The best match of the tournament. It was riveting stuff and had all the ingredients of a nail biter with a fairy tale ending for the home team and its hordes of supporters.
What saved the day for the Super Kings was probably the dew.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and would have batted but for the threat of the dew, batting first against a team like the Chennai Super Kings gives the opportunity to go after their bowling which is their weak area and also prevent their strong batting from running up 200 + scores.
The batting line-up did justice to their reputation and ran up yet another 200 + score and from thereon Mumbai was on the back foot. Despite this it was a fantastic effort from the Mumbai team with their stand in captain infusing his teammates with the never say die spirit he is known for.
Mumbai was also in the hunt due to the paucity in the Super Kings bowling attack.
Bowling is an important component, even in T20 cricket, as was amply demonstrated by Shane Warne for the Rajasthan Royals and then Mohammad Asif and Rajat Bhatia for the Delhi Daredevils in the last couple of days.
The Chennai team was found wanting in this area.
A team needs more than 5 regular bowlers.
In today’s match 3 of the 5 Super Kings bowlers bled runs, Murali averaged 11 runs per over, Jacob Oram 14 and Palani Amarnath 15, Chennai had no choice but to bowl their full quota as the sixth or seventh bowler were the likes of Raina and Badrinath who can bowl off spin but the conditions would not have favored them.
The Chennai think tank needs to quickly address this if they are to book a place in the semis.
- Mahesh Packiaraj (The Viper)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think it was the 3rd ball of the last over which was bowled 'no'. Batsmen should have sacrificed the run they scored; it was very important for Nayar to stay in driver's seat. It all went wrong after that.
Looking at the first 2 balls of the last over, I thought Mumbai Indians had a pretty good chance of winning. But yea, Nehra should've sacrificed himself to get that much needed victory.
It indeed was an interesting match. As pointed out, something is lacking in CSK bowling. I expected more from Murali.
Keep it up, Viper.
S Jawahar
Post a Comment