The ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League has not fallen short of providing close encounters and collapse but the contest between the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders could just be the game of the season so far.
It had everything in it from excellent batting performances followed by a fantastic piece of bowling with the new ball and then an unlikely comeback that fell agonisingly short of achieving the goal.
At first, the Super Kings openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis batted with the intention of taking the game to the Knight Riders camp and posted a mammoth total. The Super Kings followed a superb batting effort with another spell of superlative bowling by Deepak Chahar who took another four-wicket haul to set up the game.
Then, when all looked doomed for the Knight Riders, first Andre Russell and then, Pat Cummins came back with two of the best counter-attacking innings in the history of IPL to inject some hope in an otherwise hopeless Knight Riders camp.
Captains’ viewpoints
The winning captain MS Dhoni was calm as ever after the win over the Knight Riders however he said that the contest had reached 'it's either you or it's me' level between the pacers and the batsmen.
He said that had the Knight Riders would have sustained their aggression till the end of the innings, the match would have ended up looking more closely than they actually finished.
“I think it's easy in a game like this because from the 15th and 16th over onwards, the contest was between the fast bowler and the batsman [laughs]. It was you vs me. The side that won was maybe the one that executed it better. If 20 overs had been completed, it would have been more closer,” Dhoni said in the post-match presentation.
The Super Kings had a huge score on the board and the new ball too produced too many wickets for the Knight Riders to have it easy. However, Dhoni said to his teammates that the Knight Riders, like all other IPL teams, have big-hitters hence staying humble and in the moment was desirable.
“It's important to be humble and give respect to the opposition. Every IPL team has big-hitters. I told them we have good runs on the board, but we need to stay humble,” Dhoni added.
After Deepak Chahar and Lungi Ngidi reduced the Knight Riders to 31/5 inside the powerplay, Andre Russell appeared to be emerging from the struggles he has had in recent years and started putting bowlers to the sword.
Discussing what he could have done more to stoop carnage at the hands of Russell, Dhoni said the only option he had in his hands was to employ Ravindra Jadeja as the ball was spinning and stopping off the surface.
Ultimately, after Russell elongated his onslaught to a 22-ball 54 runs, the Super Kings finally got the better of him in an unusual manner. However, Dhoni said that it was a plan to get him bowled behind his legs.
Bowlers have come to the party till now in the season for the Super Kings, but batting has been able to set off a good base for the bowler to challenge batsmen. Dhoni commended Ruturaj Gaikwad who came back to form and hit an impressive half-century to establish his quality and justify his selection.
“The batting has been really well. Rutu showed his class in the last IPL. We always need to assess where he is mentally. He doesn't seem rattled and he has the basics to make it big. What would've helped him is the last few games last year when he wasn't successful,” Dhoni concluded.
The defeated captain Eoin Morgan hailed Andre Russell, Pat Cummins and Dinesh Karthik for making it ‘one hell of a game’ from a situation where all looked lost. He said that the match turned out to be a pulsating one on the back of brilliant fightback from the Knight Riders middle and lower order.
“It's (pulse) quite high at the moment. One hell of a game. Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik put a partnership together and following that Pat Cummins gave us every chance towards the end. Tremendous fight from the middle and lower order. You ride the emotions throughout the day,” Morgan said to host broadcaster Star.
Morgan conceded the game almost slipped out of the team’s hand after the Super Kings sent back the top half of the batting order by the end of the powerplay. However, Morgan said that the team adapted to the new ground and the subsequent challenges after coming to Mumbai from Chennai.
“The first five overs of batting didn't go our way. We didn't play as well as we would've liked. We can be happy with (adaptation) new ground, different challenges,” Morgan added.
The bowling attack conceded a lot of runs, especially at the back end of the innings, but Morgan asserted that not accepting the lack of room for the bowlers will be unkind to them.
Morgan hailed Russell for putting his hands up once again but rued lack of performances from others and supporting act to the right-hander.
“Going back to it, I don't think there was any margin for error for the bowlers. We need to be kinder to the bowlers. You really need to be on the money. I tend to stay away from Dre after he gets out. It's great he's in this sort of form. Disappointing that the rest of us couldn't help him out,” Morgan said.
Experts’ views
Harsha Bhogle, a ‘voice of cricket’ reaffirmed the point Dhoni made about the game going much closer than it actually ended as the Knight Riders stretched their innings to the last ball.
Earlier, when the Knight Riders pacers were taken to the cleaners by the Super Kings batsmen, Bhogle opined that they were missing the track of not taking the pace off the ball. He also asserted that the Super Kings had enough runs in the bank to stop the Knight Riders.
Bhogle was impressed by the clinical performance of the Super Kings and said that the game against the Knight Riders was one of the best performances they have put out in the recent past.
He also lauded the Super Kings management for trusting a player and allowing them to flourish before giving up on them with respect to Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra welcomed Gaikwad’s return to form with a swashbuckling innings against the Knight Riders.
Having faced turbulent times against the batsmen from either side, Aakash Chopra came with some words of appreciation for bowlers and said that there was not enough they could have done to stop batsmen from hitting sixes with ease. He said the game between the Knight Riders and the Super Kings provided a ‘PG Certificate’ for budding bowlers that things will not come their way on certain days.
Cricket analyst Ben Jones said that the Chennai Super Kings are far from a perfect team to become a certainty for a playoff spot although he loves watching players such as Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar.
He also spoke highly of Moeen Ali who has emerged as one of the MVPs for the Super Kings in this season. He expressed amusement over him not getting a place in the top six of the England T20I side.
The Super Kings have not covered all their bases and plugged all the holes that the skipper MS Dhoni referred to in the last season. However, they are being helped by individual players putting their hands up in critical moments of the game to keep them going upward and forward.
On the other hand, the Eoin Morgan-led Knight Riders have appeared to be a toothless side in spite of having many x-factor players in the form of skipper himself, Andre Russell, and Pat Cummins. The Knight Riders need their star players to shine through more often than not while younger players will have to step up their game and support big players if the team is looking to get back to winning ways.