IPL Match 36 : Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings
May 20th 2008 11:03
The Chennai Super Kings were trounced, mauled and summarily annihilated. All this not by an opposing team. No, sir - the Mumbai Indians needed just one man, the marauder from Matara to decimate the Chennai team.
Sanath Jayasuriya, who many had written off based on his lacklustre showing in the past games in the IPL, chose today to announce himself to the world - yet again. This match was supposed to be Tendulkar's. But he would not grudge Sanath his time under the spotlight. He deserved it.
Earlier Badrinath and Dhoni battled hard to get Chennai to a score of some respectability. In the face of some incisive seam and swing bowling from the Mumbai medium pacers, Chennai struggled. Dhoni too struggled a lot in the initial phase before settling down to play one of his trademark punishing innings - growing from strength to strength. He also had his share of luck when an absolutely plumb LBW decision was not given by umpire Billy Doctrove. But these things happen and Dhoni deserves credit for the way he buckled down and played normal cricketing shots instead of trying to manufacture anything exotic.
Badrinath seems to have elevated his game to another level and looks like a very good find for Indian cricket at this stage. Considering that the senior batsmen in our country are not going to be there forever, carefully grooming him should be one of the selectors' top priorities. And he is no mere hitter. He is a well groomed technically correct player capable of putting his hand up at the highest level of the game too. He started out as a defensive batsman but since then he has added on several gears to his engine apart from turbocharging it with power and a cool elan at the crease.
For the Mumbai Indians, everybody bowled well. Dhawal Kulkarni bowled a very good spell up front but he had a bad case of jitters when he was entrusted with the last over. The best bowler of the day, undoubtedly was Shaun Pollock. 4 overs for 9 runs including a maiden - all this after retiring from all forms of the game. Mumbai would take it - no questions asked. The over that Pollock bowled in his second spell to Dhoni was exceptional. It left the Indian ODI captain all at sea. The normally fluent Dhoni could not make out which way the ball was going. And by some distance too. Rohan Raje and Dwayne Bravo did their parts admirably well. Jayasuriya did not get to bowl. But man, did he bat!
The hugely impressive Goni started off well in his first over. But Chennai's empty bowling cupboards were thrown open when Morkel was entrusted with the new ball against the crack combination of Sachin and Sanath. Sachin, on his return after a long injury break, was sedate and even looked out of sorts. The boundaries that he scored - even the six over third man were mainly off thick edges. But today it idid not matter that Sachin was not his usual fluent persona. Sanath Jayasuriya had taken a liking to the Chennai attack. He hit the Chennai attack for 11 sixes - all over the ground. Even with minimum followthrough, he was able to power the ball into the stands. Such was his timing and flow yesterday. There never seemed to be an element of risk in his game. 119 off 45 balls was made to look fairly easy. Not bad for a 38 year old, eh?!
A word about the strategies and approach of the Chennai team is called for here. Dhoni's insistence to hand non-regular medium pacers with the job of bowling with the new ball is puzzling. He is not your standard method captain. He is far more instinctive and therefore unpredictable. When it works, it looks good. But when it does not, he is going to attract more than his share of criticism. Albie Morkel has looked distinctly out of place opening the new ball attack in all the games that he has played. Yet, Dhoni continues to persist with him.
One can understand if this decision is being taken when the bowling cupboards are bare. But there is a world class fast bowler waiting in the wings. Ntini is being benched. The percentage approach would be to have Ntini in for Joginder Sharma and have Morkel come and do the middle overs job that Sharma does. That way, Goni and Ntini can go full tilt at the batsmen.
Even though Joginder Sharma bowled fairly well yesterday and even took the wicket of Tendulkar, it is the overall team objective and combination that must be looked at. Opening the bowling with Morkel and having Joginder in is essentially a defensive strategy. Chennai needs to play positive and go with Goni and Ntini and have Morkel do the Joginder Sharma job in the middle overs.
Another aspect of Dhoni's captaincy which is puzzling is his usage of the spin wizardry at his disposal. He has just 20 overs at his disposal. I, for one, cannot understand why he does not bring in somebody like Murali by the 6th, 7th or even 8th over. Spinners like to bowl their quota at one stretch and if Murali started his spell by the 7th over he would complete it by the 13th over. That would be ideal. Dhoni appears reluctant to use spin early on for some reason. If the thoughts are about the newness of the ball, then it is immaterial. In a 20 over match, the ball is never going to get old enough for the spinners! And when the medium pacers are being carted around, ushering in a whole new dimension with the off spin of Murali can never be a bad idea. As I remember it, the one match that he brought Murali in by the 6th over, Chennai tasted success. It remains to be seen what lessons are taken home by the Chennai team after this loss.
The loss notwithstanding, the pace at which Jayasuriya got Mumbai past the total means that the Chennai team has taken a beating at the Net Run Rate stakes. The opening combination in the batting department too might need some looking in. Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan does not infuse any confidence. His ways at the crease are more miss than hit and more often than not, he scores inadvertently through false strokes and edges. That cannot be depended upon even though Chennai would take it anyway the runs come. Maybe Anirudha Srikanth or Parthiv Patel can be given another chance at the top of the order. Fleming too is not setting the world on fire exactly.
The presentation ceremony - it was shocking to see Dhoni getting booed. While some may see it as some sort of victory for the IPL branding and spout some jibberish about franchise and city loyalty, it has no place in cricket. These are the times when you miss the knowledgeable Chennai crowd which never fails to shower praise on even opponents. It is the quality of cricket that matters at the end. And Dhoni fought hard. He must be respected for his efforts. Booing him is to miss the point entirely. This is not the WWE or the WWF, folks. Although every effort is being made to make it look like that
All these concerns of the Chennai team notwithstanding, Mumbai is cock-a-hoop now - as they should be. Sachin returns and magically all is well with the world.
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