Sunday, May 3, 2009

CSK back on Track !!!!!!!!!!

Great Double for CSK and chennai is again bustling with the hope as we are back on track and will put up some exiting stuff going forward.It was nice to see the two rookie bowlers perform exceptionally well and i see Thyagi is the future for Indian Cricket and high quality material and needs lot of hand holding to be successful in the international arena.

Finally all the comments and bashing to send Badri at No 4 has been heard and Badri has just performed like a champ, even though there is lot of room for improvement. I would have expected a Raina like innings (98) from Badri in the game against DD but again the effort was just fantastic.M.Vijay started of well and needs a couple of games to settle down and i am sure he is far far better batsman than Parthiv so please stick with him.

Jakati bowled superbly to pick 4 wickets and kept the run flow under check and sure to help CSK in the upcoming matches. We chennai folks would have loved to see Ashwin in his place, why did Dhoni prefer Jakati over Ashwin ? he just got only one match and he did not bowl or bat then how is that Jakati is picked ? I know you will say we already have Murali & Raina bowling off spin and we need a left arm spinner. Including Thyagi & Jataki over Amarnath (who did very well last season) and Ashwin has only proved that Dhoni is not confident on TN players for some reason or other. At least now we have 3 players from TN and wish that they perform well and give confidence to Dhoni in picking more from the state.

Coming back to the match against DC, i hope and wish that the top guns in the middle order get some runs to boost the total and help the bowlers. Dhoni,Albie & Oram are total failures with the bat and expect them to raise to the occasion and peak their form at the right time.CSK has slight edge over the DC as Fidel leaving the team and DC losing the last 2 matches and CSK winning the last 2 games

Good Luck Guys.

9 comments:

abimanyu said...

@ Vasu, As you have mentioned left arm spinner will surely add variety to the bowling attack so this justifies his selection over Ashwin.

I certainly don't think Palani Amarnath is a better bowler compared Thyagi. Thyagi had an excellent domestic season last year and missed out the IPL due to injury. Gony was picked as a last minute replacement during last season. I was expecting him to play right from the first match this season.

I accept that Dhoni certainly has a bias in the selection against the TN players but each of his selection cannot be blamed.

Anyways good show by the team in the last couple of matches. If the lower middle order can fire we would certainly become a team to beat. The team is consistently improving its performance. I hope they will be in their peak when it matters the most.

Vasu said...

Agreed!!! Not every selection can be blamed.

BTW :- Do you think Irfan Pathan should be in the T-20 team for the WorldCup ?

Shankar.Nash said...

Vasu.. nice performance by CSK to beat DC comprehensively.. and as u mentioned Thyagi and Jakati came to the fore in that win.. and good to see Dhoni hitting well.. hope u continues in the same form.. and regarding the TN players.. it would have been good to see quite a few of them.. but as of now.. the team is slowly settling well.. lets hope they maintain the composition and keep on winning..

If only Oram and Morkel, play as they are known for.. i am sure CSK wil be a great force in this IPL... considering the way the team is doing.. it seems that they too wil join the fireworks too soon..

abimanyu said...

@Vasu Regarding Irfan Pathan, its a hands down from me. He is such a talented cricketer that one would always want him in the side. But considering his current bowling form he certainly deserves to be dropped. Make him play a couple of domestic seasons. Let him rediscover his lost touch and get among the wickets. Then pick him after that. He is just 23 now and has a long career ahead.

The selectors have to do what they did to Zaheer a couple of years ago. If the bowler is not in form drop him mercilessly let him prove his worth in the domestic circuit. This will also be a great time for them to learn their mistakes and come back with a bang.

rajesh said...

Vasu, you have been repeatedly emphasizing this, but what makes you convinced that Dhoni is biased against TN players ? Is he the only one making the team selection ? You have some authentic information source or is it based on your own observation ? I dont think Dhoni will not include somebody just because he is from TN, but select the best from the available pool of players. Well, if what you note is indeed true, no point following CSK or IPL !! IPL ofcourse is business and politics, but not at team selection level I guess.

The CSK website comments also reflect this sentiment, but I see it as a naive outburst at the team losing a few games. I wonder if this would have come up if we had won one or two more matches !

Vasu said...

Rajesh,

Its obvious for any Indian captain to think twice before picking a TN cricketer in the playing XI, such is the past record. I have mentioned this many times in my blog and also dedicated a full post on this.There are too many failures in the past for any captain to prefer a TN player in the Indian team.

Having said that when it comes to CSK, i would have thought TN players will get the first priority and thats why this outburst. There is no need to have any inside information to confirm this,the whole of India knows that badri is not a player who can come in at the death and start hitting (When Dhoni suppose to be the power hitter of indian cricket couple of seasons ago changes his style and moves up in the order) then why would you send him in at 15/16 the over?

The same can be said of the players who have been sent back, you have the faith in other state local cricketers but you don't want to pick the TN players.Sad part is we call it Cheenai Supper Kings but rely mostly on other state talent. You have faith in some Goan rookie but not with our own player why is that? If at all you give chances you will not know right, if CSK ignores ours own players how do you expect them to be picked for the national side.

I am very sure no one can influence dhoni in picking the playing XI.I don't think Fleming or other senior management people will push for any player against dhoni.It can only be suggestions and the final call will be Dhoni's. You can clearly see that, from the way he has promoted himself to No3 when Raina is doing so well in that position and numerous instances when he lead Indian ODI team in the past.

VJ said...

Pretty strong counter arguments Vasu ;-)

Rajesh - I see a number of people having this view about Dhoni. I think they are all "primarily" cheesed off that Dhoni doesn't play the big-hitting game anymore which is what is supposedly expected of him, 'cause anybody can play the grafting game. :-)

My view is this: Result orientation! Period. As long as Dhoni produces results, team wins more than it loses, all is well in hell! Simple isn't it?

VJ

rajesh said...

Discussion continued with Vasu and is still open ended. So it is a case of agree to disagree :-)

Fully agree VJ, thats my point too and my reading is Dhoni is choosing players whom he thinks will do the job for him rather than having intentions of denying opportunities to TN guys (till I am proved wrong !).

And yeah, when Dhoni does the big-hitting and gets out the same set of people will call him 'irresponsible' ! Fact is Dhoni has a few privileges as captain and he is making the best out of it (by coming in no.3 or whatever) and also has the luxury of having other big hitters in the side (both India and CSK).

Obviously my favorite teams in IPL are CSK and Rajasthan Royals for they both have a 'strong', 'single' hand/head that runs the show (other extreme of KKR !). These are the teams that unearthed some fresh talent (Yusuf, Asnodkar, R Jadeja, Kamran, Gony, Raina, Badri, Jakati, Tyagi etc) and not relied heavily on hyped super stars. I believe Warne/Dhoni are looking at substance more than factors like region etc. They do back a few players blindly but they interact with them day in and out, so believe they are better judges than us remote observers. I interpret their unilateral control and imposing their personality over the team in a positive way.

And finally, yes, its all results and VJ : it is definitely as simple as that !

Shankar.Nash said...

Vasu.. think ur questions are answered one by one...

1. Dropping Parthiv
2. Promoting Badri
3. Dhoni playing his natural game

ask more.. ....