Why it's beyond Rashid Khan vs CSK

It's Dhoni vs Williamson and Moody vs Fleming. 

Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Andre Russell. 3/19.

MS Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo. 2/11

Those are Rashid Khan’s wickets and match analysis in SRH’s two play-offs.

Before that, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali, 3/27. Like Dhoni, Kohli too was castled. As was AB de Villiers in RCB’s first match against Rashid Khan.

Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, 2/23. Lokesh Rahul, Karun Kair, R Ashwin, 3/19.

SRH vs MI – SRH 118 all out, MI 87 all out. Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, 2/11. He also knocked Jos Buttler over twice.

Rashid’s 21 wickets after 16 matches at 6.78 runs per over barely convey the terror that accompanies his bowling. While many overseas players continue to be suspect against spin, it’s the big-ticket Indian names that have looked dazed when facing Rashid.

Few, if any, have dominated him as Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu in the IPL. In the playoffs between SRH and CSK, Rayudu was demoted to tackle Rashid; a first ball dismissal to Siddarth Kaul meant he never faced the Afghan. That day, not even Rashid’s 2/11 (Dhoni, Bravo) could stop CSK – the Finals, like that match, will also be played at the Wankhede.

In the Eliminator against KKR, Kane Williamson made three changes to his side from their previous game. Who turns up in the final could be of little impact, as their mainstays are clearly defined.

It’ll be down to Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the ball; Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson with the bat. And by the look of it, Rashid again, with the bat, and in the field.

Though SRH hardly seem like a team in a hurry to change anything too dramatically – their greatest accomplishment, much like CSK, is not to panic.

This was all too obvious when KKR dug into their bowling in the power play; even when the quicks were bleeding at 12 runs and over, with Bhuvi being ripped into, Williamson did not panic – he did not allow his hand to be forced; he did not bring Rashid on in the power play.

Lesser teams and captains would’ve rushed Rashid in on the first sound of alarm bells. Instead, Williamson stayed secure, that no matter how hard Lynn and Narine went early on, later, when the squeeze was on in earnest, with Rashid on, it would resemble yet another familiar SRH defence.

Forget attack, most batsmen this IPL, have been clueless to even block out Rashid. The sight of two close-in fielders all but terrified Andre Russell. It was Rashid’s last over. The game was still up in the air. Russell surviving Rashid could well have been the game, and the flight to Mumbai. Instead, the pressure choked him, his bat spat a catch to Dhawan at slip.

As for CSK, the game may not be Rashid. The eliminator against KKR was Rashid’s biggest showing – he knocked a team single-handedly, first by his mere presence, next, with the bat, then with the ball, and when not bowling, running out Rana, catching Gill and Mavi.

But how hard will it be for Dhoni’s CSK to demystify Rashid – play like just another leggie, when by all counts, he’s not just another leggie. Can they negate his aura? Could batsmen ever do that with Warne even when he wasn’t at his best? And what when he was?

No matter what is said indoors or done in the nets, they won’t be facing Rashid in the nets. He won’t be there to prepare them for those AK 47 stares. Those mocking smiles. “I might be 19, but I’ve got you right where I want you, in my video game, and guess what, the remote’s with me, and you are playing on my terms”.

Conditions apply however. Both teams have obvious flaws and similar strengths – both refuse to blink first. Both refuse to panic. Why would they, look at the leadership, on the field, off it? Much as it will be Dhoni vs Williamson, it will be Moody vs Fleming.

Much as it will be Rayudu vs Rashid or even CSK vs Rashid, it will also be which team picks fewer passengers. To play fringe players that have an added, often unseen utility, such as fielding or catching, can often turn a match on its head.

Look at Glenn Maxwell in DD’s last match against MI. Not only did his two boundary assists hand two dollies to Trent Boult, his 22(18) opening the batting, appeared to be longer than he had batted all season.

Whether SRH pick Manish Pandey or CSK drop Harbhajan Singh (who did not bowl an over in his last match) could in a small way define who lifts what at the end of Sunday night’s final.

But it really is Rashid vs CSK. Unless one of them doesn’t turn up at all.

First published here

Read more...

Return

When you had the time of Dhoni's life

Past midnight, after the last league match between CSK and KXIP, Harsha Bhogle tried to warm up to MS Dhoni. Instead, Dhoni warmed up to his team’s “many” owners with a word of thanks. He credited these owners with a knowledge of cricket. He spoke of how CSK had seen players such as Ashwin and Mohit Sharma flourish (both were now with KXIP).

While Dhoni speaks long into the night in his post-match chats, it’s not-to-be-missed "gyan". Much like his innings this IPL. CSK’s comeback after two years, proved that the yellow army was stronger than ever; absence had made the heart pump in new zeal beyond Chennai; if your first team wasn’t CSK, it sure was the second. More often than not though, the IPL seemed to be about Dhoni and CSK. They were almost interchangeable.

Even the harshest of India Cements’ critics appeared to have moved on. While N Srinivasan (owner India Cements that probably owns CSK but it’s a tough one) has been largely invisible from cricketing circles for years; Dhoni’s seemingly innocuous remark past midnight, was obviously a word of thanks to the former BCCI president who ran world cricket with his other hand.

n the years that followed Srinivasan’s ouster, Dhoni has with a calculated calm remained silent on issues that threatened to bring down many a house of cards. Much has been implied but no commission or court room has named him. The Kohli years dawned but sans captaincy, Dhoni seemed to have evolved into an ever more potent force.

It is that potent force that the yellow army trains it to Pune from Chennai to see. A sea of yellow soaks the stands as if India had found something new in lieu of blue.

With one run needed for a win, Suresh Raina defended the ball with the passion of a player freshly converted to Test cricket. In doing so, he handed the strike to his captain and the millions who were waiting for that winning six. Dhoni explained to Bhogle that as the field had come in, he attempted the six. As if.

The six was deposited in the hungry stomachs of Dhoni fans. Imagine, one bat, one six, feeds so many. Only to crave some more the next match.

CSK play SRH in the play-offs between the top two teams in the IPL. Yet another chance to see Dhoni. Doing Dhoni things. When will he walk out to bat? When will he point at the square-leg umpire after that speed-line stumping?

As with the greatest shows, there is a set routine. It’s set, because that’s the magic people want to see. The MSD magic. It starts at the toss. Where Dhoni can go on to explain why they’re batting or fielding, it’s as if time stood still. Not being India captain, makes these toss-talks even more precious.

Then there’s Dhoni in the dugout. With coach, Stephen Fleming alongside. A word here or there but no show of emotion. A blink of an eye at best. Is that an eye-fitness routine?

Another wicket falls, the crowds erupt expecting Dhoni. But it isn’t Dhoni, just as well, another chance to explode.

Secretly, how many Dhoni fans will be hoping to watch him in three matches instead of two? That CSK lose the play-offs on Tuesday to go on to play the eliminator — against the winner of Kolkata and Rajasthan, and eventually beat SRH again in the finals?

It has now gone beyond runs, averages, strike rates. After 14 league matches, it feels like Dhoni has always been there at the end of each match — not far from the truth, he’s been unbeaten nine times. And if CSK lose, as they have five times, as per the broadcasting ritual, Dhoni as losing captain, is there to give you a lowdown on what happened.

You can expect anything. There’s been ample lightness made of the team’s advanced years and their lack of dexterity in the field. It’s all delivered deadpan-Dhoni with that hint of a smile and a twinkle in the eye. So even before the interviewer makes it to the next question, reporters can write their post-match analysis with MSD’s inputs.

Whether or not Dhoni scores another run in the next few matches is immaterial. The IPL Hall of Fame is about to open in Chennai — it will be opened by Dhoni, it will toast Dhoni, the CSK years, those sixes, those stumpings, those memories.

And even if it is not, it resides within each of us. Here’s to Dhoni, one more time, and another, and another. Don’t stop.

The IPL started with you. Good or bad or badmash, it was always about you. When Sachin was still playing, when Rohit won it, or for that matter, whoever won it.

It always seemed as if you won it.

And CSK won it the moment they picked you and they chose yellow.

To paraphrase a song, I hope you had the time of Dhoni’s life.

First published here

Read more...

Return

Why Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers should not play in the same team

When AB does those things, like plucking white balls, one-handed out of thin air, the world goes nuts. And that silly smile sits on Virat’s face – there is contentment. His world is at peace. He may even have attained nirvana at that precise moment. He’s sitting in the RCB dugout but for all you know, he could be in McLeodganj with the Dalai Lama.

Often Virat is in the middle, and he can speak to his buddy after yet another of AB’s Do-Not-Try-This-At Home feats. The glow on Virat’s face is nothing short of a girl marrying her bearded Prince charming.

At no point has Virat tried to hide his fanboy awe of AB. Why would he? How could he? How could anyone? The very reason you pick AB de Villiers in your team is for such superhuman feats.  

It’s another thing that such superhuman feats will always have a downside – they will make everyone around, including Virat, far less. There’s no way you can match AB, so why not just roll over and die? Or do nothing. He’ll take care of it. He’s a superhuman after all.

And while AB can string together some fantastic strokes and catches, he is but a foot-soldier in the team. He is not RCB’s captain, Virat is.

Virat, in his own way, can be quite a superhuman. But by now, don’t we know that in the superhero hierarchy, there is the super superhero, and his flunky? While AB was being referred to as Superman and Spiderman (the latter by Virat too), India’s cricketing superhero was enjoying way too much shade.

There isn’t much between Virat and AB in terms of runs this IPL – while the captain played all 14 league matches (530 runs, averaging 48.18, striking at 139.10), the Superman was unwell for two (480 runs, averaging 53.33, striking at 174.54). While the difference in strike rates is 35+, Virat’s strike rate was still way above par.

While both Virat and AB had an indifferent 2017 season, they both were in supreme form in 2016 where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the finals.

A final in which current SRH skipper, Kane Williamson did not feature. He played six of SRH’s 17 matches that season. The then captain, David Warner, played all matches, leading SRH to the IPL trophy.

In 2017, Williamson played seven matches but upped his strike rate from 101 to 151, his batting average too more than doubled from 20.66 to 42.66. Warner, though, was in another zone (combining the best of Kohli and de Villiers) - scoring 848 runs at a strike rate of 151.42, at an average of 60.57 in 2016; averaging 58.27, striking at 141 in 2017.

Williamson, though, had moved in from the sidelines. This season when Warner was unavailable, Williamson led SRH to the play-offs as table toppers. 661 runs, average of 60 at a strike rate of 143.

Forget the numbers for a moment, and stand the four cricketers alongside each other. What do you see? Warner captain, Williamson vice-captain? AB superman, and Virat?

While Virat’s role has always been similar to that of Warner’s, to bat high up (if not open) and go on to bat through the innings with varying degrees of acceleration; it is AB’s brilliance that has been a distraction – not just for the captain but for the team on a whole.

In the shade of AB’s brilliance, RCB has underachieved yet again under Virat’s captaincy. It may sound downright preposterous but for RCB to come together as a team, they may have to split the most beautiful pairing in the IPL.

Virat may make a far better captain when he is trying to dismiss AB with the ball. The awe will be intact, (as it no doubt was in the last Test series) but there will be a far greater focus – a competition between the two, which can only happen when the two play against each other. As team mates, Virat almost seems to shudder from the limelight. And that is pretty much going against the grain.

Of course, there are other ways to do it too, go about the auctions smartly but that’s asking too much of royally challenged Bangalore.

First published here

Read more...

Return

Is Virat Kohli ready to rev up RCB?

The year 2016 was Virat Kohli's best IPL season by a long shot. He scored the first and last of his four IPL 100s that year. His strike rate at 152 was his highest ever. That year, Virat Kohli opened the batting with KL Rahul. Like some wild cats, openers too hunt in pairs. This season, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) gave KL Rahul the miss, and Kohli mostly gave opening the batting a miss.

Whatever goes on to happen in RCB's last two league matches, at five wins and seven losses, this has been far from a champion side. Out of these five wins, two have been against bottom placed Delhi Daredevils and another two against a weak Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), way too reliant on its openers. Three of these five wins have been of the blade of AB de Villiers.

RCB's other win was against Mumbai Indians which was on a losing spree.

While Kohli has opened the batting thrice out of 12 innings, he's largely batted at three, occasionally at four. Twice he opened with Quinton de Kock, and once the other day with Parthiv Patel, hunting down Punjab's two fat ladies, 88. He scored 48(28) that day. 92*(62) against Mumbai Indians' 213, where he was the only RCB batsman to go past 20. And while his score looks flash on paper, it was largely an innings of Net Run Rate damage-control, wherein he batted out the innings with wickets falling around him - he accelerated at the end, upping his strike rate and shrinking the margin of defeat. It was Kohli in auto-pilot mode. In many ways, like a perceptive Dhoni innings.

In between, he opened against CSK, ending with 18(15). There's no pattern to when Kohli opens, but on all three occasions, de Villiers (who missed a few matches) had been in the playing XI. Twice RCB had been chasing, once a 200-plus total, once a score below 100 - RCB's fourth, sixth and twelfth games.

Going into their thirteenth game, neither RCB nor Kohli still know what their best playing XI is - as with losing teams, their playing XI has been tossed around. Only now, Kohli, de Villiers, Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are sure shot starters but don't bet on that either.

Consumed by this uncertainty, Kohli has hedged his bets too - between coming at his customary three or even four, and only opening on the odd occasion. Opening the batting takes upon one of two roles:

1) Fearless T20 offensive

2) Coasting T20 offensive

While even a passive Kohli can coast at a steady strike rate of 120-plus, it's the destructive Kohli (s/r of 150-plus) that has taken a break. Inert openers, such as Gambhir and Rahane have relinquished their spot.

Whereas those such as KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and Jos Buttler have defined results.

Both Watson and Gayle have centuries, whereas KL Rahul has struck 558 runs at a strike rate of 162. His highest of 95*(70), wasn't too dissimilar to that of Kohli's 92* (62) - he was the lone warrior in a lost cause, the only batsman to go past 11.

While Rahul found in Gayle, a fellow bully opener, that plundered opening bowlers, Kohli had an unsure de Kock, preferring to partner a similarly accomplished bat such as de Villiers in the middle overs.

After being lost in the middle overs for half the tournament, Buttler opened the batting in a rain-hit 12 over shoot out. His 67(27) with seven sixes, all but stormed Delhi. However, this set Buttler for a record-breaking five half centuries on the trot - 82, 95*, 94* being his last three successful crusades. Buttler single-handedly beat stronger teams like CSK and MI with his bat. And when he failed to cross 50, in spite of a blistering start, 39(22), his team went down to KKR. But there was never any ambiguity. Buttler striking at 155, for his 548 runs of which 428 were in the last six innings opening.

Meanwhile, a more restrained Kohli has been striking at 142 for his 548 runs. While Kohli has had de Villiers for company, Buttler has largely been lonesome at the top and elsewhere too.

Goes to show that even a weak, somewhat imbalanced team such as Rajasthan can win matches with one Mad Max on the top. It may not always come off but when it does, there's nothing more spectacular than 100-run salute by a marauding bat.

It's over to Virat Kohli. Does he want to hold himself back? Does he want to unleash AB? Does he want to unleash both himself and AB? And if so, then why not on the top?

Surely they've both been watching Buttler bat. And learnt a thing or two about T20 attack in the power play. It's never too late to unlearn the art of restraint in this format. Especially, in your eleventh season.

First published here

Read more...

Return

Young master Rishabh Pant, The Avenger or our very own Rish Puttar?

Deep down is a realization that he must rage on – with or without the team.

Imagine for a moment that the Delhi Daredevils are the Delhi Defeatist Duds. OK, you don't have to imagine. They are. Defeat is part of their DNA. Oh, another D. Defeat, a way of life. Defeat that negates victory, and slays it if and when it hints at turning the tide. That each player, on signing up for the Duds, and being handed his cap, has the team's defeatist past instilled in his very being. "We've lost it," is the team motto.

Sounds dreadful? Not really. If and when hope may emerge, a key player will snuff it out. For argument's sake, let's call him Despair. Such players are always lurking, and handpicked for huge sums for a glorious cricketing past that is but a vague memory.

Despair will play so many games that the overall mood in the camp will be so gloomy that each player will start believing, "We've lost it". This will include players on the bench that are yet to play a match. Challengers of the Duds, who are part of the team, and show promise to turn defeat into something as hopeful as victory, are swiftly removed - either by non-selection, injury, personal matters or even conflict of interest - conflict being victory and defeat. They are rarely retained for the next season.

Midst of all this, there is a kid. A kid, because he's not really a boy, not quite a man. He's there. He got in through the DD cracks. He exists within the cracks. He goes unseen by the Dud police, he's invisible to their radars.

He is Rishabh Pant. The commentators still call him a teenager. Still others refer to him as "The boy who lived" or simply Rish Puttar (Punjabi for kid) or even Harry Potter. Rarely has a player survived the utter and complete despair of the Defeatist Duds - but here, he's even challenged and surmounted it.

There are jokes within rare light moments in DD circles that even though he wears the team shirt it is he who wears the Pant(s) in the team. Whatever. Such mirth is short-lived. A heap of wickets corrects any misplaced positivity. And then there is that other thing, every now and then, Rishabh wears a cap of a colour unlike that of his mates - it's called the Orange cap. There's nothing the Duds can do about it - as the League Dudes have placed it on his head.

There are other ways Rishabh doesn't confirm. He scores runs. Many, many runs. More than anyone kind of runs. That's what got him the orange cap. While the senior most batsman, who is called Max, but really should be called Min, scores very little runs - he is the core of the DD ethos, "Failure at all costs". He's always lurking.

On some days, such as when DD played the table toppers, SRH, in their own Dudyard, there was some misplaced hope. But before it could rub off from the DJ to the players, a few quick wickets went down. The third one, a run out, of the young captain, could have consumed Rishabh Pant. Which is when a Patel joined a Pant - and not Max or Min or whatever you want to call him. Maybe like Pant, Patel too came through a crack.

Out of syllabus as they joke on Twitter.

Rishabh himself is out of syllabus. He thrives on uncertainty like a superhero to an end-of-days reminder. Together, Pant and Patel, went their merry ways before the latter met with another dud of a dismissal - another run out.

Rishabh Pant went green, went Hulk, went nuts with anger. He was in Dudland but it didn't matter. Catharsis. Rish was a volcano, his bat meeting ball was an eruption of Hawaiian volcanic fury. The purge was on. You couldn't leave, fiery lava balls were flying every which way, over your head, into the dusty skies of Dudland.

It was spectacular, as often decimation this complete is. Rish's cannonball run took in its wake the best - first Rashid, then Bhuvi. Alongside Rish was Max (or Min) and in the kid on the other side, he saw a blurred glimpse of his glory days. And he hugged him as if he hugged his past self, as Rish raged on to his hundred.

After the hug, an exit, leaving Rishabh with five balls. What can one do with five balls - 4, 4, 6, 6, 6. Rishabh took Bhuvi for 26 runs, scooping, pulling, one-handed over long on.128* (63), taking DD from nothing to 187/5 off 20 overs. They did not win though. After a quick huddle, the Delhi Defeatist Duds took on the field. And lost without a whimper.

A few days back, the Indian T20 and ODI squad for England and Ireland was announced. Rishabh Pant was not there. Just as he doesn't fit into DD, he doesn't fit into the Indian side.

But there's always a sequel in these fantastic superhero movies, and from the ruin, once again will rise, Rish puttar.

[About Pant's 128*(63): 68.44 per cent of runs by a batsman - Second highest in the IPL ever behind Baz 158 in the first game of the IPL 59 runs off 18 balls in the last four overs from Pant's bat - highest any batsman has made in the last-four in the IPL] via ESPN Cricinfo

However true this may sound, some of this is a work of fiction. Only some though.

First published here

Read more...

Return