IPL 10 - Bye Bye RPS & GL

IPL is 10 years old already and it makes me feel old as well. MI won the title after being on the top of the table and they have won it thrice now. So CSK already have a task in their hand when they come in next year after the ban.

Most impressed young players of the season are Rishab Pant, Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Rashid Khan, Krunal Pandya,

Following are some of the highlights in this IPL:

Yuvi show in the first match of the IPL, it's always good to see him bat when he's in form. 63 from just 27 balls and that was his only best innings this year so far. Hope he does well in the upcoming champions trophy.

Smith and Rahane again after the test series, but this time they played together and had a good partnership to win their first game against MI, where Smith finished the game with Dhoni at the other end.

This year KKR experimented with their opening combinations a lot, Lynn opened with Ghambir and they chased 184 within 15 overs without losing a wicket. It was as they say Lynnsane.

Rishab Pant after his father's death played brilliantly against RCB and almost won it for DD.  And, his other innings if 97 to win a game against GL. Samson and Pant chased down 209 with 2.3 overs to spare. He's a future to watch out for.

Samson hits the first century of this season against RPS, but it was Morris at the end of the innings who stole the show with 38 runs from just 9 balls, it was insane.

IPL and hat-tricks are always amazing, we don't see hat-trick often in cricket, but we see it more often in IPl. And, in fact there were two hat-tricks in a same day, first by Badree, still RCB lost. Then, from Tye and GL won their first match of the season against RPS. And, the third hat-trick by Unadkat against SRH in the last over to win it for RPS.

Vohra's 95 single-handedly took KXI to victory against SRH, but Bhuvi took his wicket and a 5 for to won that game. And, for SRH two Afgan players, Rashid and Nabi appeared for the first time in IPL history.

Dhoni, after a lot of criticism played a blinder against SRH to win the game, 64 from 31. And, finished the game with a boundary of the last ball, I just wished he faced the last over in the finals as well. And, he took 18 runs of Bhuvi's over, who haven't conceded more than 10 in the death overs before that match.

DD's batting was inconsistent throughout the season. One day they were chasing 200, other day allout for less than 100. Against MI, they lost 6-24 chasing 143, before Rabada and Morris pulled of something special and took the team near the end line before Bumrah ruined it. That was a great partnership.

RCB had a terrible season, every year it happens to one team. They bowled out for a lowest total 49 on the same day where the made history for highest total a few years before. Also, they made another 98 while chasing. It's hard to believe Kohli, ABD, Gayle, Watson all failed together.

As usual we had another super over in IPL this time between MI and Gl. Where Bumrah bowled probably the best over of the season against the two power hitters Finch and McCullum to defend 11 runs even after conceding a no-ball and wide. Bumrah's been the best this year for MI more than Malinga.

Stokes, the most expensive player played like one this year. He scored a century after coming in at 10/3 and won the game for RPS. And, good contribution in most of the other games and won the MVP of this year.

Another revelation this year is RPS's Tripathi, who batted brilliantly after opening the innings. He took the team to victory with his 93 in another insane match where RPS won it in the last over after being in a position of needing just 27 from 44 balls.

After Lynn injured, Narine started opening with Gambhir and he was dealing with only boundaries. When Lynn was fit he joined Narine and in a match against RCB they scored most runs in the powerplay, beating CSK's previous best. And, Narine scored fastest 50 in IPL.

The Finals was absolute thriller, after playing poorly MI almost pulled of a miracle to win the game.

Anyway change of fortunes for RPS and GL, GL ended up in RPS's place this year and RPS almost won the IPL where they just avoided the last place previous year. Anyway bye bye RPS and GL, look forward to seeing Dhoni and Raina together in yellow jerseys next year. Waiting for CSK.

Baahubali 2 - An Epic Conclusion as well

I haven't blogged for a while, so I thought I couldn't have better thing than writing about Baahubali - The Conclusion, even though it's a bit late. Here's what I wrote about Baahubali - The Beginning.

I was never excited about a film in recent times after Kabali. I was so looking forward to this and was extremely happy when I reached my seat minuted before the start of the movie. The Baahubali part one was not complete since it ended in a cliffhanger after that epic battle which raised the expectations for this movie even higher.

Coming to the second part, it starts straight from the flashback portions. Now, all waiting for Baahubali to be crowned. And, we get a few comic moments between Prabhas and Kattappa while he romances the astounding beauty Anushka. And, we have a battle sequence as well with Oxen running with flames in their horns and Prabhas shooting three arrows at once and as well as teaching Anushka the same. And, a similar interval block where Rana once again feels small even after becoming the King of Mahismati. I was already got more than what I expected just from the first half itself. It had a lot of whistle worthy sequences. One of my favourite parts is when Baahubali's identity was revealed to Devasena and her people.

In the second half we see the fight between two powerful ladies Sivagami and Devasena. And, it was disappointing that the most powerful lady Sivagami was easily deceived and manipulated by Rana and Nasser. Which eventually let us know the reason behind WKKB. But, the flashback was the best it almost runs whole movie. Thankfully there isn't any interruption. The present part we know what was about to happen and it just did. It looked a bit rushed on a movie which was already running for three hours time.

Prabhas completely owns the show here, especially as Amrendra Baahubali, the father. Just like Mahismati the movie belongs to him as well. And, Rana scores well in the flashback portions. Devasena looks perfect as a princess, she looked just amazing. We didn't have much of new characters in this part. Except for Devasena's relative guy. And, yeah totally forgot that Tamannah was even present, I think she had about maximum 10 seconds screen time. And, found Kattappa's current age, its nearly 85. He doesn't look bad for a guy at the age of 85.

I liked the theme music used in the first part than the one used here. But, overall a satisfying BGM once again from MaragathaMani. Also, they have avoided unwanted song placements here, no kuthu song out of nowhere like the part 1. And, the art department got bigger and better. And, kudos to Karky for all the dialogues in Tamil. And, even the VFX looked better than the part one when we compare to that fight in snow filled mountain in part one.

Baahubali is the peak of mass masala movie in an epic setting, peak of glorifying heroes, peak of visual effects, peak of SSR's imagination. And, surprisingly a sequel I liked better than the first part, it looked like SSR deserved the best for the last. Yes, once again the stunts were unbelievable, but who cares, I liked the way it was executed.

Now, where will SSR go from here, he had scaled the Himalayas, it will be very difficult to better this, but I am sure he will. Thank you SSR and team for making this mammoth project, I am completely mesmerised by SSR's world. I am looking forward to more from this world.

Baahubali - The Conclusion - 5.0/5.0. If you are a movie lover, its a crime if you miss this.