It has been very hard to see that CSK went down without a real fight, as a CSK fanatic it was very tough to digest the fact that csk did not make it to the finals.
I am not going to write about the way they performed but the strategic failure in picking the XI for the big semi-finals based on commonsense and the facts which sent CSK packing out of the tournament.
I attribute this defeat is the reflection of Mr Cool Dhoni putting himself ahead of the team in many instances in this tournament. This was a open fact through out the tournament, it was purely some over-smart captaincy,unimaginable team selection and no intervention from the think tanks of CSK cricket management to set thing right at least at some point of the tournament.
Specially on the semi-finals, why would some one pick Goni ahead of a spinner in spite of his very poor performance with the ball and pathetic fielding. Dhoni yet again proved he backs few guys and goes with the instinct and not by one's performance. The whole cricket world knows that it has been spinners all through the tournament but he preferred Goni ahead of Ashwin who bowled brilliantly in the low scoring match against KXIP. Why to pick Oram again and again when he is not going to get his time to settle down in batting with the strong top order and he has been listless with his bowling. We could have picked Thusara or Ntini (sad that we did not use the leading SA bowler in even a single match) as a pure bowler and if this is not acceptable he could have used him as a new ball bowler and picked Ashwin in place of Goni, we would have had many options in the middle overs. If dhoni plans to bat up at No3 & No 4 there is no use in having both Badri and Oram in the side just for fielding.
Finally if Dhoni is going to shuffle his batting order very often in any form of the game in favor of himself, not only CSK but even Indian Team will suffer in time. We saw this happen in Kitply and AsiaCup finals with some dour batting from Dhoni but there was some justification for that but the kind of moves he made in the IPL is debatable. The sad side of all this is neither CSK nor India has a good backup for captaincy .
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13 comments:
Vasu, there is no way anyone can deny any of your argument here; you have been saying this in the last few posts. Reading it after the SF loss it definitely looks more relevant and points to valid reasons for the defeat. But I still have the same question : do you think Dhoni really puts himself above the team, even if it means it costs the team a loss in the SF ? Is his ego so strong that noone else nor his own common sense are not able to get something across to him ?
The reasons you say are valid and cant be disputed, but its the motive behind it that is vital. I believe Dhoni makes these decisions in the best interest of the team; he develops blind faith in some people and persists with them. He has a good success record so you've got to respect his judgement to trust those guys. This IPL those guys failed to deliver and thats bound to happen. And he walks in no3 as he is a guy who wants to be in the thick of the action and control the game (as I read), and again he is bound to fail sometimes.
Am watching the finals now and followed almost all matches during this IPL, CSK never showed great intensity in the field like say DC. We always won because of batting (except one against KXIP) and that too only comfortably. We could not close out a few tight games due to lack of intensity in bowling/fielding. We had an average team last year but still looked solid. Dhoni usually goes into games with preset plans with a few alternatives. He wants the players to just execute the plans; this time the CSK guys just did not do it. And he never hid his displeasure on that. I agree he also failed as a batsman at crucial times.
So all I am saying is I dont see these as major strategy failure, just that the team did not perform well. I will give it to you, your cricket wisdom is definitely better than mine, so even if these stragies were a blunder I hardly believe its because Dhoni thinks he is bigger than CSK. If it turns out that way eventually, I will seriously lose interest in him/cricket.
Your tone, subject line etc sound like Dhoni conspired CSK's loss. This is what I read elsewhere too. I observe and admire Dhoni so much and he definitely is one shrewd and smart strategist and tactician.
Above all, who expected RCB to raise from the low they were ! Give some credit to them :-)
Rajesh,
As i said earlier, dhoni is the best captain we have had in recent times and there is no doubt about that.Its not that dhoni conspired something its the kind of over-smart moves which is bound to fail.
The strong point i want to make was, he has started to see himself as a better batsman than his keeping or captaincy which is not good. I believe his strengths are good cricketing wisdom and leadership quality, if he puts too much pressure on his batting its not going to help and reflect badly in his captaincy.
I am a big fan of his captaincy during his early days and last years IPL also but somehow now i feel that he is starting to feel the pressure to score runs and prove himself as a batsmen also apart from captaincy which is telling on him.
As you had mentioned, CSK did not look as confident or i would put it like fighting spirits were low this year and that itself is a big failure on dhoni's part right ? there may be many reasons behind the scene but we can talk only on what we see right.
Finally i would say its a collective failure on CSK cricket management team and the captain (After all we give 200% credit to the captain when he wins :-)).
Vasu :
Good writeup & analysis. I almost agree with you. Dhoni, as a captain, exceptionally well. But, as a batsman.. not that much and he's not a legend in batting or soon to be. CSK as a team is weak in bowling & fielding. I expected, as like every one, Ntini would get a chance in his "home ground" ahead of J Oram at least in few league matches, to confirm his ability and form.
Rajesh : You are right, Dhoni as a captain had a very good success rate, that was the reason no one retrospect his poor strategies at times. (Yah.. this is common very trend like ppl. always trying to enjoy when achieved success.!)
>>> And he walks in no3 as he is a guy who wants to be in the thick of the action and control the game (as I read), and again he is bound to fail sometimes.
@Rajesh : Doesn't it applicable to every one in the team ? It's pure individual concern as against playing for the team. If you saw his one of the man-of-match interview, when he batted in the no3/no4 and scored fifty, he told that he promoted himself to the order up, just to regain his form in batting.. (ridiculous, misusing his power, regaining his form @ the "cost" of other players like Badri, Raina, etc..).
I would like to see Dhoni batting @ #5 or #6 like Mark Boucher, Michael Bevan, etc., and finish the game @ any time. This will also give some level of confidence in the top order batsman and even the opponents keep their main bowlers spell till the end in T20 like games.
Pandyah !
@Vasu I totally agree what you have to say about Dhoni here. I personally felt the same. His team selection is certainly puzzling. And also the way he promotes himself up the order is disgusting.
But, I personally felt you are a bit too harsh in the title selection.
"Dhoni digs CSK's graveyard ........"
In your previous post when Chennai got going in the winning streak you had put it as
"CSK strikes the right combination :-)"
And now why are you so harsh. I just wanted to say that you could have put it in a lighter tone. This shows your frustration as Chennai fan rather than a neutral blogger.
I too second this. "If Chennai wins its csk, if it loses, its Dhoni". Thats a big concern for a respected neutral analyst of the game like you. You will have to work in this area seriously, else this will have a telling effect in the 'speak cric funda' columns that you will be writing in the nations leading newspapers and cricket sites.
ps: If this is an acquisition on you, i am eagerly looking forward to your rebuttal.
Ajay,
Yes i know i was little too harsh on the title but that was the kind of disappointment i had watching the various phases of IPL and the worst part is that we lost the game even before we started playing.
Even in my previous post i had mentioned that CSK has struck the right combination but wanted to try out the bench strength and Ntini in particular so i am not taking back what i had said :-).
Thiyagu,
First place thanks for flattering me with such great comment :-) You are ... Hype .....
On cricket, Dhoni is given all the credit when CSK/India wins and so there is nothing wrong when we curse him when we lose.
Chithu : 'With great power comes great responsibility' ! :-)
Being the captain, Dhoni enjoys a few privileges which he is utilizing fully (and not misusing his power!). Not just in IPL, we have seen him bat no.3 in test matches against Australia (Vasu will strangle me now!). Its all interpretation by us and I interpret his moves mostly positively. From CSK point of view, it is very critical Dhoni to be in good batting form and thats what he did. Dont bring in personal aspects here. Even from opposition point of view, when Dhoni is in the middle he does play in their mind of taking the game away any time, compared to a Badri (no matter if he eventually does!). My other argument is, he is definitely an effective batsman to bat at no.3 and is not undeserving. We have Morkel who time and again closed out matches for SA against Aus. For India we have Rohit and Yusuf to close out games. The problem arises when these guys fail sometimes. Between Raina and Dhoni I dont have problem with either of them batting at no3 !!
Vasu on your last comment : you can not justify your criticism this way, by saying if its OK getting praised then it should be OK getting criticized too !! Neither should be done for the sake of it. What more can I say, you know it better !!
Rajesh,
I have praised dhoni's captaincy on various posts in the past and now i am cursing him with facts and reasoning so i think we can leave it with a note that we
"Agree to disagree on Dhoni :-)".
Vasu, my last comment was not about your criticising Dhoni. It was just about the statement "there is nothing wrong when we curse him when we lose."
Hi Hi Hi .... :-)
Phew! This blog is sizzling hot :-), and am glad am joining in late here ..
I didn't get to see the csk vs rcb semifinal, but I followed it on the internet. I too view Dhoni's moves positively rather than anything else. And the fact is he has pulled off more successful moves than failed ones, so all is well! If his moves continue to fail repeatedly, he will face the axe, sickle, sword whatever. At times, I too get the feeling he doesn't run the right experiments or attempts unnecessary things (taking his gut instincts too far), but that's him!
Anyway, coming back to the sf, I did not have any qualms with him coming one-down. What was appalling was the way he paced his innings. 28 of 30 balls for a no.3 bat that too when batting first is not acceptable (without a single 4 or 6). If his gut instincts were to blaze away towards the end, it didn't work! And this is where we were 20-25 runs short. Even Raina was relatively slow with 20 in 19 balls. Any idea how the pitch was playing? CSK openers sure didn't give the impression that it was too slow a pitch to play your shots.
Moreover Dhoni knows that csk's middle order hasn't done much in this tournament and they were struggling. So makes it all the more reason to send Albie/Oram up the order to just swish around and see if they connect, he then could have come down the order a bit to resurrect the innings if required. I thought this is one experiment he NEVER tried in the tournament for God-knows-why.
Well, in hindsight we can say many things, but I just am peeved that Dhoni didn't think about these with his so-called super cool brain.
VJ
We have to agree to one fact that Dhoni put himself in one down to prove himself even though Raina was the one who was batting in that position for CSK. And successfully too.
He himself accepted that he needs to spend some time in the middle before starting to hit through. So obviously it makes one think that he put himself before the team.
Second he gave a very negative outlook. Even after winning each and every match complaining about the teams fielding in front of the media is bad. You can tell that once and not after every match. It sends a negative Vibe.In contrast Gilly handled the negatives better. He put it in a more subtle way.
P.Amarnath did a good job last season. He is not even given a single match. And Thilan Thushara was given only two matches. Nitini none. And if you complain that your bowling is not upto the mark, then one has to then question the captaincy.
If a strategist like Fleming questions the role of Oram in the team, then that should be given a thought. Fleming tells that even though Oram is his countrymen. Thats professionalism.
Dhoni has to listen to others. On the field its ok to take your decisions. Outside the field, you also have to take others considerations.
Personally i am dissappointed that not many local talents were tested or utilized.
I completely agree with the selection blunder committed by Dhoni.Eventhough i do not like Dhoni its unacceptable to say its his mistake to promote himself up the order.T20 is all bout gambles and smart decisions. He would hav thought to push the run rate further as he did in one of the previous games when he moved up the order.But sticking on with Oram especially during his bad patch is definitely a crime. In the end, its the performance of the player which matter than his reputation. He should have gone for Ntini ahead of Oram. Tyagi had the right to earn his place in the team instead of the i9nconsistent Gony.
Coming to the bowling performance, its definityely hard to digest the fact that Deccan were able to defend a lower total against the same Royal Challegers despite being a weaker bowling side. Definitely the bowlers are to take the blame . Its the 1st 10 overs which matter a lot when u hav to defend a low total. Picking the wickets is very important. Chennai bowlers did exactly the opposite.They allowed the batsemen to settle which made it easy for the middle order. Having got the 2 early wickets, they should have definitely slowed down the scoring rate when they have Dravid and Pandey at the crease. The fight was definitely missing from the bowlers. It was Murali who was fighting the losing battle. Its high time Balaji starts to show his class in crucial games.If bowlers had restricted Dravid and Pandey then definitely Chennai would have had a better chance.
Royal challengers deserve all the credit. They made use of their strengths very well. Sensible batting by Dravid and Pandey laid the platform fort the middle order. Evntho there was a small hiccup , the in-form Ross Taylor took the game away from Chennai.
Atleast in future, Dhoni must understand to rate the performance of the team when they do not have Raina and Hayden.It was a 2 men army for Chennai throughout the tournament.Hope Dhoni's men show some sort of fight atleast in the next IPL.
Ajay
VJ, in the finals, of all people Praveen Kumar went for 45 in 4 overs with one bad over of 20+. Otherwise RCB was well in course of containing DC to 120 - 125. Gibbs looked not so comfortable, except couple of overs. So it was not a high scoring ground by any means. But the fact is RCB fielded very well against us, while we were ordinary in bowling and fielding.
Had a really long chat with Sriram, so not going to argue further in this space :)
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