Chennai's bad run continues with just 1 win of 5 matches and currently stands at 5th position in the table. CSK team management needs to do something and changes in the team is imperative. Some how i feel the team is not gelling well and it shows in the field, i doubt if dhoni is as aggressive as he was earlier and when scoring runs. It was hard to see the match against Deccan Chargers with each individual standing at their position with somber faces even before the match was lost.
The main problem for CSK is none of the big names are performing to their reputation except for Haydos & Murali. Dhoni in particular needs to re-discover himself and play to his strength (aggression) and not for his reputation. Its been too long now he has played an attacking knock for India or CSK, he has been trying to occupy the crease and graft runs and that is not expected from him, he is expected to score quick and fast. The only way he can do that is re-discover himself and play his natural game. Albee Morkel the biggest success for SouthAfrica in the last ODI series against Australia and lot was expected from him in this IPL-2 but has been disappointing till now. Raina has been good in patches and has not converted the good starts into big scores and has thrown the wicket at very important stages of the game. Balaji & Badri has been pretty inconsistent as ever. Balaji has been gifting runs at will and has not been reliable and badri has not scored any runs and he is in the playing 11 just b'cas there is no alternative Indian batsmen in the bench.
Now moving back to the team selection, i wonder how and why they are playing Joginder and giving him only 1/2 overs when spinners are so successful in South African wickets. Its time we do some change to the lineup by playing Vijay in place of Parthiv and Ashwin in place of Joginder and may be after couple of matches we can also try Bailey so that we know how good he is and how we plan to use him. I am sure there will be some change in the line up and i will not be surprised if dhoni picks Vijay in place of Badri and play Parthiv as a keeper and ask him to bat down the order. I think at least now VBC as top guy for cricketing affairs for CSK speaks his mind to the people concerned and not stop with writing blogs.
CSK is left with no other option but win the next 3 or 4 matches to make sure that they are not left far behind the chase to find a place in the semi-finals. Already DC & DD are comfortably placed and MI has made strong claims to be in the semi-finals and the last spot will be a fight between CSK and primarily RR and to an extent Kings XI Punjab.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Bad start for CSK & RR
MI & RCB performed like real champions to beat CSK and RR respectively. Sachin leading from the front for MI and Dravid & Kumble performing for RCB to start IPL-2 on a winning note.
I am not going to write on what happened in the match for CSK but on what went wrong for CSK and the mistakes that cost the match for CSK.
1.Hayden dropping a sitter from sachin early on the game.
2.When CSK had restricted MI well Flintoff gifting 25 runs in the 18th over.
3.Flintoff & Hayden throwing their wickets after showing signs of recovery.
4.Playing 11 and batting order.
I feel dropping catches,gifting runs and throwing wickets are normal and sometimes depends on many factors like weather,first game,batsmen just hitting out and taking all the risks etc but what baffles me is the team selection and the order in which the batsmen were sent in for the chase.
CSK were playing with 10 players and the 11th man was playing as a fielder, no bowling and no batting, how can you play Ashwin and not give him even a single over it is ridiculous to play him at the first place when you are playing 3 specialist bowlers and 2 bowling all rounders and having picked him in the team not trying him even for a single over shows how confident the captain is on Ashwin.
I don't understand how you can not pick A.morkel, what ever the reason be (kits not arrived on time !!) it is very silly to think that he can not play with the available kit from the other players in the team. How on earth you can pick Joginder ahead of balaji (even though joginder did well) i doubt if Dhoni has any confidence in the chennai players. It is really hurting when you see only 2 players picked from chennai for the CSK team and 1 of them did not bowl or bat and the other specialist batsmen walking in at the end overs when the asking rate has gone up to 11 a over.Its a shame for TNCA and Chennai players that they are treated so badly in spite of owning the team. All the other teams (except RR) play minimum of 3-4 players from the state and they are key performers also.Some how i get a feeling that dhoni is not confident about players from TN.
How is that all the big hitting batsmen were sent in one after the other early in the innings and send the inexperienced players in the end overs and expect them to perform. May be he is experimenting in the initial phase of the tournament but it is always good to start winning so that the team's morale and confidence gets momentum going forward. I am not blaming Dhoni alone here its a total failure of the team management which includes Fleming. I strongly feel that its time that dhoni starts to keep wickets and create an option to include one more batsmen/bowler in the team. I would want to see Flintoff at number 6 and Morkel at 7 and may earlier depending on the match scenario and not at no 4 / 5 pre-planned.
I am sure the team management on cricketing affairs get together and plan for the next game and come out with the best possible lineup which should include Hayden,Morkel,Flintoff and Murali and make sure they start winning.
I am not going to write on what happened in the match for CSK but on what went wrong for CSK and the mistakes that cost the match for CSK.
1.Hayden dropping a sitter from sachin early on the game.
2.When CSK had restricted MI well Flintoff gifting 25 runs in the 18th over.
3.Flintoff & Hayden throwing their wickets after showing signs of recovery.
4.Playing 11 and batting order.
I feel dropping catches,gifting runs and throwing wickets are normal and sometimes depends on many factors like weather,first game,batsmen just hitting out and taking all the risks etc but what baffles me is the team selection and the order in which the batsmen were sent in for the chase.
CSK were playing with 10 players and the 11th man was playing as a fielder, no bowling and no batting, how can you play Ashwin and not give him even a single over it is ridiculous to play him at the first place when you are playing 3 specialist bowlers and 2 bowling all rounders and having picked him in the team not trying him even for a single over shows how confident the captain is on Ashwin.
I don't understand how you can not pick A.morkel, what ever the reason be (kits not arrived on time !!) it is very silly to think that he can not play with the available kit from the other players in the team. How on earth you can pick Joginder ahead of balaji (even though joginder did well) i doubt if Dhoni has any confidence in the chennai players. It is really hurting when you see only 2 players picked from chennai for the CSK team and 1 of them did not bowl or bat and the other specialist batsmen walking in at the end overs when the asking rate has gone up to 11 a over.Its a shame for TNCA and Chennai players that they are treated so badly in spite of owning the team. All the other teams (except RR) play minimum of 3-4 players from the state and they are key performers also.Some how i get a feeling that dhoni is not confident about players from TN.
How is that all the big hitting batsmen were sent in one after the other early in the innings and send the inexperienced players in the end overs and expect them to perform. May be he is experimenting in the initial phase of the tournament but it is always good to start winning so that the team's morale and confidence gets momentum going forward. I am not blaming Dhoni alone here its a total failure of the team management which includes Fleming. I strongly feel that its time that dhoni starts to keep wickets and create an option to include one more batsmen/bowler in the team. I would want to see Flintoff at number 6 and Morkel at 7 and may earlier depending on the match scenario and not at no 4 / 5 pre-planned.
I am sure the team management on cricketing affairs get together and plan for the next game and come out with the best possible lineup which should include Hayden,Morkel,Flintoff and Murali and make sure they start winning.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Will Rajasthan Royals make it again ??
Rajasthan Royals (RR) is already in South Africa (SA) and have started playing matches with strong sides in SA.Will Shane Warne and team be able to win the second edition for their new owner (read Shilpa :-)) is the most asked question in the media today.
RR is not my favorites this time around to win the tournament.The basic reason for this observation is, last year the players who helped the team win matches were Yusuf,Watson,R.Jadeja,Asnodkar & importantly S.Tanvir under the great leadership of Shane. All the above players except Shane and Watson will not find it easy playing in SA. S.Tanvir is ruled out of the tournament and Watson should be rusty back into the side after a 2 month rest after injury. Yusuf,R.Jadeja,Asnodkar & Kaif are players who relish the ball to come below the knee roll and don't like the ball coming quick and bouncing above the knee roll and i strongly feel that these players performance in this tournament will be limited. Shane even though playing/coaching competitive cricket through out the year, he is not getting younger by the day and it was showing in the way he was bowling and ground fielding in the first practice game.
Am i sounding little too against RR :-) ok lets see the strengths of RR now
Smith the captain of SA is the biggest strength for RR, he know the wickets,conditions,reads the players better than anyone in today's cricket and should be playing a very important role in the teams preparation and should be behind each every decision on the planning. Basically he is the key think tank of the team along with Shane.Mascarenhas,M.Morkel,S.Trivedi and Munaf Patel should do well in helping conditions. Mascarenhas has been in and out of the England team and has not played much for RR last season should be raring to go here and prove a point to the england selectors. Morkel and Munaf should be too much for any team to handle in the first 6-8 overs, S.Trivedi played the supporting role so well last time and should be hoping to do well this time also.
Yusuf and Asnodkar are just unpredictable players and if they click in bouncy tracks its a bonus and they will just be un-stopable and prove to be match winners. I am eager to see how Jadeja performs in SA, he is a very strong willed player and does not get cowed down by the reputation of the bowler or the batsmen playing against him and wish he does well and makes a strong claim into the Indian T20 side.
Bottom Line:
Shane and Smith are the key people to get this in-experienced side to get united and make them believe that they can win in SA.
RR is not my favorites this time around to win the tournament.The basic reason for this observation is, last year the players who helped the team win matches were Yusuf,Watson,R.Jadeja,Asnodkar & importantly S.Tanvir under the great leadership of Shane. All the above players except Shane and Watson will not find it easy playing in SA. S.Tanvir is ruled out of the tournament and Watson should be rusty back into the side after a 2 month rest after injury. Yusuf,R.Jadeja,Asnodkar & Kaif are players who relish the ball to come below the knee roll and don't like the ball coming quick and bouncing above the knee roll and i strongly feel that these players performance in this tournament will be limited. Shane even though playing/coaching competitive cricket through out the year, he is not getting younger by the day and it was showing in the way he was bowling and ground fielding in the first practice game.
Am i sounding little too against RR :-) ok lets see the strengths of RR now
Smith the captain of SA is the biggest strength for RR, he know the wickets,conditions,reads the players better than anyone in today's cricket and should be playing a very important role in the teams preparation and should be behind each every decision on the planning. Basically he is the key think tank of the team along with Shane.Mascarenhas,M.Morkel,S.Trivedi and Munaf Patel should do well in helping conditions. Mascarenhas has been in and out of the England team and has not played much for RR last season should be raring to go here and prove a point to the england selectors. Morkel and Munaf should be too much for any team to handle in the first 6-8 overs, S.Trivedi played the supporting role so well last time and should be hoping to do well this time also.
Yusuf and Asnodkar are just unpredictable players and if they click in bouncy tracks its a bonus and they will just be un-stopable and prove to be match winners. I am eager to see how Jadeja performs in SA, he is a very strong willed player and does not get cowed down by the reputation of the bowler or the batsmen playing against him and wish he does well and makes a strong claim into the Indian T20 side.
Bottom Line:
Shane and Smith are the key people to get this in-experienced side to get united and make them believe that they can win in SA.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Its no fluke !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MS Dhoni & team has yet again proved that its no fluke,luck or blip but true professionalism that has made winning a habit. It was really nice to see that the whole team contributing to the series win. One has to give full credit to Dhoni for making each and every member of the team believe that we can win any opponents, any where and under any conditions. The most fabulous thing about Dhoni is that he has been able to manage this with two different set of players, for T20 & ODI half the team is different and very young, on the other side he has been successful in making even the experienced players to believe that they can win any team and win consistently.
The brilliance of Gambhir,care free Sehwag,flamboyant Yuvraj,aggressive bhaji,Ishant,crafty Zaheer and cool dhoni has made the seniors Sachin,Dravid & Laxman to give that extra bit and made sure that they contribute and contribute when it matters most. Gambhir has been just too good over the last couple of seasons, the biggest strength i see in him is the fearlessness on facing any opponent. He gives respect only to the delivery and not to the bowler who bowls and his past record or reputation etc, if the delivery needs to be hit it will be hit. The hundred he made in the 2nd test just proves that he has arrived in style and he can play out time if the circumstances requires. I wish that he continues this fearless attitude in the coming seasons also without fearing for his reputation.
Zaheer & Harbajan has been brilliant through out the series with some brilliant spells. Even though the strike rate can be improved , both of them made sure that they bowl to the plan. Lot was expected from Ishant in the helpful conditions but he bowled well in patches but was not able to repeat the magic he did in Australia, i am sure he will come back strongly in the upcoming series.Munaf played his part to perfection, supporting Zaheer & Ishanth sharma, Yovraj,sehwag & sachin did their bit as bowlers.
Few disappointments as for as the Test Series was Sehwag, he did play few quick fire knocks but failed to convert them into big scores. I feel Yuvraj was also very tentative and most of times cramped to some good quick bowling from CrisMartin and feel that its time we have to try RohithSharma/Raina/Kholi/M.Vijay in test matches and leave Yuvraj to concentrate on ODI and T20. Dhinesh Karthick got a golden chance and missed to capitalize on that and again failed to perform with the bat and i think he has hit the last nail in his international carrier. Its very unfortunate that Misra & Vijay dod not get even a single game in the tour, lets hope that these youngsters get their chances before they give up.
Sorry folks will post on Rajasthan Royals next up.
The brilliance of Gambhir,care free Sehwag,flamboyant Yuvraj,aggressive bhaji,Ishant,crafty Zaheer and cool dhoni has made the seniors Sachin,Dravid & Laxman to give that extra bit and made sure that they contribute and contribute when it matters most. Gambhir has been just too good over the last couple of seasons, the biggest strength i see in him is the fearlessness on facing any opponent. He gives respect only to the delivery and not to the bowler who bowls and his past record or reputation etc, if the delivery needs to be hit it will be hit. The hundred he made in the 2nd test just proves that he has arrived in style and he can play out time if the circumstances requires. I wish that he continues this fearless attitude in the coming seasons also without fearing for his reputation.
Zaheer & Harbajan has been brilliant through out the series with some brilliant spells. Even though the strike rate can be improved , both of them made sure that they bowl to the plan. Lot was expected from Ishant in the helpful conditions but he bowled well in patches but was not able to repeat the magic he did in Australia, i am sure he will come back strongly in the upcoming series.Munaf played his part to perfection, supporting Zaheer & Ishanth sharma, Yovraj,sehwag & sachin did their bit as bowlers.
Few disappointments as for as the Test Series was Sehwag, he did play few quick fire knocks but failed to convert them into big scores. I feel Yuvraj was also very tentative and most of times cramped to some good quick bowling from CrisMartin and feel that its time we have to try RohithSharma/Raina/Kholi/M.Vijay in test matches and leave Yuvraj to concentrate on ODI and T20. Dhinesh Karthick got a golden chance and missed to capitalize on that and again failed to perform with the bat and i think he has hit the last nail in his international carrier. Its very unfortunate that Misra & Vijay dod not get even a single game in the tour, lets hope that these youngsters get their chances before they give up.
Sorry folks will post on Rajasthan Royals next up.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) goes to South Africa with couple of current SA front line players in A.Morkel and Ntini. A.Morkel is in brilliant form and Ntini doing reasonably well in tandem with Steyn should do lot of good to the CSK team. 1st season coach K.Wessels should be helping the team in providing inputs on the nature of wickets and conditions in various venues across SA.
Even though i am a CSK supporter, i feel that its not going to be as easy as last time around with the tournament moving to SouthAfrica. Having said that CSK is the most balanced team on paper with Hayden available for the full season,addition of Flintoff, In form Morkel & Raina, Dhoni the most successful captain in recent times is backed by some good local talent in S.Badrinath,Vidyuth,Anirudh makes a very good line up. Flintoff,Morkel in the line up provide great balance, they can bowl minimum of 7-8 overs and SA wickets should help seamer's better. Murali/Ntini along with L.Balaji,Goni should provide a solid bowling line up if not great bowling line up.
My 11 for the first phase of the tournament with all the players available.
Hayden
Anirudha Srikkanth // Vidyuth
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni
Albie Morkel
Andrew Flintoff / Jacob Oram
Subramaniam Badrinath
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Manpreet Gony / Amarnath
Muttiah Muralitharan / Ntini
JoginderSharma / Ashwin
(There are few new names in Bailey and other local talent, we may have to take note of these talents in the 2nd phase. We will be pushed to think on Hussey availability for the latest stages of the tournament)
Hayden will be given the free hand to attack and play his natural game and score as many runs as possible in the initial 10 overs. Raina,Dhoni,Morkel,Badri and Flintoff just make a great top order which i am sure any bowling attack will worry to restrict.
I feel CSK has the best batting line up and if the bowling does reasonably well CSK should win comfortably. CSK should be chasing scores around 180-190 easily and the bowlers will be comfortable to restrict score around 200-210 not less than that at least in the initial phase of the tournament. To reach the semi-finals, Hayden,Raina,Morkel, Flintoff (to an extent )Murali and L.Balaji should perform consistently well. It goes without saying that Dhoni will have to lead side with more imagination and use the local boys well.
Having done the above analysis based on the past performance, cricket has never gone the way one would like to or no amount of analysis works. The DC (Deccan Chargers) were the best side on paper last year with all the big hitters (Gilcrist,Gibbs, Symonds etc) in the side they finished last in the table.
As a true CSK fan, lets support (watching set Max :(), pray and wish CSK does well to reach the last four, may be after that we will cry,pray and do what ever to see that CSK wins the trophy.
Next Post on Rajasthan Royals !!!!
Even though i am a CSK supporter, i feel that its not going to be as easy as last time around with the tournament moving to SouthAfrica. Having said that CSK is the most balanced team on paper with Hayden available for the full season,addition of Flintoff, In form Morkel & Raina, Dhoni the most successful captain in recent times is backed by some good local talent in S.Badrinath,Vidyuth,Anirudh makes a very good line up. Flintoff,Morkel in the line up provide great balance, they can bowl minimum of 7-8 overs and SA wickets should help seamer's better. Murali/Ntini along with L.Balaji,Goni should provide a solid bowling line up if not great bowling line up.
My 11 for the first phase of the tournament with all the players available.
Hayden
Anirudha Srikkanth // Vidyuth
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni
Albie Morkel
Andrew Flintoff / Jacob Oram
Subramaniam Badrinath
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Manpreet Gony / Amarnath
Muttiah Muralitharan / Ntini
JoginderSharma / Ashwin
(There are few new names in Bailey and other local talent, we may have to take note of these talents in the 2nd phase. We will be pushed to think on Hussey availability for the latest stages of the tournament)
Hayden will be given the free hand to attack and play his natural game and score as many runs as possible in the initial 10 overs. Raina,Dhoni,Morkel,Badri and Flintoff just make a great top order which i am sure any bowling attack will worry to restrict.
I feel CSK has the best batting line up and if the bowling does reasonably well CSK should win comfortably. CSK should be chasing scores around 180-190 easily and the bowlers will be comfortable to restrict score around 200-210 not less than that at least in the initial phase of the tournament. To reach the semi-finals, Hayden,Raina,Morkel, Flintoff (to an extent )Murali and L.Balaji should perform consistently well. It goes without saying that Dhoni will have to lead side with more imagination and use the local boys well.
Having done the above analysis based on the past performance, cricket has never gone the way one would like to or no amount of analysis works. The DC (Deccan Chargers) were the best side on paper last year with all the big hitters (Gilcrist,Gibbs, Symonds etc) in the side they finished last in the table.
As a true CSK fan, lets support (watching set Max :(), pray and wish CSK does well to reach the last four, may be after that we will cry,pray and do what ever to see that CSK wins the trophy.
Next Post on Rajasthan Royals !!!!
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