Things We've Learned From The IPL Today (28/04)

April 28:

Bangalore v. Chennai


Star among stars... MS Dhoni (Chennai SuperKings)
Finally, Mr. 1.5-mill starts earning his no.1 draft pick. On a perplexing pitch, Dhoni gave the SuperKings' innings a much needed kick in the pants, at one point hitting 50 runs from just 15 balls (he went from 15 off 14 balls to 65 off 29). The quality of his captaincy seems to be of the inspirational rather than the tactical kind -- besides, you don't really need to be Mike Brearley if the opposing batters insist on running to the same end -- but he still  managed to manufacture a win for his team under trying circumstances, so he should be commended.

Old-timer on an egg-timer... Rahul Dravid (Bangalore Challengers)
What can one say? Dravid's Twenty20 career is starting to resemble a grandfather's slow, uncomfortable decent into senility. I mean, you all love him, enjoy his company and respect all the sacrifices he had to make in his day, but everyone in the family is quietly starting to wonder when they might need to start hiding the car keys from the old man. In this case, the car is a place in the team's batting lineup. Where is Dravid supposed to go? At the top of the order, where he will hopefully have a few deliveries to get his eye in, but will most likely just stall the team's momentum? Or down in the lower middle order, just in case of a horrible batting collapse? Dravid himself chose the latter today, but that just doesn't seem like a great role for a team's captain and icon player -- the "Break Open in Case of Emergency" Russell Arnold position.

Catch from the catchment... Manpreet Gony (Chennai SuperKings)
There is something very Dilhara Fernando-ish about Gony, which can be both a good and a bad thing. For one, he is one of the only Indian fast bowlers who looks like he could hold his own in a street fight, which is a welcome sign after Sreesanth and the Tear-gate fiasco. At the same time, much like Fernando, you never feel 100% certain that he won't suddenly have a complete brain-fart and start bowling bucketfuls of no-balls at inopportune moments.

3 Bullets to the head...

• Does Greg Chappell ever speak in normal, human sentences? At one point in the first innings, after Parthiv Patel got out, this is what came out of Chappell's mouth: "Looking at this pitch, I'm not sure that 160 is not going to be a good enough score." It took me about three minutes to parse that and work out what the hell it meant.
  
  
• While on the subject, I hope the IPL organisers realise that was the perfect pitch for Twenty20. It wasn't dangerous in the slightest, it didn't have too much movement, but it was still awkward and the ball would rarely come on to the bat exactly as anticipated. You really have to be a deft batsman to excel on it, but at the same time, you need to bowl really well to fully exploit it. I'm just not sure that won't be the kind of pitch we won't expect to never see in this tournament.
  

• During the Challengers' chase, while Wasim Jaffer was wasting balls and getting dropped twice, my buddy Lefty J was on Google Chat and he IM'ed me a few comments about the game. I'll post them verbatim:
  
  
  4:32 AM dude, i wonder when we're gonna see the first tactically dropped catch
   write about that before it happens
  
  
  4:33 AM although, that sounds a bit too evolved for these normies
   never know though, warne might do it
   (not off his own bowling of course.)
  
  

Comments

[Chennai Super Kings Fan]

Manpreet Gony is not really a catch from the catchment since he is a Punjabi and does not belong to the catchment area of CSK..

I m expecting that more an more matches would be played on pitches support bowlers... After the first few matches, every franchise have understood, the necessity is to provide a pitch that suits the home team rather than a sporting pitch... [Expect bowler friendly pitches in franchises who have a strong bowling attack]

Also the pitch would worn out as the tournament progresses.. thereby helping the bowlers more and more.. So i m expecting more and more bowler friendly pitches..

"I'm just not sure that won't be the kind of pitch we won't expect to never see in this tournament.".. You doing a Greg Chapell... :D

[J Rod]

I still liked it when Greg said, patel is not known for his throwing, and 2 minutes later Sohail said, the key is to hit it where the fielders arent.

[lefty j]

Dravid, as usual, wasn't out. But he really looked guilty, so they gave it. I think he fits perfectly as a Russel Arnold type. Every third game or so, he becomes useful in that role. Not ideal for your icon player, but what can you do? He'll come into his own now that the Aussies are gone. You watch.