Final Plaudits & Gripes (IPL Final: Rajasthan v. Chennai)

Okay, IPL... we're even. I doubted you, I questioned your merits at the crucial parts of the event, I abandoned you a little for a couple of weeks, but yet again, you made things up in the end with a truly gripping final. Thanks. We're cool.

For anyone who wants to know about the action in the final, no need to go any further than the poor man's cricinfo (aka Miriam), and her coverage on Cricket w/ Balls. (Or you could just be all corporate about it, and go to the real cricinfo's coverage.) I don't have much to add regarding the final itself, and we'll be posting different IPL-recap pieces throughout the week, but just a couple of notes:

• Yet again, Makhaya Ntini proves to everyone that he just might be the most underrated and undervalued cricketer going around. He never gets injured, he never complains, he always tries hard, and always comes back with boundless energy and a smile. He sees himself getting taken in and out of the team throughout the season, given no rhythm or sign of confidence from above... and then, just like that, he goes out and wins his team the semifinal with two wickets (one of those Shaun Marsh, only the best batter in the league) and just about put them in the position to repeat the performance in the final, with a tight spell and a brilliant run-out. And still, few people seem to notice.
  
  (Whether he's the most underrated player is, I guess, a matter of debate, but I bet he'd at least head the bowling attack in the Undervalued XI. He'd be right there with Nathan Bracken, Matthew Hoggard, and Anil Kumble.)

• Suprisingly enough, the level of commentating got a little bit better towards the end of the tournament, after the very quiet dumping of that tragic triumvirate of broadcasting incompetence -- Greg Chappell, Aamer Sohail and Ranjit Fernando -- somewhere around the 4-week mark of the season. Damien Fleming may sound like his entire nasal passage is plugged with semen, but he actually tries new things, and he learns as he goes along, and gets excited by the game... that's more than we can say for half of the shattered souls in that commentating booth.
  

• For example, it was good to see the commentators actually mention how slow the over rates were getting towards the end of the tournament, and to what ridiculous length Warne was taking it in the final.  One of the big drawcards to the Twenty20 format is supposed to be its (relative) brevity... no longer would we need to give seven hours of our day to find out who wins a damn cricket match.
  
  Yet most IPL games are still going on for about three-and-a-half hours, and the final went as far went on for more than four, finishing up after 6:30 in the morning in New Zealand. I know the concerns of the live viewership in New Zealand are probably as far from the Indian IPL moguls minds' as the coordinates of the Sandwich Islands, but would it really hurt them to speed things up a little? Who wants to see the sunrise after a cricket match?
  
  

Comments

[David Barry]

I've talked about over-rates before - it's extraordinary how quickly they got through overs in the olden days.

I was also frustrated by Warne slowing things down, and the numbers agree - according to CricketArchive's ball-by-ball commentary (where they note the time at start and end of the innings), Rajasthan took 104 minutes to bowl their 20 overs - 11.5 overs per hour!

But the IPL final is another case that shows that our impressions can be misleading. Chennai bowled their overs in 110 minutes, less than 11 per hour. But Dhoni has escaped notice and criticism over his team's abysmal over-rate.

[D.S. Henry]

You're right, DB, it's amazing to some old cricket footage and seeing the players hurrying along like they were on speed.

(It's also weird to see how little the used to appeal and/or celebrate after a wicket.)