For most of the sides in the Indian Premier League, the best and most in-form batsmen struggle to replicate their exploits from the league stage. The phenomena in all probability could be down to the enormous pressure one has in the playoffs stage in the cash rich league. However, it’s more or less completely opposite for the Chennai Super Kings, who, on 10th October, became the only side to get into the final on nine occasions.
If Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson were the ones, who won them the first qualifier and final in their last successful season in 2018, it was Robin Uthappa and MS Dhoni himself in the first qualifier this year to lead them into another IPL final.
Both of these men were muted members of a resurgent Super Kings side this season and they could not have picked a better game to put a performance worthy of their glory days in the IPL.
On the other hand, Rishabh Pant and his Capitals side showed all signs of an immature side that could not rise to the occasion when pressure was well and truly on them. They were made to look ordinary in both decision-making and execution by the Super Kings side which did nothing too much more than capitalising on their nervousness and inability to handle pressure.
Here, we’ll analyse the best and the worst performance of the first qualifier of the 14th edition of IPL between the Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings
Hits
MS Dhoni
For whatever it was worth, the return and redemption of the Super Kings were not complete till they reached the final of an IPL season and MS Dhoni did not hit the winning runs of a crucial game.
Let’s accept the fact that has already been established for so many years and more so after his unceremonious exit from international cricket that MS Dhoni, the maverick talisman with the bat, has finished. Now, contextualise him smashing the Delhi bowlers all around the park with brute force that resembled his heydays and turned the clock back to his glorious past, to feel the enormous sense of enthusiasm for his fans and the teammates.
No wonder, Suresh Raina and Deepak Chahar were happier than he himself would have been on the field when he was playing around with the mind of Tom Curran and the emotions of Rishabh Pant.
When he walked out to bat after the fall of Ruturaj Gaikwad in the 19th over, there must have been apprehensions about him coming ahead of Ravindra Jadeja. After all, Jadeja has been in form of his life with the bat and Dhoni has been struggling to force the ball off the square.
However, like all the days and years of his playing career, the critics and doubters were never aware of the script that were to unfold.
Avesh Khan committed the mistake of being predictable to Dhoni and produced a slower short of length delivery. Putting all the doubts of his power to get the big shot going, Dhoni muscled that slower ball over square leg to announce his intention and showcase his execution.
Meanwhile, it was soon followed by the departure of another relatively set batsman in Moeen Ali as the Super Kings started falling off the clip in search of a surging required rate.
Moeen’s wicket left the men in yellow to score 13 runs off the last five balls if they wanted to wait for the other teams to be their opponent in the big final. Curran repeated the same mistake that Avesh committed and could not offer him something unexpected. Another slow ball was thumped over cover for four and the Super Kings were in with a great chance.
There was no end to Curran’s misery in the over as he clearly appeared to be bogged down by the stake of the situation. He was unlucky on another slow ball as Dhoni could not reach out to it fully but the night was his and hence an inside edge flew past Pant to fine leg boundary.
Now, the equation was simple and Dhoni could afford to breathe a little easy. Curran was probably breathing more heavily and he offered another slower short ball and with no square leg in place, it was an open invitation for him to smash it to the fence and take the Super Kings to their ninth final in the history of the league.
When pressed on to discuss his batting by Harsha Bhogle, Dhoni said that he just followed the principle of “see the ball, hit the ball”, and his fans would readily believe it was so simple as it was his words, and about his own batting and true believers of Dhoni know how simple he makes the game look like.
Robin Uthappa
If Murali Vijay on the night of the final in the 2011 edition, Shane Watson in the finals of the 2018 and 2019 edition and Faf du Plessis in the first qualifier of the 2018 edition were the batsmen who woke up from the slumber on big occasions to hand the Super Kings strategic and historic wins, Robin Uthappa certainly has become that trump card for them in this edition.
Brought into the side in place of Suresh Raina, who is one of the all-time greats of the Indian Premier League, there was always a tough boot to fill and big expectations to meet for the batsman who has not had any sort of momentum and form with the bat in the last few seasons.
But, what good is long rope if your selection is not annoying your critics and his selection in the playing XI for the first qualifier also irked many fans of Super Kings.
Little perturbed to the “outside noise”, Uthappa started his innings on a fluent note that was characteristics of his fluent best when he and Gautam Gambhir used to rule the show for the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL.
He was on the front foot to a rapid ball from Anrich Nortje and placed it immaculately to announce his arrival and never looked back from that stage.
On the other hand, Avesh was getting good bounce and was not allowing Gaikwad to free his hands until he came up against Uthappa, who glided his short of length delivery casually to third man boundary for four.
That was not the only attack on Avesh by Uthappa as his next over saw the right-hander at his versatile best. The second and third deliveries of his next over were despatched for six and four in as easier a way as one could hit boundaries with. The bowler tried to pull the length back but he was in full flow by then and deposited one more shot over the non-striker’s head.
Avesh plummeted to a 20-run over and the Super Kings were up and running in the chase of 171 runs. He got to his half-century but was not lost on purpose as Ravichandran Ashwin too could not stop his rampage and two masterful boundaries left Pant puzzling for answers.
He could not finish the job for the Super Kings and it needed an MS Dhoni special for them to reach the final, but the form and confidence Uthappa showed in such a big game exemplified his character and vindicated Dhoni’s call of backing players who don’t seem to be doing good from the outset.
Shimron Hetmyer
When Shimron Hetmyer walked out to bat in the middle, the Capitals were just past the halfway stage of their innings and were tottering at the loss of four wickets for just 80 runs.
He was forced to do a repair job in the middle along with his skipper Pant and he did a masterful job of that while scoring at a staggering strike rate of 150.
He took some eight balls to stabilise both himself and the Capitals before depositing Moeen Ali for a big six and starting a well-measured counterattack. He increased his tempo with boundaries at regular intervals and although there were not too many high sixes flowing out of the ground, he along with Pant had taken the Capitals to a score they would have been comfortable with.
He was dismissed after 24-ball 37 that set the stage for a close run chase in the end. Had it not been for him and Pant in the middle, the Super Kings would have strolled past the target and handed the Capitals a demoralising drubbing.
Flops
Avesh Khan
They say that the game of cricket is a great leveller and there is no one better than Avesh Khan to ratify one of the biggest cliches of the game.
He was going through a golden form with the ball as his seam bowling with the new ball and variations with the new ball were getting batsmen found out in the crease.
However, in the last two games, the scenes have started to change for the young and promising Indian pacer. First, he was all over the place in the game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and conceded a last-ball match-winning six to KS Bharat, and now another horrific night with the ball against the Super Kings would have raised alarm bells in the Capitals camp of another player losing form in the phase of the tournament that matters the most.
He was once again all over the place against Uthappa and he smashed him over the long-on fence for fun and plundered for 20 runs in the over to give the Super Kings in the powerplay.
Then, in the penultimate over, when he was needed to be a bit all over the place to not appear too predictable for Dhoni, he offered a slowish short ball and conceded a big six that shifted the momentum in the Super Kings’ favour.
The Capitals would hope he would come back quickly from these two rough games in the next qualifier against one among the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Shardul Thakur
There is nothing that Shardul Thakur has done wrong in the last few months and just when all seemed to be falling in place for the pacer, he has hit a stumbling block in form of a rough day in the field.
He was brought into the attack to bring control to the bowling department after Shaw was going all over Deepak Chahar. However, he offered worse balls to him and the right-hander did not need a second invitation to smash him and Dhoni’s ambitions of containing him.
He was poor on two fronts and two occasions as first he offered him a half-tracker that travelled way over the fence way in front of the square on the leg side. Then, he offered a slower ball right in his slot and Shaw could not miss the opportunity to hit an easy six over long-on.
He was not trusted for more than three overs as Dhoni quickly realised it wasn’t his night and he conceded as many as 36 runs in just 18 ball-long spells.
Shardul has also been a shining light with the bat as well in the recent past and the Super Kings gave him license to throw all his might in the middle phase of the game. To his credit, he was on the job from the word go and perished in the process on the very first ball instead of eating up the ball and making it tough for the Super Kings.
Shardul is not Jasprit Bumrah, who will give nothing away and take wickets with the ball and neither he is Deepak Chahar, who will swing the ball prodigiously to challenge batsmen. He is a bowler who relies on subtle variations and hence is vulnerable to poor days in the field like the one against the Capitals.
The Super Kings maintained their supremacy over the Capitals in the playoffs of IPL and reached their night final of the league. They also broke the chain of losses against the Capitals after facing four consecutive defeats against them and it could not have come on a better occasion than the first qualifier of the tournament.
On the other hand, the Capitals were left hurting and “disappointed” as Pant described in the post-match presentation after missing out on another easy way to the final this year. Had they done it, it would have been their second final in consecutive seasons, but they will have to blame themselves for the iffy tactics on the field and selection calls from the outset.