CSK leading the Points Table this Week
We will be analysing the teams on the basis of their positions in the points table (after match 21), right from the bottom.
Delhi Daredevils (DD) [P-5 W-1 L-4]
It is tough to digest that a team lead by an iconic IPL captain like Gautam Gambhir is languishing at the bottom of the table,5 matches into the tournament. What is worse is that, the one match, Delhi had won, had been on the personal brilliance of Jason Roy, rather than a team effort. A team, which looked fabulous on paper, is looking absolutely befuddled, on the field, inspite of having a charismatic leader. So, what is exactly going wrong for Delhi? The biggest issue for Delhi, has been their bowling in the middle & slog overs. Trent Boult & Mohammed Shami / Harshal Patel are doing a nice job upfront in the powerplay overs, but the Indian spinning duo of Rahul Tewatia & Shahbaz Nadeem are miserably failing to pick up wickets in the middle overs. The failure to pick up wickets in the middle overs, means that the opposition batsmen are getting settled down in the crease in the middle overs, ready to go berserk on a hapless bowling attack in the slog overs. I stated in my last week's blog that DD is missing Kagiso Rabada big time, and the performance of DD bowlers in slog overs in the second week of the tournament, only reinforces the statement. However, there are a few positives for DD to look forward to, in the good form of Shreyas Iyer & Rishabh Pant, but those have not been enough for DD to cross the line. Requiring to win, a minimum of 7 out of the remaining 9 matches, to qualify for the playoffs, it is looking extremely tough for DD, even with their charismatic veteran captain in the form of Gambhir, at the helm.
Mumbai Indians (MI) [P-5 W-1 L-4]
I am personally feeling sad, that MI is still languishing at the bottom of the table, even after the 2nd week of the season. In last week's blog, I had stated that MI will not clinch those last ball thrillers, until & unless, the core of the team is performing well. In the single match, that MI has won so far against RCB, it has been the captain, Rohit Sharma, who has led the way forward with an innings of 94. Yes, there has been notable performances from Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav & Ishan Kishan, but as we saw in the match vs RR, the difference between a Rohit Sharma playing through the innings of 20 overs, and a Suryakumar Yadav scoring a 70, is that Rohit ensures that his team finishes with a score of 20-30 runs more at end of 20 overs, by carefully not throwing his wicket away, once he gets set. Bumrah, is evidently out of form with his death bowling skills, and that is denting MI big time, as he is going evidently for a 15-18 run over, every other match at the death, making the chase easier for the opposition. The Pandya brothers, are yet to make a match winning contribution even after 5 matches. Hence, though, MI has done it before and has recovered from this situation to win the title in 2015, it is an uphill (not impossible) task for the defending champions at the moment, as they need to win 7 out of the remaining 9 matches, to stand a chance for the playoffs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) [P-5 W-2 L-3]
The 2 wins that, RCB had managed to eke out of the tournament so far, has been based on the individual brilliance of Mr. 360 AB de Villiers. The collective bowling failure of RCB however cannot stay hidden behind AB, for much longer. What is going wrong bigtime for RCB, this season, is the lack of strike bowlers in the line up. Yes, as proclaimed by Virat, they definitely have good bowlers in Chahal, Sundar, Umesh, Woakes etc. But all of them (except Chahal) are the kind of bowlers, who will give you 4 overs for 30 runs (Umesh & Siraj has pace, but consistent well directed pace bowling is something they need to learn) and may pick up the odd wicket. None of them are bowlers, who will pick wickets in clusters, to put the opposition on the back foot, with 2 new batsmen at the crease. Chahal, who is the only bowler capable of doing so, is unfortunately looking out of sorts this season for RCB. The consequence is, whenever Virat needs a wicket to end a developing partnership, he has no bowler to turn to. The opposition thus is nicely setting themselves up through the middle overs to unleash themselves in the slog overs. At the moment, to stand a chance for the playoffs, Virat's boys need to win a minimum of 6 from the remaining 9 encounters. Unless, Virat & AB hits the darkest purple patch in their IPL career in the upcoming 9 matches, RCB's prospect to the playoffs does not look very bright, at the moment.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) [P-6 W-3 L-3]
If there is a captain in IPL 11, who is leading his team worse than Dinesh Karthik, it is Ajinkya Rahane. It just appears that the pace of T20 game, is not suited for the leadership style of Rahane, as he is looking completely peevish with his leadership skills. In the match vs KKR at their homeground, he was absolutely comical, changing the field around every single ball of the over, while the confused bowler kept on dishing out boundary balls to the KKR batsman. Rahul Tripathi, who had been phenomenal in the opening spot in last year's IPL, was demoted to No. 6 to play the role of a finisher (in the first 5 matches), a role, he has hardly played in his cricketing career. Klassen was playing in the RR team to take on the spinners in the middle overs, but in the two matches, he has played thus far, Rahane has sent him to open in one and in the other, Klassen was sent out to bat in the 16th over of the match , when the spinners have finished their quota of bowling. The biggest flaw of Rahane's captaincy got exposed in the match vs MI, when Krishnappa Gowtham showed his capability with the bat. An uncapped spinning all rounder was bought by Rajasthan for 6.2 crore INR, because of his big hitting abilities. Rahane, pushed him down at No. 8, where he never got adequate chances to bat in the first 5 matches of the tournament. Hopefully after his match winning innings of 33* off 11 balls vs MI, Rahane will have enough sense, to push him higher up the order, such that he can use his batting abilities better for the team. The good news for RR is however, that Archer is fit and bowling well. Hopefully, he is the answer to the death bowling queries of the franchise, in the first few matches. Despite that, if Rahane will continue with his streak of captaincy blunders, it will not be a very easy journey for RR to the playoffs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) [P-5 W-3 L-2]
The team, which was absolutely looking invincible, at the first week of the tournament, has suddenly exposed a chink in their armour, after the 2nd week of the tournament is over. Last week, in my blog, I stated that if there is one thing Williamson will pray for is for Manish Pandey to find form. 2 weeks down the lane of IPL 11, that appears to be a major weakness for them. Primarily, due to the average performance of 4,5,6,7 in the batting order, SRH is on its way to be tagged as a 150-160 team. The oppositions are fancying their chances to win against SRH, by electing to bat first (reverse to the tournament trend) and putting up score of 190-200 on the board. The injury to Dhawan, has not just helped the causes for the team, and the batting is looking over reliant on the duo of Williamson & Dhawan. There is no player in the batting line up, who can score a 50 off 20 balls at the middle of the innings and take the game away from the opposition. Before other teams, cash in, on this weakness of SRH, they need to find a way out of this problem for sure if they are to survive in this competition. Inspite of the failure of the batting line up, the bowling line up as usual is looking absolutely fabulous (they may have a couple of off days) and SRH has the legs definitely to proceed towards the playoffs, provided some one from their middle order raises his game, to play the role of an enforcer consistently for his team.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) [P-6 W-3 L-3]
Much like RR, KKR is also experiencing severe captaincy issues from DK. Yes, they may have won 3 games, all on basis of team effort, but they might have won a couple more, had it not been for the captaincy of DK. Handing the last over to Vinay against CSK, had been a decision that has been criticized on all quarters, however I will draw your attention to a couple of other things. Narine, was promoted up the order to open in 2017, by GG at a time, when KKR lacked the services of both Lynn & Russell. The idea was to up the scoring rate inside the powerplay overs. Now, since Lynn and Russell are already in the team to act as enforcers in the powerplay & slog overs respectively, the role of Narine becomes insignificant. Now, who will replace Narine at the top of the order? My call will be Shubhman Gill. Shubhman Gill, is simply not a No. 7 batsman, who can come and slog straight way. He is a proper batsmen, who needs a few balls to get in and he can play the role of an accumulator for KKR, from the top of the order. Either Karthik needs to field Gill in the top 3 of the batting line up or not play him at all. In the second case, Wankhede or Rinku Singh can come in at 6, as they have played similar roles for their state teams. Wasting Gill at 7, is a big blunder that DK is continuing to make, for me. The other blunder, he did, cost KKR the match against KXIP. It is common knowledge, in international cricket, that KL Rahul cannot pick the googly at the beginning of the innings. Inspite of fielding 2 wrist spinners in Chawla & Kuldeep, DK started off the bowling attack against Rahul & Gayle, with Shivam Mavi & Russell. 2 batsmen, who absolutely love pace on the ball, were offered pacers by the opposition captain on a flat eden garden's wicket. They had fun with the bat, both striking at over 200 and took the match away from KKR. The team is not really looking comfortable with their new captain at the helm and the fact that his captaincy blunders have already cost KKR a couple of matches, wont do much good to the self belief of the skipper. However, its not all downhill for KKR. DK is identifying roles for his bowlers gradually ( powerplay bowlers, middle over bowlers & death bowlers) and along with that, the Indian batting core is looking in good touch along with DK himself. But if, KKR will continue with its leadership bloopers, it will be difficult for them to make their way into the playoffs, as they need to win a min of 5 of their remaining 8 matches.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) [P-5 W-4 L-1]
I had already appreciated Ashwin, big time in my last week's blog for his tremendous leadership skills. Speaking along the same line, dare I say, Ashwin with his leadership skills is proving to himself be a better captain than Virat Kohli. His use of the bowlers, field placements, and most importantly, his decision to play Chris Gayle at the top along with Rahul, has been decisions that has turned fortunes for KXIP. The universe boss is looking ever so 'young' at 39 and his destructive consistency reminds me of Sanath Jayasuriya, when he was bashing bowlers with ease in IPL 3, even at the age of 40. Not only Gayle, bowlers like Barinder Sran & Mohit Sharma are getting used perfectly by Ashwin, according tot heir skillset, as a result of which, oppositions are finding it difficult to score against them. KXIP team is looking well on its course, to seal their position in the playoffs, as they need to win only 4 of their remaining 9 matches. However, there are 2 major weaknesses for KXIP, that are standing out. Andrew Tye, is not delivering the death overs, that the team is expecting out of him. He is getting carted away for runs. The other issue is ironically Ashwin himself. Ashwin, has really not been in supreme bowling form for KXIP, which has been aggravated by the fact that he has tried to bowl leg spin, in place of his traditional off spinners, in order to compete with the young wrist spinners, in India's limited overs' setup. Ashwin, here needs to be careful, that he does not become the 'Mike Brearley' of KXIP, in the upcoming matches of the tournament.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) [P-5 W-4 L-1]
A familiar sight after 2 years in IPL. CSK under MSD leading the league table! A lot of us doubted CSK this time around, stating that, they had assembled a senior citizen team, for the T20 setup, purely on basis of emotional connect. 5 matches, into the tournament, they are possibly playing the best cricket among all the teams. 1 or 2 players are raising their game every match to make a match winning contribution and the ever-so-calm-captain-turned-legend is ensuring that the team is winning the tough situations of the game. Ambati Rayudu's adaptability has been a key source of success for CSK, in the past few matches. He has opened with Watson, with great success and when asked he dropped to the middle order and played a stupendous innings against SRH as well. The good news for CSK, besides Rayudu's form is that Raina is finding his mojo with the bat and Dhoni continues to apply the finishing touches to the innings, as he has been doing for the last 11 years. Add to that Watson's match winning century along with Dhoni's newest find in Deepak Chahar and CSK is gradually assembling a team that is staking it claim as a definite contender for the IPL 2018 trophy. With the current form of the players, it is only likely that CSK should breeze through to the playoffs, as they need to win 4 out of their remaining 9 matches to get to that stage. Though T20 is definitely a game of uncertainties, it may well be said that considering the position of CSK presently, Dhoni should only be thinking about a top 2 finish at the end of the group stages.
Conclusion
The league is already looking very interesting with some young talents coming to the fore in the form of Deepak Chahar, Krishnappa Gowtham etc. Some proven IPL performers are reaching a new level of consistency in the form of Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant & Ishan Kishan. Some league veterans are still proving their worth in gold in the form of MS Dhoni, Chris Gayle etc. All in all, IPL 11 till the second week, is definitely living up to its tagline "Where Talent meets Opportunity".
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