The Great Game Called Cricket...

On the IPL Weekly, every week, Sanjay Manjrekar will look at some key trends that have caught his eye during this IPL

IPL's Alphonso fans
I have just discovered there is this new group of Twenty20 cricket fans who are just IPL cricket fans. These are fans who do not really care too much for Twenty20 cricket: given a choice between an India-South Africa Twenty20 game or a Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders, these are guys who will go for the IPL game. These are people who perhaps have little knowledge of what has happened in the last international cricket series in India but have great knowledge of the IPL teams. They suddenly sprout up around March-April just like the famous Alphonso mangoes of Western India that come into season around the same time. These are people who are seen around the game of cricket around March-April [during the IPL] and once the IPL is over they vanish, like the Alphonse mangoes, only to come back, at precisely the same time next year. These are the cricket fans who are interested in the game just during the IPL. They are not new Twenty20 cricket fans but are just fans of the IPL.

Vintage Tendulkar
One of the highlights of the IPL so far has been Sachin Tendulkar's form. It is something that I personally expected with his confidence and batting form being so good at international level. I got the feeling that would spill over onto Twenty20 cricket and that is exactly what we have seen. We have seen him at his best here and one of the things that has caught everybody's eye is that he has done his job; he has been an effective run-getter and he has not hit a single six so far in this IPL season. He is the third-highest run-getter at this stage and when you see guys like Yusuf Pathan who have not made as many runs but have hit about 11 sixes then his performance really comes across. It is a theory that Javed Miandad was a big fan of. He believed that when a batsman has a target of scoring nine runs an over he should never aim to score nine runs an over. He should aim to score six runs an over and then the batsman himself will be surprised at the bonus runs he can get from the opposition in the form of wides and no-balls and the odd misfield. When the target is nine runs an over and if you aim to get nine runs then the high-risk shots come in. You try a bit too hard and then you fail. That has happened to a lot of batsman who have been chasing and Tendulkar as once again shown the way that method, calm and a bit of common sense can still work in Twenty20 cricket.

Jayasuriya's struggles
Sanath Jayasuriya has been a bit off-colour, second season in a row so far. That for me, personally has been disappointing. I have been a huge fan of Jayasuriya and I have loved the way he has hit the ball. I have loved his exuberance as a left-arm bowler on the field. So I am a touch disappointed that he is looking a little forlorn out there. His head is down and the runs are not quite coming [especially] after the way he played in the first season for Mumbai Indians - in one innings that I saw at the Wankhede Stadium he flicked a medium pacer out of the stadium. I thought he would be a delight [to watch] in the next two or three years of the IPL and I am bit disappointed he is having such a tough time.

Balance between bat and ball
Finally, I have one little concern. When I see Twenty20 cricket being played in India I get a little worried about the balance between bat and ball. The boundaries get a little shorter; the pitches have absolutely nothing so the balance tilts heavily in favour of the batsman. The average score around this time when the IPL was being played in South Africa was about 150, this time it is well past 160. We have also seen around 185 sixes so far, so the swing in favour of the batsman can get a bit excessive when Twenty20 cricket is being played in India. I hope in the next two or three seasons the bowlers have something to play with and there is a better balance between bat and ball. As long as there is balance between bat and ball the discerning viewer will stay interested n the game. If the balance becomes too much in favour of the batsman - the batsmen now have fancy bats- then maybe the discerning viewer may switch off from Twenty20 cricket.