Chennai Super Kings, Twenty20 team extraordinaire, reigning champion of the IPL and Champions League, has had to stomach one embarrassing loss to the lesser fancied Kings XI Punjab, and will abhor a loss to the Tuskers, an IPL rookie. The Tuskers belied their greenhorn status the other day, defeating the mighty Mumbai Indians by a sound margin. Will the Super Kings push the Kerala boys over or is another upset in store?
Kochi Tuskers Kerala:
The win over Mumbai may not have effected a giant leap in the points table for the Tuskers, but it certainly boosted their reputation, confidence and future prognosis. They had been a formidable team from the start, but had lost the first couple of games, which occurred while their gestational period was still on. Friday was the day they adhered together and showed that their combined force and the strength of their top order made them a side capable of overhauling a Sachin Tendulkar ton (although some might not consider that much of a feat!).
Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene have just constituted a golden opening combo that VVS Laxman’s return will threaten to jar. Will the Tuskers stick to the centurion partnership or be gutsy enough to break it and put Jayawardene back into his traditional one-down domicile? Ravindra Jadeja and Brad Hodge, the romping finishers at the Wankhede on Friday, will fortify the middle order, along with Raiphi Gomez and Thisara Perera. Parthiv Patel will hope that his top order does well enough for him not to get a bat, yet hope that he does well should he get in!
The Tuskers bowling has resembled a roller-coaster so far. With generous arms, RP Singh and S Sreesanth had been causes for anxiety for Jayawardene. While Sreesanth was benched for the last game, RP retained his place, and rewarded his selection with a heavenly economy rate of 3.75. Vinay Kumar, who was the pick of the Tuskers pacemen, was unlucky to suffer at Sachin Tendulkar’s hand on Friday, after replays showed that he had been unjustly treated on as many as two LBW shouts not given. The greatest bane has been Muttiah Muralitharan’s ineffectiveness, which led to his being benched for the last game. His replacement, Ramesh Powar, however, was not much of an inclusion, going for a 12 runs in the sole over he was bowled.
Chennai Super Kings:
Chennai’s batting has always been its strength, and that is true even without a burly Matthew Hayden manning their helm this season. What of Haydos’ absence, bellow CSK fans, when we have another Aussie in Michael Hussey who can hit the screaming flat sixes and score massive at will just the same! Murali Vijay may be a mundane international batsman, but come IPL, he transforms into a batsman who can hit the boundaries like a game of whack-the-weasel! Suresh Raina will look to carry an innings on long enough to convert the propellant starts into fifties. Raina’s premature exits are not the only mystery in the Chennai dug-out, though. For inexplicable reasons, the hero of Chennai’s first match, Anirudha Srikkanth, did not get a bat on Saturday against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He could not possibly have pulled a Ramnaresh Sarwan, visiting the loo when his number came, given that he is the opening batsman! And he was certainly in prime shipping condition when he took three catches in the second innings…
Doug Bollinger, Chennai’s lynchpin bowler from last season, is waiting in the wings, having returned from Bangladesh. Whom can he replace, though? Tim Southee and Suraj Randiv are the two scapegoats available. Randiv, on his part, turned in a keen spell of 2/24 during Saturday’s match, so it could be Southee who gets the benching. After contributing that superb tight finishing over against Kolkata, Southee had to have bowled really badly to let anyone take his place, but his last two outings have not been remarkable for economy or striking. Strengthening the pace department will be Morkel, who is in prime wicket-taking form. On Saturday, he sent the dangerous Tillakaratne Dilshan back cheaply, before bagging another key wicket in a well-set AB de Villiers. Ravichandran Ashwin was himself on Saturday, getting the opener with his variation and carding sub-six economy rates.
Batting and bowling apart, CSK’s fielding was the difference, barring the sitter Hussey grassed.
Likely teams:
Kochi Tuskers Kerala: Brendon McCullum, VVS Laxman, Mahela Jayawardene, Brad Hodge, Ravindra Jadeja, Raiphi Gomez, Parthiv Patel, Thisara Perera, Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, Ramesh Powar.
Chennai Super Kings: Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Aniruddha Srikkanth, Subramaniam Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Tim Southee/Doug Bollinger, Suraj Randiv.
Watch out for…
… Ravindra Jadeja on Monday. The talented southpaw gave a glimpse of his effervescence towards the end of the team’s first win, on Friday, when he finished the game off with two Maximums. Such feats must infuse a great deal of confidence in the player. He has also bowled refreshing spells even as his colleagues have got hammered.
MS Dhoni, the batsman, seems to have days when his bat is an instrument of unabashed debauchery, and others in which the ugliness of his batting is magnified by a sequence of brute swings gone wrong. Against Kings XI Punjab, his bat was a windmill blade again, but against Bangalore, it was an unwieldy chunk of wood that kept forcing potential scoring shots straight to the fielder. Which will it be on Monday?
Prediction: After a dodgy loss against Kings XI, Chennai Super Kings has reprised its assertive persona, thoroughly outplaying the Royal Challengers. They are a more well-rounded side than the Mumbai Indians, and will not fear the Tuskers as much as the latter may like to believe after their win against Mumbai. Chennai is not likely to underestimate any team after Paul Valthaty happened to them. Kochi will have to surprise themselves with their bowling if they are to hold their own against the CSK batsmen. It will be Dhoni against Jayawardene all over again after the Wankhede Final, and we all know how that went down!
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