Sportsnob – Critics Corner

Sports fans can be a strange lot. They can forgive and forget a shambolic performance quite easily and at the same time harp on matches where the team loses by very small margins. But what fans cannot put up with is a lack of visble progress in their team. And that is exactly what seems to be happening with the Chennai Super Kings team.

This is a team which played well above its potential and made the final of the first Indian Premier League before ultimately coming second best to a Shane Warne and Yousuf Pathan inspired Rajasthan Royals team. In the second season, the team barely managed to scrape into the semi-finals before ultimately falling short to a very efficient Bangalore Royal Challengers. Even then, it was quite obvious that the team relied far too heavily on it’s batting, especially Matthew Hayden, Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself.

A continuing weakness

But the one theme that was evident through the second season and has now continued into the third season is the decline of the team. And worse, the management has not made a serious attempt to cover the flaws in the squad. The biggest weakness is obvious to even the most casual of cricket fans – the bowling attack.

Throughout the first and second seasons MS Dhoni often publicly criticized his bowlers out of sheer frustration. And the same frustration was evident today after the defeat against the Mumbai Indians. It is rather depressing that often when Dhoni wants to break a partnership he has to call on Lakshmipathy Balaji, Manpreet Gony or (much worse) Joginder Sharma. While Balaji can point out to the occassional success in this season, the performances of Gony and Joginder have gone downhill since the heady days of the first IPL.

And yet no changes..

And yet, it seems like no attempt has been made to add variety to the attack. From what I understand, the team did aggresively bid for Shane Bond and Kemar Roach before ultimately losing to the Knightriders and the Chargers respectively. With the knowledge that Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram weren’t be available through the tournament the management should have looked at other options. The team clearly was desperate for another strike bowler to complement Muralitharan and provide much needed bite in the final overs. Frankly, it is rather surprising the likes of Stephen Fleming or bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad have been unable to suggest good options in the off-season. When teams – most notably the Chargers, the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers have progressed, CSK along with Rajasthan Royals have regressed the most.

Making the best of limited options

Frankly, with this bowling attack, Mr. Fleming and MSD need to come up with a radical change in strategy to effect a transformation. Some suggestions from our side.

1. Joginder Sharma bowled a semi-decent over 3 years ago. Get over it. If you are desperate to play Indian pace bowlers – why not just give poor old Sudeep Tyagi another shot?

2. It is OK to play 3 spinners – especially when all 3 of them have different styles. It might just work on Indian pitches. And especially when your fast bowlers have economy rates of 11.00 (Joginder Sharma), 10.60 (Manpreet Gony) or 9.09 (Balaji)

3. Suresh Raina, as much as this may surprise the two of you, does know how to bowl. He has been used before for both India and the Chennai Superkings and is known to do a decent job. Most importantly, he has a cricketing brain.

4. How about variety in the attack in the form of left arm speedster Thilan Thushara? I know the two of you like all rounders and Thushara fits the bill. Plus, he has actually done well for Sri Lanka in the shorter forms of the game.

5. Speaking of pace bowlers – have you considered Makhaya Ntini? This is after all someone who has taken nearly 600 wickets at the international level. Sure, his performance dropped of late but when your alternatives read Joginder Sharma you can definitely at least give him a chance. Forget fitting the foreigners quota with people who can do a bit of both (ie Shaun Kemp or Thissara Perera). Give a match winner a shot for once.

Photo Source: S. Jagadesh

In what proved to be a return to competitive cricket at IPL 3, the Chennai Super Kings beat the Delhi Daredevils by 5 wickets, with 5 balls to spare, on a slightly two-faced Kotla wicket this Friday afternoon. Although the pitch did act up from time to time, for the most part it was a featherbed, as Virender Sehwag and Matthew Hayden, as well as a debutant mongoose bat will attest to.

The Cobra

Dinesh Karthik, captaining in place of the injured Gautam Gambhir, won the toss and chose to bat first. As is his wont, Sehwag didn’t waste any time, and toyed with the Super Kings bowlers much as a cobra would toy with its prey – tormenting them, taunting them, and then zap! Another ball dispatched into or over the ropes. Even though Warner departed relatively early, things looked ominous as delivery after delivery disappeared.

Debut skipper Suresh Raina must have wondered whether bad karma from a previous life was at work, until the evergreen Murali struck with two wickets in an over – the mercurial Dilshan falling first, giving Raina the first (and easiest) of the three catches he ended up taking. What followed had a sense of déjà vu about it, as Justin Kemp reprised his heroics for the Hyderabad Heroes in the ICL, grasping a Sehwag clout one-handed, out of thin air, inches short of the boundary line – a truly brilliant catch.

From then on, the Delhi innings could only trundle where it had once galloped. It took a late surge from Rajat Bhatia to bump their score up to 185. Chennai were superb in the field – the second and third of the afore-mentioned catches by Raina were outstanding – something which has certainly been improved on since last year’s farcical state of affairs.

The Super Kings’ innings started well, with 4 boundaries coming off Umesh Yadav’s first over. Parthiv Patel was then run out by a combination of poor calling and superman skills from AB Devilliers. It didn’t help that Patel also appeared to have the turning circle of a luxury cruise liner. Hayden knocked another one to the fence and then called for the much-awaited mongoose bat.

The Mongoose

The blade belongs to a bat that Sachin Tendulkar might have used when he was, say, a foot shorter than he is today. But it’s all meat, and there’s a long handle to go with it. If Sehwag was a cobra, then it was apt that a mongoose would be needed to counter him. (Oh, and if you didn’t see this ‘joke’ coming, please drop an email to sportsnob@gmail.com for further instructions)

Hayden went berserk. 18 runs came off a Rajat Bhatia over, with three fours and six. Dilshan wasn’t so lucky – 21 came off one of his overs, including 3 maximums – and the big Aussie reached his 50 off 24 balls. The thing about this bat is, even the shots which don’t appear to be well timed seem to accelerate in mid-air after leaving the blade. By the time Haydos departed to an outstanding catch by Dilshan, diving forward at mid-on, he had plundered 93 runs off 43 balls.

Morkel departed soon-after, and suddenly the game appeared to be on again. However, a steady 49 by Suresh Raina and a quickfire dozen from Murali Vijay meant that the Super Kings squeezed home – the skipper clearing the ropes off the first ball of the final over to win the match.

After two days of incredibly one-sided matches, it was good to see a game contested till the death again. However, the main takeaway from this contest, more than anything, was the brutal introduction of the mongoose to the IPL.

Picture Courtesy: Sky Sports

Things that are overhyped often fail to live up to their billing – Murphy, we have to concede, is a very powerful man after all. Tonight’s match was no exception as well – Delhi vs. Mumbai is a big rivalry in Indian cricket. Add to it the exciting line ups and of course, the Kotla pitch which has been courting a lot of attention both on and off the field, and the evening was set for a lip smacking encounter. But then our man Murphy struck, and the Mumbai Indians put on a totally professional performance, outclassing the Daredevils in their own den.

Put into bat by Gambhir, the tone for the match was set by the Mumbai skipper, Sachin Tendulkar himself. Runs flowed from his blade in the same elegant hurry as we have been used to for the past 20 years and though the home team was at the receiving end, there was no shortage of support for the Little Master at the Kotla. He scored a quick-fire 63 of 32 balls, an effort which earned him the Man of the Match award as well. Youngsters Tiwary and Rayudu came to the party too, and some late over lusty blows by the Calypsos – Bravo and Pollard – ensured Mumbai never let their foot off the pedal, posting a very formidable score of 218 in their 20 overs.  The Delhi fielding was patchy barring the 12^th man Yogesh Nagar, who probably took the catch of the tournament to get rid of Sanath  Jayasuriya.

The Daredevils were already a batsman short due to an injury to their skipper, Gambhir, and the onus was on Sehwag to fire. Dilshan finally managed to open his account in IPL  3 and Sehwag showed a preview of his trademark pyrotechnics, but some very disciplined bowling and a brilliant fielding performance by the Indians never allowed Delhi a sniff at the target. They won by a whopping margin of 98 runs, their biggest ever victory in the IPL.

Mumbai now have 2 out of 2 and Delhi tasted their first defeat of the series. However, Gambhir’s injury and his subsequent unavailability will make sure that the Delhi think tank has a lot to ponder before their next match against the Super Kings.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the battle of the leggies, Kumble and Warne at Bangalore. With RCB hitting some serious form against the KXP, the Royals are going to have a real challenge to open their points tally this season, especially since Smith and Mascharenas have been ruled unfit. Join us here for the review.

The Super Kings stormed back in style on Tuesday night, hammering the Kolkata Knight Riders by 55 runs to take them into third place in the nascent IPL league table. As this correspondent noted two days ago, the Bengali outfit are nearly as overhyped as their owner’s acting skills, and their meek capitulation to a Dhoni-driven Chennai side went some way towards proving it.

KKR got off to a more than decent start, getting rid of the potentially dangerous Matthew Hayden early on. Things were going swimmingly, with regular wickets being taken, until MS Dhoni got going with Badrinath providing an able supporting role. Shane Bond bowled a beautiful line and length, while Murali Karthik made yet another case for a return from the international wilderness – his 4 overs yielded no boundaries, a rarity in this form of the game.

However, Ganguly’s men were powerless when faced with the might of the Indian Captain’s bottom hand. Having scored a measly 81 runs from the first 14 overs of their innings, one would have thought anything from here on in would be too little too late. What followed was nothing short of a violent assault, as 83 runs came off the final 36 balls, Dhoni finishing with a stunning 66 of 33 deliveries – the highlight undoubtedly being the flattest six you will ever see, knocking over a couple of tiger mascots stationed just beyond the mid wicket boundary.

In reply, Kolkata were never really allowed to get going – the rot started in the first over, when Brad Hodge pulled the ball straight to Ashwin at mid wicket. Manoj Tiwary smacked a couple of fours off Manpreet Gony before having his stumps rearranged – he scored 8 runs off 3 balls. Wickets continued to fall with alarming regularity, and every single bowler (bar Suresh Raina) got in on the act. A great team performance by the boys in yellow.

Tomorrow night promises to be a right corker though – the Mumbai Indians take on the Delhi Daredevils in what promises to be the match of the tournament thus far. Come back tomorrow for the review.

Picture Courtesy: Chennai 365

While one might say the Super Kings have always been slow starters, that things will come together in the fullness of time, that Yes, we will most definitely reach the semi-finals, I believe the thing that says it all last night was the fact that a stray dog spent more time on the pitch than all the CSK batsmen combined.

Admittedly, the ground staff were more than a little lax – after the first few abortive attempts to chase it off the field, they sort of adopted an air of resignation. Even the fielders ignored it completely, which is a shame, because if they’d put their foot down and waited for it to leave, Chennai might have earned a creditable draw against the current IPL champions (thanks to the match being abandoned, of course).

Anyway, I digress. There were very few positives to take from last night’s performance at the M A Chidambaram stadium. Ashwin Ravichandran bowled fairly well, and the Kings’ fielding was more than adequate, as evinced by the three run outs they effected. Two things puzzled me – firstly, why on earth did Dhoni give Sudeep Tyagi the final over of the Chargers’ innings? It was clear to all and sundry that he wasn’t hitting his straps and was low on confidence. Which brings me to the second bewilderer – why didn’t Raina get a bowl last night?

Chennai’s batting was quite possibly a tribute to Brett Lee’s band – Six and Out seemed to be the order of the day. Every time a batsman hit a six, he would end up getting out within the space of 4 deliveries. Some of the shot selection – Raina’s and Badri’s in particular – was abysmal. Chaminda Vaas bowled brilliantly – castling Murali, accepting Raina’s gift, and then drawing a false shot from Hayden.

Here’s hoping things change tomorrow night against a very overhyped Kolkata outfit.

Picture Courtesy: The Hindu

The only two teams that have failed to make the semifinals in both the editions have been, ironically, the cities with the highest profiles and the cities that have been backbones of Indian cricket. If the Mumbai Indians acquired a big profile thanks to the Ambanis, the iconic status of the city itself and it’s number one player Sachin Tendulkar – the Kolkata Knightriders owe a lot to their owner (and a Mumbaiite himself) Shahrukh Khan for raising their profile.

The Inconsistent Mumbai Indians

Mumbai’s case has been one of inconsistency – in both editions they managed to follow good performances with dire ones and more significantly, ended both seasons with a string of defeats thereby ending their hopes of making the semifinals. This time around a lot will depend on (who else) Sachin Tendulkar carrying his test and one-day form into the 20-20 version. It’s also going to be interesting to see how Kieron Pollard performs considering the money the Ambanis paid for him.

Kolkata: From the sublime to the ridiculous

Everything started so well for Kolkata two years ago when Brendon McCullum launched one of the most breathtaking assaults ever seen on a cricket field in the first ever IPL match. The Knightriders’ challenge faded away in the first season after a series of poor performances, and despite a late revival, they couldn’t make the final four.

What happened last year in South Africa though was inexcusable. John Buchanan first came up with the concept of multiple captains during the tournament – something that can never work in a game like cricket. Following which Shahrukh Khan made Brendon McCullum captain at the expense of Sourav Ganguly. In the middle of all this, someone launched the incredibly popular fakeiplplayer blog – giving details about team meetings and throwing light on the chaos within the team. This mess led to a scenario where the team lost an incredible nine (NINE!) games in a row which resulted in the team ending up bottom of the table

Despite the lack of success on the field – KKR have been the most successful team financially, as Shahrukh Khan threw his brand name behind the team. In the off season, the KnightRiders spent big money on Shane Bond and re-signed Sri Lankan spinner Ajanta Mendis. Most importantly, they have signed Dav Whatmore as head coach – a shrewd signing considering his history of successful tenures with Asian teams.

My predictions

My gut tells me one if not both of these teams will make the semifinals. Why? Quite simply, they have the most to prove. 20-20 cricket is a fantastic leveler – a quick 30 here or an inspired run out there can make a big difference and produce upsets such as when Zimbabwe defeated Australia and the Dutch memorably upstaged the English.  It’s impossible to imagine such results in a five day match because test cricket offers you a second chance.

And lest we forget, the two teams that finished at the bottom of the table in Season I of the IPL  - the two finalists in Season II – Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers.

The second season of the IPL is finally here and what a start it has been to the tournament! After a splendid opening ceremony, we saw the two finalists from last year being beaten comprehensively. The matches so far have been a pleasant change from last year where the sole aim of the teams was to outhit each other. We have already seen that that strategy won’t work this year. The conditions seem much more helpful for the bowlers, especially the seamers. And batsmen will actually need to focus on playing themselves in, not missing out on the bad deliveries and playing some daring and innovative shots once set. It will, rather happily, not be a situation of step on front foot and swing the bat.

What this means for the teams

In this edition, the teams that will succeed will be the ones whose seamers can bowl tight in the initial overs – and garner wickets for the spinners bowling later. More importantly, the teams in the final four will be the ones that have their batsmen scoring the most singles and twos in the process of getting set. While we will see the occasional 100 from 40 balls knock, we will more likely see the 60 from 40 balls with 30 runs in boundary hits. And as this becomes the key, the teams that can save the singles and cut down the twos will be more successful. We will see a twenty20 tournament that will be a throwback to the era of one day cricket before WC96. Where the ‘Dean Jones’ kind of batsman is preferred to the ‘Kris Srikkanth’ kind. Finally, as most people point out, the performance of the senior cricketers in the teams will be critical especially in the first half of the tournament. Based on all this and the way the next few matches go, where do the teams stand? Who do we think are the favourites ? Watch this space for more…

If the first edition of the Indian Premier League started with a barrage of sixes off the bat of Brendon McCullum, the second edition was a much more sedate affair. The first six of the tournament didn’t come till late in the Mumbai Indians innings in the first match. Batting was a little bit more trickly in the South African conditions and as the Rajasthan Royals found out – even a score of 133 was extremely difficult to chase under the lights. The first day was disappointing for both of last year’s finalists- Chennai Superkings and Rajasthan Royals. If the Superkings got all their tactics wrong, the Royals went better by putting up a dismal batting performance. Clearly, the Mumbai Indians and the Bangalore Royal Challengers had upped their games and upset the odds. But the most interesting part of the first day were the performances of three Indian veterans – two of whom were deemed by selectors and most fans to be too old for both the 50 over and 20 over formats of the game.

On a day when all expensive signings such as Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Tyrone Henderson didn’t set the matches on fire – it was the old warhorses who shone the brightest. While Sachin Tendulkar’s performance came as no surprise considering he has been in very good touch of late – with fantastic hundreds in New Zealand, it was the performances of the Bangalore duo that would have made a lot of their fans happy. 

Proving Vijay Mallya wrong

I have only seen Rahul Dravid react the way he did after his fifty once before – after reaching his century against the Australians in that famous Calcutta test. The way he pointed his bat to the stand was clear – he was sending a message out to the owners and critics who were doing their best to undermine him even before the tournament had started. All of last season, Dravid had to endure severe criticism for putting together a team that couldn’t do much right. The team’s poor performance completely hid the fact that Dravid had a pretty impressive tournament personally – ending up as Bangalore’s highest run getter and at a good strike rate. Coming into bat at a very precarious 17 for 3 – he played a wonderful innings with shots to all parts of the parks. There were on drives, delicate nudges, powerful sweeps and even a powerful six over midwicket.

The value of Dravid’s innings can truly be measured by the fact that only Kevin Pietersen managed to cross 11 in both sides. Dravid’s 66 ensured that the Royal Challengers got to 133 – giving them atleast a fighting chance against the defending champions.  It’s going to be a big loss for the Royal Challengers when in two weeks they are not only going to lose Kevin Pietersen (who goes away to play the West Indies) but also Rahul Dravid who is scheduled to fly back to be with his pregnant wife. Then came Kumble – who bowed out half way through the series against Australia. Three overs and four really poor shots in he had astounding figures of 5 wickets 5 runs. A lot of sports websites (including this one!) completely discounted the impact of Anil Kumble on the IPL and judging by his performance yesterday – Kumble could make a difference provided his fitness levels stay up. The Royal Challengers have spent a lot of money in trying to remake their squad – Kevin Pietersen, and Jessie Ryder have come in along with Roban Uthappa. Interestingly, it looks like it will be the two gentlemen in their mid 30s who could have the biggest say in their fortunes this year. 

After the four semifinalists and the Mumbai Indians today is the turn of the only team to turn a profit in the first season of the IPL

Team: Kolkota Knightriders

Captain: Good Question!

Coach: John Buchanan

Trump Card: Brendon McCullum

X-Factor: Ajanta Mendis

Whats changed from last season:

Umar Gul misses out because he is from Pakistan. Brendon McCullum will be available for the whole tournament which is a big plus. Mashrafe Mortaza will make his debut for the Knightriders – meaning big support from the other side of the border in Bangladesh.

  What happened in 2007

As much as we dislike Shahrukh Khan for his over the top acting, we have to admit he ran the Knightriders well last season. Shahrukh convinced companies whose brands he endorses such as Nokia and Pepsi to sponsor the Knightriders as well. He charmed the media, consistently made the headlines through the tournament and incredibly managed to win the support of the neutrals. Polls conducted in India showed impressive support for the Knightriders even among people in Mumbai and New Delhi. However, despite putting together a reasonably strong team in the auction, the Knightriders flattered to deceive and ended up outside the top four.

 This year, Kolkota has been making news for all the wrong reasons – Buchanan’s controversial and frankly ridiculous four captain theory has strained his relationship with Saurav Ganguly. While the idea might seem revolutionary, the idea that you might have four different captains in a team might lead to unnecessary pressure on the four and too many messages being sent to the youngsters. How Chris Gayle might make a difference in 2 weeks with a bunch of kids whom he doesn’t even know remains to be seen. Buchanan’s announcement and the resulting attack by Sunil Gavaskar has turned into a spat between Gavaskar and Shahrukh Khan. How it effects the team will be interesting to see. 

The Batting: 

The batting will of course be bolstered by the presence of the Brendon McCullum through the whole tournament. In the recent series against India, McCullum showed a more responsible side to his batting leading the Kiwis to victories in both the T20s, something that augurs well for the Knightriders. And let us not forget that this is the guy who kicked off the IPL last year with the most incredible knock against Bangalore. Interestingly, McCullum has also been nominated as the captain for their first match this weekend. Saurav Ganguly has been in half decent form leading up to the tournament and so has youngster and future Indian hope Cheteshwar Pujara. David Hussey will be available only for the latter half of the tournament anyway. Chris Gayle’s presence in the first half of the tournament should be a great boost for the Kolkota side. 

The Bowling: The bowling looks a little stronger than the batting but is not the best in the league- Ishant Sharma will have to lead the attack and in the absence of Umar GUl will have extra pressure on his young shoulders. He has done a lot of bowling and a lot of traveling in the recent months and for someone so young, it is going to take a lot of mental effort to stay on top of his game. Giving him support will be men like Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar, Charles Langeveldt, and Mashrafe Mortaza – all of them good bowlers but none you would expect to light the tournament on fire. The spin department looks better with  Mural karthik and Ajanta Mendis- while Kartik has had a lot of success in the 20-20 format in England, Mendis still remains a mystery to the cricket world at large and should be able to do well against a lot of teams. Overall, the team looks weak when compared to the likes of Superkings and the Dardevils.

A lot will depend on the youngsters and how they contribute to the team. Of course, the battle might be lost by the first week with the kind of reactions to the new captaincy theory.