Bangalore Royal Challengers Vs Chennai Super Kings - Match Review
As Oram mentioned in his post match interview, this match would be the match to remember among the first four matches. While Dhoni's onslaught in the last two overs helped Chennai Super Kings reach a competitive total, our medium pacers' magical bowling in the last five or six overs ensured a victory... while we were staring at a comprehensive defeat.
As I predicted, Hussey came up with a very professional innings but what I liked about his performance today was the commitment he showed on the field. He saved at least 6 to 10 runs and most importantly, held on to important catches. Dhoni, as usual, was cool as a captain - explosive as a batsman and led the team to victory.
Positives:
- Medium Pacers: Though our medium pacers may not have a world class reputation, they have shown that they can still win matches. A fine performance especially in the final five or six overs ensured the win against Bangalore Royal Challengers. Manpreet Gony deserves a special mention. An unknown bowler with a little first class experience, he has become one of the tournament's leading wicket takers. [Thank you Bhupinder Singh for the recommendation about this young lad]
- Joginder Sharma - Dhoni's final over specialist: Another final over in a crunch situation. Another victory. It is not only his charm or luck, but also his intelligence that is setting up these wins. In today's match, he has to be congratulated for taking the key wicket of Kallis that started the slide.
- Raina's Form: Whenever Raina has come on to bat in the IPL, he has been in fine nick. With the departure of Hayden and Hussey, he may well become the key player for Chennai Super Kings.
Negatives:
- Problem of Plenty: Even though we won the match today, I still believe leaving Murali out of the squad is a great mistake. Luckily Murali's absence did not cost the game for us. My term for these selection mistakes among IPL captains - "Problem of Plenty".
- Catches Win Matches: This may be an old saying but it still holds true. If the earlier opportunities given by Jaffer had been caught, we may have had an easier win. Hope Kepler Wessels would be giving catching drills in the practice session tomorrow.
- Too Much Work: It is the first time that I heard Dhoni talking about the tiresome and lonely job as a captain. He was talking about the amount of thinking the job entitles. As a Indian team captain, Dhoni is well assisted by a vice captain and a few senior players. Hope a similar structure is created in Chennai Super Kings team too. Announcing Stephen Fleming as Vice-Captain of Chennai Super Kings would be a nice step in the right direction.
- Parthiv, the fielder: He is slowly becoming a liability in the field and most of the times Dhoni is forced to hide him rather than position him in the field. Hope his fielding improves sooner rather than later.
4 comments:
1. i like your match review
2. i feel that stephen flemming must be vice captain as well!
3. i dont think parthiv should be in the team; we have far better batsmen (TN ranji players) in our squad. Parthiv should be treated as a back up keeper.
4. P. Amarnath is a very useful 20:20 bowler (under-rated currently); i have a feeling he is going to be one of the sought after bowlers next season (lets see)
let me know what you think.
true... fleming as vice captain is a good idea... it might boost his morale as well, but bout not playin murali.... i think it was inevitable... the pitch was a good track for pacers, and provided a bit of swing as well.. playin morkel was a good idea.... agreed, murali doesnt need the pitch's support to turn the ball.... but i think it was a good idea to play 5 pacers as the last 5 overs proved....
good analysis,
i too thought it was not so good to see dhoni tired at end. i hope its just he did not liked banglore as much he thought. sure chennai will cheer him up in next match
@ anonymous,
What goes in Parthiv's favour is his awesome form he displayed in the domestic season last year.. His five successive centuries is surely a testament to his skill and ability... What i believe is that Parthiv is not suited for opener role.. and he needs time to adjust to T20 format.. So I would like to see him once or twice batting lower down the order before he is shown out of the playing eleven..
Yeah.. Thw way Amarnath has bloosomed surely bodes well for the team.. But sadly from the next match on, I expect him to become the back up bowler and may find himself out of the playing eleven..
@hahaha,
Morkel's batting abilities was never used... And Murali is a kind of bowler who can win matches in any type of format... If we had played Murali, there is a huge probability that Murali would have tightened the run rate in the 6-14 overs, thereby leading to a easier victory rather than a hard fought one..
@ neoflys,
Yeah.. It seems Chennai's hospitality is cheering up everybody from Dhoni to Hayden, Hussey & Oram.. :)
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