A day for bowlers in the IPL!
Two games and Two successful defends. The Chennai Super were very clinical in the way they bowled. Harbhajan Singh again displayed a match winning performance by getting the wickets of Gayle and Agarwal in his first over. Rahul and Sarfaraz never really got off and couldn’t match the required rate. In the second match of the day, the young boy from West Indies, Alzarri Joseph rattled away the SRH batting lineup and finished with figures of 3.4–1–12–6.
In the first match, CSK batted first and scored 160–3 on the slowish Chennai wicket. Faf du Plessis scored a half-century in his first game of the season. The Punjab spinners bowled really well in the middle overs and conrolled the scoring rate. Ravi Ashwin performed brilliantly on his return to Chennai after almost 4 years and got figures of 4–0–23–3. The flourish from MS Dhoni in the end took Chennai to a respectable total of 160.
The chase of Punjab was halted by Harbhajan Singh as he dismissed both Gayle and Agarwal in the second over of the match. Rahul and Sarfaraz built a steady partnership but were never allowed to score freely by the Chennai bowlers. In the end, they crumbled under the burden of the required rate. Two beamers from Deepak Chahar in the 19th over gave some hope but the subsequent balls were perfect yorkers and Sarfaraz could not put them away. Chennai won the match by a fair margin of 22 runs.
Man of the Match was won by Harbhajan Singh for getting two important wickets upfront.
Many things to ponder for the Kings XI Punjab. Their middle order is a concern and also the skills of Mandeep Singh are not being used properly. He is too good a player to be playing at №6. I also feel that the form of Andrew Tye is hurting them badly. Viljoen maybe brought in for the next game in his place. They now face the Sunrisers in Mohali who too are coming after a defeat.
The Chennai Super Kings though, look settled now with more depth in their batting. But still they will look to strengthen their death bowling in the absence of DJ Bravo. The addition of Scott Kuggeleign has provided them some express pace upfront. They now face the Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. Both teams will look to remain at the top of the table.
In the next match, Mumbai Indians batted first and again the start was miserable with Rohit falling to Mohammad Nabi, holding out to deep mid-wicket. Surya Yadav wasn’t able to continue his form as well. The match came to a simliar situation to Mumbai’s previous match as the mantle of taking the team to a decent total again came on Hardik and Pollard. Pollard scored remained unbeaten and scored 46 runs from 26 balls. With this, MI reached 136 at the end of their 20 overs.
SRH started well, scoring 27 runs in their first three overs which was followed by a collapse. Bairstow fell yet again to a leg-spinner. He has now been dismissed by a leg-spinner for the fifth consecutive time. Alzarri Joseph came in the very next over and cleaned up David Warner on the first ball of his IPL career. The duo of Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar also didn’t last long. Shankar fell to Joseph just after the powerplay in the 7th over. Rahul Chahar too bowled an impressive spell, getting the wickets of Bairstow and Pathan. The lower order fell quickly as well and the team got bundled out on a total of just 96. MI won the match by 40 runs.
Joseph got the Man of the Match for his 6–12. These are the best figures in the history of IPL. What a day for young Joseph!
Alzarri Joseph has been a sensation over the past years. From being the fastest bowler in the U-19 Crciket World Cup in 2016 to getting 6 wickets on his IPL debut after just 3 years, it’s been incredible. He has represented West Indies in 9 Test matches and 15 ODI’s. He will surely look to confirm his boarding pass to England through his IPL performance.
After the game he said, “It is a dream. I could not have asked for a better start. I just backed my plans and it worked. My plan was to keep it simple and back myself. I know we had a game to win and I focused on that (on why he didn’t celebrate Warner’s wicket.). The boys are playing well and putting in a lot of hardwork. The coaches are also helping us with their inputs.”
Mumbai Indians are looking a very dangerous side. Also, contrary to the previous years, their start has been decent and they tend to pick up at the end which will definitely put a fear in the minds of all other teams. Now they will look to win the next three games which they are playing at home and strengthen their claim for the top spot in the points table.
SRH will have to look after their fragile middle order. In case of a collapse at the top, they don’t have any assurance in the middle order. Their bowling though, looks very good with the addition of Mohammad Nabi. Their coach Tom Moody will definitely make the necessary changes and get back on winning track against Punjab in Mohali on Monday.
Today, we again have a double header. The first match being Delhi Capitals against RCB and the next being Rajasthan Royals against KKR. Two mouth-watering contests!
