The Line of Distinction; Indian Premier League 2015

The Line of Distinction; Indian Premier League 2015: On its 8^th successful season, yet IPL has managed to maintain and increase the lure it had started back in 2008. Eight years of entertainment, controversies, glamour and fun. IPL has brought the cricketing world shrinking within the Indian boundaries. The legends opposing each other in the International Cricket Championships come together playing as a team, no wonder this league has earned all of our respect for the friendship it has been creating, there is no better example than the Royal Challengers’ trio Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers. Although, all of that doesn’t put an end to the competition as seen, the players from the same team getting into aggressive heated exchanges hah! IPL rules the headlines for all the reasons.

The Front-liner’s:

Well, the 8 teams in this 8^th season has a “line of distinction”, a line that is governed by the performances each team puts in. The stats as of now didn’t come as a surprise to the most of us, like almost all the other seasons Chennai Super Kings lies in above region of this distinction, reigning the points table with 7 wins out of the 10 matches played, with the NRR of +0.948. Ashish Nehra owns the Purple Cap with his 17 wickets haul and is being chased by his team fellow Dwayne Bravo whose count is now 16. Brendon McCullum has delivered his duty both with the bat as well as on the field diving flawlessly, amongst the top 10 batsmen this year he has 315 runs off his bat. Backing him up is Suresh Raina with a decent form, altogether giving Dhoni’s team the strength of the core and the right balance and also the fair play lead.

Next in order come Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the defending champions Kolkata Night Riders. Each team has its own line of star players, RR, the second in the table, 6 wins out of 11 matches two ruled out due to rain still has managed a Net Run Rate of +0.141 is a hard-working team, the brightest RR player has been Ajinkya Rahane the current owner of the Orange Cap with his massive score of 430 runs.

RCB with the highest net run rate of +1.101 is next in the list after its massive win in the last match with a margin of 138 runs against the Kings XI Punjab, is being seen as one of the tough challengers for the cup with players like Gayle, Virat and AB de Villiers in the best of their form coming in the list of the top 10 batsmen. Mitchell Starc is now being recognised as the pace pack leader just 2 wickets away from the Purple cap.

Coming to the defending champions, skipper Gautam Gambhir, his opening partner Robin Uthappa have done consistently well for the KKR, along with them Andre Russel is has been a gem titled the Most Valuable Player with his amazing strike rate of 194.11. The team authorities are still busy clearing the allegations on the bowling action of Sunil Narine.

The Tailender’s:

The winners are giving a tough fight to the teams falling in the tail ender list, which includes Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Sun Riser Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab orderly. Poor run rate, lack of team effort and injuries to important players have made these teams suffer. Although the performance of David Warner has not been enough for the Sun Risers to climb up the table, we cannot ignore the commendable batting performance he has been putting up, standing second in the list of highest run scorers.

Off late the Mumbai Indians have picked up the winning tempo, solid batting show by skipper Rohit Sharma, middle order batsman Ambati Raydu and the hitter Kieron Pollard has improved their chances of advancing. Though a lot will depend on how well they do in the remaining 4 games. Kiwi pacer Mitchell McClenaghan has inspired the Mumbai bowling attack and all of a sudden an out-of-place looking Lasith Malinga is back to his lethal best. Turbanator Harbhajan Singh has found his rhythm and we all know what he is capable of. Since they are peaking at the right time, if you have overlooked MI, they are sure going to surprise you with the final outcome.

DD being a team with a huge fan following have struggled since the very beginning of the league. Even with huge names like JP Duminy, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra among others in their line-up, the team has struggled to get the perfect combination to field against better organised opponents in the league.

Quick Link : Latest IPL Points Table 

Like all the other Championships there will be one team holding the trophy high, let’s hope the best one wins. With all its drama, action and a dose of unlimited cricket IPL brings out the best of the players from different corner of the country and the globe to showcase their cricketing adroitness.