Mumbai blues..

With the heartbreaking Mumbai Indians loss to the Rajasthan Royals, Indian fans get to feel the angst that goes with a city based franchise. Unlike national teams that we support unconditionally(think Harbhajan), our relationship with a city based franchise is more complex as we get bombarded with more up to date information and get to experience them more up close and personal. Plus there are more direct viewing opportunities.

Now we know why Wankhede games have a different feel compared to the DY Patil games. Apparently 70% of the Wankhede tickets are sold inhouse, so it leads to a grumpy knowledgeable crowd, very much like a British crowd. DY Patil has not yet gathered such a crust, plus it is a bigger stadium. But the IPL finals will not have any such allocations, so a true fan can watch the game more easily. Ofcourse there is always a danger of a rabid crowd like the ones you see at Eden park. But that is probably more a sign of a dead city; Mumbai folks typically are more diverse and will not be subject to such combustions.

Mumbai Indians are not out of it yet. A loss by Chennai Superkings can still open the door for Mumbai. And with the semifinals and finals in Mumbai, they will be a very difficult opponent to beat.

As Shane Warne has indicated, having semifinals at a "neutral" venue is not a good idea, there is no advantage for the top seed. Infact, if the local team scrapes through to the semifinal, mentally they end up becoming the top seed due to the support that they will receive. The semifinals have to be held at the home team ground. The finals can be at a rotating prearranged venue as it allows for better planning and showing off of the climactic event of the league.

Mumbai wins over Rajasthan, IPL games back in Wankhede now...

The Mumbai win over Rajasthan was a good one. Things seemed to be going Rajasthan's way when the TV commentators started interviewing Sachin Tendulkar. The resulting roars in the stadium whenever Sachin's face showed up seemed to unnerve the batsmen and they collapsed in a hurry. So Sachin had an enormous impact by just having his face shown on the jumbotron.

The game also had a bizarre Graeme Smith dismissal. He and Pollock are probably not the best of friends. A slower ball from Pollock had Smith beaten and the ball brushed his pads on the way to the keeper. Pollock jumped up in excitement and Graeme Smith seemed to think that he was bowled just by looking at Pollock's face(and the crowd was roaring; probably that factored in too). He was already on his front feet and he just skipped and kept walking towards the pavilion on the non-strikers end. The keeper fumbled the ball, picked it up and took off the bails. Graeme Smith never looked back and Pollock got even more excited. The TV cameras showed the reactions of Dwayne Bravo; he was not sure what happened either as the Graeme Smith walk was really unexplainable.

Mumbai cheerleaders were fully clothed as usual, but the Russian Rajasthan Cheerleaders had their skirt on. And they are good gymnasts. These cheerleaders have had things thrown at them when they performed in front of 100 Rupee Rajasthan fans. Let us see how the moral politicians react to the skirts this time around. Looks like Rajasthan Royals did not display the same fear of BJP(Film Actor Sinha) and Shivsena(पानी थेम थेम गल Kondke) morality that was displayed by the Mumbai Indians. It will interesting to see what happens when other teams with skirty cheerleaders show up.

The venue for the remaining cricket matches has been moved from DY Patil Stadium to Wankhede. The DY Patil crowd was much more appreciative than the Wankhede crowd. The Wankhede crowd is ofcourse a more educated and partisan ground, but the games in DY Patil were definitely more festive. And Mr Patil did make an appearance during the award ceremony for the last game.

And here is another article on Cricinfo that explains how Calcutta pride is different from Mumbai pride. While Mumbai pride arises from the thinking that it is the "best", Calcutta pride comes out of the fact that it is their city even if it might be a dying city. Kolkata pride has more of a Devdas flavour whereas Mumbai pride has a more British flavour.