CSK live up to potential and dreams
A male lion is usually forced to leave his home pride between the age of 2 or 3. What follows next is the hardest part of his life, existing as a rogue male!
A rogue male lion has no territory of his own, he shuttles between different lion pride territories, often scavenging for food, but mostly just living to survive. This game of survival goes on for another 2 years. At around 5 the rogue male, is fully grown, battle hardened, and ready to take over a lion pride and make it his own. CSK till now were living the life of a rogue male lion. They have done whatever they needed to do, to survive, to remain alive in this tournament. Now they are ready for pride takeover, beware, the Lion king is here.
CSK vs SRH was always going to be a fascinating contest, two teams fighting to stay relevant, it doesn’t get better than this.
CSK Innings
CSK won the toss and finally they were going to bat first, the first instance in 8 matches. Sam Curran opened the batting alongside Faf du Plesis. Getting Curran to open the batting is a good move by the CSK management, first because Curran has the game and the self belief to do well at the top and second because Curran playing at the top alongside a right hander gives the team a left- right combination, which is always good. And for those of you who think Curran opening the batting is the same as a Narine opening for KKR, well you are wrong. Curran is a proper batsman, with proper technique and yes don’t even dare bowl him bouncers.
The start for CSK wasn’t great though as Faf went for a golden duck, Watson joined Curran in the middle at the fall of his wicket. Curran batted with intent at the top, and was especially severe on Khaleel. He gave Watson time to settle down as he kept scoring at a decent rate eventually getting out for a well made 31 off 21. Rayudu and Watson batted well in the middle overs, Rayudu brought a lot of energy to the crease, used his feet well against the spinners, and generally played with good awareness, not letting the game slide as he has done in the past. Watson was good too, his six off Rashid Khan was a shot and a half. The way these two played Rashid Khan and Shabhaz Nadeem was extremely impressive. Just as the two were getting ready to bring out the sledgehammer, both fell, back to back. It was left to Dhoni and Jadeja to give CSK the desired finish, would they be able to do it? Yes , yes, and yes! Dhoni and Jadeja together, scored close to 50 runs in the last three and half overs, job well done.
SRH Innings
Chasing 168 on a slow, low surface would never have been an easy job but the early loss of David Warner made it tougher, and it was Sam Curran who got his wicket. Curran is such a feisty little cricketer, the kid just never gives up.
I remember in the last test series between India and England, which was hosted by England, he single handedly won England two test matches, once with the ball and once with the bat. The right team management can do wonders for a player, and CSK has always been blessed with that. They have backed players, to the point where they have realized their own potential, which is a rarity in sport and in life. Professionally you will rarely get people/organizations who are self assured and magnanimous enough to back talent, but CSK really is a different breed. If you still are not convinced, talk to Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Tripathi, Wriddhiman Saha, Basil Thampi, Manan Vohra, Yashasvi Jaiswal, they will tell you the story of the other side of the coin.
Back to the match.
Pandey disappointed again as he run himself out on 4, leaving SRH at 27/2 after 4. Then there was a decent partnership between Bairstow and Williamson which could have been threatening, but Jadeja came in and took Bairstow out. With 7 possible bowling options today, Dhoni was like a kid lost in a candy store. But kudos to him he rotated and used them excellently which is quite normal for him, and he has done it for years now.
Williamson and Garg struck up a partnership after the demise of Bairstow’s wicket and this one too was looking potent until of course Karn Sharma dismissed Garg. Karn Sharma was playing alongside Piyush Chawla in this match, both leg spinners, similar bowlers, and Dhoni showed faith in Karn today bowling him his full quota of overs, Chawla bowled only one.
Karn picked up the most important wicket, that of Kane Williamson, who batted well 57 off 39 and it was then that CSK must have thought, ok now we are almost there. Rashid and Vijay Shankar tried, but Shardul Thakur and Bravo kept their wits about them and closed the game out.
A 20 run victory in t20 is a good victory, not clinical , but good. CSK fans and their whistle podu army will be extremely happy with this victory. The thing is, when a great team like CSK, led by a fantastic captain and leader in Dhoni doesn’t perform well, a lot of people who have been hiding under rocks come out and have a field day with it, and some people say and do things which are highly condemnable. One thing is for sure, one season of IPL will not determine the legacy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He is a great of the game of cricket and he will remain one, nothing changes that.
With this victory there are three teams on 6 points now, SRH, CSK and RR. And all have an outside chance of making it to the playoffs. The only team that looks dead and buried right now is the Kings eleven Punjab.
Onto the next.
