Chennai Super Kings 165 for 5 (Raina 59, Hussey 46, Morkel 19, Ojha 3-26) beat Deccan Chargers 146 for 8 (Sohal 56, Morkel 3-38, Jakati 2-23) by 19 runs
Another match won by CSK spinners & Bollinger. Both Morkel & Jakati answered their critics through a great performance on the field. This win would give them a huge amount of confidence.
Positives:
1. Raina: Good to see - Raina scoring runs at a quick rate.
2. Morkel: His consecutive sixes would be remembered by Ishant Sharma for a long time.
3. Jakati & Ashwin: It was a great performance by the spinners to bring the team level after Sohail's blitzkrieg. In my opinion, Ashwin 3-run 15th over was the real turning point of the match.
Negatives:
1. Dhoni: His batting form has been ordinary this season. Hoping his form would pick up in the crucial stages of the tournament.
Fan's Man of the Match - Jakati. His four overs brought the team back on a level playing field after Sohail's blitzkrieg
4 comments:
CSK won the game but there are lot of areas we need to improve if we have to win against more consistent teams. 1. Still cannot understand CSK's approach to the first few overs. Why is that we treat opposition bowlers with so much reverence in the first 6 overs. Leaving things to the last four overs is risky and one cannot always plan to score 70 in the last five overs. I does not happen regularly.
2. Whatever Morkel did in his batting he gave it away with his bowling. Every team knows that Morkel can be charged from the word go. Every tom dick and harry now seems to get easy runs against Morkel. He scored 19 but gave away 20 runs in his first over.
3. Vijay seems to believe that he is hitting the ball well. Maybe at the nets. Scoring 4 runs in 13 balls in unpardonable. Do not expect Albie to score 3 consecutive sixes every match to make up for such laxity by the opener.
4. Dhoni over the years has become Ojha's bunny. Dhoni promotes himself up the order by struggles and lunges for the ball against spinners. He could not really get going and ran Morkel out senselessly.
5. Whenever CSK defends 160 plus there is diminished intensity in the start overs. It is only when we defend low scores that we look motivated on the field. We cannot and should not allow opposition teams from getting away so easily.
6. Randiv has not really made any significant impact in any of the games he has played. Why not try duplesis.
All in all it was not a well planned surge that got us 165. It was a few moments of magic rather than planing. One cannot imagine what would have been the score if Morkel did not fire. The biggest worry is plain senseless batting in the first six overs.
@ Vader
agree on most points
1. Completely agree. How do they expect to ever score big totals like 200+ when they don't start scoring reasonably until half the innings is over? This seems to be a strategy that they have started using this year and it is a poor one. It has taken Vijay from the form of his life to about where Matthew Hayden was last year.
2. Don't agree here. Albie is a useful bowler because he gets wickets, not because of his economy. This is why I think Dhoni plays him so early, to see if he can get a breakthrough. I would still prefer if Dhoni opened with more economical bowlers and then brought in Morkel a little later.
3. Perhaps this is something to do with the strategy of batting conservatively for the first 8-9 overs? It doesn't suit him at all. I wonder if he came out and tried to play a little more aggressively, could he could recapture last year's form?
4. Agree that Dhoni shouldn't always promote himself up the innings but sometimes it is the right move. I prefer him as a finisher more than Albie and I'd rather have Albie facing more balls to put together a damaging innings, with Captain Cool facing the crunch balls in the last few overs, but this won't happen.
5. I have noticed this too. It is something that needs to be fixed, because we start so slowly, but always gift the opposition with great starts.
6. Completely agree. In t20, if you aren't taking wickets (and ones that count), you need to be economical. Randiv is neither a wicket taker nor economical, although he has bowled a few good overs. His stats on the CSK site say: economy 7.70 runs per over, 5 wickets in 6 games (23 overs). Considering 50% of games are on a spin friendly wicket, these figures aren't up to standard, especially for a player using an international slot.
CSK website has him listed as an all rounder - but I don't see him as an all rounder in T20. Perhaps in tests or one dayers where he can take as much time as he needs to score runs, but not in t20. His fielding hasn't been very good either. Du Plessis is a true all rounder. He is a strong batter and a great fielder so he at least deserves a chance to see what he can do with the ball. I hope we get to see him in action tomorrow.
I do agree with most of your thoughts.
However, noticing Dhoni over a time, it seems that he harldy likes to change his trusted player. It took almost entire IPL2 to get a game for Ashwin. In IPL3 he became hero. Similarly it took almost entire 1st half of IPL3 after which Vijay became hero. Now I expect almost till end of this season (if at all) for Dhoni to think of options outside Vijay (looks little out of sorts), Jakati (effective only this match), Anirudha (hardly gets matches) and probably Randiv (just OK. Can never ever come near to Murali).
The fact remains that people in this blog have constantly advocated for the inclusion of G Vignesh and du Plesis. Well they might get a game only in IPL5. Otherwise, I reckon this is our best team at this moment.
@Darth Vader,
1. Agree that playing aggressively in the first six overs might be a better way. As Warne showed in Season 1, you can easily counter Dhoni's strategy of attacking in the last few overs, by bowling your best bowlers then.
2. As Morkel himself agrees, he is a better bowler when the ball is swinging. I believe he is good with the new ball when the ball moves around a little bit. Also Morkel generally grows on bowling the right length - based on how much he bowls in that pitch.
3. Agree that Vijay & Dhoni has been pretty ordinary this IPL season. Except for last match performance by Albie, all the four retained players (Vijay, Raina, Dhoni & Morkel) are having pretty ordinary tournament - by their standards.
4. Dhoni fails to accelerate more times than he accelerates. Somehow i always feel Morkel is a better accelerator than Dhoni - just that he gets out whereas it is tough to get Dhoni's wicket.
5. CSK bowlers & fielders generally relax when they are defending a above-par score.
6. Randiv is no Murali of yesteryear. But i do believe that Randiv of 2011 is better than of (injured) Murali of 2011.
I don't know how good a bowler is Du Plessis is. So the team might prefer Southee to Du Plessis.
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