Chennai Super Kings culprits

IPL-2, 23rd April 2009, Chennai Super Kings Vs Delhi Daredevils

By Vikram Afzulpurkar

Luck of the Devil
Call it luck or some failed moves, brilliant Dhoni's side are having close brushes with victory but not getting there. What's frustrating for the die hard Chennai fan is that herculean efforts, this time from Matt Hayden, are not being vindicated. It's a tragedy that the rest of the team can't remember that whether they flourish or falter.

Culprits
One can't help feel the Super Kings will bounce back learning from all those mistakes like the Mumbai Indians in last years edition, however, here are some culprits of their essay.

Raina:
His flabby old self is back. How well he'd trimmed himself in the last six months where we saw his make his comeback. Now he's back with extra ounces, noticeable around the obliques (side stomach muscles). Why this introspection... because there seemed to be a distinct lack of leverage or strength or balance, call it what you will, in his on-side shots.

Look at the one he finally got out to - a heave to the long-on boundary was well justified, but watch him swing that bat and you'll realize the torso is just not as operational as the earlier super-fit Raina's. You don't need to be a pundit to guess the shot would have carried through over the ropes. So this is not a criticism of his shot selection, rather of being tournament-prepared. If there is a good excuse for not being his muscular and trimmest best, then one would have to blame shot selection. After all he was in for a long time and played several such shots, so he might have needed to be a better judge of his limited abilities on the day.

Andrew Flintoff:
No doubt, a throwing-the-match-away-situation was developing with Raina's dismissal, not least its manner, Flinters should have totally eschewed belligerence after having got a good feel of the pitch and of course knowing the developing situation. Folks, it's not a question of many wickets being in hand to justify some dangerous shots. One must realise that in the super-edited version of the game, everything works in a spiral - a wicket fall leads to several wickets falling. The old colonels of the game must read that and fetch runs in the correct way.

Albie Morkel:
The quick eyed would immediately have noticed when Manpreet Goni was run out that the two runners lost a second and a half in an averted collision with each other. Otherwise, everybody knows that Goni was sure to save the day with his lusty hitting, not least with a partner on par or better. What was non-striker Morkel doing running so close to him?

Fine, he was wide of the pitch area, but commonsense has to prevail and the non-striker should allow for the fact that the stroke the striker plays will make him run on the same side of the pitch as he. And you can't ask a striker to correct his running path especially when the need for him is to regain momentum fast to match the non-striker.

Don't forget the non-striker has a 'mile's' advantage these days to back up even before the bowler bowls. Also, Goni was on the backfoot for his stroke so spare the poor guy the blame of aligning himself to a 'safe' path during running. So, Albie Morket should have been standing wider of the stumps or at least deviated wider much earlier upon sighting Goni's running path.

Team Strategy for the last over:
This is a debatable one - yes the old logic says get as many runs as you can, as a single run can account for the match. However, isn't a 'horses for courses policy good.' The extra could have been avoided when Joginder Sharma drove and together with his partner Morkel extracted two runs, which unfortunately brought him back on strike.

We all know what a good Morkel is, leave alone innovative and destructive. Could either the pair of them or the team think tank have devised the plan to get Morkel on strike? Misbah-ul-Haq in the 20-20 World Cup in 2007 gave a display of that on more than one occasion. Of course Misbah's a great power hitter but I'm not inclined to think Morkel is not on par with him.

Maybe a correct assessment of Joginder's batting abilities is due yet, although no doubt he would give his best. He's considered a batsman who can hit a six, as many tailenders are in the ultra modern . However, that doesn't mean he can judge a ball as correctly as a batter or a bowling allrounder like say, Agarkar or the proven Harbhajan.

Badrinath:
Badri should have been a better judge of his abilities when trying to clear the long off fielder where he holed out. Just looking like trying ain't gonna defend your status. Badri had better pull out a superior performance soon to show he really matters.

Anyway, we hope this dust clears and the Chennai Super Kings justify their team and bench strength. In the meantime, kudos to the Delhi Daredevils.