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If you watch the ongoing Ashes series for just about 10 mins or so with pacemen from either side bowling, one thing becomes significantly clear — no matter what time of the day it is, the speed guns remain continuously around the 86+ miles per hour mark. And if the combination of Mitchell Johnson and Siddle from Australia or Anderson and Flintoff from England is in operation, watching ten to twelve balls continuously in the 90+ mark seems so normal. Even someone like Stuart Broad is bowling around the 87 mph-mark with ease. The point I am trying to make is, that these are the bowlers took little or not part in the IPL2. It seems that the break they took while most of the other bowlers were trying to fire in the block holes of batsmen has borne its fruit. I believe that playing non-stop in the T20 can be taxing and may be this is a hint that resting your top bowlers for non-international games is a good idea. But then, BCCI wouldn’t buy this theory, would it?

There is some bad news for the Indian team, no matter how much the BCCI tries to play it down. Zaheer Khan — the man in-charge of India’s bowling for the forthcoming T20 World Cup is injured and his fitness may be a cause for worry for the entire length of the tournament. In the given scenario, will it make sense for Ashish Nehra to be sent-in as the back-up for Zaheer?

Nehra was in excellent form in the just-concluded IPL2009 and except for one game of the semi-finals, he bowled brilliantly with reasonable if not lightening pace. Further, he too is in the Zaheer mould, trying to move the ball in a subtle manner to keep the batsmen guessing. Further, he would be hungry for getting back to the international arena and this could be an added incentive for him to bowl hard and the conditions in England too would suit him.

England has defeated the WEST INDIES in the second one-dayer also and has won the series 2 to nil. However, one wonders how much should we read into this ‘series’ win considering that the West Indies were already reeling under a lot of criticism and internal issues even before the series began and had got the drubbing of a lifetime in the test series prior to the ODIs.

The England team too has not found any noticeable new talents or strategies that they could use in the future. Their captain — Strauss still remains a predicament when it comes to opening the innings in ODIs and KP is still to strike form again. This leaves the bowlers — Stuart Broad won the man-of-the-series award but one would have to question the wisdom of awarding him when the batsmen got out to atrocious shots rather than the claimed ‘over-the-top’ bowling performance. No wonder T20 is taking over. In that format, even mediocre teams like the WI at least look like an international unit.

At the very outset, it does look stupid to put-up this question, but the fact is that if you look at the Indian squad for the T20 or even their core ODI team, they really do not look like needing too many specialist spinners. I might be going a bit beyond reasonability when suggesting that Bhajji too needs to keep scoring some runs to keep his chances firmly grounded in the team’s plan. Just look at the team — the number of off-spinning options is multiplying with every passing season.

They started with just Sehewag and now Raina and Yusuf Pathan have joined-in along Rohit Sharma and all of them look good for bowling four-five decent overs. I really do not see Pragyan Ojha or any other specialist spinner being given a chance. Bhajji shall remain the only one who has a genuine chance of playing and that too, as long as he can bowl well and blitz a bit with the bat in nearly every match. There are just too many good seaming options warming the bench every time the team picks-up just four specialist bowlers.

With the final of the IPL2 season being some hours away and the second edition of this premier T20 event about to end, I wonder what have been India’s gain in terms of having discovered players who could play at the international level. Pandey from the RCB is one young guy, only 19 yrs though, who has caught the attention of many folks. Raina’s consistency is something that has been appreciated by many observers and similarly that of RP Singh. But in terms of discovering outrightly new talent, I guess the gains have not been too extensive.

Pandey is just 2-3 matches old and it is too quick to make any judgments right now. Khan — the left arm seamer from Team Jaipur made an initial impact but it is hard to fathom what the future holds for him with his bowling action being questioned by nearly every reasonable cricketing brain with an opinion. What would have been really useful is the discovery to two reasonable all-rounders who could back-up the present squad for T20 and ODI or at least one real speed-rattling fast bowler. With the kind of batting at Dhoni’s disposal, no one is really looking skywards for another batting hero anyways.

So the final line-up for IPL 2009 has been sealed with the Royal Challengers Bangalore winning their semi-final game against the Chennai Super Kings. It is now going to be a one-time showdown between Deccan Chargers and the Bangalore Boys as they seek to win the title after performing miserably last season.

And that is the point I am really trying to make — both the Chargers and Team Bangalore were literally whopped last season in their 14 respective games but 2009 has seen an ocean of change in their fortunes. Both the teams had new captains this year, i.e. Kumble and Adam Gilchrist and the results are there for every one to see. Neither Laxman nor KP could influence the teams to any noteworthy performances and it took the aggression of Gilly and the canny thinking cap of Kumble to turn around things for their teams and see where these bottom-ranking teams from last year have reached — the finals.

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Gilchrist butchered the Dardevils bowling displaying typical courageous performance that only he is capable of. Already a living legend in Australia and the world over, the marauder showed no fear and chased down the total of 153 put up by Delhi almost single handedly.

He came down heavily on Dirk Nannes, the most effective bowler of Delhi Dardevils in the first over. Sending Nannes beyond the ropes five times in the first over, Gilchrist showed his intentions. Racing away to 50 in a record 17 balls and compiling 85 runs off 35 balls, were stuffs that people will talk for years.

Delhi realized the hard way that talent alone doesn’t help. Motivation matters. And Gilchrist has tons of motivation. His motivational skills and ability to stand up to challenges make him a living legend that he is. If his bowlers are hit, he would walk up to them and have a small talk without any visible tension or irritation. If they are to chase a fighting total he would try do it himself.

On hindsight Delhi must be ruing over the fact another 35-40 runs could have made the difference. Gambhir, Warne, and Dinesh Karthik could have added another 35 runs. That could have definitely made the difference, despite the heroics of Gilchrist.

Players like Gilchrist, Gibbs, R P Singh, and Pragyan Ojha wave won over the cricket lovers. It is difficult to predict whether Deccan Cahrgers will win the IPL. But the kind of cricket they are playing is marked by dedication and enthusiasm. If they win that would be great, if not it will not be a big deal.

So the Royal Challengers from Bangalore have somehow managed to reach the semis of IPL2009 and now it is up to them to try and outthink their opponents to ensure a victory. I personally believe that the team needs to try and think beyond the realm of the usual right now. Dhoni’s bowlers would be training their line and length against a specific kind of top order that the Royal Challengers had been fielding till now.

It could be worth the risk to try and send in players like Boucher or Virat Kohli up the order, just to make things difficult for rival bowlers and ensure that the run-rate does not dip in the 10 to 15 over mark — something that has happened a bit too often with the Bangalore Team. Also, when bowling, it might be good to keep Kallis towards the end of the innings, since he is adept at bowling those yorkers and not repeatedly depending on Praveen Kumar whose thinking pattern would be well known to Dhoni.

Those who had been following Adam Gilchrist’s performances over his incredible career would have noted that he is the kind of performer who always delivers when the team needs it most. Be it the chasing fourth innings total in test matches, launching one-day innings and now T20, Gilly is known to always perform when the team needs it most. This is exactly what happened during the semi-finals against the Daredevils as he single-handedly blew away the bowlers with his unrelenting onslaught.

To be honest, the Daredevils did not perform as bad as the statistics might show. It is just that in such form, Gilchrist is like a one-man wrecking machine, having won two World Cup finals with his batting. The only thing that the Daredevils should feel guilty about is their inability to start and finish off the innings when they were batting, which in the end made a difference of about 25 runs which does sound quite a lot, but then given Gilly’s heroics, would that have really mattered?