Old news is that IPL is over and SRH have won it. As usual, there were teams that looked great on paper and did not do much and team that was not favored won the championship. Brings to my lessons (not life lessons :)) from this year’s IPL.

1. Virat Kohli is slowly erasing India’s collective fond memories of Sachin
2. Cricket is an individual sport. Contrary to what everyone says, cricket, especially T20 is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport (Don’t remind me of relay fielding). Ask Virat Kohli and Warner to reconfirm. For half of the tournament, SRH practically played with 9/10 players with one or two players filling to ensure there are mandatory 11 players on the field
3. IPL is not about local players – Sure, it was to help local players in the team’s catchment area. I am sure there are players who are part of the team, but ask any team to put a 15 member squad and you will rarely find local talent. SRH had only one local player playing (that too in few matches). RCB possibly had 2 and Pune none. Only exception seems to be Mumbai (atleast they had a local as a captain). So, it is anything but development of sport at a regional level
4. Batting alone does not necessarily help win T20. You can refer to virtually every team except possibly KKR and SRH
5. Bowling wins matches in T20. SRH had only 1 batsman performing consistently, but had about 4-5 bowlers doing well together through the tournament. RCB on the other hand had 3 consistent batsmen, but only 1 bowler (2 if you include Watson)
6. Balance between team’s won strength and opposition’s weakness. SRH got this balance right when they chose to chase at one time and defend the other play off matches. In the finals, they clearly stuck to their strength and chose to bat first
7. Team always comes first – Irrespective of how the match was won, always credit the team work and “boys”