The first week of the Indian Premier League has gone past, bringing with it the usual thrills and spills.
Given that 55 of the 70 league matches are being played essentially in one megapolis – Mumbai and its satellite city Navi Mumbai – the crowds, restricted to 25 percent of stadium capacity, have been quite encouraging.
With that cap set to increase to 50 percent, and summer heating up further, it has to be seen whether fans will have the appetite to keep turning up through April and May.
For now, we begin our weekly look at the highs and lows of the world’s most popular and richest T20 league.
Devil in the dew
As expected, as many as seven of the first ten games have been won by the side batting second.
That includes all night games in coastal Mumbai, where the heat and humidity turn the outfields into ‘swimming pools’ at this time of the year, as Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer remarked.
Punjab Kings chased 206 against Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets and an over to spare at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Four nights later, debutants Lucknow Super Giants hunted down 211 against defending champions Chennai Super Kings with six wickets and three balls remaining at Brabourne Stadium, right on the western coast of south Mumbai.
The ball got so wet it had to be changed towards the end of the first innings.
By contrast, the side batting first has won both games so far at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium near Pune.
That region is around 600 metres above sea level, and the ground is situated amid vast open spaces adjacent to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, thus making for different conditions.
The MCA ground is scheduled to host 15 matches and it appears it will force teams to make some tweaks to their strategies and combinations whenever they head up the hills from Mumbai.
RR the team to beat
Rajasthan Royals have often been criticised for flattering to deceive and running out of steam after a few encouraging performances.
But this time, from initial impressions at least, they could be the team to beat.
A batting line-up boasting Jos Buttler, skipper Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer is backed up by a formidable bowling attack of Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and the ever-improving Prasidh Krishna.
Royals have been the only team yet to win batting first - twice in fact – although one game was in Pune and one an afternoon start in Navi Mumbai.
Even this attack will feel the moisture on their palms when they have to defend a target in a night match, and it will be interesting to see how their two veteran spinners in particular respond.
As far as captaincy goes, Samson has already shown flexibility with the batting order, and a bold front-loading of his death-bowling resources; Boult and Krishna were given the responsibility ahead of the usually expensive Navdeep Saini against Mumbai Indians, so that by the time the latter came on for the last over, the match was practically sealed.
Big guns lose
Both CSK and MI have lost both their first two games, the only two teams to have suffered the unwanted feat so far.
While CSK’s batting failed to fire in the tournament opener, what was more worrisome was how palpably they failed to defend 210 against LSG.
They were forced to bowl out their main bowlers early, and had to turn to Shivam Dube’s mediums for the 19th, a massively risky option.
And Dube was taken for 25 runs by Evin Lewis and young Ayush Badoni.
That is a clear hole that other teams will want to exploit too.
MI just haven’t found the late flourish or finishing capabilities yet after losing the Pandya brothers.
They couldn’t launch from the solid platform Ishan Kishan gave them against Delhi Capitals and Kieron Pollard was left alone with way too much to do against Royals.
Teenaged middle-order batter Tilak Varma has a terrific future but that still does not answer MI’s finishing question.
Also, the bowling has been prone to sudden meltdowns; Basil Thampi’s 26-run over forced Rohit Sharma to bowl out Pollard for only the second time in eight years, and even the senior allrounder gave away 26 in his fourth.
Innings of the week
Jos Buttler loves batting against his former franchise, and he posted the first century of this IPL edition against MI on Saturday afternoon.
Buttler’s 100 off 68 would have come at an even quicker rate had he not slowed down towards the end.
But after he took apart Thampi with three sixes to the shorter boundary, MI could not quite recoup the damage.
Buttler has cracked the code in this format - of stretching his innings long enough so that he can cause maximum damage with his ability to time the big hits.
It surely wasn’t easy under the sun - teammates ran out every few overs to wrap a cold towel around his neck.
After Samson’s dismissal in the 15th over, Buttler was so spent he went down on his knees and just waited for the substitutes to come in with refreshments.
He stayed almost until the end of the 19th over, which was important as Royals had a thin line-up with R Ashwin slotted at No 7.
Given how the tournament has gone, he said during the break that he wasn’t sure if his team had got enough on the board. Turned out they had more than enough.
Umesh delivers spell(s) of the week
Umesh Yadav has become so much of a permanent presence on the bench that it becomes an event if he makes the playing XI, be it with the Indian team or in the IPL.
But there has never been any doubt that he can be a handful in the powerplay with the new ball in hand, although he can at times be off-target and leak boundaries.
The late arrival of KKR teammates Pat Cummins and Tim Southee gave him a rare chance to display his wares.
And he bustled in with energy, moving the ball at pace and keeping batsmen on their toes.
No wonder he tops the wicket charts in the first week, with eight strikes at a scarcely believable average of 7.38.
He began the match with a huge outswinger that Ruturaj Gaikwad could only edge on its way to slip.
He nicked out Virat Kohli next after the former India captain had begun with a brace of fours.
He then blew away Punjab Kings with 4 for 23.
The pitches are fresh early in the season; the new ball is swinging, seaming, bouncing and skidding, and Umesh is loving it.
