Regular readers will know that the IPL and me are not natural bedfellows. I don't sit in front of BBC4 every afternoon in May yawning through the timeouts and ad breaks while the pitches gleam like coloured glass, the boundary ropes creep ever closer to the stumps, the cheerleaders shake their....pom-poms and that blasted trumpet trill punctuates seemingly every over.
Nevertheless, the IPL is part of the world cricket scene and I can't ignore it. Many players in the UAE and India have smashed or twirled their way into my Team of the Week and it's always interesting to see how many globetrotting T20 mercenaries fail while internationally unknown locals find themselves thrust into the spotlight, if only for a few months. I don't necessarily see it as a training ground for proper cricket, Test cricket, but it does produce some entertainment and excitement, the vital ingredient for any sport.
IPL 2014 definitely benefited from its truncated length. Maybe more franchises should go bust and keep the competition even more concise and less drawn out. Another positive from this year is the way the two best sides reached the final and produced a classic of big hitting, albeit not from the big names.
For once, Chris Gayle was useless, accumulating fewer than 200 runs at barely a run a ball. The Bangalore opener was presumaby unfit but an essential part of the IPL nonetheless, at least in the eyes of sponsors and the casual spectator. Kevin Pietersen fared a little better as Delhi skipper, yet a single 50 in 11 innings at a scoring rate of 126 was not a good return. Dare I suggest he was - er - distracted?!
Of the Aussie recruits, only Glenn Maxwell and David Warner did the business with the bat, while Watson, Bailey, Finch and Mike Hussey disappointed on the whole. The English counties will surely hope from more from their Antipodean investments this summer. South Africans Miller, AB and Duminy were their consistent selves, unlike De Kock and the once reliable Jacques Kallis. With no international cricket in his schedule, the Saffer legend produced only one score of note, a 72 in the very first game for KKR. At least he was part of the victorious squad.
With the ball, Sunil Narine took another 21 wickets at a typically miserly 6.35 an over, Mitch Johnson had some memorable days but Dale Steyn proved human, at times being clouted around the grounds he once ruled as a dangerous death bowler. Meanwhile Lasith Malinga restored faith in his ability to bowl fast and full to frustrate the big hitters when it matters.
Overall, numerous Indian players caught the eye. Sehwag, Raina and Yusuf Pathan might be remembered for their brutal landmark innings but they were not the outstanding performers of the tournament. Robin Uthappa demonstrated the consistency of a great Test opener rather than a Powerplay power merchant. He struck a sensational ten consecutive scores of 40 or more in a total of 660. Only 18 sixes yet a laudable scoring rate of 138 made him a deserving winner of whatever colourful trophy goes to the top run-getter.
Mohit Sharma took more wickets than anyone else (23), albeit conceding more than eight an over. Another seamer Bhuvi Kumar wasn't far behind, but his economy rate for the Sunrisers was a more impressive 6.65. The experienced Harbhajan Singh, Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin bowled creditably, but for me the star names were probably 20 year-old Akshar Patel and a man more than twice his age, Pravin Tambe. Slow left-armer Patel's 17 wickets at only 6.13 an over proved vital for Kings XI's progress to their first final. Meanwhile leg-spinner Tambe, whose age in years easily outnumbers the number of senior matches under his belt, usually proved hard to hit for the Royals. Tambe's time for a Test career has probably past him by - by about twenty years - but Patel is a promising prospect. He'll command big money at IPL 2015 and how he copes with that may determine his opportunities for international cricket, whatever the format.
