Though IPL-2 is doing better than any other TV show, even Lalit Modi agrees that TRPs are lower than expected. In addition to that, rain is playing a spoilsport and influencing outcomes. As the tournament is being held in SA, profit margins have declined and thus Lalit Modi had to come up with 7 and half minute “Strategy Break”. No team or fan enjoys such a disturbance. People like me (severely impatient viewers) do not wait to watch Sameer Kocchar and Arun Lal discuss about how fascinating Shilpa Shetty looks in such breaks. Extra Innings has gone extra stupid this year with Gaurav Kapoor, Mandira Bedi and Mayang Chang gracing the screen with their complete ignorance. Chang just wanders around SA to give us random updates, which is ok I guess. Mandira Bedi, who has cranked it up a notch with her annoying hairstyle, has become even dumber. Gaurav Kapoor carries as much nuisance value as in Football Locker Room.
Lalit Modi expects viewers to sit and watch the pre-match talks, discussions in lunch breaks and post match analysis. But the crew selected by Sony makes sure that I do neither. In fact I am so repelled by all this, that I check whether match has started on Cricinfo and directly join in on Live action. Extra Innings is in a complete disarray with poor editing and mediocre knowledge-base. Even Charu Sharma sounds like a better option; the guy atleast knows what to talk about and how to stall.
Thankfully what hasn’t changed is quality of games. Hardly a week into the tournament and we had 4 thrilling finishes. Two matches yesterday were terrific entertainment. First one was Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Superkings. AB de Villers played an awesome inning; first century of the tournament. While chasing CSK were quite comfortable after Hayden’s awesome start but in the end they just blew it. They couldn’t get 40 off 29 when Flintoff and Raina were still playing. Dhoni, Badrinath and Morkel just watched as DD literally stole the victory.
2nd game was even better; Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders. RR put on an amazing show while defending a paltry total of 150. Kamran Khan, 18 yr old kid kept Ganguly’s valuable inning under check. It all went to last ball, 2 needed off 1 ball and Ishant Sharma on strike. KKR took 1 run and we had first ever Super Over in IPL. With 15 needed off 6 balls, Yusuf Pathan played a sensational knock and finished off the total 6-2-6-4. Only more and more close games can save IPL’s popularity.
P.S. – I did not like the concept of super over. Teams took half an hour to bowl 12 balls and it was rather boring. Bowl out was more fun. Cricket pundits believe that it only depended on bowlers’ skill while batsmen had to just sit and watch. But it brought pace to the proceedings and was actually more thrilling. Super over is a bit too predictable. Incidently Lalit Modi also believes that bowl out is the way to go. When KKR needed 6 off 6 he was cheering for a bowl out instead of super over!
April 24, 2009 at 7:02 am |
yeah, yesterday’s matches brought life back into this yrs ipl…altho the cheerleaders frm deccan chargers and royal challengers hv been tryin hard to do tht
on a diffrnt note, i beg to differ on the bowl-out bit…yes, its quick an entertaining, very similar to a penalty shoot-out but i do not lik the fact tht the batsmen r relegated to the backgrnd in the whole thng…a super over is fairer…of course, i too hated the tim ths guys took to set field last nit…i mean come on, set a decent field, choose the rit bowler and make him bowl his line…thrs not much u can do whn 6s an 4s r gonna dominate the proceedings…y the excruciatingly painful delay in field placements and strategy talks!! hv to rule to speed tht up and u hv a gr8 way of deciding the winner!
April 24, 2009 at 12:32 pm |
Super over is more like extra-time rather than penalty shoot out!
April 25, 2009 at 5:28 am |
What i meant (and i guess, hv pretty clearly written!) ws, bowl-out is like penalty shoot out…not super over
howver, thrs one crucial diffrnce, in the shootout, both the striker and goalkeeper get a fairly equal chance…while in the bowl-out, the bowler and the stump r in no way equal (not to mention the conspicuosly absent batsmen) 
let thr b a batsman to guard the stumps (all three) to make it fairer…
Super over is exactly lik extra time…and hence a more appropriate way of settling scores!altho, admittedly, its not half as exciting…
April 25, 2009 at 6:26 am |
Confusion!! i just remembered it when u compared bowl-out and penalty shootout.
anyway, as u said, fact of the matter is super over is fair and bowl out is more exciting
April 27, 2009 at 5:14 pm |
Hello,
Amazing! Not clear for me, how often do you update your urs4ever.wordpress.com.
Joker
April 27, 2009 at 5:34 pm |
depends..i try to write 1 post for every F1 race