Maa Durga blesses Kolkata and Punjab!
Kolkata triumphs over Delhi and Punjab gets one over Hyderabad, on the auspicious day of MahaAsthami; the eight day of Durga pujo.
KKR bring Durga pujo joy
Saturday saw KKR finally do the ‘jeetbo’ bit of their ‘Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo’ IPL war cry. At 42/3, Gill, Tripathi, Karthik back in the hut, Kolkata needed some divine intervention to save them. Lo and behold, on the auspicious day of Asthami, with the blessings of Devi Durga, Kolkata roared back into the match. Narine played a blinder, a 32 ball 64, and he was well supported by Nitish Rana. Rana, sent in to open, almost carried his bat through, scoring 81 off 53. Shreyas Iyer was unimpressive as captain, he lacked decisiveness and looked a little confused in the middle. He continued to bowl Ashwin, even though the spinner was clearly being picked for runs repeatedly by the two left handers. Narine’s in-adeptness at handling the short ball is common knowledge, but still all Narine faced in the middle overs was stuff he likes, Ashwin the offie, Stoinis the gentle medium pacer and the new erratic Deshpande who gives you room outside the offstump in generous amounts. These bowlers combined to keep Narine well fed and KKR thriving. Nortje the best new find of this years IPL came back and together with Rabada restricted the KKR team to 194. Morgan did well to get 17 off 9 in the end, continuing to do well as captain in the DC innings too.
He opened with Cummins and Prasidh Krishna, and bowled Nagarkoti as first change. Cummins is back to bowling at his best now, showing the kind of form that has catapulted him to the top of international bowling charts. He took out Rahane, and the inform Dhawan in quick succession. Rahane brought in to replace Shaw went without scoring leaving Delhi in a catch 22 situation; do they keep backing Rahane or get Shaw back in. In the 12th over, Morgan introduced Chakravarthy. The tall Tamil lad with expressive eyes and a well maintained beard mesmerized the Delhi middle order like they were a group of teenage girls, and took them out one by one, ending up with figures of 5/20 off 4. The last time KKR faced DC, Chakravarthy was taken for a few, this was sweet sweet revenge for him. Chakravarthy has been the best KKR bowler this season, and now he has the wickets to show for it too. Another thing that sometimes people outside the KKR camp don’t quite understand is how important Sunil Narine is for this Kolkata setup. In 2012 and 2014 the two times that Kolkata has won the cup, Sunil took 24 and 22 wickets in those editions, respectively. In the last few seasons he hasn’t picked as many wickets but has contributed with the bat. Sunil Narine returning to this Kolkata setup is great news for the franchise and its cricketers, now they will hope that their performances on the field, like the one today, is not once in a blue moon but a bit more consistent.
Delhi didn’t have a single batsman show any fight and in the end they lost by a massive margin of 59 runs. Delhi unfortunately are going downhill at the wrong time, what they need right now is not just individual brilliance but for the whole team to come together, perform and fight this.
The kings with 4 wins off 4, have now officially turned the tide
The second match of the day saw the kings fight it out with the Sunrisers. Sunrisers have always been known for their tactical astuteness, especially in the bowling department. and they showed why, against the kings today.
The pointed precision of their bowling, led by Rashid Khan and Sandeep Sharma, ably supported by Natarajan and Holder, coupled with the accuracy with which they set their fields is such a delight to watch. The likes of Rahul and Gayle, who together cover all the facets of batting from timing to brute force to elegance to hitting on the up to reverse sweep etc etc, were not allowed to breathe, as both fell early, trying to break the shackles. Rahul in particular got out bowled through the gate, quite embarrassingly, off a Rashid googly, the equivalent of a defender getting nutmegged and conceding a goal. Nicholas Pooran was the only one who batted with responsibility, he mixed caution with aggression and batted till the very end. It would have been nice if he could have gotten a few more, but it was quite evident the pitch was getting difficult to bat on. In the end the Kings got a 126 total, way below average.
Sunrisers have struggled with their batting the whole tournament, especially while chasing. I think it’s because their captain, David Warner, believes in playing the Aussie way; batting first no matter the situation. But the Sunrisers management want to, need to, bat second, and Warner has to understand that.
Scoring after the ball got old would be difficult, so Warner took on Shami early, and successfully. But Warner departed with the score on 56 in 6 overs, castled by Bishnoi for 35. That was the start of something extraordinary as the Sunrisers lost their next 9 wickets for 58 runs. Kings eleven led by their two wrist spinners Bisnoi and Murugan Ashwin did what the Sunrisers did, but also so much more. They choked the scoring in the middle overs, letting the fast bowlers Arshdeep and Jordan come back, bowl the right channels to aggressive run seeking batters, and pick wickets in the process. Both the pacers picked up 3 wickets each. The Kings won the match by 12 runs.
Sunrisers have a lot of talent in their team, but seem to lack belief in their ability. Kings on the other hand keep on winning, their fourth on the trot and fifth overall. The fact that they got this win without Mayank Agarwal is an ode to the depth in their squad. It is also a reflection of how well KL Rahul has grown into his leadership role which has been impressive too, something which wasn’t exactly the case at the start of the tournament. It looks like the fourth spot in the playoffs will be a tossup between Kings and KKR.
One more super IPL weekend to go!
