Glen “Pigeon” McGrath is content with his current IPL stint and doesn’t plan to revert to the longer form of the game. He has looked the part in the IPL despite having hung his boots at the end of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup and has taken to T20 like a fish takes to water. Pigeon’s consistent bowling performance for the Delhi Daredevils lead to an English county offer.

Surrey had approached McGrath and offered him a contract, which is rumored to have involved a fairly good amount of money. But McGrath has turned down the offer citing his retirement from all forms of cricket – except the lucrative IPL – and family commitments. He intends to devote as much time to his family as he can.

In fact McGrath is quite a family man and a doting husband, too, as he took good care of his life partner while she was battling with cancer. County cricket has lost its sheen and allure as international cricketers have to commit for longer periods compared to the better paying and terser IPL. Not a tough decision, isn’t it?

Mumbai Indians have turned the corner after churning out some dismal performances at the start of their IPL campaign. They had not only lost their first four matches but also their acting skipper Harbhajan Singh - who succumbed to yet another peccadillo. But Harbhajan’s departure, by the looks of it, was a blessing in disguise as it didn’t take too long, after his ouster, for them to embark on their winning run, a streak that has seen them win six matches on the trot.

Their squad shouldn’t really intimidate any of their opponents - at least on paper - and perhaps not even the innocuous Bangalore Royal Challengers. But the likes of Shaun Pollock and Sanath Jayasurya have made generous contributions to the team’s cause as the campaign has progressed. Even Nehra and Bravo have risen up to the challenge and rendered themselves dear to the team’s cause. Tendulkar has finally returned after an agonizingly long wait but is still trying to find his bearings. Even though Tendulkar hasn’t still shone with the bat, he has disencumbered Sanath Jayasurya and made the southpaw’s job easy.

The Mumbai Indians have seen the last of Bravo in this campaign as he has gone home to attend to national duty. He has undoubtedly made a huge contribution and it will be difficult for Mumbai Indians to discount his absence. The Mumbai Indians’ story is a truly surreal tale of a blighted underdog, whom no one fancied, but who has denied what once appeared to be its imminent fate.

At times you can get so used to good things that you become blasé. Viewers have grown used to the adrenaline-rush-inducing action in the IPL, it seems, otherwise how would you explain a hat-trick going unnoticed in a cricket match. That is exactly what transpired in the rain curtailed match between Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders. No one realized that Ntini had taken a hat-trick, when he dismissed David Hussey of the second delivery of the 17th over of the Knight Riders’ innings. In fact everyone, including Ntini himself, treated the subsequent ball as a hat-trick opportunity as Ntini had picked two successive wickets off the first two deliveries of the 17th over.

It was only during Chennai’s innings that the commentators became aware of the fact that everyone had remained oblivious to Ntini’s amazing feat. A hat-trick is in itself a rare occurrence, but there is nothing rarer than a hat-trick that goes unnoticed by everyone, including the bowler who has taken it. Ntini dismissed Ganguly of the last ball of the 3rd over of his spell – 5th over of the innings – and then completed his hat-trick by picking up Das and Hussey off the first two deliveries of his 4th over – 17th over of the innings.

He joins his teammate Balaji and Delhi Daredevils’ leggie Amit Mishra as the bowlers to have taken a hat-trick in the inaugural iteration of the IPL. There is nimiety of everything in the IPL.