What a season, what a final

Indeed I can't say with guarantee that this tourney is fixed, but the reverse is also true. 11 off the last over, 4 off the first ball, still Pune lose. A mere 130 target, and Steven Smith chose that day to score a half century off half century of balls. See the final timeline: Mumbai wins toss and choses to bat(whaat!!), struggles at 79 for 7, still manages to stretch the required run rate in the first RPS over in decimals from 6, and Pune shockingly succumb to one run defeat! I really thought at the beginning that MI would come back to the final after being beaten by RPS in the qualifier-1, but the resurgent SRH should have entered to the final. But even SRH lost to KKR, and KKR lost to MI both in controversial fashions. But today I sincerely bow down to them bookies, hail you guys. Even I couldn't think of this epic final, why give chance to GL-RPS who are goners next season.

So the quote of the season (and almost every season) is:
"When you think its done, bring out your biggest gun
When the momentum seem to be over, that is your four-leaved clover"

Goodbye. See you in a year's time.

The Wait Is Over

Now the fun part. IPL has been scary like a hungry snake this season. But the old school finish is bound to happen. RPS should win the first tie; first due to it finishing second, and I could not find a second base. But the thing is this: everyone qualified, except Pune, have won the IPL. If MI is being presented as CSK in their days, they may as well win the second tie, qualifier-2. But usually a resurgent team reaches the final, and also because KKR has been shown good with bat this season, SRH should win their first tie, the qualifier-1. Finally, like last year where although GL didn't win the trophy they finished 1st in the league, this year, the final year for GL and RPS both, will end in a victorious tone for Pune. The wait is over.

Addition: I just found a second reason for Mumbai's today's loss, venue being Wankhede.

The League Stage Review

Rags to riches, riches to rags. Never mix pleasure with business. Well this was my story.

Now the IPL. KXIP were seeming to be qualified. The first game showed that, strengthened the guess. Now the second game, GL had to cross the 10pts mark (DD already did). Anyone could win, but since DD had beaten GL previously in the innocuous match, I sided with GL. But no, DD comes and wins at awkward time. MI KXIP: Punjab victory re-energized the prophesy, Mumbai well on course to top the league still. Then comes the epic decider match DD-RPS. RPS was already crowned the champions by me, and since RPS had a next game with Punjab, who were also to qualify, Pune had to win this tie. But grace of the bookies unpredictably (before the game, but predictable during the game) fell again on DD, this meant high potential of Punjab disqualification. But you can guess the reason for my prediction in RPS Punjab: a Punjab win. My top 4 were Pune, MI, SRH, Punjab, because never have both the finalist of the previous IPL qualified for knock-outs in the next IPL. This is why I had left KKR out, and also it was a fitting piece to the growing IPL algorithm. But this was the biggest failure of my not-yet-finished IPL algo. So the loss of the possible winners, Pune, to DD, changed the result of Punjab Pune: a KXIP loss leaving them stranded at 5th place. And the final match, as predicted RCB gave their fans something to smile for, but at the last over (has to happen).

Seems like time

5-7-17 RCB v KKR

Clearly KKR should be losing, but lots of anomalies surround this match. No worth of mentioning them.

5-6-17 MI v DD

MI two points clear off second, delhi 2 points off 10 points mark. MI won the reverse fixture. another confusing delhi game. bets off. MI already with a club it beat twice, so delhi looking at their recent performance, a bad chance. So a delhi win again I guess.

Result: a strict bets off reminder never fails in delhi matches. MI easily crushed poor delhi. But this result has cleared many paths. there was 50/50 chance in this game in fact before the game, and after the first innings had delhi restricted Mumbai to 180-190.

5-6-17 SRH v RPS

today a short and sweet vision for the match: RPS victory. The only anomaly is that SRH had beaten Punjab about a week ago, which should not have happened.

Result: pune ground out the victory, well written in its path to glory.

5-5-17 RCB v KXIP

If you remember, Punjab had won the first two games, against Pune(same predicted group) and RCB itself, then lost four on a trot, then beat GL, lost again to SRH(interesting anomaly), crushed DD. Now Punjab have matches against GL, KKR, MI and pune again. very crucial stage in Punjab's ipl survival. Punjab should win today, but the game will have lots of twists. Bangalore players every one of them have played very poorly, not even jadhav. But today against a supposedly weak team, kohli and co. should deliver. And they might show that in batting, with a 200+ score, but Punjab won't take long to reach there as well. Or it might turn out to be an extremely low score game of 120s like the old IPL days. Since KKR are seen to be moving below, and with Punjab's important moment coming up, I don't think RCB can pose the same threat today, like they used to.

Result: today was extreme. whatever I spoke, the match was turning that way. extreme man. I know you won't believe if I say that I predicted that Maxwell would hit a reverse sweep in his first 5 balls, and he hit a reverse sweep, in the 5th ball!!  Axar the hatrick man, took two wickets in the 17th over, I really thought that it might be a hatrick yet again. but slowly and steadily Punjab finished off RCB. pathetic RCB. a low scoring game after all.

5-4-17 DD v GL

Today's game is like a snail smoking up on a tree. No one is troubled, but if you got a sight of it, you'll have a good time. Can you believe it that this is the first match between GL and DD this season, and it has come up at a very indifferent time for both of the teams. GL could not utilize DD's poor form, DD were safe from McCullum till today. We can again expect a nail biter today. A tight 180-190 game this. But the main point is who is going to win. A pattern that I've noticed by looking at past results is that the bottom four always wins the matches where the opponent is the other bottom four, and a few occasional first v last upsets. GL's victories are against RCB, KKR, RPS and losses are against RPS(the resurgent), KXIP(!, interesting), MI(twice), KKR(points shared among alleged bottom four member), RCB(same here) and SRH(~).
So I don't know how, but delhi is actually winning consecutive matches for the first time this season today. With early McCullum blitz, and few early DD wickets down, it might seem a DD loss, but Morris and Pant are today's saviors. But again two anomalies surround this game too. First, I've also noticed that only the team who ends up being last will have points less than 10. As of today both GL and DD have 6 points each in 10 and 9 games respectively. So by the virtue of having played one more game, GL may turn out to be victorious, but this has a micro-possibility since betting odds are heavy on GL's by the looks of their players' form. Second is that the (upcoming) 50th game is the reverse fixture, so literally anything can happen today. But I take the easy way out, a DD win at Delhi!

Result: Two DD wins in a row! Morris was left out, DD's weird change considering that Morris has been their best player so far. Marlon Samuels debuted in his place. And also there was no McCullum blitz but a Raina blitz instead who scored a 43-ball 77, but Pant lived up to my faith and scored a massive 43-ball 97 which included 9 sixes. But DD, despite their weak performances, somehow managed to reach the target of 209 in just 17.3 overs and with 7 wickets to spare. Just another day in IPL.

5-3-17 KKR v RPS

oh KKR. after looking at the teams KKR and RPS each have won, I am getting a feeling that KKR's brilliant season is slowly coming to an end. KKR have lost to SRH, RPS, GL. Although they had beaten SRH and GL in the respective reverse fixtures, today does not support this case. GL are anyways not a threat to the top 4. Looking at pune's results, it shows they have beaten GL, RCB( twice, for max points from the worst team so far), MI(twice!, the seeming title contender), SRH. They also have lost to GL, DD, KXIP and KKR. The points are shared with GL from one win and one loss; games are yet to be played against DD and KXIP (victory over DD is almost sure, but over KXIP might be tough). We can clearly see that RPS have beaten all those teams that can cause nuisance in their march to the top 4. Now KKR are left. Resurgent SRH, RPS and KXIP are now the emerging threats to KKR, who seem to be cruising just one week ago.
So, RPS should win today without going to the last over or creating any other fuss, with today's major impact players being Rahane and Dhoni.

Result: three cheers to the ipl and its compulsions. A puny target of 156 but I should have expected a last over finish yet again. A sad tripathi missed his century, no fireworks from either of my impact players (tried to be the octopus). He could have finished the game with a century but no, dan Christian had to finish with a last six. Anyways, pune won the game as expected.

5-2-17 SRH v DD

DD is back, but may be to torment this time. SRH loss opens door to the teams below, with DD still unaffected. DD should bat first today and post a huge total to win, and will do so accordingly.

Result: DD won the toss, and chose to bowl first. how strange! but as it was the day of delhi, they won the game anyhow. An okayish target of 186 was laid down with the help of yuvraj's 70*. and as before delhi's innings was no one man show. 6 men batted for delhi today, with each scoring 31 in average! rishabh pant came on 1 man down after a long time, and a pads cladded Mathews was made to wait as morris came to bat ahead of him after Iyer fell, unlike recent games. This was the main reason for delhi's foretold yet surprising win.

4-30-17 SRH v KKR

So a big game this, for every team (except for delhi of course). it seems to me that RPS and KXIP will continue challenging for the top four spot. and for that to happen the 3rd and 4th spot should be open to all. the case when SRH wins today will alter the situation and diminish KXIP's chances, although RPS are solid on 4th with 10 pts. but a thing also is that the game that was abandoned due to rain was for SRH to win. this couldn't happen. batting is not an issue for both teams. and recently both have crushed the two bed rocks (delhi and Punjab) in their recent respective fixtures. didn't really thought delhi will die out before reaching 100 today, so a huge NRR boost for KXIP, who will need it later. the last loss of SRH was with pune (a head to head edge for pune) where SRH scored a mere 176 with just 3 batsmen out, a strange and disappointing day for SRH. So if KKR wins today, who along with MI should easily qualify according to their performances, there is still a chance for Pune and Punjab to catch up.
Both of them have been cruising to victory in their recent matches. Bhuwaneswor kumar has been a bit quiet by his standards in his last three games, although on his defense we can say that his efforts were less required in all of those 3 victories. But two causes for anomaly surround today: first- the upcoming MI RCB fixture, which can again turn out to be a first v last fixture if SRH wins today. and I guess currently that RCB might win that game despite their recent performances. Second: KKR's 3 wins in a row (KKR last lost to GL, similar to the loss of SRH to RPS).
So in my view, there are going to be two very high scoring innings where KKR is almost sure to come out on top, although there is a micro-chance of SRH to finish better.

Result: I was almost sure of the result when SRH scored a whopping 209 in the first innings, the game was according to the plan. I thought gambhir and uthappa would take KKR all the way through, but gambhir surprisingly got out early leaving the task to manish pandey, uthappa and Yusuf. the first two did their part, at least uthappa did his, but Yusuf was as disappointing as delhi's this year's campaign. KKR then ended at the par score of 161. So warner the centurion led his team to a massive victory at the end. I think may be the rain took some momentum off the KKR innings. The IPL algorithm still a tough nut to crack. This result may just be the consequence of the rain-barred game between SRH and RCB, which SRH was to win.

4-30-17 DD v KXIP

So yesterday was not Gujrat's day after all. and it seems to me that it's not their season as well. a great fight to the super over should have ensured their win but this was not to happen. MI strong at 2nd by the virtue of NRR. so MI may wobble later and succumb to third, but that's a big may. so if Gujrat are not the ones to reach the qualifiers, who is it then? RPS, and finally our today's contender KXIP. with one game in hand, and with a win today KXIP can go 2 pts clear off GL at 5th place. and also with RPS v GL coming very soon, today can be an interesting game. plus today's match venue is Mohali, although the venue doesn't matter. today, as before, kings will keep up their good batting performance, and delhi will keep up with their dismal cricket performance. since a sane man does not put bets on delhi, today again is a no-bet game as today is a clash of the bed rocks. This fixture has a brutal tie with me after axar patel took hatrick in this fixture last season (the match was held when kxip were last, and dd first), and I lost a big sum.
The only thing that can cause anomaly is that even delhi haven't won for a long time, so delhi does have a max 10% chance to win.
Although the famine-stricken delhi enjoyed their victory in the reverse fixture (who else can delhi win), today the similar hungry kings will come on top.

Result: with Delhi falling to the borehole like shit, there was very little left for Punjab batsmen to do (but they did win the game with 10 wickets). Delhi finished with 67 all out in the first innings, although I thought today corey and rishabh pant would give some fight. Sandeep sharma's 4 wickets was enough for Punjab to slay delhi.

4-29-17 GL v MI

a howler I did there. DD?? what did I think? but today is the day of Gujrat. pune is almost sure to win the game(I am in the middle of the afternoon game, and my gut was with pune) so GL will win to survive for the top four spot, whereas MI are cruising as far as points are concerned. MI, GL both in good form, so MI has a micro-chance of winning.

result: who could have predicted a super over? but yeah a super over was on the cards, one day or the other, and today was the day. all lefties pathan, jadeja and Faulkner threw direct hits to send MI home at the crucial stage of the last two overs. the last ball required 1 run! an MI hunch appeared to me, because Mumbai got themselves in trouble (and almost obvious to me). so a pollard 6 and 4 were the only boundaries in the MI super innings. so now I thought may be a 2 ball game for McCullum. the rest can tell you what happened:
bumrah last over: 1noball(finch on strike?!) 1lb(free hit; wtf is wrong with finch) 1wide dot(free hit!) 1bye dot 1run. MI win!

4-28-17 KKR v DD

Today is the day of the rock bottom also known as Delhi. Delhi batting first means a 200+ score and chasing KKR heavy fire batting sadly will only reach 200-. But no bets on delhi for sure(if you are a sane person)

4-27-17 RCB v GL

च्यालेञ्जर्स अस्ति हार्नु पर्ने खेल हारेका छैनन्, २०औं खेल पनि च्यालेञ्जर्स र गुजरात कै बीच भाको थियो, त्यसमा गेल-कोहली मिलेर २१३ बनाएका थिए र गुजरात ले १९२ मात्र बनाउन सक्यो, अब आज को खेल यसको ठिक उल्टो हुनेछ, म्याक्कलम ले शतक बनाउने छन्,  च्यालेञ्जर्स बाट कोहि 'अन्क्याप्ड' खेलाडी राम्रो गर्नेछ, कोहलीले आज बचाउन सक्ने छैन  ( च्यालेञ्जर्सले जित्ने न्यून सम्भावना छ, तर जित्यो भने ठुलो अन्तर वा close खेल भएर मात्र जित्नेछ )
नतिजा: म्याक्कलमको कुरो गलत भएपनि आज भनेजसरी सजिलै गरी गुजरातले च्यालेञ्जर्सलाई १३४ मा धुलो पिठो पार्यो, अनि विजय लक्ष्य पनि मात्र ३ विकेट गुमाई १३.५ ओवर मै खेल सक्काइदियो, म्याक्कलमले नन्हाने पनि एयारन फिन्च ले चै ७२ रन बनाए

4-26-17 RPS v KKR

RPS ले भर्खरै मुम्बई लाई मरीमरी जितेको छ, त्यो पनि मुम्बई ले नै जित्नु पर्ने खेल थियो, त्यसैले आज पूणे हार्छ ठुलो अन्तर ले
नतिजा: र नभन्दै कोलकाता ले ७ विकेटले पुणे लाई जितेको छ, उथ्थापाले ८७ हानेर जितायो

4-25-17 RCB v SRH

भर्खरै rcb नराम्ररी हारेको छ, ४८ मै अल आउट भाको छ, अब आज फेरी हर्नेछ, तर एकदमै close खेल हुनेछ
नतिजा: पानी परेर खेल रद्द भयो