POOL X - Ranking By Samish Kilam - week-2

When I ranked the teams last week, I thought I was doing it for the whole season. I didn't know I would be doing it weekly. If I knew that, I would've let the Editor in Chief (Viju) take up the role. It isn't easy for me to fill his enormous shoes, but I'll try to keep it honest. Any inputs are appreciated. Also, maybe Viju can grace us with his analysis once in a while.

Rank	Team	Why
1	MegaBytes	Had a bye week, but nothing has changed. They still have the best team in the league. Superstar Matta will be looking to put behind a string of low scores and start round 2 just the way he started round-1. Look for the Megabytes to dominate both batting and bowling charts in the all-star categories. The more I think about it, the more headaches I've. I mean imagine Raghu coming 3rd, 4th or even 5th change bowler - who by the way according to me is one of the best bowler in closing overs. Next up Stars: Stars will have their hands full. If they're able to give Megs a good fight, they can count themselves among the elite. I'm sure Megs won't take it easy though. Look for a crushing win for Megabytes. 99 to 1 Megabytes.
2	Brownstown	Brownstown forfeited their game with Gladiators. I wouldn't encourage such thing in the league as the whole idea behind the league is for the people to play some cricket. We've seen a lot of backouts this season for one reason or another, which is a little disappointing to the teams that are ready to play. However, I wouldn't blindly blame BT. I'm sure they had a good reason to skip. I just hope that the other teams don't use this as a pretext to forfeit their games. Since we didn't have much to judge the top two teams on, they occupy their standings. Next up Royal Blues: The game depends on which BT shows up. If BT are without a couple of big names, RBCC may match up evenly man to man. But BTs experience and leadership should get them through. It will be a closer game than it looks, but I'm leaning towards BT. 65 to 35
3	GLCC	Finally hitting the top gear? Some would say yes, but I feel there is still a lot of room for improvement. They're surely going in the right direction. Anil and Chaitanya are probably among the best bowlers in the league and they've only played around 7 games between them. The young batting talent that GLCC invested in last summer is starting to pay off, much to the relief of the team oldies who were seemingly looking worn-out with all the workload. Next up Strikers: As usual it is a high profile game. The interesting fact being that Strikers have never lost to GLCC - even in practice games. Let's not talk about how convincing those wins have been ;) - 60-40 for Strikers, because they know how to beat GLCC and GLCC doesn't.
4	Strikers	They are performing clinically. Minesh seems to have brought some discipline in the team. Credit must go to Tushar as well. He's been controlling the tempo of the batting with some consistent scores. Along with Megabytes and of course Bridges, Strikers will hog the bowling charts. Parthiv is one of the most destructive bowlers on his day. And he has a great support cast with Abhishek, Jegan, Kapil, Ashok and Amitabh. Not to forget other 5 people who can bowl well too ;). If I was them, I'd be worried about the batting. Tushar is a key wicket and besides him, there aren't many who are able to control the batting as well. Next up GLCC: Based on history, they start as favorites.
5	Juggernauts	They are one spot down from last week, just for the fact that their win wasn't as convincing as that of Strikers. However, they're one of the most balanced teams in the league and have a lot of experience. If we look at the big picture (whole season), I would put them ahead of Strikers but on form basis, Strikers beats them by a good margin. I wouldn't rate them the best bowling or best batting side but as a whole team, they're contenders for the cup. Sriram and Ashwin along with Sundar and others can bat through the game. They play Gladiators. I would rate the two teams equally but Juggs have the slight edge. 55-45 Juggs.
6	Gladiators	Had to be the victim of a forfeited game. Looking at the brighter side, they've 5 points in their bag. Not much to write about them this week. But I think with disciplined bowling and batting, they should be able to pull off another upset (I'm sure Viju won't think of it as an upset ;) ). They'll be playing Juggernauts in one of the closest matchups of the week. May the best team win!
7	Royal Blues	Gained a spot after the loss. You don't see that happening much. But they played a closer game than Bridges and have more experience. Shastry was a factor right after his return, taking 4 wickets and RK, one of the best and most underrated openers in the league scored a cool 21 in the loss. They've all the ingredients but some one needs to give them the recipe! They've another tough game with BT. If I was them, I would look to take advantage of any missing BT players. They may not be able to beat the full strength BT team, but they match up evenly even if one or two of the BTs best players don't show up.
8	Bridges	Bridges have some great individual talent and at the start of the game, they played together as one unit, especially after an early breakthrough. However, that didn't last too long. They were not able to sustain the pressure and as a result leaked a few runs too many. Aditya and Phani are a formidable pair, but they need just enough support from others. Even though, I've them at 8, I can easily see them come up to 3 or 4. They've the talent, but need to know when and where to use it. They've a bye week.
9	Stars	Stars had to face an in-form team first up in second round. And frankly, it doesn't get any easier for them. But Rajesh and co. have surprised us before and I'm sure they've a couple up their sleeve for round 2. There isn't much to write about them. Only one batsman scored in double figures and they were able to get only 1 wicket. If I was them, I would look to introduce more discipline in bowling. Look to bowl lines to stop runs than to get wickets. I see only a couple true wicket takers in their team, others need to support them by choking the batsmen for runs. The next game doesn't get any easier. They're taking on the "unbeatables"!! Good luck to them.