I have been wanting to ask; I know everyone of us has something we look out for when predicting the winners of a match so I`d like to knwo if you guys can share with us what characteristics you look out for when making that selection. Some go for the overall game play of that team, while others go for those teams that are quite popular and have earned themselves some reputation, or did you choose them because your favourite player is on that team?
I beleive this will strike some kind of discussion here in this thread.
The t-20 format is usually unpredictable. Once in a while upsets do happen but most of the time predicting a particular team winning becomes easy due to various reasons like toss, conditions and experienced playing XI. It won't reflect much on this prediction thread because we have to post our predictions before the toss (Saying toss because in some conditions toss could become important because of dew or slow behavior of pitch).
Normally you look at the roaster and check what kind of players are in the playing XI (Form also matters) and these days it has become an important ritual because of the new rule "Impact player" and the majority of the time it depends on the toss and match situation as sometimes team brings Impact player too early and sometimes very late so this new rule adds a new dimension of unpredictability.
I agree with your point of view that it is difficult to predict any outcome in a T-20 game. Thus far, in this IPL, batters have struggled on good batting surfaces because of good bowling performance. It is also difficult to predict the performers for the match because of the lengthy squads so, we can only guess.
The rule of "Impact player" is a good initiative, it will make the matches interesting in crunch situations.
Overall, intro of IPL teams.
Teams like MI and CSK are strong and most consistent teams in the IPL.
RCB always had the best players but they have a habit of choking against everyone. 16 freaking seasons and no trophy despite being represented by the Peak trio of Kohli-AB-Gayle.
SRH used to be good but they fucked up their team after Warner Saga (Dubai leg during Covid, i guess) and going down every season.
DC and KKR are excellent teams but not consistent enough, sometimes not even on their home turf.
GT and LSG are quite new but they have a pretty solid squad. Especially GT looks fine because they have Ashish Nehra. This guy's life is meme and full of fun but he's one of the finest cricketing brains in the cricketing world.
Punjab brings excellent talent and turns them into memes because of shitty management.
You have summarized the overall IPL team performance history well. MI and CSK are the teams you can expect to do well. RCB, despite a good batting lineup, struggled to win any tournament because of their poor bowling lineup. I hope they will break this taboo in IPL 2024 and win their first-ever IPL trophy. DC and KKR are unpredictable. GT and LSG are raw and need some time to reach the level of other teams. PKBS is just unlucky I guess; they had good squads in the past, but they, like RCB, are unlucky and could not win any trophy.
Edit:
Match 8: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Mumbai Indians
1. Match Winner: Mumbai Indians
2. Highest Runs by a batter: Heinrich Klaasen
3. Highest Wicket by a bowler: Jasprit Bumrah
4. Player of the Match: Rohit Sharma
5. Predict the Final Score of the Winning Team (within +/- 10 runs): 186
6. Predict who will hit Maximum Sixes: Heinrich Klaasen
7. Predict the team that will win the toss: Sunrisers Hyderabad
