Do the Super Kings need to start Dhoni’s roster?
In each of their defeats so far this season, the Chennai Super Kings have played according to MS Dhoni’s roster – pushing the game to the limit. Is it time to turn the page on that template?
On Friday, the lower order of the Super Kings consisted of Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran and Dwayne Bravo. In the past three years at T20, Jadeja, who scored his fifty T20 maiden on Friday, has had a strike rate of nearly 138, Bravo of 157 and Curran of 187. Yet these players have barely had enough time to express themselves with the bat.
The Super Kings have been hurting themselves with conservative starts, leaving too much for the lower order and Dhoni. Three successive defeats with three failed chases. Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming previously said those who adapt best will do well at this IPL. Can the Super Kings adapt to a new hitting strategy?
Who is Priyam Garg?
Garg’s first act was to provoke the ire of the calmest man in cricket, having been involved in a fight with Kane Williamson.
At the time, the predicted score according to the ESPNcricinfo Predictor was 132 for Sunrisers. Ultimately, they ended up setting a goal of 165 thanks to Garg, 19, who broke his first half-century IPL with just 23 balls while creating a winning partnership with Abhishek Sharma, 20,.
From Meerut, Garg faced Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the nets at 15. In 2018 he made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh, and was among the top 15 riders that season with a total of 814, with an impressive average of 67.83 with two centuries and four years fifties. Earlier this year he led India to the final of the U19 World Cup in South Africa. At last year’s IPL auction, Sunrisers bought it for INR 1.9 crore (roughly $ 267,000 at the time).
The standout feature of Garg’s innings was his clean hitting combined with an understanding of the field. If Curran dove out, Garg knew there was no one at the deep point. When Bravo threw a yorker, Garg licked it on a short, thin leg. If that wasn’t enough, he was also left without Faf du Plessis, the Super Kings’ best hitter this season.
Why did the Sunrisers choose to hit?
David Warner is the only captain who has chosen to hit twice so far this tournament. The first time around, that decision fell through when the Sunrisers lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets in Abu Dhabi. So why did Warner decide to hit again?
Mainly because before Friday’s game, all six games in Dubai had been won by teams hitting first. However, none of those teams had chosen to hit, all were put up by the opposition. Warner’s decision against the Super Kings to hit first ended that sequence.
Second, Sunrisers bowling remains his strength. Two examples justify it: In their last game, against Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers posted a par total of 162 in Abu Dhabi after being asked to hit first and defended it to win by 15 runs.
In their first game of the season, Sunrisers had restricted the Royals Challengers Bangalore to 163, but they failed to chase him with their inexperienced middle order. In Friday’s drawing, Warner confirmed his belief in the decision to hit, saying, “We’re a pretty good team that can put in a total and then defend it.”
Why did the death specialist Bravo play early?
Surprisingly, on Friday Dhoni asked Bravo to deliver the seventh. Of the 825 T20 overs that Bravo has thrown since 2015 (according to ball-by-ball data from ESPNcricinfo), only 13 times has he thrown the seventh over. In the last two editions of the IPL, Bravo has predominantly thrown the death overs and most of the time the 18 and 20 overs. However, Bravo was playing his first match of this IPL on Friday, having arrived with an injured knee from the CPL. So Dhoni opted to relieve Bravo with the seventh and tenth overs.
Those two envelopes could have been delivered by Jadeja another day. But with Warner’s presence and Jadeja’s pitiful form at this IPL, Dhoni decided to go with Bravo.
In the final count, however, it did hurt the Super Kings ‘bowling strategy as Garg and Sharma resurrected Sunrises’ innings in death overs, even blunting Bravo, who threw overs 15 and 19, in which he gave away. 20 races together.
Should the Super Kings replace Watson with Tahir?
1, 14, 33 and 4. Shane Watson’s IPL so far. Also in 2019 he kept missing but was ultimately their best hitter in the final against the Mumbai Indians.
Watson is 39 years old and struggling once again. Since 2019 he is among the top five starters in the IPL. With a hitting lineup not coming together, they could once again keep faith in Watson. But is it worth replacing Watson with Imran Tahir, who finished with the most wickets in the last IPL, as the Super Kings’ lineup hits deep? In conditions where wristbands are proving to be a key element, Tahir has a role to play. It could also put more responsibility on the Indian hitters, who, save for Rayudu, have barely scored for the Super Kings yet.
Why did Sunrisers take down Khaleel in the final 19th of the chase?
When Bhuvneshwar Kumar limped off the field, the Super Kings needed 43 runs of 11. Warner had to decide who would finish second to last. As he put it after the game, Warner was “left with no choice” but to pitch Khaleel Ahmed, whose first three overs were 0-19. The idea was to “kill the chase” as Warner had only two realistic options left. bowling. the final finale: young spinners in Sharma and Abdul Samad. Although he hit Ahmed by a four and a six, 28 runs from the finish on a slow pitch was a steep climb for a weary Dhoni.
With input from the ESPNcricinfo statistics team
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