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.