Harshal Patel puts on a special show as RCB turns the table on Mumbai Indians

It’s less than 6 months and we are back with another edition of the cricketing extravaganza, Indian Premier League. Last season the tournament was shifted to the United Arab Emirates amidst the surge of Covid-19 but this year we are back in India albeit with no crowds. It’s poignant to note that on the day IPL started, India counted more than 1,40,000 new Covid-19 cases. To conduct a tournament of such a magnitude under such an environment is a challenge in itself but IPL as a brand has grown so much over the past decade that it has become a medium through which people not only get entertained but makes a lot of moolah too for businesses who are associated with the brand.

The tournament kick-started yesterday in Chennai where the two-times defending champions, Mumbai Indians faced the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both these teams are perennially slow starters and I was excited to see who gets off the block better this time around.

So here are the hits and misses from yesterday’s match.

The Hits:

Kohli has made a name for himself in losing tosses and so when he won the toss yesterday he surprised himself by winning it. I hope he carries this toss-winning habit to England too where toss would be a very important factor in the WTC finals.

Going into the match I was interested to see who among Siraj, Saini, Jamieson, and Harshal Patel gets the nod to play in the first XI. Only 3 out of 4 could make the cut and quite predictably Saini missed out. Harshal Patel had a very good domestic season and Saini has fallen off the radar as Siraj’s stocks kept rising after the Australia series. But given all that, no one could have predicted the performance of Harshal Patel yesterday. He went for 14 runs in the first over but came back strongly in the next 3 to finish with 5 for 27 runs. His last over which was the final over of the Mumbai innings too went for just 1 run and 4 wickets (one run out). 5 yorkers in the last over showed why he was preferred over Saini.

Before the start of the tournament, one important aspect of RCB that needed to be looked into was their middle-order batting and slog overs bowling. With Harshal Patel and Siraj doing a commendable job it was interesting to see how the batting order responds. For years this team has been highly dependent on Kohli and AB DeVilliers to take them home. Devdutt Padikkal brought in new hopes last season but with him being indisposed yesterday, Maxwell needed to come good. He did justice yesterday by being the Maxwell the world knows of. He didn’t let any of the bowlers settle and controlled the middle overs with aplomb. 39 off 28 balls should give the RCB management a lot of hope going into the future matches. Just to bring things into perspective, Maxwell’s highest score last season was only 32 runs – that he has already overshot that score on the first match must give the other teams plenty to think and plan about.

Chris Lynn didn’t get a match last season. Mumbai Indians had such a good batting unit that they didn’t need any changes in the top of the order. But with Quinton DeKock still under mandatory quarantine it opened up an opportunity for Chris Lynn. He started slow and Virat Kohli got in spinners early knowing his weakness against leg-spin but Lynn was in no mood to let go of the opportunity. The big sixes were back and he looked all set for a half-century when he got out for 49. He was the highest scorer among both the teams so a very good start from him this season.

Marco Jensen is one player about whom I had no clue about. I expected Nathan Coulter-Nile to be the third pacer for Mumbai Indians but Jensen’s selection came to me as a surprise. A 20-year-old tall left-arm pace bowler from South Africa, Jensen was the only uncapped player in the Mumbai Indians’ lineup. He went for a few in the first over but he came back very strongly in the next 3. He doesn’t have too much pace but his lines are quite accurate. He was also given the duty of bowling the last over with RCB needing 7 runs to win. That he was able to take it to the last ball was an achievement in itself especially with AB DeVillers on strike. A good prospect for South Africa as well as Mumbai Indians because his pace variations could be very useful as the tournament wears on.

The misses:

India’s white-ball leg-spinning options have dwindled over the last 2 years. With the rise of Kuldeep and Chahal in 2017, India had a potent force to block the middle overs in international cricket. But both of them have gone into the shadows and India is desperately looking for more options. Yesterday there were two leg spinners on view and I was hoping for a good performance from both Rahul Chahar and Yuzvendra Chahal. Unfortunately, both of them failed. Rahul Chahar returned 0/43 while Chahal returned with 0/41 and this happening in Chennai where the spinners were supposed to have a better say in the proceedings was highly disappointing.

Washington Sundar’s rising stock got a blow yesterday. He had a match to forget. Dropped an easy catch in the boundary line which ultimately went for a six was a sucker punch for him. The match might have finished in the 19th over itself if that catch was taken but then cricket is not the place to discuss ifs and buts. He was the surprise opening partner with Virat Kohli and he looked completely out of sorts. One thing that we have got used to Sundar is his good pick-up shots on the leg side and his timing on the offside. Unfortunately, all was missing yesterday and he made a painful 10 runs off 15 balls. His wicket of Chris Lynn was a good breakthrough for RCB though.

What to look forward to:

With RCB making a hash of the chase towards the end, I think they will do well to replace Shahbaz Ahmed with Devdutt Padikkal. They already have a lot of bowling options so it would be better to replace a bowling all-rounder with a batsman. My predicted next XI for RCB in the next match: Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB DeVilliers, Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Md. Siraj & Yuzvendra Chahal. This looks more balanced with 7 bowling options to boot.

For Mumbai Indians, it’s the 9th year in a row that they have lost the opening encounter so this is familiar territory for them. That they were still able to take the match to the last ball showed the level of competitiveness this team has. I would suggest a few changes though for the next match and they are replacing Rahul Chahar with Piyush Chawla and getting Jayant Yadav in place of Krunal Pandya. My predicted XI for the next match is Rohit Sharma, Chris Lynn, Surya Kumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Marco Jensen, Jayant Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, and Trent Boult.

The performance of Maxwell makes RCB a serious contender for this season and I think we are going to see another very close IPL in 2021.

What do you think? Who impressed you the most yesterday! Do you advise any changes for any of the teams? 

Do write in as the action moves to Mumbai today with CSK taking on last year’s finalists, Delhi Capitals.

Keep well guys as I get ready to exercise my franchise today!

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