IPL 2009 Contest

The cricket’s new cash machine – IPL 2009 is all set to begin again. My only concern is that it may dilute the interest of 20-20 cricket world cup that follows within 2 weeks after IPL ends. After all, Indian team is the defending champions of 20-20 world cup when we famously won the crown in South Africa about 2 years back. And any such event run by ICC is far important than any cash driven ‘personal’ tournament.

IPL is huge for its hype and the cash it is expected to generate (the 7 min break after 10 overs in the innings is the latest card IPL offered to users. What users will get is, a break for updates on news channel as to what V^%&* Gandhi had in dinner, proofread an advert quickly, quick shower, salad dressing, walk with the dog, etc.) This space is for cricket lovers who love to track the game NOT ON game-by-game or over-by-over basis, BUT follow it for ball-to-ball, CLOSELY.

If I ask who are the players most likely to shine in IPL, 90% of people would start counting batsmen. Unfortunately, this is the game of batters, with due respect to bowlers. So, let’s guess who are the batsmen that are likely to dominate the tournament?

I have selected a list of 5 top batsmen who will be highest run getter in the tournament. I do not consider strike rate, average, or the batting position (though opener is more likely to score more runs than a number 4 or 5). I tried for loop but could not develop anything that I could integrate for user interaction. Simple, plain, technical writer’s calculations – highest run getter. That’s it.

The 5 batsmen are most likely to be from the following list:

McCullum, Taylor, Gibbs, Hayden, Raina, M. Hussey, Warner, Gambhir, Sehwag, de’ Villiers, S. Marsh, Yuvraj, D. Hussey, Duminy, Tendulkar, Jayasurya, Sangakaara, Kallis, G. Smith, Dhoni

Notable players who are less likely to make to the list of top 5 batsmen are:
Jayawardane, Ryder, Oram, Ganguly, Dravid, Flintoff, Peterson, Gayle

*Peterson and Gayle were in the original list but they are available only for few games which virtually means that their chances of being highest run getter are nil.

So, my list of 5 players who will top score in IPL 2009 are:
McCullum
Gibbs
Yuvraj
Taylor
de’ Villiers

Hard to leave were: Sehwag, Duminy, Raina, D. Hussey, Hayden, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Sangakaara

Your Guess?*
* You will win satisfaction of being a knowledgable cricket fan . All the best!