Indian Premier League - General Discussion

Missed watching a classic!! What. A. Man!! Unbelievable!! I’m outside on the Dr appt and my heart was racing while I was checking scores , waiting in the lobby!!!

But how did CSK take this so close and looked out of the game? Lots of questions to be answered by the team! Incredibly lucky to scrape home!! Horrible catching, ordinary batting.
 
#LongLiveMI'sLosingStreak :squint:

To be fair, MI were pretty much in control of proceedings in the second innings leading up to that final over. And it pretty much shows how bad of an auction they had, Jofra Archer's ghost wasn't going to bowl that 20th over.

CSK were poor for the entirety of the chase, just for vintage Dhoni to appear once again.
 
Another Nohit Sharmanak loss for Poltan. Mahi's masterclass is still available. What a finisher, real guide. Unbelievable stuff!
 
After calming a bit, Unadkat is the best seam all rounder we have - Indian, so either be with it or bring in another youngster - Arshad Khan or if you want a spinner, Sanjay Yadav. A very close observation - though the questions sre being asked on bowlers, its actually the batting which is struggling.

v DC - lost a match due to poor death bowling after having them 6 down for 100.

v RR - Needed 50 odd off the last 6 with 8 in hand.

v KKR - below par batting, Cummins special.

v RCB - again below par batting.

v KXIP - 33 off 3, if you can't chase that with Pollard & SKY it's really sorry.

v LSG - Poor batting at the top, left too much for the end. This could be the game where actually the bowlers lost it.

v CSK - 56/4 in 10 overs, unacceptable, but Unadkat should have defended 17.

To sum it up:
I Kishan - 191 @ 116 (140 odd in 2 games)
R Sharma - 114 @ 126
K Pollard - 96 @ 137 - for him, it's significantly below par.

D Brevis 121 @ 161 in 5 games - fiery youngster but no big innings as yet.

SK Yadav - 232 @ 154 in 5 innings
NT Varma 234 @ 140

With this rate you can't be blaming the bowlers. MI has only crossed 180 twice while chasing 190+ and 177 in the opening gane
 
I was working out in gym and said to my partner as soon as Unadkat was bowling - Game Over mate.

The bloke has a history of bowling poor in the death overs.

Even a retired Dhoni today was good for him.
 
Till Valhalla said:
I am confused when did he became an all rounder? We will talk about best later
Click to expand...
He's been batting pretty well in the domestic scenes, even last year for RR he did good towards the end in a few games.
 
Bigby Wolf said:
I was working out in gym and said to my partner as soon as Unadkat was bowling - Game Over mate.

The bloke has a history of bowling poor in the death overs.

Even a retired Dhoni today was good for him.
Click to expand...

I feel Rohit and Kishan are to blamed at the top. This pitch was 175-ish. I am concerned with both Rohit & Kohli going into the world cup with this form.

An alternative XI based on current form:

KL Rahul
Prithvi Shaw/Rahul Tripathi
Suryakumar Yadav
Shreyas Iyer
Rishabh Pant/Dinesh Karthik
Hardik Pandya
Axar Patel
Shardul Thakur/B Kumar
Jasprit Bumrah/Mohammed Shami
T Natarajan
Yuzvendra Chahal
 
Oh well.. MI, what could one say about such a successful side going into the doldrums after one bad auction?

I completely subscribe to @wasteyouryouth's conspiracy theory regarding a split in the line of thinking between captain and coach. Mills was used poorly in his first few games and I don't even think he was managed properly with well executed plans when he was given the role of the death overs specialist. Tim David has been completely missing after the Brevis hype. Have him play the role of a DK and he'll thrive which I doubt MI can do given that none of their bowlers barring Unadkat can hold a bat properly. It all seems like the team wasn't quite built for their individual player strengths.

  • I did say that Kishan would be the most expensive player at the auction and that he was worth the price given his multiple strengths on paper (can bat anywhere in the top five, destructive versus spin and can go hard from ball one or accelerate in the traditional fashion, can keep and can lead). However, what I did seem to miss is his tendency to either be really good (explosive from the start) or really bad (gets out quickly or wastes too many balls) with not much of an inbetween. This is something that Mumbai would surely have known prior to going all in for him and it must have been something they believed that could have been ironed out in time. Right now, it seems like the price tag is putting all of it's pressure on him. His current situation reminds me of Olivier Giroud's time in the mid 2010s in the Arsenal side where he was terribly out of form, needed a rest to mentally recharge himself and yet had to play simply because Arsenal had no other strikers. This leads to both mental fatigue due to playing multiple games whilst you are out of form and also a strange sense of complacency in that 'well I know you can't drop me, there simply is no one else'. I'd still at least take him out of the firing line and play him at three or four.

  • The main culprit for years has been Rohit Sharma's own middling form which I've pointed out earlier multiple times. It was hidden by SKY and Kishan's own splendid form and QdK's arrival later on alongside that formidable middle order they had. It was also pretty obvious that with only one of these still remaining, Rohit would have to step up and carry the burden and if he did not Mumbai would suffer badly. No surprises that the result has been predictable.

  • I liked the cut of Brevis in the U-19 WC and did expect him to be a big star in the future but he's already shown that he's very capable which has been a complete surprise (I still expected him to be a bit raw versus top class bowlers). Mumbai cannot and should not rely on him for match-winning knocks though, he's still far away from being mature enough to not throw away his wicket at the most ill opportune times and I dearly hope that they do not coach this flair out of him in the two months they have him. Indian sides have always tried to knock the flair out of their most talented batters to turn them into statistical monsters and it has always come at the cost of their aggression. Brevis would be wise to further learn how to approach situations where a bit of defense and sensible stroke making might be good but this has to come with experience rather than coaching in a haste.

  • What Mumbai should expect is for SKY to be their match-winner in the majority of their games. He's an absolute gem of a stroke-player and is arguably the most versatile Indian batsman right now. He is in every sense Mumbai's adult AbD and until baby AB grows up, has to be so. Mumbai would benefit from having him face more deliveries per game as I believe the more he faces, the more are Mumbai's chances of a victory. He was superb as an opener in 2018 with those leg-side flicks and he has improved massively since then in terms of his overall shot making, why not get him back there?

  • Pollard is pretty much never being dropped in this season (and possibly the next) so we'll have to include him in this side. I do wish Mumbai give David a few more games in his stead but I think it's unlikely to happen. Tilak Varma on the other hand seems to have a repertoire of shots in his arsenal and a good game sense of when to play them and when not to. If he is supposed to be baby Raina taking on the spinners, it's time for him to be the number three.

  • I personally thought Sams served some fine pies today and that he was lucky to nab four wickets. Any other day and he would be up there with Unadkat. However I do think there is some value in him being the 'McClenaghan' type of bowler who is normally expensive but gets you wickets alongside that. He's shown that he can take wickets despite his expensive rate in the BBL. All he does need is two support bowlers who can keep things tight (like a certain Englishman currently in rehab). Unadkat is very similar in profile to Sams and hence having them both in the side seems like a recipe for disaster as at the least one of them will travel the distance. If they both do, your NRR takes a hefty hit. Yet again, we're back to building a squad without truly seeing the individual strengths. Sams can bat better on paper and Unadkat is the domestic option. Honestly, pick your poison at this rate.

  • We still haven't talked about options like Sanjay Yadav (a hard hitting all-rounder), Fabian Allen (a hard hitting... all-rounder? Why does Mumbai have two of every role player...) who can be serviceable in the right roles. Not world-class stars but Krunal wasn't one and MI got along fine with him in their XI. And finally.. I don't think Rohit is a bad captain as of yet on the basis of one bad season where he admittedly hasn't made the best use of the tools at his disposal. His main strength is in his player management and adapting to game situations which I don't think is something that you can pick up later on in your career. I feel like the Mumbai hierarchy went into the auction with their same old template of ideas, stuck by it rigidly and when it did not quite work out pushed the panic button in the auction. I'd probably try this playing XI for now until player forms revert back to normal

Rohit
SKY
Varma
Kishan
Brevis
David
Sams/Allen/Yadav
Random Indian Pacer/Meredith
Ashwin/Shokeen
Bumrah
Meredith/Mills

For next season, swap in a world class all-rounder in place of David, let Brevis play a more prominent role in the top four and have Archer in at eight. Get the latest flavour of the month Indian spin bowling all-rounder at seven and sign a good overseas spinner (plenty of them go unsold every season) so that you're not stuck with Ashwin and Markande as your only spinning options.
 
Post game musings -

It was an absolute blunder from CSK to drop Pretorius, who was excellent with the ball in the first 2 games that he played this season. They brought in Theekshana, who has been another revelation but they should've kept Pretorius in and dropped Jordan. And it was Jordan who lost us that game vs Gujarat. Imagine if CSK had won the GT game and this one, could've been in a healthier position than where we are now. Dwaine Pretorius is the perfect allrounder that CSK needs down the order and he's turning out to be another Bravo! His innings was crucial today to set the platform for Dhoni to nail it!

Mukesh Chaudhary made me eat humble pie today (not that I minded it; I love eating humble pie when I talk about CSK players and they prove me wrong). He was a lot more on the money today in the first spell that he bowled. That ball to snuff out Ishan Kishan was a beauty! He could've has Tilak Verma too, had Bravo held on to a sitter. I guess the management has seen enough in him that they've backed him despite the below average returns. Reminds you of how Ruturaj was backed in 2020 and eventually he came good. I still will wait to see if Mukesh can keep this up in the coming games, but he has boosted his case for playing most of the coming games. Its still sad that we cant probably see the likes of Rajvardhan and the others (always been excited on Rajvardhan).

Theekshana continues to impress me. He is a tremendous pick by CSK, and I just hope that CSK dont cave in to any political pressure next year, and persist with Theekshana for the Chepauk wickets. Seeing CSK now pick Maheesha Pathirana as replacement for Adam Milne, tells me that CSK are going to start not giving a damn about SL-Tamil Nadu politics.

Still feel Jadeja is not the right candidate to lead this team. He's reeling under the pressure. Had Dhoni captained this season, it would've been very different. If they dont find Ruturaj ready to take over leadership duties soon, maybe they should let Rayudu or Uthappa captain for a season. Jadeja needs to be allowed to play free.
 
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