In India, Cricket is a religion. It would be interesting to keep aside all the religions for a moment and stick to just one religion – Cricket and view the Elections-2019 from the perspective of a cricket fan, the Indian Poll League – 2019.
Teams – In this IPL-2019, the participating teams are NDA, UPA, TMC, TDP, BJD, BSP, SP, TRS, YSRCP, NC, PDP, AAP, CPI & CPM.
In IPL-2019, NDA is playing to retain the Cup which they had won in the previous edition of IPL. The UPA, the runner-up, is trying to lift the cup this time, under the captaincy of young Rahul. As usual, some of the players have changed sides during this edition of IPL.
Punters are betting heavily on NDA to retain the Cup while some of the commentators were overtly opposing NDA and rooting for other teams.
This edition of IPL took place over a period of two months, from April to May. Finally, the NDA retained the Cup, winning almost all the league matches, except for a couple of matches against YSRP, TRS.
Team preparation : While the NDA was preparing the IPL-2019 for a long time, the other teams had not even finalized the players till the last hour. It is common for some of the teams to combine themselves with other teams and precious time was wasted in deciding the team composition. The UPA team was complacent after a few narrow victories in local matches.
Player selection : The NDA is first off the block and got star players like Nitish, Uddhav Thackerey, Edappaddi which strengthened the existing team. However, last time runner-up UPA failed to finalize their players and some of the star players like Akilesh & Mayawati formed their own team. UPA was able to draft Stalin but he could play only at Chennai pitch. This resulted in very low net run rate for the UPA. While the SP&BSP could not win any matches outside Lucknow, they spoiled the chances of UPA by cutting their net run rate.
NDA team was led by tried and tested combination of Modi as the Captain and Amit Shah as the Vice-Captain. This duo did not include old players like Advani, MM Joshi which created strong protests from different quarters from not only the NDA team but, surprisingly, from the UPA team, the opponents but the decision of the Captain was vindicated at the end. Though some of the commentators doubted the ability of Modi & Shah to produce results since they are pitted against the main contender UPA which is headed by Rahul, who took over as Captain very recently, ultimately the experience that comes with age proved to be the X factor for the NDA.
Matches – TDP played two matches – one against YSRCP in Vijayawada and one against TRS in Hyderabad, but lost both the matches. BJD played against NDA & UPA in Bhubaneswar and decimated UPA but lost by a whisker against NDA. SP & BSP fought valiantly against NDA, but failed to putt up a respectable total on board and lost to NDA. TMC played violently against NDA in the match held at Kolkatta and also against UPA, CPM & CPI. Though TMC won hands-down against UPA, CPM & CPI, its players could not withstand the pace bowling of Modi & Shah. The CPM & CPI lost the match in their home pitch Trivandrum they played against UPA and lost pathetically in all other matches. While UPA played against the NDA in almost all the matches, lack of preparation and quality players led it to lose all the matches except those played at Trivandrum and Chennai. In the Chennai match, Stalin helped UPA win against the NDA, the only venue where UPA won against NDA.
Team UPA tried to take on NDA by employing “Rafale Spin” but it did not get any wickets. On the other hand, Modi, the Captain, used to many such spins, sent all of them over the boundary. In return, Modi used the good old “Bofors Googly” which caught UPA Captain Rahul unaware and lost all the wickets in quick succession.
In their frustration in nothing going in their favor, UPA players like Sidhu, Sam Pitroda, Mani Shankar Aiyer overstepped and bowled many No Balls, giving a free hit to Captain Modi, who hit Six after Six.
Sledging – This time, sledging was rampant and Umpires could not control this menace and in certain cases, the matter had to be referred to ICC, sorry, SC.
Third Umpire – While the NDA was the only team which did not question the decision of the on-field Umpire, almost all the teams referred every other decision to the third umpire.
DRS – When the losing teams were not satisfied with the decision of the Third umpires, they sought review under DRS. When they were told that only two reviews are possible in a match, all the other teams demanded every decision to be taken up under DRS. There were several complaints made against the Stump-Cameras and the losing sides alleged that these stump-cameras were hacked. Finally, the authority declined to entertain the other teams for review of all VVPATs, sorry once again, all decisions under DRS and allowed only two. Not satisfied with this decision, all the teams started protesting in the pitch itself, trying to prevent the score-board from displaying the results but the Scorer did his job and put up the scores on board, declaring the NDA to be the winner of the Cup once again.
Match-fixing – Almost all the teams alleged match-fixing and complained that umpires had been bought by the NDA but the huge crowd that gathered in the stadium and watching it on television sets knew the facts to be otherwise and social media was abuzz with troll on the losing teams.
Finally, the IPL-2019, conducted at a huge expenditure, entertained the people immensely and fans were rejoicing when their beloved Captain Modi was holding the Cup and as usual, vice-captain Amit Shah was answering the questions at the post-match ceremony.
