Jadeja & Moeen Ali combines to leave Rajasthan Royals in tatters

When one looks at the CSK team sheet, one doesn’t get intimidated! Many of the players are already retired cricketers and past their prime. Genuine match winners are few but what they have is a great captain and a very good balance in their team. 7 bowling options in their playing XI with no tail in their batting lineup means they play with complete freedom. This part of their game came to the fore yesterday when only Faf Du Plessis crossed 30 runs but the team still ended up scoring 188 runs. This is what differentiates this team from the others in this competition because I believe in T20 you need to good balance if you want to succeed consistently. On paper, CSK doesn’t look like a team that would be making the playoffs but as the first few days have proved they have it in them to beat the best and are title contenders too. 

It was one of those rare IPL days when we saw a one-sided contest being played out. Things looked quite even at one stage before Rajasthan Royals collapsed spectacularly to hand CSK a 45 runs victory. Let’s look at the hits and misses from yesterday’s match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

The Hits:

1. Moeen Ali was the star recruit for CSK this season. He is a good all-round cricketer and I feel he has always been underutilised by other franchises previously. But with Dhoni at the helm, you could be rest assured that he knows how to utilise the strengths of his players to the team’s advantage. Moeen has been in good touch with the bat and he played some fabulous shots while on the crease yesterday. But the star turn happened with the ball. He was held back by Dhoni till the 12th over because Buttler was in the crease. But as soon as Buttler got out, Moeen Ali was brought into the attack and in the next 2 overs, he broke the back of Rajasthan Royals’ middle-order picking up 3 wickets. Rajasthan Royals couldn’t recover thereafter.
2. When Dhoni walked in after the fall of the 5th wicket, I felt he read the situation wrong because holding back Sam Curran was not the right thing to do. Thankfully the damage was not deep because Curran along with Bravo gave the final push to take CSK to a winning total. Sam Curran is one of the best all-rounders in white-ball cricket today and he has been smart with the ball too. He picked up 2 wickets yesterday including the big wicket of Sanju Samson to push Rajasthan Royals back to the wall within the power play. He along with Moeen Ali would have a big say in CSK’s overall performance this season.
3. Dwayne Bravo is no longer the force that he used to be a few years back. But the cricketing brain is still strong as ever and you can take him for granted at your own peril. CSK needed to score above 180 runs to be above par but with Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja all struggling to time the ball it was looking increasingly difficult. Out came Bravo and he changed the complexion straight away hitting 20 runs off 8 balls to give the necessary impetus at the back end of the innings. With the ball, he was targeting the Yorker length outside the off stump continuously and most of the time he succeeded in getting it right. In one particular over he bowled 4 wides but yet the over went for only 6 runs – just shows how consistent he was with his length yesterday. 
4. Chetan Sakariya seems to be the find of the season thus far. He has a good run-up and a lovely action. He being a left-arm bowler is even exciting. He is supposed to be the weakest link in the Rajasthan Royals’ bowling line up but he is the one who is leading their wickets list at the moment. Yesterday too he picked up 3 wickets which included his idol’s wicket, MS Dhoni. 
5. Ravindra Jadeja is a true all-rounder and yesterday though he failed with the bat he compensated with the ball and the field. Yesterday the ball kept following him and he ended up picking 4 catches in the outfield. With the ball, he did the star turn for his team in the 12th over when he picked up 2 wickets including the big scalp of Jos Buttler to start the slide. It was a classic Jadeja delivery that saw the back of Buttler – grip, turn and bounce to dislodge the off stump. 

The Misses:

1. Sanju Samson played the innings of IPL 2021 against Punjab Kings when he scored 119 runs to almost take Rajasthan Royals to victory. Unfortunately his biggest bane – consistency has come back to haunt him again. Yesterday once again he got out to a lose shot trying to hit the ball over the top only to get out giving a catch at mid-on. He is too good a player to keep getting out to lose shots. India is losing a good talent but as I keep saying talent can’t take you too far if you do not work on improving your skills. I hope he works in this consistency factor because otherwise, he will remain just an IPL star.
2. Ruturaj Gaikwad has been a domestic star for the last few seasons and played very well towards the end of IPL 2020. I was very excited to see how much he has evolved this year because I was sure Dhoni will give him a long rope this season. Unfortunately, he has failed to deceive thus far and 3 failures in a row could mean a change of personnel in the top order for CSK! Will he get another couple of matches? Let’s wait and see.
3. Shivam Dube was a big name in domestic cricket with a penchant for hitting sixes in 2019/20. He got into the Indian team too as India was groping with Hardik Pandya’s injury. But unfortunately, he has not lived up to his reputation and is yet to show his talent in the IPL or world stage. Rajasthan Royals is without the services of two of their best foreign players so people like Shivam Dube, Mannan Vohra, and Riyan Parag have to play to their potential otherwise I don’t see this team reaching the playoffs.

What to look forward to?

I don’t think CSK needs any changes in their team setup as of now other than probably moving Rayudu to the opener’s slot and replacing Ruturaj with Uthappa or Pujara. But I don’t think Dhoni would do that simply because he doesn’t like to change winning combinations. The team is gelling well and their bowlers are doing a fantastic job. When the tournament started, I didn’t expect CSK to reach the playoffs but right now I think I have been wrong because they look good enough to finish in the top 4.

For Rajasthan Royals, they need to replace a couple of players in their playing XI. Shivam Dube needs to be replaced by Liam Livingston which would, unfortunately, mean Mustafizur has to sit out who can be replaced by either Karthick Tyagi or Shreyas Gopal. Also, Manan Vohra should give way to Yashasvi Jaiswal. This is my preferred XI for their next match:

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, David Miller, Liam Livingston, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal, Jaidev Unadkat, and Chetan Sakariya.

What do you think of this starting XI? Do write in with your thoughts and insights as we get ready for a blockbuster evening when Mumbai Indians take on Delhi Capitals in Chennai!

PS. Add life to days not days to life.

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