Kings
XI Punjab:
City: Punjab
Captain: Yuvraj Singh (Icon Player)
Coach: Tom Moody
Franchisee: Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul
Franchise cost: $76 million
Team Composition:
Mahela Jayawardene (vc) Ajitesh Argal Piyush Chawla Pankaj Dharmani Rishi Dhawan Gagandeep Singh Karan Goel James Hopes Simon Katich Uday Kaul (wk) Sahil Kukreja Brett Lee Shaun Marsh Kyle Mills Wilkin Mota Irfan Pathan Luke Pomersbach Ramesh Powar Nitin Saini Kumar Sangakkara (wk) Ramnaresh Sarwan Vikram Singh Sunny Sohal Sreesanth Tanmay Srivastava
This team can’t have a better composition unless future proves me wrong. This team has the finest International batsmen as well as strike bowlers. To add essence, they got good all-rounders as well. This team was so consistent and so unlucky to have not made the finals. For some reason, the team has failed to beat the Chennai Super Kings on all occasions and such occasion cost them the entry to the finals.
Pluses:
- Yuvraj Singh, the captain of the team shocked the world with his six sixes of an over last year in the T20 World Cup. His aggression was what the team needed.
- Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, is a player on whom Yuvi would rely a lot on gaining a lot from his advices.
- Kumara Sangakarra demolished the bowling attack and scored a lot of runs. Injury kept him from playing many matches.
- Shaun Marsh, the Australian whom many wouldn’t be aware of, has scored the maximum runs of the tournament and his batting form (his style which resembles Yuvi’s) has been the talk of the series.
- James Hopes, the Australian all rounder, raised the momentum of the batting run rates and also picked up crucial wickets.
- Brett Lee, the quicker from Australia, was the man the opposition didn’t want to face.
- Irfan Pathan’s return to bowling form added a lot of confidence in the line up with also his tremendous batting skills adding to his support.
- Sreesanth, the second leading wicket taker for the tournament, was in good touch and was picking up wicket at regular intervals.
- Piyush Chawla, who got praises from the spinner legend Mutthiah, was consistent with the ball and he can bat too. Ramesh Powar supported the spinning attack and this guy can bat too.
- Luke Pomersbach provided the late fireworks that the team needed. Sarwan played his tidy knock in some matches.
Minuses:
- Yuvraj hasn’t played any impressive knock in the entire series.
- The bowlers, though they were consistent in picking up wickets, were too expensive.
- Piyush Chawla, apart from his tidy bowling and batting, has been hit for the maximum number of sixes.
- If all the key players of the team were out to small scores, the team struggles from then.
H
yderabad Deccan Chargers:
City: Hyderabad
Captain: VVS Laxman (Icon Player) and Adam Gilchrist (for most matches)
Coach: Robin Singh
Franchisee: Deccan Chronicle
Franchise cost: $107.01 million
Team Composition:
Sanjay Bangar Halhadar Das (wk) Herschelle Gibbs Adam Gilchrist (wk) Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna Pragyan Ojha Dwaraka Ravi Teja PM Sarvesh Kumar Shahid Afridi Rohit Sharma Chamara Silva RP Singh Scott Styris Andrew Symonds Chaminda Vaas Venugopal Rao Paidikalva Vijaykumar Arjun Yadav Nuwan Zoysa
Deccan Chargers were talked as the most powerful team before the beginning of the tournament. With such a dominating batting line up, it is only a disgrace to them that they have won only two matches in the tournament. But this team can live up to the hope that they can play the next season well as they have good promising players both domestic and international.
Pluses:
- VVS Laxman is a good batsman and his presence adds tremendous confidence.
- The team would be proud to have Adam Gilchrist, the greatest wicketkeeper batsman of all time. He has been the captain of the side for several matches and his knocks have been crucial in the team high scores that include an unbeaten fastest IPL century to save the game.
- Shahid Afridi, aka Boom Boom Afridi, is the danger man and he can show no mercy on the bowlers.
- Rohit Sharma, the man in form of the team is one of the leading scorers of the tournament and he has proven a point that he can be there as a resistance for the team.
- Scott Styris, the New Zealand all rounder has been a great asset for the team.
- Andrew Symonds, the second highest bid of the tournament can help both with the bat and the ball.
- Herschelle Gibbs, the quality batsman is capable of hitting the balls all over the ground.
- Pragyan Ojha and Venugopal Rao were the picks of the team.
- The team has quality pacers like RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.
Minuses:
- The team lacked the winning formula right from the beginning.
- Though the team consisted of heavy batting line up, victories didn’t favour them.
- RP Singh, who was the bowler in form, couldn’t find rhythm in his own soil.
- ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi failed to show what ‘Boom Boom’ really is.
- Andrew Symonds failed to impress the Indian crowd, though he tried on several occasions.
- The absence of VVS Laxman due to injury has cost the team a lot.
- The bowlers and the fielding have let down the team a lot of times.
- The team looked like they were not executing the game plans correctly.
Breathing Neon (Beta) 