The round-robin stage of IPL has come to a conclusion at the end of the 6th week of the league, and probably this has been the most mind blowing version of the league after the much talked about 2014 edition of the competition. We will go into the detailed analysis of the teams & their performances in the later parts of this blog. However, to be short & crisp, CSK, SRH & KKR really slogged their back sides off to reach the playoff stages and for RR, (just because the term 'lucky' has got way too cliched in sports), let us just say that their prayers were stronger!
Before, I get to the analysis of the final week of the league matches, I will request my first time readers to go through the analysis of the blogs of my last few weeks on IPL (links given below). While that will improve reader experience, at the same time, I have a habit of referring to my previous blogs, while writing. It will be comfortable for readers to follow any such references I make to my earlier blogs, making the reading experience smoother at the same time.
I will follow the trend, that I have been following consistently in my last few IPL blogs. I will be selecting each team and carry out their SWOT analysis for the week. The order of selecting each team will be in the inverse order of the league table, from the bottom tot he top.
Delhi Daredevils (DD) [P-14 W-5 L-9]
In my last blog, I referred to DD as the perennial Paul Pogba of IPL. However, the last week, they have had a couple of wonderful performances to finish the league and that should, if not anything, boost the morale of the side. They have pipped the 2nd placed Chennai Super Kings as well as the 3 times champion Mumbai Indians, in consecutive matches, and that is the best ever finish that the team, with the wooden spoon, for IPL 2018, could have dreamt off. If there is one thing, I am willing to talk about all day, in the last 2 matches for DD, its the young sensation from Nepal, Sandip Lamichhane. I love, how a 17 year old spinner, from the hilly terrain of Nepal, is foxing international batsmen, with the age old tactics of flight & drift, (terms unheard of, in the present scenario of 'mystery' spin bowling in T20s). I hope to see a lot of him in IPL as well as in international cricket, in years to come and I am sure it will be a treat to watch him, for all us cricket fans out here. Another thing about DD, which is worthy talking about, except Lamichhane, is the all-rounder Harshal Patel. I remember, when Harshal Patel debuted for RCB in IPL 5, he was this lanky young pacer, who used to get to bowl a couple of overs in the middle stage of the innings. It is very impressive, that he has spent hours in the gym, to build himself strong & sturdy and has thus added, some extra pace to his bowling. He has shown in the last 2 matches, that, if guided properly, he can be an excellent death bowling prospect for his franchise, in coming years and he can be handy with the bat as well, lower down the order. Pant has had a fabulous IPL season, his best so far and he is the sure shot winner of the 'Emerging Player of the Tournament' award for this year. The thing about Pant, which however impressed me the most, this season, is his consistency and as an Indian cricket fan, I dearly hope, that this is a long purple patch that he has hit, that will help him stake a claim on that much coveted wicket keeper position, in the post Dhoni era. However, for way too long, DD has been a team of may-have-beens. Every year, we hope, that DD, will finally own the stage of IPL and, they disappoint every year, consistently. Its time, I guess, DD focus on winning the tournament next year, rather than being content, with some heart warming individual performances.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) [P-14 W-6 L-8]
If, you had asked even an ardent hater of KXIP, at the conclusion of the first half of the tournament, he would have not predicted this downward spiral, that Ashwin's team has gone through. KXIP won 5 out of their first 6 games and then went on to lose 7 out of their remaining 8 games. I am yet to find a similar case in IPL history, that can be comparable to this. Maybe KKR in IPL 2015, is the closest I can recollect, where they won 6 out of their first 8 games and then went on to lose 5 of their remaining 6, to crash out of the competition. But, the performance of KXIP, has stunned the fans, to say the least. When KXIP had won 5 out of their first 6 games, I remember writing, that the "fragility of the middle order, will come back to bite the KXIP, in the playoffs stage, even though Rahul & Gayle are efficiently hiding this chink in their armour for now." I never imagined, that minor chink, will crack the whole armour up, even before the playoff stages approach. KXIP had 2 major break points in their plot, which disintegrated their entire campaign. The first among them, was the 1 week break, they got between the SRH game & MI game, that somehow took the veteran Universe Boss Chris Gayle out of touch. Its strange, how minor breaks can take batsmen out of form, and the same happened with Gayle, this season. Till the SRH match, he was comfortably depositing the fast short ball into the stands, with his monstrous strength, while after the 1 week break, his reflexes suddenly slowed down and fast back of the length ball started to trouble him. The moment, Gayle started getting dismissed inside the powerplay, the fragile middle order of KXIP gt exposed way too soon and thus the side broke down, with KL Rahul, standing at one end, being the lone warrior. The second break point of their campaign came in their 12th match, when Sunil Narine smashed a Mujeeb-Ur- Rahman offspinner flash into his hands, thus injuring him for the rest of the competition. Mujeeb formed a very vital cog, in that KXIP team and his injury meant, KXIP was consistently conceding around 20-25 runs extra to their opponents every match, which was enough to change the outcome of a match. I have been an ardent fan of Ashwin's captaincy from the first match and even though KXIP is out of the competition, that doesn't deter me from saying that Ashwin has been one of the best captains this season. Yes, his team underperformed, but that in no way, undermines the exquisite leadership skills shown by Ashwin, this year. People are enquiring, whether KXIP's performance would have been any different, had Miller played for more matches? I feel absolutely not. Miller, with his well documented struggles against spin, would never have performed something stupendous, on Indian pitches, specially against wrist spin. So, that was how, a disappointing campaign for KXIP concluded- Ashwin will surely hope to find his players in better form in the next edition of IPL, till which the perennial search of KXIP for the coveted trophy, continues.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) [P-14 W-6 L-8]
It is very funny, how minor decisions on-field in cricket, can affect the outcome of a match and hence the entire tournament. Perhaps, the most talked about such minor incident, having a significant impact on an entire tournament, can be traced back to 1999 WC, where Herschelle Gibbs, dropped the 'much-discussed' catch of Steve Waugh, that ultimately resulted in the elimination of South Africa, from the WC semifinal, in the long run. I thought in RCB's final league match, a similar incident happened, that not only cost RCB their playoff spot, but also, may go on to have a significant effect on the outcome of the tournament. Now, let's come to the incident. It was the last ball of the 3rd over of the innings. Moeen Ali bowled a back of a length ball to Rahul Tripathi, which turned in sharply to wrap him on the back leg. Umpire did not respond to the appeal and RCB decided against taking a review, so early in the innings. Well as it turned out, Tripathi went on to anchor the entire RR innings, and scored a fabulous 80, to single-handedly eliminate RCB from the competition. If RCB would have taken that review, it is tough to predict, how the playoff scenario would have panend out, specially considering the fact, how MI lost to DD, the following day. As for RCB, they peaked too late into the competition. It took them a lot of time, to figure out that instead of playing an explosive top 4, it is more important to have the likes of Moeen Ali or CDG at the middle order to finish off the innings, on a high, add to that, their bowling skills as well. Thus, when Virat & the team management, finally decided to do away with their fondness for Mccullum or De Kock at the top of the order, it was already too late into the competition, and RCB were not able to stage any dream recovery, like they did, in the 2009 edition of the league. Going forward, its positive news, that at long last, RCB has understood the importance of utility players like Moeen & CDG in the T20 setup, and hopefully in the upcoming seasons, they will try to buy more utility players at the auction, rather than making the team batting top heavy.
Mumbai Indians (MI) [P-14 W-6 L-8]
The perpetual comeback champions- Mumbai Indians almost pulled off another heist this IPL. The fact, that they were unable to follow their staple comeback diet, in the later half of the league is attributed to 2 factors. The first is their out of form captain Rohit Sharma, who has absolutely not helped himself by pushing himself down & down the order. I find this very strange, that Rohit still looks upon himself as a middle order batsman, inspite of the massive success he got in Indian colours over the last few years as as opener. Rohit needs pace on the ball to get himself set early in the innings and that is why he is best suited to the role of an opener- hence for MI to win they needed Rohit to come up the order and score runs, which did not happen, thus causing immense pressure on the middle order. The second issue however, is more significant & more concerning from the perspective of Indian cricket- that is the failure of Bumrah to execute crunch overs at the death. I do not exactly know, if he was carrying a niggle after the long series in the rainbow nation, but clearly he was not looking anywhere close to his best through out the season. His yorkers were missing the mark (very rarely you get to say that for Bumrah) allowing the batsmen to get under the ball and smash him to all parts of the ground. Bumrah's expensive overs at the death, cost MI at least a couple of matches, if not more and suddenly Rohit had to turn to new bowling options to bowl at the death (not even in his nightmare, will he have thought about it.) There is another thing about MI that I actually liked this season- the way they handled Hardik Pandya. The instruction to Hardik was very clear, that they expect his full quota of 4 overs per match from him and whatever he adds with the bat, is a bonus. That enhanced the clarity of Pandya's role in the team, allowing him to perform to the best of his capabilities ( Indian team management, wake up & notice how MI handled Hardik & try to get inspired by it)
Rajasthan Royals (RR) [P-14 W-7 L-7]
When the cricketing world was gradually coming in terms with DRS, post the 2011 cricket world cup, there was something which a lot of ex-cricketers started saying, that stuck at the back of my mind. They said, irrespective of whether you introduce the DRS or not, cricket, as a game, is a great leveller. IPL perhaps, showed why they call cricket as the greatest leveller. It was IPL 2014. RR under Shane Watson as captain & Dravid as coach, has gone through a pretty decent season and was looking set to qualify for the playoffs, since the majority of the tournament. However, much like KXIP, this year, they slipped in the last few matches & MI, as they they always do, caused a resurgence in the later half of the league. The situation came to the final match of the league stage between MI & RR. For MI to pip RR on their NRR, the former needed to chase down 190 in 14.4 overs. Yes! you got it right. I am talking about that match, where Aditya Tare hit a six to take MI into the playoffs (thus eliminating RR) and then The Scene of IPL occurred- Rahul Dravid throwing his cap down on the ground in frustration- the only recorded video, in his 20 year long career, when he lost his cool in public. Come IPL 2018, cricket levelled things for RR. Rahane's team had been going through a disastrous campaign, with some extremely average leadership decisions, adding to their woes. Then suddenly Butler entered the scene in blistering form and alone won at least 4 matches for RR, hiding all their weaknesses. Still they needed to win their last match of their league stage against RCB to even stand a chance for the playoffs- To add to their worries, their hero for the last 2 matches, the in-form Butler & the million dollar Stokes travelled back to England to execute their national duties. And in the last match, all the captaincy bloopers that Rahane has made throughout the tournament was overshadowed by, a couple of master strokes. The first being to return Tripathi, his much comfortable opening spot, where he clicked instantly. The second decision, that proved significant, was to constantly have a slip for Shreyas Gopal, through out his spell, inspite of the fact, that RR was not defending a huge score. These 2 decisions, overshadowed, every mistake that Rahane has made throughout the tournament, and had RR sailing into the playoffs. Needless to say, MI suffered an unexpected loss to DD, and KXIP could never dream of beating RR's net run rate, after they lost KL Rahul in the 3rd over, against CSK. RR, thus got the sweet revenge for IPl 2014 and cruised into the playoffs, with quite a bit of luck on their side. Will they be able to pull off something significant in the playoff stages? Let us wait and see the dram unfold.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) [ P-14 W-8 L-6]
KKR experienced a match against MI, where they lost by a mammoth margin of 102 runs in front of their home crowd, that could have broken their campaign, then & there. The fact, that they bounced back , roaring in their next match, gave me an indication, that finally DK is having good control over this team & ensuring that the dressing room atmosphere remains comfortable. Like Rahane, DK also began the IPL campaign with a lot of captaincy bloopers, but the best thing I like about him is the fact, that he learnt from his mistakes & never repeated them. To begin the campaign, he persisted with the old warhorse Johnson, only to realize, that he is neither swinging the ball, upfront nor picking up wickets at the death. Instead of being stubborn about his decision, he rectified his move, with a couple of chances to Curran, who too proved ineffective on Indian pitches. Finally, he allotted that spot to Javon Searles and assigned the death bowling duties to Prasidh Krishna & Andre Russell. Who would have thought in their wildest dreams after the IPL auction, that a team consisting of Mitchell Starc & Johnson, will have their pace attack being led by 2 young zippy Indian fast bowlers, in the form of Krishna & Mavi. Another mistake, where DK has rectified himself, is the fact, that he has accepted that Mavi is not a death over specialist. I have been stating this continuously in my previous blogs, and it appears DK has finally obliged to this fact. It felt very good to see Mavi being bowled in the initial powerplay overs and in the middle overs stage-where he finished off his spell and Mavi himself looked pretty comfortable as well. Except DK's resurrection in captaincy there have been a couple more factors that have worked for KKR. Lynn has been responsible at the top. He has understood, that he cannot play like BBL, in the low slow Indian pitches, and hence instead of hitting himself out, he is standing his crease, scoring a patient 40-50 runs, which is extremely appreciable, considering how he is curbing his natural instincts (Maybe Maxwell needs to learn a thing or two from him), The next factor of course is the improved fitness of Russell, that is allowing DK to use him for 4 complete overs, thus improving the balance of the side. KKR is looking good at the moment, and they may be just peaking at the right time, towards the business end of the tournament.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) [P-14 W-9 L-5]
CSK came into the last week of IPL, knowing they have already qualified. But an extremely evident weakness was already beginning to show up- the inability of CSK bowlers to defend targets. Going into the playoffs, Dhoni will perhaps be breathing a sigh of relief, specially with the way Lungi Ngidi bowled at the death against KXIP. Lungi will hopefully make the ideal pair with relatively waning Bravo, at the death, taking off much of the pressure from the later. But if there is one thing, you want to talk about for CSK this week, it was the master stroke of the Thala to send Harbhajan & Deepak Chahar ahead of Dhoni himself, Jadeja & Bravo, against KXIP, in their final league match. KXIP pacers, Rajpoot & Mohit, were swinging the ball left & right, making life miserable for CSK batsmen. Rajpoot was sensational claiming 2 wickets while Mohit chipped in with another top order wicket. While the situation was looking grim for CSK, at the fall of the 3rd wicket inside the powerplay, Dhoni sent Bhajji to bat against the swinging ball and suddenly the trick worked like magic. The bowlers who were extracting around half a foot of swing from the three quarter length suddenly started bowling yorkers or short balls, thus taking swing out of the equation. The trick was stretched, when Chahar came out to bat after Bhajji got out and CSK cruised home finally with the usual customary Dhoni six. Sending out two bowling all rounders to bat higher up the order, to upset the rhythm of the bowlers, is something that I find extremely comparable to what Bradman did in MCG in the 3rd Ashes Test of 1937. On a mine field of a track, due to overnight rains, Bradman reversed the batting order, to protect his top order batsman, from the venomous conditions and succeeded in taking Australia to victory, on basis of that single decision. That move by Bradman, is talked about in Australian cricket circuit, even now and maybe, just maybe this master stroke by Dhoni, against KXIP, will be something that Indian cricket experts will talk a lot about, in the years to come.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) [P-14 W-9 L-5]
It is no often, that you see, the team at the top of the league table is moving into the playoffs, with 3 straight losses, in their kitty. What will be more worrying for SRH, however, is the fact, that the defeats are caused by their misfiring bowling unit- which was touted to be the strongest bowling attack in the competition. However, going into the playoffs, I don't believe there is anything to worry for Williamson, as the entire bowling attack of SRH has significant T20 experience. Instead of pondering over and sulking on their failures in the last few matches, the bowlers are most likely to be looking forward to prove their mettle again in the playoff stages. What is of more worry I believe to SRH, is its perpetual out of form middle order. SRH middle order is yet to deliver a match winning performance for them, 14 matches into the tournament, and that is some serious fact, that will cause nightmares to the Kiwi captain. Williamson himself has been in Midas' touch, scoring in every single opportunity, that he has got, and that too at a stupendous strike rate of above 150. Dhawan, has got back, his form, that he lost midway into the tournament and that is some positive news for SRH, going into the playoffs. Will Dhawan & Williamson be capable enough to hide the failure of the rest of the batting line up? Or will the biggest disappointment of the tournament, so far, Manish Pandey, finally prove his worth to the team in a crunch match? Will the SRH bowling wreak havoc on the opposition yet again? IPL playoffs are surely something a lot of SRH fans are looking forward to, to search for answers to their questions.
Conclusion
While IPL 11, is catapulting a lot of Indian players like KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Rishabh Pant & Dinesh Karthik to the reckoning of the Indian cricket team, it has also marked the unceremonious end to a lot of legendary cricketing careers. Yuvraj Singh & Gautam Gambhir, in all probabilities, have played their final IPL games and its extremely disappointing, that such legends of Indian cricket had to struggle so severely at the conclusion of their cricketing careers. It only goes on to show, that skill & reflexes leave cricketers after a certain age- everyone is not MSD.
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