The 11th season of the IPL is upon us and Cricinfo have come out with some Smart Stats that they are going to use to measure and analyze performances of batsmen and bowlers during this elite T20 league competition.

This all sounds quite interesting as it will shed some new light on how the players perform in T20 in different conditions.

But as this all unfolds in front of us, here's a look at the some basic stats from the past decade of IPL.

IPL Champions
The defending champions are Mumbai Indians who have also won the IPL title more times than any other team - thrice.


Following them, with two title wins each, are Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, who return to the IPL after serving the two year ban.

The other three seasons have witnessed Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, and Sunrisers Hyderabad win the IPL.

Who will win IPL 2018? Various quarters suggest that this will be the most competitive IPL till date and no one team is being marked as favorite.

We will be talking about this in IPL 2020 as well when the league enters its third decade.

The IPL today is the largest T20 league in the world and its title probably the most coveted T20 title that 8 teams will be vying for starting today!

IPL's Top Batsmen
Five batsmen have scored more than 4,000 runs in IPL with Suresh Raina at the top of the list with 4,540 runs at an average of 34.1 and a strike rate of 139.1.

The others with more than 4,000 runs are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, and David Warner.

Among all batsmen who have scored over 1,000 runs, only Chris Gayle and David Warner average above 40, with Chris Gayle's 41.2 being the highest average.

Chris Gayle also holds the record for most number of centuries (5), most sixes (265), and highest individual score of 175* in the IPL.

Gayle also holds the record for the fastest ever 100 scored in the IPL when he smashed one of just 30 deliveries, which is also the fastest 100 scored in all T20 cricket.

Gayle is a T20 phenomenon and for a decade he has been performing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, however this season he will turn out for Kings XI Punjab.


The highest strike rate in the IPL for all batsmen with more than 1,000 runs is Glenn Maxwell's (164.4) followed by Virender Sehwag's 155.4.

The fastest 50 record is held by Yusuf Pathan and Sunil Narine, both of whom reached their 50 in just 15 deliveries.

Gayle's fastest 50 is off 17 deliveries, which is the third fastest in IPL history.

IPL's Top Bowlers
Lasith Malinga is the leading wicket taker in IPL with 154 wickets at an average of 19.01 and a strike rate of 16.6.

Malinga is miles ahead of other bowlers with a clear lead of 20 wickets over Amit Mishra who is second on the list with 134 wickets. He is followed by Harbajhan Singh (127), Piyush Chawla (126), and Dwayne Bravo (122).

Malinga's average is the best average among all bowlers with at least 40 wickets in the IPL. While Sunil Narine holds the record for the best economy rate (6.32) among all bowlers who have bowled at least 100 overs in the IPL.


The best bowling figures in the IPL belong to Sohail Tanvir whose 6-14 in the first season for the Rajasthan Royals remains the record even 10 years after.

Adam Zampa is the only other bowler to pick up a 6 wicket haul in the IPL with his 6-19 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.


These batsmen and bowlers will be in action once again as season 11 of the IPL gets underway. It will be interesting to follow them and all the other talented cricketers that this league displays, especially with the new Smart Stats.

Let the games begin!

Indian Premier League (IPL), a carnival of cricket, brings together cricketers from around the world to exhibit their talent for hefty moolah. The non-stop, action-packed event spanning over one-and-half months springs many a surprise - at times intense soft on other, but always exciting, energetic and entertaining.

Potential Show Stealers

Teams that can go over the line

Six years ago when the IPL was first established, it was like a dream come true. It was the world's best cricketers and the world's biggest stars coming together, it was cricket and bollywood entertainment combined into one extravagant package.

For a fan like me, it didn't get better than that. It was entertainment at its best.

For the first time this year, IPL came to my town. It came to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah, the place I grew up watching India vs Pakistan matches.

Thanks to a friend, I got my hands on two passes for the Super Saturday IPL matches: Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab.

It was going to be a day where I could watch Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Jacques Kallis, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, and the big show Glenn Maxwell live in action!

And then there was the prospect of Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Shilpa Shetty being there.

The cricket itself was quite boring. The Royal Challengers were bowled out for 70 odd and Rajasthan Royals took their sweet time to get there. Punjab were bowled out for 133 and KKR could manage only 109. I saw only half a dozen sixes being hit throughout the day, and the highest score by a batsman was 37 by Sehwag. Maxwell, Kohli, Watson, Kallis... no one got going.

Despite that, there was ample entertainment on display. One can never be bored at an IPL game, that is for sure. Here are some highlights of my first day at the IPL:

1. Vijay Mallya's box was right behind where we were seated, while Shilpa Shetty was seated a few boxes away. Between the two innings, Shilpa Shetty paid Mallya a visit, and the crowd around us went ballistic. They merrily clicked away as the security had a tough time controlling people standing at the edge of Mallya's box.

2. Once the first match ended, the Punjab and KKR teams took to the field for some drills as the presentation was ongoing. At the end of the presentation, Shane Watson walked up to greet his Australian mates who were part of the Punjab XI - Bailey, Maxwell, and Johnson. They chatted for a good 10 minutes; your guess is as good as mine regarding what they chatted about.










































Cricket Bats - Fordham Sports

3. A representative from KKR came into the crowd and distributed KKR hats and flags to everyone. 15 minutes after he left a rep from the Kings XI came there and announced that whoever gave him the KKR flag or hat would get a Punjab one in return. I made sure I had something from both the teams to keep!



4. Maxwell's practice drill was the most interesting. A member of the Punjab contingent threw some balls at him and he played them straight down. He did that to 3 deliveries and then he proceeded to practice his switch hit / reverse sweep / reverse slog, whatever you want to call it. He must have played two dozen hits, including one that caught the top edge and sailed into the crowd. The crowd started cheering and asking for him to hit them their way, which Maxwell politely obliged. Every single switch hit from then on was hit into the crowd with perfect aim towards a row of people who would catch them. It was probably the most entertaining practice drill I had ever seen. It was also no surprise to see Maxwell hit the same shot off Narine for four as soon as he walked out to bat.

5. Wasim Akram was the first person to walk up to the pitch once it had been rolled and was ready for the KXIP vs KKR match. He knocked a few punches into the surface and then walked over to Gautam Gambhir to have a chat.

6. Preity Zinta and Juhi Chawla arrived together to the ground and walked into the Royal Box. Juhi took a seat there while Preity asked for where the Punjab box was. Lucky for me, it was right behind us, next to Mallya's box.



7. The security was tighter this time around Preity Zinta's box and walking up to her to take pictures was impossible, but watching her expressions throughout the match from 10 feet away was more than I could ask for. Having seen all the histrionics on TV for the past 7 years, it was a treat to watch it all from up close.



8. Juhi Chawla has the best smile in the business!



























9. Shahrukh Khan arrived during the second half of Punjab's innings. He came with Sheikh Nahyan and sat in the royal box. For the next 3 hours, it was a Shahrukh Khan show. Every Punjab wicket, every boundary hit by KKR was followed by SRK standing on his feet, clapping, waving, and asking the crowd to cheer louder. That man cannot stay away from being center stage.


Once again, I ws lucky to be about 10 feet away from him and managed to experience what I have seen all this while on TV in person.

The name "Shahrukh" was probably screamed every second during that time as fans tried to get his attention.

There was more focus on Shahrukh Khan then there was on the match.

It was a sight!



10. At the end of 11 overs, KKR were 50-3 and it seemed that they would reach the target. Just then Preity Zinta got up from her seat and walked to the edge of her box to speak to someone. At that same moment, Chris Lynn was clean bowled. Someone from the Punjab contingent asked Preity to stay there and not move till the end of the game.

While Preity stood there at the edge of her box, KKR lost 6 wickets in the next 7 overs, and with it the match.

The superstition regarding people's positions in the dressing rooms, dugouts, and elsewhere, which is quite common in the Indian dressing room, surely worked for Punjab that day.

The cricket was dull and boring, but the entertainment around the ground was top notch.

Nothing like it!

Majority of the Pakistani fans are not following the IPL. Most of them feel that the Pakistani players have been hard done by the BCCI and the franchises and hence it is the fans duty to boycott the league altogether.

Some of them genuinely are not interested in cricket that doesn't involve Pakistani players, while some just don't like the crash bang whallop feel of the IPL.

It is not cricket they say. It is one big party.

Some even call it a farce and believe that majority of the matches are fixed.

RP Singh's no ball the other day in RCB's match against CSK brought all those critics forward calling the match and the entire league fixed.



I would really like to know what the odds were for that match before it started, after the Bangalore innings, and near the end of the CSK innings. Betting, including online betting in India, is quite common among cricket fans and it will be really interesting to study betting patterns for this particular match.

But I tell you what. Even though there are no Pakistanis playing the IPL and even though it might be all fixed, I absolutely love the IPL.

What is there not to love?

The matches are exciting, the competition is intense, the adrenaline is pumping all the time, the crowd is into it every single second, there are sixes, fours, wickets, screaming fans, team owners either glowing with confidence of a victory or looking stressed when their team is losing grasp of the match... and so much more.

It is absolute fun!

Where else will you find two Delhi team mates fighting it out for Kolkata and Bangalore getting into a heated argument only to be separated by a common Delhi team mate?

Gambhir and Kohli would have thrown a punch or three at each other if it was not for Rajat Bhatia's interference.

And I would have absolutely loved it.

Eoin Morgan would have enjoyed it too.



Where else will you find the big screen on the ground flash "From Sir with Love" when Ravindra Jadeja sends the ball sailing into the crowds.

The tag of 'Sir' has spread like wildfire during the IPL. Something that was being used to rib Jadeja by the Twitterati and Cricket Bloggers has now become a trend among the cricketers and the commentators.



Alright lets put all fun and games aside and take a bit of a serious look at the IPL.

The Coaches
Stephen Fleming, Darren Lehmann, John Wright, Alan Donald, Steve Rixon, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Tom Moody, Jonty Rhodes, Anil Kumble.

Those are prolific names. They have either been involved with or are involved with the franchises in the IPL. And they take their cricket damn seriously.

The IPL provides them with a platform to enhance their coaching skills, which will come to good use when they take over international teams, and it provides the players the opportunity to learn from the best.

All those men were world class cricketers who have tons of experience to pass on to players.

One just had to see Allan Donald give the Pune Warriors a briefing during the strategic timeout in the game against CSK to understand how passionately involved with the game he was.

Opportunities for New Talent
The presence of Ricky Ponting, Jonthy Rhodes, Anil Kumble, and Sachin Tendulkar in the Mumbai dressing room would be an awe inspiring one for the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik and all those fringe players in the team.

The amount they can learn by just listening to them is immense.

No other platform will provide young international players like Kevin Cooper, Chris Morris, Steve Smith, Aaron Finch, and Mitchell Marsh the sort of exposure that the IPL does.

The intensely competitive matches can only bring out the best in these players and constantly playing under pressure enhances their capabilities no end.

The same can be said for the young Indian cricketers aspiring to play for their national team. Rayudu, Mayank Agarwal, Rahane, Manprit Juneja, Vinay Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem are just some of the names of talented cricketers that are rubbing shoulders with international stars at the IPL.

Undoubtedly they are learning and giving it their all to impress the right people to stake a claim at international cricket.

Internationals Have to be at their Best
Since the teams can play only 4 foreign players, all the international players, no matter how big, have to be at their best in every single game.

The competition for places in the XI is extremely high, which makes these international cricketers give their best increasing the overall performance levels.

Brendon McCullum, who is arguable one of the most explosive batsmen in T20 cricket is finding it difficult to break into KKR's XI because of the presence of Kallis and Morgan.

CSK can play only 4 of M Hussey, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Chris Morris, Ben Laughlin, Dirk Nannes, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ben Hilfenhaus, Akila Danajaya. How do you leave any of them out? Besides a couple, all the rest are sure starters for their international teams!

Have you seen the Catching?
Even if every game is fixed, the catches can't be!

There is no excuse for missing out on the absolutely magical catches that some of the players have pulled off in this IPL.

There have been many with probably Pollard and Ponting standing out.

Ponting more so because it was off the bowling of Harbhajan and watching the two celebrate together was unreal.


The skills on display are just beautiful.

IPL is cricket entertainment at its best.

76 matches are played every season and I reckon at least 50 of them are decided in the final over, out of which 20 or so off the final delivery.

That is excitement to the core.

Even if its fixed, it is one hell of a fix.

It requires special talent to ensure that the match is played out in that manner.

Seriously.

Whoever is scripting / fixing these games is a genius really for bringing out the best in all these cricketers from all around the world.

It definitely keeps me at the edge of my seat.

The best part about the IPL is that you don't really have to support any team, which for an ideal cricket fan makes watching the game even more fun as you can just purely enjoy the cricket!

I had just as much fun watching Jadeja smash 16 off the final over to win a game for CSK, as I did while watching Allan Donald celebrate like a kid when Marsh and Dinda wrecked CSK's chase.

It is just fun cricket.

How can you not watch it?

So what if there are no Pakistanis playing?

So what if it doesn't test you the way test cricket does?

So what if Dhoni has to win every time?

Forget about these minor issues and don't miss the annual cricket fun fair I say.

It is an absolutely magnificent extravaganza!

If Wright does take up the job and Sourav Ganguly is given the captaincy back during IPL's third season next year, it will bring back the combination that led India to its rise in International cricket at the start of this decade.

The Ganguly-Wright era was one of the best ones for Indian cricket.

It probably was not as good as the period Indian cricket has gone through during the last two years, under MS Dhoni, but it was the Ganguly-Wright partnership that catapulted India into the top echelon of cricket teams.

They turned India's fortunes around and tranformed an average team into a formidable unit.

Can their potential reunion in Kolkata's colors do the same for the Knight Riders?

Arguably so!

If Wright is appointed as the KKR coach, I would love to see Ganguly back at the helm of the team, in what could possibly be his last IPL season.

Last IPL season, Ganguly as captain, Wright as coach, KKR as IPL champions...

Now wouldn't that be some fairytale!

Unfortunately, after reading the post below, some people have concluded that Son of Bosey was behind the Fake IPL Player.

Unfortunately that also resulted in Son of Bosey writing and claiming that he is not.

Anand, Bosey, Son of Bosey - No where have I implied that you are behind the FIP.

For those of you who deduced this after reading the post below, please read it again.

All I said was that Bosey was hired by SRK for the KKR website last year.

Last year.

Not this year. Last year!

Considering that, I mentioned that we cannot rule out the fact that SRK might have hired someone this year.

Someone being FIP.

NOT Bosey.

Bosey is not FIP.

FIP is not Bosey.

I did not claim that either.

Hope this is calrified.

Thanks to Raj, we might be on to the biggest scoop ever regarding the Fake IPL Player.

After Fake's shady disclosure, we had this post up, which resulted in quite a discussion.

During that discussion, Raj mentioned Son of Bosey and how he had been hired by Shah Rukh Khan last year to do some stuff for the Kolkata Knight Riders official website.

I had not heard about Bosey before tonight, till Raj pointed me to it. They are an Indian humour site, and are apparently doing some work on Cricinfo's Page 2 as well.

Coming back to Bosey, SRK, and KKR.

According to this post, dated 18th April 2008 (the day last year's IPL began), Bosey was hired by SRK to create spoof magazine covers, ads, and newspaper articles for the KKR wesbite.

When you click on the links provided by Bosey for these spoof creations, you will notice the URL of the KKR website, but you will also notice, "Page Not Found".

Well that is because these spoof mag covers, ads, and articles were not well received by other IPL franchises, cricketers, and officials.

This unapproval of the Bosey spoofs is witnessed in the exchange of comments between Anand and Raj, in the post that I have linked to above.

Hence, these spoofs were discontinued and the whole idea died down. Even the ones created were taken off the KKR website.

Based on this, Raj concluded that it was possible that since an official idea to make fun of cricketers in the IPL did not take off last year, SRK tried to do it again this year, albeit unofficially.

Unofficially through the damn Fake IPL Player!

Now it maybe far fetched for Raj to think on those lines, but to me it makes a lot of sense. Connect the dots and you can see the potential link of the Fake to SRK.

And we're not the only ones who have suggested this link. Many other bloggers have also hinted that it could very well be a journalist on the SRK payroll.

Maybe the shady disclosure, in which the Fake IPL Player signs off with a title of an SRK movie, is a subtle hint that he is in fact on the payroll of SRK.

Doesn't sound far fetched to me at all.

That is one scoop; we at Well Pitched have another.

Bosey's spoof ads, mag covers, and articles are no where to be found on the KKR website.

However, as soon as I read Bosey's post about what he was doing for SRK, I remembered that last year I had downloaded some stuff from the KKR website.

So I dug deep into my archives and old external hard drives and was pleasantly surprised at my memory.

I had in fact downloaded all this stuff last year. Here it is, take a look for yourself as to why all this was discontinued.



And there's more where these came from.

So then. What do you think?

Is the Fake IPL Player a Shah Rukh Khan employee?

A journalist actually travelling with the Kolkata Knight Riders?

After taking a look at what SRK attempted last year and the fact that it was discontinued, I believe that the Fake is most probably that - one on the SRK payroll.

The Fake IPL Player promised that Wednesday would be the day when he comes out in the open.

He kept his promise alright.

Here's his revelation.

So who is he?

As I said, the man is a coward and a bit too smart to come out in the open and disclose himself.

With some shady shadow play, Fake reveals it all in his 4 minute speech.

All but his name.

Cricket, match fixing, bollywood, entertaiment, he links it all and talks sense.

Maybe some people would be able to figure out who he is, I could not.

A few things are for sure though - he's not a cricket player as he first claimed. He's a journalist with inside info. He's from Delhi but is a major fan of Kolkata.

And he's a fan of Bollywood and SRK as well - why then his chosen name for SRK, I'm not sure.

You know what I think. Now I'm pretty sure that he was someone on the payroll of SRK. Looks and sounds like that to me.

The question now is, will the blog continue or was this his last post?

What are you more excited about - the unravelling of the IPL Semi Final plot, or the Fake IPL Player revealing his identity?

This IPL has been more of a suspense thriller than any suspense thriller every produced.

Who will make the semis?

Who is the Fake IPL Player?

Will KKR win any match?

Will the Fake IPL Player reveal himself?

Will Buchanan be fired?

Who will captain the Royal Challengers?

What inspired the Deccan Chargers this season?

Will Ganguly captain KKR again?

Why hasn't McGrath got a single game?

Who will win Miss IPL Bollywood?

Why is Priety Zinta keeping her distance from Ness Wadia?

Why is Sehwag so woefully out of form?

Why is Yuvraj Singh so grumpy?

Who will win the Sandy Baddy Babe bet?

There have been more questions than answers in the IPL this year.

The sounds more like LOST!

But one question is definitely going to be answered tomorrow.

The Fake IPL Player has promised to come out in the open tomorrow.

It is the Kolkata Knight Rider's last match of the IPL, thank heavens for that, and as the Fake promised, he will be revealing his identity.

Tomorrow is the D-Day for the Fake IPL Player.

The Day he comes out in the open.

Its finally time to stop guessing and hear from the Fake himself.

I was looking for some reactions to the match fixing claims surrounding the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers match, and I found this:

"Why would someone pay us to lose a match when we are doing the same for free?"

The Fake IPL Player at his best! That was just absolutely hilarious!

Fake goes on and talks about how he and his KKR team mates are being investigated for match fixing.

Then Homer pointed me to this piece of news, in which Lalit Modi denies that any team in the IPL is being investigated for match fixing.

So then who is right?

The Fake IPL Player or Lalit Modi?

Either Lalit Modi is covering up the investigation that is going on.

OR

The Fake IPL Player has finally given us reason to doubt his credibility.

Fake has a new poll running on his site, which asks you to vote on who you think the Fake IPL Player really is.

Currently, "Journo with inside info", is leading the polls with 30% of the votes. While 18% think that Fake is none of the 10,000 choices he has given in the polls.

However, after this, i.e. getting caught talking about an investigation that was a mere media rumour than anything else, I sense the votes for "a complete fakey" could go spiralling upwards.

Vote and decide for yourself.