It was a great gesture from Dhoni to say that CSK lost as a team and that he does not want to point at any one turning point for losing the finals. The whole team should be feeling lot better to hear their captain backing the team and not pointing to any individual for the loss.
I am sure CSK Team Management for cricket affairs would have started to analyze where the team went wrong and what were the crucial mistakes committed by the team, starting from the team selection to the last over in the finals. There will be an overall team performance analysis and the finals in particular.
I have tried to bring out the reasons which cost the trophy for CSK.
1. From the team selection point of view, why would CSK need the seventh batsmen in SriLankan Kappuganera in a T20 match? He has scored all single digit scores in the previous 4-5 games and never looked in control. It is the captain who has all along in the tournament said that their bowling is the weak link, then why not take a fifth bowler in Joginder Sharma. Agreed that he has not bowled that well in IPL but he would added variety to the bowling attack and would have bowled much better than balaji in the death overs.
2. Why would Dhoni send in Badrinath after kappuganera? Badri has been in very good form in the second part of the IPL and has won couple of games for CSK. I am lost on why Badri should be sent after the SriLankan batsmen. Its agreed that if he had scored quick runs, we would have talked other wise, but why would some one gamble when you have good batting line up and that too in the finals. I am not blaming Dhoni for every thing that has gone wrong. Its the team management, which includes the coach.
3. Dhoni has been the only captain who has not used the part time bowlers at any stage of the game. Vidyuth has taken lot of wickets in domestic cricket and was selected as an all rounder for the India Under-19 team. Being a left armer he would add lot of variety to the bowling, why not try him even in a single match ?? Badrinath, Raina are bowling regularly for their state teams in the domestic tournaments. I think Dhoni has to make use of these talents better than to just use the specialist bowlers. It becomes quite predictable for the opposition in such a long tournament.
4. Why would a captain finish his successful bowler Goni early and not make use of him in the end overs. Relying on Balaji, who does not have the pace or bite to create doubts in the batsmen to be used in last overs is pathetic. Balaji should have completed his spell by 15th over of the innings, there was a lot of pressure while chasing as the run rate climbed in the middle overs. The main strike bowlers should be used in the end overs. I feel Murali has not been used as a wicket taking bowler through-out the tournament. He was used as a bowler to restrict the run-rate but as the world has seen he is one of the finest wicket taking bowler in any form of cricket. He should have been the strike bowler for CSK but he has been turned out to play a very small part in the CSK run to the finals.
There were lapses in fielding and catching in the finals which also cost CSK the finals but these are bound to happen in a pressure finals where lot other things are at stake other than cricket. Hope CSK will come strong for the second edition of IPL and Dhoni will mature as a captain and use the available resources well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
For #4.
If Gony had taken wickets of Yousuf Pathan or Shane Watson then the pressure will be more on them(RR).But unfortunately he(Gony) himself droppedd a catch in his last over for Pathan. If he took the catch then probably we all support Dhoni's Decision as the right one.
For all your remaining comments I too agree with you Vasu
Vasu, all your points are valid. But, for some of the points, i have a different opinion.
#2. From the profile of Kapugadera, he seems to be an aggressive batsman. That might have prompted Dhoni/team mgmt to send him ahead of Badrinath. But, kapugadera failed in all the matches that he got chance.
#4. The reason might have been, he would have wanted to maintain the pressure at the very beginning and his best bowler of the day not to lose the rhythm. Reg. Murali, he was never in a situation to attack. By the time he came, the frontline bowlers have granted the batsmen with lot of runs to the extent that they wanted to play safe game against Murali. His economy rate was just around 6.6 proves this point. The only match that he was able to attack was in the semi-final match against Punjab, where the frontline bowlers did their job and Murali was able to attack, which he did quite well.
Post a Comment