Monday, 29 March 2010

Flicker of Hope for Chennai Super Kings Campaign


After an uninspiring performance in the first half of the tournament, most CSK fans have lost their semifinals hope. Even Dhoni seemed to agree and said that Chennai Super Kings would be looking forward to end the parties of other teams. But there is still a flicker of hope for Chennai Super Kings


What is required?
To be assured of a semifinal spot, the team has to win at-least six of the next 7 matches. With a good run-rate and a bit of luck, the team can make it to the semi-finals even with five wins. 

Why there is still flicker of hope?
1. Five Home Matches: Out of the next 7 matches, 5 matches are at home. Thanks to the yellow brigade and benevolent batting pitch, Chennai Super Kings would start with an advantage on those matches.
2. Dougie Surprise: Bollinger would surely add the much needed "Fast Spice" to the team. With his addition, Chennai Super Kings would have 2 match-winning bowlers with a good support cast. Also if Hayden fails for another 2 matches, the team have the option to replace him with Hussey. 
3. Batsmen: Slowly all the batsman are getting to form - Albie, Dhoni, Raina, Badri, Hayden & Vijay - All have atleast 1 good innings. It is high time that the batsman took control and started winning matches for Chennai. 
4. Good Run Rate: Thanks to our good run-rate, there is  a high probability that Chennai Super Kings will make the semi-finals even if they win 5 more matches. 

What we need to pray for?
1. Mumbai Indians & Royal Challengers to win against all the opposition teams (other than CSK) 
2. Kings XI Punjab to win a few games

What team should do?
The key thing for the team would be getting their act together. 
1. Team Selection: Fleming & Co. desperately need to get their act together. They can't win by playing Joginder & Arun Karthik in the team. Hope Tyagi & Ntini gets a look-in for the next match. 
2. Passion: One key element lacking from the team is passion. It seems as if everybody is playing for them self rather than for the team. 
3. Aggressiveness: Team lacks the aggressive edge. After 1 or 2 good overs, the team always looks to consolidate rather than ending the match then and there. You don't see the batsman in the team taking any risks.  Hope the team becomes a little positive and goes for the kill. 
4. New Tactics: It is time that the team started to experiment with a few things. Today, the team would have benefited from sending a Thusara/Joginder as a pinch hitter. It seems as if the team does not lack the will to innovate. 

Though the road to a semi-final is an uphill task for the team, I believe the team has 'it' in them to do it. Hayden, Murali, Dhoni, Raina.. Please get your act together. 

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think if Joginder Sharma is removed from the team, then super Kings will win.

AGA said...

send Morkel higher. bring in ganapathy for karthik, Ntini for tushara, Tyagi for Joginder. if possible replace Badri with Badani and give him CRYSTAL CLEAR instructions to attack!

Aiswarya said...

All our hopes have been shattered, we had tremendous confidence in this team , they have to rebuild their lost confidence and focus on adhering to the basics if they are to lift the title. The most ludicrous thing was that Ashwin could not get a single of the last ball shows how poor he is.Common Sense should prevail when Irfan was bowling ashwin should have left the crease and hammered the ball.

Ashwin, Parthiv, Gony, Balaji to be replaced by Ntini, Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund and badani should enter and we will be able to see the difference. Immersed on hopes and confidence. Prayers will help provided the team plays really well.

arjun said...

It would just be awesome if we still qualify.. for that we would have to play extremely well as a team, and we also need some brilliant individual performances. 5 out of 7 is very much possible.. in fact consider we win the next 2 games.. then it would become 3 out of 5.
However, I believe our focus should be on getting the team combination right, make the best out of the local talent, click as a unit and be better prepared for future editions. There are still players like mukund,ganapathy,anirudha who have not yet been given a chance. We have to keep in mind that hayden/murali's forms are going to decline rapidly in coming years.. these guys are touching 40. So its very important we pick the right foreign players for next edition.
Let's just hope we only improve from here on.. and maybe.. get to the semis.

Reshma said...

its fans like us who pamper CSK that cause it to play the way it is..neways, nobody wants to see their teams going down like this..as mentioned - if they do win the next 2 matches, they come right into contention for SF as it becomes 3 to win from 5 from then onwards and we will have bollinger and hussey too...the next match is against the best team in the competition RCB....if we pull it off, we are in this, baby !

[come what may, we are looking for excuses to think positively :) ]

Reshma said...

adding to above - one mind-numbing innings by haydos should do the trick.....the rest of the team should take a cue from there on...waiting for mongoose to tame the kookabura !

vivekh said...

If Hayden gets 80 or 90 in next 2 or 3 matches then there is a chance of entering into semis...

keda said...

hope is the only thing we didnt get.Last 2 season also having same team nearly even flintoff and oram didnt show their worth but then also we made to semis because of mangoos man's belligerent form and other team's poor performance.Our team management didnt realize how pace bowling and local talent's hard hitting ability are important.CSK u can do better than ur tabled list performances sofar(7th). bollinger is ur hope adding tool. Do things whatever with full confidence that will bring you fruitful result.ALL THE BEST FOR COMING MATCHES.

Cub said...

"Even Dhoni seemed to agree and said that Chennai Super Kings would be looking forward to end the parties of other teams"

This is what worries me. There is still a mathematical chance CSK can sneak in. Dhoni, please don't lose hope!!! RCB was in a very similar position last season at the end of 1st round of games.

I agree with most that albie is not utilized properly. He should bat up the order. I beleive he is a better bowler when bowling between overs 6 - 16 instead of opening. CSK should open with sudeep and thushara/dougie (maybe even raina???)

We cannot have 2 people (dhoni, badri) donning the middle-order "consolidator" role, considering we already have vijay at the top. badri should just go out to play aggressively.

Need major improvement in fielding and running between the wickets. Time for rixon and venky to step up.

Anonymous said...

Punjab wins 7/7, CSK wins 6/7, KKR wins 5/7 and Rajasthan wins 4/7. RCB and MI lose almost all their matches, DC and DD win only couple of more matches. KXII, CSK, KKR and RR in semis. Hurrah, what a turnaround to the IPL3 !! Somebody, please wake up the day dreamers.

Cub said...

^^^ We dont care if KXP, RR or KKR goes to SF or not... All we care abt is CSK. 6/7 may be difficult but not impossible

karthik said...

Hi guys,

We are not sure whether csk will make it to semis ( it seems to be a stiff task). Instead of complaining about our bowling they can strengthen the bowling dept by using bollinger, ntini, murali, tyagi, jakati ( instead of relying on morkel let him get a break). As far our batting is concerned there should be hitter like uthapa, tiwari, shikar dhawan, manish panday for this we have to try with anirudha or badani atleast once or twice. If we want to win the rest of the matches the tentative team should be
hayden
vijay
raina
dhoni
badani
anirudha
murali
tyagi
bollinger
ntini
jakati

Anonymous said...

morkel must be brought higher and tushara must stay in the team...

Anonymous said...

Morkel has to be sent ahead of dhoni and raina... I dont know why they are not using Badani who is comparatively good hitter than badri at number six position... And Ganapathy who is a useful allrounder is still not given a chance... My choice will be...

Hayden
M.Vijay
Morkel
Raina
Dhoni
Badani
Ganapathy
Thushara
Tyagi
Jakati
Muralitharan...

Congrats csk for tomorrow's win against RCB...

Anonymous said...

We have missed out real talented players from Tamilnadu like Dinesh Karthik (DD), Murali Kartik (KKR), R.Sathish (MI) and G.Vignesh (KKR). Please try to get them into CSK team by reorganizing atleast for the next season otherwise you will still have to beleive on Joginder Sharmas...