Will Dhoni’s Men bounce back with a “Super” show at Dubai and topple Sun Risers?
Third Man” – CSK Match Preview ( by Kannan)
Hello All, Third Man is back with yet another edition after a week witnessing plenty of actions in the ongoing IPL, what a drama each and every match is producing starting from Mayank’s brilliant hundred, Samson’s hurricane innings followed by Terrific Tewatia’s game changing innings to ABD’s 360 degree ball striking, Pollard’s brutal innings, Young Ishan Kishan’s power packed 99, Yet another Super Over thriller!. Amidst all the power hitting, bowlers are making their presence felt too, Washington’s unbelievable spell of 4-0-12-1 in the match which produced 400+ runs , Saini’s stupendous 19th over and the “match winning” Super over which won the game for RCB.
Let’s take a pause and follow the Super Kings and analyze what went wrong for them, what are the options left in the squad to make a turnaround and what is the best XI to be out in the park against Sun Risers for Friday’s night at Dubai.
What went wrong for CSK?
After an impressive victory against the Mumbai Indians at the tournament opener, Super Kings have lost direction, momentum by lack of Intent from the Top order and the ineffective display from the spinners, whom the Team Management always banks on to take them home, losing 2 in a row and sitting at the bottom of the points table looking for hope and change in fortune.
At the Auction table
To be honest, Super kings lost the plot at the auction table where they picked the squad of spinners and aging warhorses keeping the chepauk track in mind to produce as many victories on slow and low surfaces, which turned out to be fatal as the Covid fiasco shifted the High profile IPL to UAE with all the teams playing on 3 grounds, completely taking out the “Home Advantage” factor.
The fallout between the Management and Raina did not help things either – Probably in the hindsight, had Raina’s ask for a balcony was taken care of, CSK might have been sitting and cooling off at their balcony with 3 wins in their bag.
The Top order has been really out of sorts in the 3 games played, barring one good innings from Rayudu – Watson is struggling for his touch while Vijay is completely out of the equation and likely to be replaced, the openers strike rate and lack of aggression was the real cause for the Super Kings not to cross the winning line in last 2 matches. 40 runs in 4 overs is the kind of start they must be looking for with the bunch of multi-facet players in the middle order to build up the momentum for Dhoni & co to strike big and finish out the death overs.
Spinners play Spoilsport
The tweakers, who used to thrive and smile on the “dusty” Chepauk tracks, are having pretty difficult times at the UAE, going for runs, being hoicked for the biggies, and unable to take wickets to put breaks on the opposition scoring rate. Chawla is slowly getting back to his groove , which is a good sign, but Jadeja has been completely lacking in confidence and if he has to play, he will have to bowl his economical quota of overs and contribute decently with the bat as well.
Dhoni’s batting position, Kedhar’s place in the Team, Lack of Strategic moves
One person who is extremely lucky on this world right now in Kedhar Jadhav, who is neither contributing much with the bat and has not bowled a single ball in this tournament, still finds a place regularly in the playing eleven. He has got opportunities way too many and time to be replaced to slot a better player who can add more balance to the line up. While it is unfair to judge Dhoni’s batting in just 3 matches, Dhoni’s value to the team is immense and he needs to bat higher up the order, face as many balls for him to get, set and go for the carnage during the last 3 overs.
As a Captain, Dhoni has not been tactically right so far, whether it is on deciding the playing XI or lack of smart moves such as opening the bowling with a spinner or outsmarting the opponent with different field positions. Dhoni, if he picks the right XI, comes into bat around 14th over, and tactically uses his limited resources, Super kings are certain to win more than they lose.
Where is the “Fast bowler” , Where is the “Mystery Spinner”, Where are the “Young Indian” Players?
Though this is mere introspection and nothing is going to change, I still wonder why the Super Kings, with the legendary Dhoni at the helm, did not go for a single express pace bowler like Nortje who can bowl quick in the 145kph and rattle the batsman during the death overs or a someone like Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, from the Mystery spinner’s club who can keep even the best of batsman guessing with their guiles and variations.
Finally, why did not go for the young Indian players who are exhibiting phenomenal performances – The likes of Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Murugan Ashwin, T Natarajan ( Ironically, All of them happens to be from Tamil Nadu), Gill, Shivam Mavi are some of the names who should have been given a thought.
What is in store at CSK’s Bench
While I do not want to be over critical, the underlying truth is Super kings squad looks the weakest of the teams competing for the coveted IPL 2020 trophy. There is not much optimism looking at the back-ups options available especially for the Top order batsman and the fast bowlers, while the spin department is safe with the likes of “Young” Imran Tahir waiting to run around the ground and Santner ready to show his capabilities as a mutli-dimensional player. There is lot of hope on Shane Watson to fire and millions of fans praying for it to happen as there is absolutely no options in the bench for an aggressive Top order batsman.
The good news is that Rayudu is fit and the belligerent “ Bravo” is all set to play his 1st match of this edition – Bravo into the scheme of things will bring lot of positivity into the CSK ranks as he is a game changer and a match winner on his day, with bat, ball and on the field.
“Third Man’s Eleven” for tomorrow’s Encounter against the Sun Risers at Dubai
Having discussed on what went wrong and the if’s and but’s, its time to move ahead and see what is the best combination to be selected to pull of couple of wins, which is the need of the hour. Below is my eleven in the batting order – The Skipper may not agree to some of my changes.
Hazelwood, Tahir unfortunate to miss out due to the restriction on overseas players. Super Kings will have the advantage having played already at Dubai and got used to the pitch and the ground dimensions.
Shane Watson
Faf Duplussis
Ambati Rayudu
Ravindra Jadeja
MS Dhoni
DJ Bravo
Sam Curran
Deepak Chahar
Karan Sharma
Shardul Thakur
“Bat first, Runs on the board, Get Warner and Bairstow early, Tie them with spin, Go for the Kill, Yell for Yellow” – Hope the message reaches the CSK dug out. Come on CSK!!
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Good writing da Kanna..
ReplyDeleteThx mamu...🙏🙏🙏
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