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Talking points from the first ever IPL Qualifier 2020, which pitted the Mumbai Indians against the Delhi Capitals in Dubai.
Why did the capitals of Delhi stop Nortje and Rabada?
It is no secret that one of the greatest strengths of the Mumbai Indians is their middle order and as such Shreyas Iyer and the capitals of Delhi decided to contain their two main fast throwers, Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, in an attempt to stop them. get away, making plans to pitch six of the last 10 inning overs.
While that may have been a logical move, it perhaps underestimated Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav’s form. Halfway through, Mumbai was already flying 93-for-2, and with Nathan Coulter-Nile’s helpful punch at No. 8, they could afford to attack the big two without fear.
Rabada and Nortje threw overs 11 and 12 respectively, conceding seven runs between them and representing Yadav. But they were wrong to die and ended up filtering 92 runs between them in eight overs. When Mumbai ‘s top two closers, Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah, broke the Capitals’ higher order, it exposed the contrast between their attacking approach and the Capitals’ defensive attitude.
How did Mumbai neutralize the Axar threat?
Axar Patel’s constant lengths mean that it is very difficult to hit the square of the wicket: throughout his career, most of the six he has been hit by have been on the ground in the “V”, while the majority of the four have been in the thin leg region. Mumbai seemed to know that, given the way they attacked him tonight – they shoved the ball through the covers and midwicket, while De Kock threw the third ball of his spell from length to six.
Mumbai, meanwhile, knew from their last game against the Capitals, when they left Axar out of the side entirely, that they wouldn’t want to pitch him with two left hitters in the crease. As a result, Krunal Pandya surpassed his brother Hardik when Kieron Pollard was fired, joining the Ishan Kishan team, forcing the Capitals to bring in Rabada and Nortje early instead of Axar bowling. When Mumbai managed to get past their overs without losing a wicket, they made sure Axar didn’t throw a fourth over, as the Capitals turned to Marcus Stoinis.
Should Stoinis have thrown one more second?
Daniel Sams held his place despite having no ground in his first two IPL appearances, perhaps because the Capitals did not want to shift the balance from their side against after finally breaking their losing streak in their last group game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. His first over was costly, with a 15-run loss, but after a decent recovery in the middle, he returned to throw a last one in death.
But perhaps Stoinis, whose only finish, the 17th, cost five runs and included Krunal Pandya’s wicket, should have been entrusted to pitch the 19th or 20th instead. While few teams would have Stoinis as the first-choice bowler of death (he’s leaked 11.08 runs over this IPL dying), his changes of pace seemed to be working. And while Sams scooped up wickets for fun in the kill in the 2019-20 BBL, he also conceded 9.78 runs over, slightly above the overall rate in the competition.
Either way, it meant that Hardik, who had scored two two-ball runs at the time, was able to free his arms against Sams’ smoother pace, throwing a full square-leg pitch for six and preparing before taking Nortje and Rabada down. to the death. If Iyer had a chance to simulate innings again, his choice of bowlers might as well have been very different.
Rohit’s struggles in the playoffs
In 18 innings of the IPL playoffs, Rohit Sharma has managed just 229 runs with a disastrous 13.47 average. That race has contained eight single-digit scores and more ducks (two, including tonight) than half a century. Tonight R Ashwin caught him on the first ball – HawkEye showed that he was cutting off the top of the leg stump after being delivered on the field, so even if he had reviewed the decision, nothing would have changed.
Interestingly, his knockout record for India is significantly better, with 191 runs in seven innings, including a crucial 56 in the Nidahas Trophy final two years ago, a match best remembered for Dinesh Karthik’s winning finish. In ODI, he has two hundred in knockout games, both also against Bangladesh in the 2015 World Cup and the 2017 Champions Trophy. However, with so many failures in the IPL playoffs, it is difficult to attribute his fights to a coincidence: Could it be something mental?
Boult’s ray
Trent Boult’s double-wicket maiden in the first over of the race chase effectively killed the game: According to ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster tool, his chances of victory slipped from 18.96% to 8.04%, which fell to 2.97% when Jasprit Bumrah hit with his second ball. Boult has been ruthless to the new ball this season, taking 14 power pitches, four more than anyone else, and hitting seven times in the first over of innings, the most any bowler has accomplished in a single season. of IPL.
His method has been quite simple: 70% of his balls have been in one length or the back of a length, with gorillas used as a surprise tool, approximately once every two overs, and one full ball every five. Perhaps most impressive has been his discipline. As a left gunsmith swinging the new ball, it would be easy to drift too far and attack the stumps too often; Instead, most of his balls have come off the stump, and he’s only drifted off the leg 10 times in the power play all season.
Boult threw only two overs before leaving with a groin problem, but his performance, and those of Hardik and Bumrah, justified the decision to rest them in the final game of the Mumbai group against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. They will be desperate to have their best new bowler for the final.
Why did Bumrah launch the second?
After the first two wickets of Boult, Mumbai decided to go for the kill. For the fourth time this season, Bumrah pitched as early as the second, and this was the third time he did so immediately after Boult made a breakthrough, with the opportunity to make more first-rate advances and kill the game. Additionally, Bumrah explained in the presentation that Mumbai was concerned about the possibility of dew later in the chase, so Sharma wore his strike bowler early on rather than risk making it less effective with a wet ball.
Having thrown two powerplay overs, Bumrah was retained a little later than usual despite Boult’s injury, but when he returned he ended the capitals’ lingering hopes of a comeback: he took two on three balls as part of the second double wicket maid of the entrance. , and claimed the Purple Cap from Rabada in the process.
