I must admit, I completely misread the Rajasthan Royals at the start of the tournament, but at the end of match 24, they’re sitting neatly on the top of the tournament. With 5 wins in a row for the Shane Warne led Jaipur team, they’ve suddenly leapt up to be the favorite team now! A lot of credit for this goes to Shane Warne. What they have done right (and the other teams not so much) is spectacular team work. Each time the Royals come out to the field, they always seem to have a plan. And they stick to it. The bowlers have done a very very disciplined job, always keeping line and length, and not trying any of those “herogiri” type of stunts. The same goes for batsmen. They’ve largely kept cool, playing with the help of logic instead of a hot head.
The league table now looks very interesting at the end of 6 games each. The Deccan Chargers are at the bottom of the heap, largely because of not doing at all what the Jaipur team have done so well. The Hyderabadi folks are completely missing any team leadership or direction, and don’t really have the one person leading the way. Mumbai were also in the same mess, but I think they’ve shown some cohesiveness in the last few games since Pollock took over.
But it is important to remember that we’re still not even half-way. Everyone still has 8 games to go, and that gives plenty of scope for the league table to be completely shuffled. If the IPL has shown anything, it is that leadership and team work matters. A Lot.
