Indian Premier League - General Discussion

He must not PLAY IMO, Ishan over him or the ones you mentioned would've finished the game with an over to spare. His bowling is rubbish and he didn't even bowl either, as a pure batsman he's a liability, HE IS A LIABILITY ANYWAY.
Add to it his disgusting and annoying attitude.
 
This will take some time to sink in, but Bumrah's no ball almost costed us the game there resulting five extra runs. Kulkarni tbh, was not his pitch and death is not his area, he could've been used as D Chahar was by Dhoni.
Post automatically merged:

Add to it his disgusting and annoying attitude.
And he misfielded a couple of balls resulting in boundaries too, and dropped a catch off Neesham, what about those, he must have shouted on hoimself.
 
How Dhoni thinks Ngidi and Lord Thakur are:
SAMAA - Australia's Mitchell Starc eyes 100 mph landmark
 
Well, I feel matches like these justify need for a sporting event amidst a pandemic. Large portion of world's population is stuck at home, facing issues like anxiety, depression, fear, pain, insomnia, etc. because of an incredibly prolonged detachment with the routine world. If 4 hours of sports does put a smile on their faces, I honestly believe they deserve that much.
 
The blame for such a loss is on everybody, including the captain. And Dhoni acknowledged that in the presentation. Being a wicketkeeper captain and hearing how he handles his resources from behind the stumps,, he does get leeway when things dont go his way because there have been so many instances when things go his way, and when it does, those are pretty special moments. Everybody, including the opposition, sing his tune. When Sachin was around, he got even bigger respect and even when he failed, he got a lot of leeway among his fans and neutrals. Legendary Indian cricketers with personalities like Sachin, Dravid, MSD get these leeways when they fail.

TBH in this forum, Dhoni has been getting lot of calls on "hanging up his boots ASAP" and "stop playing soon and move on with his life". This forum has not often been a "Dhoni boot licking" forum and has often at times been as honest as possible on his career.

---

It was a razor thin margin and one small correction would've changed result either way. Despite Pollard putting up such a freak show, CSK won't take much deflation from it. Yes it hurts because this is a crazy old rivalry and one where MI has consistently had the wood. But I honestly didn't feel as much pressure (as a hardcore CSK fan) today and it was probably also due to CSK's spot on the points table. And CSK as usual, batted brilliantly and at many places made jaws drop, especially the way Rayudu batted. Its sheer sadness that his innings didn't take the team over the line..
 
Well, I feel matches like these justify need for a sporting event amidst a pandemic. Large portion of world's population is stuck at home, facing issues like anxiety, depression, fear, pain, insomnia, etc. because of an incredibly prolonged detachment with the routine world. If 4 hours of sports does put a smile on their faces, I honestly believe they deserve that much.

I do think I've been consistent on my stance about this and personally, I've barely had any interest in this edition with everything happening in life and know plenty of people who aren't interested in terms of interaction, banter or fantasy participation. I did come across these words in the SA Cricket Magazine and they were poignant.

‘While you are professionals and will play to win, this time you are also playing for something much more important … humanity,’ Amin wrote. In this context, I struggle to think of anything more inhumane than a suit appealing to players’ sense of humanity.

Professional sports has long exploited most fans’ propensity to be emotionally connected to their favourite sport, particularly their favourite team in that sport. They’ve sold the idea that the team or sport transcend the field of play in influence and intention with relative success. Those in the boardroom know that once you hook fans at this abstract but highly emotive level, you are able to sell them anything, and often do so for the duration of their lives. Critically, you’re even able to sell them lies – like a cricket tournament continuing in the midst of a crippling pandemic being a service to humanity. In sport, as in life, a devoted lover wants to believe the best in their partner. This is the emotional conditioning the IPL’s leadership has exploited. It is vile. It is reprehensible. Cricket does bring joy to millions, but, in this context, its importance has been grossly overstated by those completely out of touch with the people they claim to care about.

While the bio-bubble is relatively impermeable to coronavirus, those inside are vulnerable to being infected by other dangerous viruses: self-importance and greed. The engineered utopia inside the bubble couldn’t be more different from the humanitarian crises outside it. People should always matter more than products.

And that last line I think sums up my feelings well enough.
 
The blame for such a loss is on everybody, including the captain. And Dhoni acknowledged that in the presentation. Being a wicketkeeper captain and hearing how he handles his resources from behind the stumps,, he does get leeway when things dont go his way because there have been so many instances when things go his way, and when it does, those are pretty special moments. Everybody, including the opposition, sing his tune. When Sachin was around, he got even bigger respect and even when he failed, he got a lot of leeway among his fans and neutrals. Legendary Indian cricketers with personalities like Sachin, Dravid, MSD get these leeways when they fail.

TBH in this forum, Dhoni has been getting lot of calls on "hanging up his boots ASAP" and "stop playing soon and move on with his life". This forum has not often been a "Dhoni boot licking" forum and has often at times been as honest as possible on his career.

---

It was a razor thin margin and one small correction would've changed result either way. Despite Pollard putting up such a freak show, CSK won't take much deflation from it. Yes it hurts because this is a crazy old rivalry and one where MI has consistently had the wood. But I honestly didn't feel as much pressure (as a hardcore CSK fan) today and it was probably also due to CSK's spot on the points table. And CSK as usual, batted brilliantly and at many places made jaws drop, especially the way Rayudu batted. Its sheer sadness that his innings didn't take the team over the line..

This was my first match in quite a while and I only followed it via irregular updates and some death overs viewing but people are criticizing Dhoni, bowlers and the team for a narrow last ball defeat? I knew that Jadeja's innings would prove to be costly as a run a ball stuff at the death will not work. He still is not a death overs slogger unless he gets his eye in completely and I'd argue Rayudu and him are a position too low in this XI.

I did notice that you held hopes for a Thakur revival post the Gabbatoir conquest but I don't think anything actually changed for Thakur since then. He has always been a decent red ball bowler who would have been a semi-regular if not a regular a decade or two ago. He still bowls those "hit me" deliveries, did those in his purple patch too. The difference was that a lot of them ended up being wickets. That is the risk you take with a bowler like him, they either leak runs or can win you games with important wickets.

Ngidi has been a real disappointment though. Thakur was obviously going to Thakur at some stage but Ngidi is the premium SA death bowler. He should be doing better ideally. But then, ideally he wouldn't even be playing because a wrist spinner is far more important than yet another hit the deck pacer.
 
Pollard as leader , Pollard as T20 player is seriously underrated.

His record speaks for himself as player across the world for various franchises.

As leader has won 2 CPL titles 1 for TKR - The KKR sister franchise and other for Barbados Tridents.

Even Ian Bishop mentioned about the leadership quality of him and many young players in WI look upto him.

Come the WT20 later in the year if it happens either in UAE or India a Kieron Pollard led defending champions WI will once again a force to reckon with in the format where their players thrives.

Jarrod Kimber's video where he compared Pollard to Stokes shows just how valuable Pollard is. A middle order batsman you can actually rely on to win you games, arrest collapses and also slog if needed is such a rare combination. Add to that his bowling and fielding along with the very obvious tactical acumen and it is clear how much of a MVP he is. 2 wickets at 12 runs and an innings of 80 plus striking at over 250 is just nuts. One of the great all-round T20 performances I've seen and we were blessed that we've already had one in Jadeja and then Pollard comes out and does this. Magnificient.

Bumrah and his no balls continue to worry me. He is also a tad more defensive these days especially with a lack of yorkers. Hope this is just a slump.

@Velocity t20 sides in general seem to have a chronic affliction of not using these middle order enforcers. The only ones who teams prefer seem to be players who can also build big scores or finish with one like Pooran, Pant or Kishan. Proper batting talents. Narine's ascent to that role in recent times is interesting and given that Mo is a much more qualified bat, surely Morgan can use him in a similar way whenever needed like he does with Narine? Doesn't even have to be at four, could always come on when spinners are there to choke the game out.

Another thing to note is that the players I've mentioned are all lefties. Shows how much wrist spinners and left arm darters are valued in the middle over chokes and how they now have a worthy adversary to contend with. The Kamindu Mendis and Mujeeb like spinners cannot rise up soon enough as the next step in evolution in a constant game of cat and mouse.
 
I dont think Chennai's combination affords them to lose hope on both Thakur and Ngidi. Dhoni will have to repose faith on either (if not both) of them. Dhoni still rates Bravo well enough, and it won't be a surprise if Dhoni relies on Bravo's reputation to help out in such range hitting fest. For all of Thakur's horrible bowling, he almost got Pollard out (sad that one of our legendary fielders, Faf, dropped a dolly when he takes far more tougher ones in the outfield)

But - how did Delhi and Kotla (now Jaitley's stadium) become such a range hitting fest? This stadium used to have those slow and low wickets where run scoring was not so easy.
 
Well, I feel matches like these justify need for a sporting event amidst a pandemic. Large portion of world's population is stuck at home, facing issues like anxiety, depression, fear, pain, insomnia, etc. because of an incredibly prolonged detachment with the routine world. If 4 hours of sports does put a smile on their faces, I honestly believe they deserve that much.
The only thing that justifies a sporting event in these conditions is the players being absolutely fine with it, and comfortable in the conditions in which they have to play. We can say that they are taking a risk due to the financial incentives, but that's their personal decision and should be respected, as long as the public at large isn't harmed, just like if some players leave the IPL early, that should be respected too. The public isn't short of entertainment options, is it? This "you are playing for the people" line is just a PR strategy. They are playing for the money, we all know it, but we are all enjoying the IPL, me included, so if the players are fine with it, i have no problem, again, as long as there isn't a burden put on the public.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top