Indian Premier League | Day 15 | Rajkot | Apr 24, 2016 | Matches Thread

[street cricketer]

Rajat Bhatia = Legend.

 

[King Kong]

Rajat Bhatia - Mustafiz who? Haha legendary bowler.

 

[HitWicket]

Yeah but Bell is more or less retired no.. A bit like Gambhir's situation.

Although he might get back into the Test team now that Taylor has had an unfortunate retirement.

Captaining Warwickshire and has an alright chance at getting back in the England setup this summer.

 

[Sandeep]

I like the look of Suryakumar.. India is in dire need of these kind of players in ODIs..

 

[street cricketer]

Brilliant googly from Murugan.

 

[Sandeep]

Wow.. M Ashwin can bowl and bowl some rippers! Now I see why MS is persisting with him.. that googly

 

[street cricketer]

Shabby fielding from fake Dhoni.

 

[Smbhayi]

Shabby fielding from fake Dhoni.

did he still have those long hair?

 

[street cricketer]

did he still have those long hair?

No. Thankfully he has cut it.

Don't know why teams are picking him. Such a horrible player.

 

[street cricketer]

Lol are kkr doing a Bangladesh?

 

[Justcrazy]

Yadav

 

[street cricketer]

Dhoni to Yadav : Y u no do this for Indian team

 

[Sandeep]

I hoped KKR doing a Bangladesh, but unfortunately these guys are not brainless like Bangladesh..

 

[street cricketer]

Look at dat smile on Yadav's face

 

[Justcrazy]

KKR win , what a game !!!

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Another day. Another loss.

When we were batting, fans could feel we were slow even if some balls turned a lot.

Ultimately the score wasn't enough.

And whatever happened to Ashwin.

Has to pull up his socks and get his accuracy back. He bowls those odd balls a touch too full and gets pounded.

Dhoni doesn't give him full quota even on good days, so forget about him getting overs on days where he gets hit.

 

[Justcrazy]

Another day. Another loss.

When we were batting, fans could feel we were slow even if some balls turned a lot.

Ultimately the score wasn't enough.

And whatever happened to Ashwin.

Has to pull up his socks and get his accuracy back. He bowls those odd balls a touch too full and gets pounded.

Dhoni doesn't give him full quota even on good days, so forget about him getting overs on days where he gets hit.

Dhoni needs to give him full four overs after power play , that way he will be back in form

 

[aniket1911]

I so wanted dhoni's men to win but KKR is much stronger team, although, that was as crummy display from them as it can possibly get.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Dhoni needs to give him full four overs after power play , that way he will be back in form

Yes...that is the sane thing to do (plus good and bad overs cancel out each other) but Dhoni has been weird for over a year now.

 

[street cricketer]

Another day. Another loss.

When we were batting, fans could feel we were slow even if some balls turned a lot.

Ultimately the score wasn't enough.

And whatever happened to Ashwin.

Has to pull up his socks and get his accuracy back. He bowls those odd balls a touch too full and gets pounded.

Dhoni doesn't give him full quota even on good days, so forget about him getting overs on days where he gets hit.

I wouldn't blame the batting too much.

Shoddy fielding, extras and poor bowling cost Pune in the end.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

I wouldn't blame the batting too much.

Shoddy fielding, extras and poor bowling cost Pune in the end.

Just cos bowling isn't great doesn't mean the score was par.

We were batting pathetically before cameos from Thisira, Albie and Dhoni helped us get to 160.

Or else it would have been 145 and game would have ended long ago.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

KKR won despite Gambhir and Uthappa scoring none.

The gap between them and us is quite huge.

 

[street cricketer]

Just cos bowling isn't great doesn't mean the score was par.

We were batting pathetically before cameos from Thisira, Albie and Dhoni helped us get to 160.

Or else it would have been 145 and game would have ended long ago.

The score was arguably above par.

 

[Sandeep]

I'm surprised Dhoni is not frustrated with Rahane yet. Such a boring batsman, and will always score 50 in 40 balls no matter the pitch. Recipe for disaster!

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

The score was arguably above par.

Disagree.

Even before we bowled a single ball, I was very disappointed with the way we batted.

Yes, I felt 160 would be enough but the way KKR started put everything in perspective.

Also let's analyse the bowlers.

Who exactly was bad?

If you have to pick, you would say Albie and R Ashwin at the most.

Rest were totally fine. Murugan was a touch expensive but if you noticed, KKR smashed sixes whenever we overpitched.

Thisara and Albie did it too when they overpitched but the bulk of batting was done by Rahane and Smith who did nothing.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

If Uthappa had clicked, the game would have ended LONG ago.

 

[Smbhayi]

Just cos bowling isn't great doesn't mean the score was par.

We were batting pathetically before cameos from Thisira, Albie and Dhoni helped us get to 160.

Or else it would have been 145 and game would have ended long ago.

it was not Rajkot, Wankhade or Banglure. Look at Bhatia, the pitch is low and slow, Even Perera's cutters troubled batsman. I think Dhoni missed tricks by choosing Ankit over Ash. Experience matters in crunch situations.

 

[street cricketer]

Disagree.

Even before we bowled a single ball, I was very disappointed with the way we batted.

Yes, I felt 160 would be enough but the way KKR started put everything in perspective.

Also let's analyse the bowlers.

Who exactly was bad?

If you have to pick, you would say Albie and R Ashwin at the most.

Rest were totally fine. Murugan was a touch expensive but if you noticed, KKR smashed sixes whenever we overpitched.

Thisara and Albie did it too when they overpitched but the bulk of batting was done by Rahane and Smith who did nothing.

The total was enough for this pitch. This wicket was something similar to the one played between Aus and NZ in the world cup. It was slow and was assisting spin very much. Yes, you can start with a bang but batting will become almost always difficult in the 2nd half as the field gets spread out. In these type of wickets, you can rest assured that it will inevitably come to the last over. And in such situations, little errors will end up costing you much. I thought Tiwari's terrible misfield, and bowlers bowling wides at the end cost them dearly. Also spinners have to drag their length back to let the ball do its thing. Almost all of Pune's spinners were guilty of bowling full in this match which is a horrible mistake. They bowled like Pakistani spinners did against India in the world cup.

Anyway it's true that Pune's batting is shaky but on this occasion, they were on course to get an 145ish score which would have been slightly below par or even par on this wicket. Dhoni did brilliantly in the end to take it to 160. KKR bowled poorly to concede 60 runs of their last 5 overs which is terrible on this wicket but Pune's bowlers couldn't take advantage of that unfortunately.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

The total was enough for this pitch. This wicket was something similar to the one played between Aus and NZ in the world cup. It was slow and was assisting spin very much. Yes, you can start with a bang but batting will become almost always difficult in the 2nd half as the field gets spread out. In these type of wickets, you can rest assured that it will inevitably come to the last over. And in such situations, little errors will end up costing you much. I thought Tiwari's terrible misfield, and bowlers bowling wides at the end cost them dearly. Also spinners have to drag their length back to let the ball do its thing. Almost all of Pune's spinners were guilty of bowling full in this match which is a horrible mistake. They bowled like Pakistani spinners did against India in the world cup.

Anyway it's true that Pune's batting is shaky but on this occasion, they were on course to get an 145ish score which would have been slightly below par or even par on this wicket. Dhoni did brilliantly in the end to take it to 160. KKR bowled poorly to concede 60 runs of their last 5 overs which is terrible on this wicket but Pune's bowlers couldn't take advantage of that unfortunately.

If Uthappa hadn't got out, then the gap of victory would have been huge.

If Bmac and Smith had opened here, they would have gone off to a flier.

Any explosive opening pair would have made the initial blows and the rest would have coordinated the chase.

How many times Rahane and Smith EVEN TRIED to smash the ball? That should tell you everything. The ball was coming on to the bat quite nicely.

If the 2nd half was harder, then how come our hacks smashed so many runs in the latter stage?

From a theoretical point of view, I agree with your view.

But watching our batting, I was unsure but I felt 160 may be enough.

When I watched KKR batting, things became clear.

 

[dauntless]

KKR win that's it they are looking a formidable unit but their fast bowling is a bit weak due to morkel's form

 

[street cricketer]

If Uthappa hadn't got out, then the gap of victory would have been huge.

If Bmac and Smith had opened here, they would have gone off to a flier.

Any explosive opening pair would have made the initial blows and the rest would have coordinated the chase.

How many times Rahane and Smith EVEN TRIED to smash the ball? That should tell you everything. The ball was coming on to the bat quite nicely.

If the 2nd half was harder, then how come our hacks smashed so many runs in the latter stage?

From a theoretical point of view, I agree with your view.

But watching our batting, I was unsure but I felt 160 may be enough.

When I watched KKR batting, things became clear.

Any team will always come hard at the bowling team on such tracks invariably because it's a tale of two innings on these wickets. You have to make use of the newness of the ball as much as you can in the first 6 overs because after sometime, the ball gets scuffed up and starts gripping on the wicket more. That is why you should always maximize your output in the first ten overs because things will get difficult as the ball gets older.

The reason both sides made runs in the 2nd half is because both sides bowled poorly on this track. A santner and a Sodhi would've run through this KKR side bowling consistently back of a length. Everytime Murugan or Ashwin or Ankit bowled full, it got murdered. There's a reason why Badree bowled mostly short lengths in the last WT20.

 

[Syed1]

This is the first season I'm watching after the first one, it seems like whichever team bats second wins. This culture of chasing reflects in the Indian national side as well..

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Any team will always come hard at the bowling team on such tracks invariably because it's a tale of two innings on these wickets. You have to make use of the newness of the ball as much as you can in the first 6 overs because after sometime, the ball gets scuffed up and starts gripping on the wicket more. That is why you should always maximize your output in the first ten overs because things will get difficult as the ball gets older.

The reason both sides made runs in the 2nd half is because both sides bowled poorly on this track. A santner and a Sodhi would've run through this KKR side bowling consistently back of a length. Everytime Murugan or Ashwin or Ankit bowled full, it got murdered. There's a reason why Badree bowled mostly short lengths in the last WT20.

So what exactly is your point buddy?

You say first half its easy to score.

We scored 61 runs after 10 overs.

61 runs.

Let that sink in for a min.

Then the pitch gripped (and the bowler bowled badly as you say) and we scored 100 runs in the next 10.

KKR on the other hand scored 60 odd runs in 6 overs.

So even if cancel out the 2nd half of bowling for both teams and take the first half, the our batting severely under performed compared to KKR in the first half.

Now add in the fact that Rahane and Smith DID NOT EVEN TRY to attack and the fact that KKR lost both its in form batsmen in the first half and still managed to outscore us by 2X.

What does that tell you?