheer dint of his cricketing genius rather than the talent and ability at his disposal.

But if experience showed us its value, then so did youth and youthful talent. There were some real young finds this DLF IPL: Rajasthan Royals found Kamran Khan and Amit Singh, Manish Pandey being the only Indian centurion of the tournament greatly impressed with his contributions to the Bangalore team. Then there was Deccan’s Harmeet Singh and Chennai’s Shadab Jakati and Sudeep Tyagi all of whom surprised and delighted.

And this year’s tournament showed us that we don’t have to have high scoring games where boundaries are stuck at will and bowlers are cowed by batsmen swatting sixes out of the ground at every other ball. An interesting pitch; a balanced battle between bat and ball and you have a contest that is interesting and spirited. Spin got its due this time, and veterans like Kumble, Warne and Muralitharan spun their magic and duped batsmen into giving away their wickets. Ultimately it was good quality cricket that won out in the end and which people want!

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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