IPL 11 has completed its 5th week and as it steps into the final week of the round robin matches, the league is exhibiting a trend that has been established by all the past ten versions of IPL- the indecisiveness regarding the 4 playoff spots, till the final week of the event. At the completion of the 5th week of IPL 11, 2 teams stand qualified for the playoffs- along expected lines, the teams being CSK & SRH, the best teams in this edition of the tournament by far. But the remaining 2 spots are still up for grabs and as is so familiar in IPL history, around 3-4 teams are competing in the last week of the league matches for those 2 positions.
I have been covering the tournament with weekly blogs, right from the beginning. Hence, I would request the first time readers to go through my previous blogs (the links are listed below), as in my writing, I will be referring to my past blogs time & again. Thus going through the previous blogs will make the experience smooth for the reader.
Now, following the trend of the last 4 blogs of my blog-series on IPL 11, I will be reviewing each franchise and analyze their performances for the 5th week, in the league, one by one. The order of analysis will be from the bottom to the top, in the league table.
Delhi Daredevils (DD) [P-12 W-3 L-9]
Delhi Daredevils, is the 'Paul Pogba' of IPL. The French midfielder, now plying his trade for Manchester United, is a prospect, that is yet to bloom. Every year, the experts think, that, this will be the year, Pogba will be taking the Champions League by storm, but the thought is yet to materialise. Every year, there is some brilliant dribbling and midfield work by this French man, but the goal sheet or the number of assists remains nil or negligible. So, is the situation with DD. DD since, the last 3 years, boast of some young Indian talents, like Rishabh Pant , Shreyas Iyer in their line up. The likes of Abhishek Sharma, Prithvi Shaw got added to the young talent rooster of DD, this year. But, for all the impressive flash in the pan performances from these young guns, DD are the wooden spoon holders, at the end of the 5th week of IPL, and it will probably be that way, when the league stage finishes. We have been waiting for the DD core team to mature for the last 3 years, much like Pogba, and it appears, they are still quite far from doing so. Pant, has had a good season this IPL, Iyer has had a decent season with the bat, Shaw has impressed in his few outings thus far, but none of them has been able to consistently produce innings, that took away matches from the opponents in a matter of a few overs. That, for me, is one reason, why DD has had a dismal outing inspite of having a team full of potential. Another factor, that, I have mentioned in my previous blogs, that has stood against DD,in this year's IPL, is the lack of good quality spinners. Rahul Tewatia & Shahbaz Nadeem are never even coming close to deceiving batsmen and that is allowing batsmen, to settle down and score big in the later stages of the innings. Gautam Gambhir, who is so used to choking oppositions with Narine's spin, since his KKR days, must have felt the unpleasant change in his new franchise, and after he has passed the baton over to Iyer, the young 23 year old Mumbaikar is surely facing the same problem as well. DD's campaign is all over, for this season of the IPL, as they stand eliminated with no hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) [P-11 W-4 L-7]
Virat Kohli is to RCB, what Lionel Messi is to Argentina.
Virat Kohli is to Indian Cricket team, what Messi is to Barcelona.
These 2 lines sum up the campaign of RCB. 11 matches into the season, Virat has tried almost every possible combination, that he could afford with his allotted team of 24 members, but to no avail. There have been odd matches, where RCB has won based on the individual brilliance of ABD or Virat or both, but there has hardly been a match, where the entire team has come together, as a unit. I have criticised Virat's captaincy quite severely in my last blog- what I feel after observing his leadership skills over the tournament is that, Virat needs to show a bit of patience with his players. He needs to understand, that every player in his team does not have the capability of Virat Kohli, and they need some time and a lot of confidence from the skipper to perform. This is where I feel, RCB's campaign went haywire this season. Players like Manan Vohra, Parthiv Patel, Washington Sundar, Murugan Ashwin,were constantly shuffled in & out of the team, thus denting their confidence. I strictly feel, if RCB would have stuck to a fixed core of players, for a longer period of time, they would have fared much better. However, at the fag end of the tournament, it looks that Virat has got his combinations right, by playing 2 lower order overseas all rounders int he form of Moeen Ali & Colin De Grandhomme, in place of De Kock & Mccullum. This is allowing the RCB batting to extend beyond the top Virat & AB, as Mandeep, CDG & Moeen is taking care of the lower middle order- an aspect that has been missing in the RCB lineup for quite a bit of time. The death bowling responsibilities, it looks, are being well executed by Tim Southee & Mohammed Siraj- but you may just start wondering is it coming all too late for RCB? Even if they go on to win their next 3 matches in the tournament, they will at max, finish with 14 points, in their kitty. Combine this with the fact that, they have a negative net run rate, which until & unless receives a massive boost, will never be able to compete with the superior net run rate of Mumbai Indians, in case there is a tie at 14 points for the 4th spot to the playoffs.
Mumbai Indians (MI) [P-12 W-5 L-7]
Just, as it was looking in the tournament, that MI is going to stage another fairytale comeback, by going on a winning spree, they faltered in front of Rajasthan, or should I say they faltered in front of Butler? MI has been following a very familiar trend, since the beginning of this IPL. Lose the first few matches- Stand on the verge of elimination- Win a few matches to recover your position- Again lose matches to reach a position, where you need to win every match thereafter to reach the playoffs- then go on a winning spree to storm into the playoffs and maybe win the trophy. Along the familiar script, they managed to win only 2 out of their first 8 matches, making all their remaining 6 matches to be must-win matches. As expected, the moment, MI reached a must win position, they went on a winning spree by defeating Kings XI Punjab and thereafter thrashing KKR in consecutive matches. However, MI's well accustomed script was brutally hampered by a player, who ironically has been part of the MIpaltan, till the last year, Jos Butler, as he single-handedly guided RR to a successful run chase against MI. Whether MI will make it to the playoffs or not is a matter of speculation, but what can be assured is that, MI is keeping up with their good habit of unearthing young Indian talents and giving them ample opportunities. Suryakumar Yadav, at the top of the order, has turned out to be a revelation for the franchise. The magnitude of Surya's performance in the context of IPL, can be manifested from a single stat. Suryakumar Yadav, has recorded the highest runs by an uncapped player, ever in IPL history (473* till date). The previous best runs in a season by an uncapped Indian was that of Paul Valthaty (463), the one season sensation of KXIP, in IPL 4. The fact that Surya has at least 2 more matches up his sleeve, only manifests that he may well finish the season with 550+ runs, which is a mammoth achievement for an uncapped Indian player. If Surya gives the team an essence of an experienced seasoned domestic player, Ishan Kishan brings in the perfect exuberance of youth to complement it. The innings, Kishan played against KKR (62 off 20 balls), is going to be talked about in IPL folklore, for quite a bit of time, as it was one of those few innings, which solely won MI the match at Eden Gardens. However, for all the young guns, exhibiting impressive performances, MI is presently languishing at 6 in the league table and even winning the next 2 matches, will not be enough for them to move to the playoffs. They have to pray for a few results to go their way, if they want to move to the business end of the tournament.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) [ P-12 W-6 L-6]
I remember in IPL 4, Chris Gayle went unsold in the auctions. RCB, was struggling midway into the season, when to add to their woes, their lead pacer, Dirk Nannes got injured. Quite surprisingly, RCB decided to have a batsman, in replacement of a bowler, and called up Chris Gayle, as a replacement for the injured Nannes. Thus began, one of the most famous love affairs between RCB & Gayle. Gayle turned that season head on for RCB, as he won matches for his team, all on his own, thus storming RCB to the IPL final. from the bottom of the league table. In the IPL final, RCB faced CSK and was asked to chase down a 200 plus score in 20 overs by the MS Dhoni led side. In a leadership move, that is talked about even till today, Dhoni brought on Ashwin in the first over of the match, and the off spinner dismissed the universal boss in his first over itself. Of course, the RCB chase immediately lost steam and the legend of the 'Thala' grew as CSK won the championship. I see, a similar story brewing for RR & Jos Butler. Midway into the season, RR was going nowhere with their indecisive leadership and improper batting lineup filled with out of form players. Suddenly, Butler got promoted to open the batting, and boom! Every other fault of the team got covered up under the brilliance of Jos Butler. Butler has scored 5 consecutive 50s, since he has been asked to open the batting and out of the 5 innings, he has alone, won RR their last 3 matches. Yes.. Butler is hiding a fragile middle order, a weak spin bowling attack and inconsistent death bowling for RR, all by his tremendous hitting prowess. But just like Ashwin in 2011, dismissed Chris Gayle in that decisive final, I believe RR will face a similar fate, with Butler. Maybe a Sunil Narine off break will sneak through his defence, in the very next match, in the first over itself and it will be interesting to see, how RR will cope with that pressure, after that. However, 3 consecutive wins have positioned RR, in a comfortable position with respect to their playoff hopes. They have 2 remaining matches and they have to win both of them to move to the playoffs. Will there be a couple of more Butler shows on offer? Or will finally someone else come up from that weak middle order of RR, to take the onus upon himself? The upcoming week will surely be a nail biting week for the RR fans, as they compete for a place in the top 4.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) [P-12 W-6 L-6]
KKR has had a campaign, that has literally blown hot & cold. They have never been able to get on a winning spree- the highest number of consecutive matches they won in the season was 2. IPL 2 taught the KKR management, that confusion regarding captaincy does not work in T20 cricket, as the spat between Ganguly & Mccullum, resulted in KKR being the wooden spoon holders that season. IPL 11 has taught KKR management, that you never go into an intensive tournament like IPL, banking big time on injury prone players and by backing them to play the whole season. KKR is very clearly missing Starc, even after 12 matches into the season. None of Johnson, Curran or Searless are living up to fill the massive vacant boots of Starc and that is hurting the franchise big time. Yes Shivam Mavi has been impressive in the few matches he has played, so has been the lanky pacer, Prasidh Krishna from Karnataka, but the lack of an international pacer is clearly showing in the line up. KKR certainly did not help their causes by not picking any Indian international fast bowler as well and that is coming back to haunt them. They faced 2 disastrous thrashings at the hands of the Mumbai Indians. The match, at Eden Gardens, where KKR succumbed to MI, by a mammoth 102 runs, was a make or break match for them. Such matches, either reinforce the team with a new-formed bond or such losses simply disintegrate the team's campaign. Luckily for KKR, the former happened, as they came charging back in the next match to defeat KXIP at Indore, by a margin of 31 runs, as they lodged a massive 245/6 on the board at the end of 20 overs. Standing at this point of the league, KKR needs to win their next couple of matches against RR & SRH, if they are to make their way into the playoffs. It does not look easy at all, especially in the absence of a front line pacer, to lead the attack. But there are a few positives, that KKR can look forward to. Their skipper, after some outright bloopers in leadership decisions, in the initial few matches, has settled down on his role and to add to it, he is batting in a dream form of his life. Russell, who was visibly nursing a sore hamstring for the majority of the matches, seems to have got back his bowling mojo, as he cranked up his pace to beyond 140 kmph, in the last encounter against KXIP. Will that be enough to proceed to the playoffs? The final week of the league matches, will surely give us the answer.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) [P-11 W-6 L-5]
If there is one team, whose fortunes took a dramatic turn during this week of IPL, it is surely the Kings XI. KXIP 2018, is reminding me of RR 2014. Rajasthan Royals had a very decent season till the first 10 matches, in IPL 2014, as they occupied the first 2 positions. Then they suddenly went on a losing spree and in that famous match, got defeated by MI, who chased down 190 in 14.4 overs. The match got famous because of that one scene, where the perennial good boy of Indian Cricket Rahul Dravid threw his cap onto the ground in utter disgust, in the RR dugout, after they lost their playoff spot. I don't know, whether the same fate awaits KXIP, but they are surely going through a bad patch in the last few matches. Before we get to the negatives of KXIP, let us declare that,Lokesh Rahul is playing in the form of his life. He is holding the entire innings together and inspite of that, he is just not getting adequate support from the other end. Chris Gayle, after some initial blistering knocks, has performed below average in the last few matches, thus robbing KXIP of the mammoth opening partnership that has contributed to majority of their wins. Gayle's failure at the top is surely not aided by the fact that, everyone in that Punjab middle order is misfiring be it Mayank Agarwal or Aaron Finch or Yuvraj Singh or Manoj Tiwary or Akshdeep Nath or Marcus Stoinis or Axar Patel. Ashwin is decent with the bat, but only in the lower middle order, but this massive void left in the middle order is becoming too hard to fill and is hence becoming a point of exploitation for the rest of the opponents. Ashwin has tried every possible permutation & combination, in the middle order and absolutely none of them is performing. To give the readers an idea of how big a failure has the middle order turned out to be, let me give you another bit of stat. The only 50 plus score, that has been scored by a KXIP middle order batsman, this season, was by Karun Nair, in the first match of the tournament. After that, it has been all downhill. However, courtesy some excellent bowling from Ashwin, Mujeeb & Andrew Tye, KXIP have managed to hide their middle order woes in their initial few matches, but that ploy is now getting exposed. Due to a good first half of the tournament, KXIP still does not face a situation, where they need to win all their matches from now, to go to the playoffs. To assure a play off berth, KXIP needs to win 2 out of their remaining 3 matches, and Ashwin surely does not want to get to that point, where they need to win every match moving forward. So the upcoming week is extremely important for KXIP as well, as they look to reinstill some lost momentum into their campaign.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) [P-12 W-8 L-4]
IPL makes people do strange things. It causes a guy like Dravid, to show his frustration in front of the camera. It causes Captain Cool to lose his cool and be visibly disappointed with his players. Yes, it was such a rare situation, that occurred at the finishing stages of the RR vs CSK match. But post match Dhoni said something very interesting. he said " Its not about only making it to the playoffs. Its about winning matches." I wonder, how deep that statement meant. While all the teams and us cricket fans, have been doing the maths, about how many wins will be necessary for the teams, to make it to the playoffs, here is Mr. MS Dhoni, who is simply not willing to get into such petty calculations. He is willing to win every game and he is trying to instill that sense of invincibility in his team as well. Geez! I can smell the Aussies of the early 2000s in the yellow of CSK. Going into the last stage of the tournament, CSK is looking all sorted with their batting. What will surely pick on MSD's ,mind is the inability of the bowlers to defend targets with the same efficiency, with which the batsmen are chasing them. That minor chink, has already caused CSK to lose a few matches and going into the business end of the tournament, MS Dhoni will be looking to mend it as soon as possible. The discussion about CSK remains incomplete, without the find of the IPL 11 season- Ambati Rayudu. He has been absolutely stupendous in his consistency at the top of the order and has contributed a major portion to CSK's success, this season. And of course, there is MSD- with a S/R of 160 and an average of 100, I am beginning to wonder, whether we can call him as the 'Federer' of IPL cricket. With 8 wins from 12 matches, CSK stand qualified for the playoffs- but MSD will not be surely satisfied with only a playoff berth. He will be aiming for the coveted top 2 finish, for CSK, at the finish of the league stages.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) [P-12 W-9 L-3]
SRH's success can be mainly attributed to one player- Kane Williamson. Yes there is Rashid Khan, Bhuvi, Shakib, but SRH was supposed to have the same fate as DD, had there been no Williamson to fill in the big vacant boots of David Warner, in the form of both a leader and a batsman.. Williamson has taken responsibility of the team and convinced the players to believe in his leadership, in real quick time. For an overseas player to do so, coming into the IPL, is something that is really commendable. From the first match of the tournament itself, SRH has been fabulous with their bowling. What improved gradually, with every passing match, was their batting. Dhawan, after a string of low scores, is back to supreme form in the last 2 matches and that is good news for SRH. Against DD & CSK, Dhawan has smashed consecutive 70 odd run innings, which will relieve the pressure surrounding SRH batting. Kane Williamson, is of course performing in every match and is holding the innings together till the final overs of the match, but what is worrying for SRH, even sitting at the top of the table, with the qualified tag, is the batting beyond Williamson. Pandey, Shakib, Hooda/Yusuf & Saha have been weak links in the SRH batting line up, since the beginning of the tournament. But this weakness hasn't yet cost SRH dearly, due to the strong top 3 and a disciplined bowling attack. I have spoken about how Rashid Khan is building the aura around himself like Sunil Narine of the past in my last blog. The way CSK batsmen played him out in the last match was a testimony to that fact. Rashid's figures against CSK read 4-0-25-0. A rare wicketless day at the office for the Afghan teenager. Is it the new way, teams will be encountering the threat of Rashid Khan? Will the teams be happy to take 25-28 runs off his 4 overs, as long as they don't concede him a wicket? Well.. that is for time to see. But for now, SRH will be looking to make a top 2 finish, such that they can afford to have 2 shots at the title.
Conclusion
IPL 11 is throwing up a lot of local Indian talents. The best part is that, the BCCI selection committee is taking note and awarding the performers with places in the Indian team or the Indian A team. The inclusion of Shubhman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Krunal Pandya in the Indian A team and the inclusion of Rayudu & Rahul in the ODI team, only certifies the fact, that performers in IPL are being awarded with opportunities- thus upholding the motto of IPL "Where Talent Meets Opportunity"
The league has just opened up big-time. KXIP being bowled out for 88, RCB will surely look to capitalize on this opportunity, and that would open up the league in a bigger way.
ReplyDeleteThe ongoing game makes the lives of all the teams sitting between 3 and 7 vulnerable than ever before.
I agree. IPL getting into the business end and KXIP is going down the spiral, at the wrong time for sure. Teams like RCB & MI are surely sniffing a chance.
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