Indian Cricket: Who Would Be Or Ought To Be The Test Captain?

The sudden stepping down, somewhat inevitable, of Virat Kohli from test captaincy has started a raging speculation in India about who would be or ought to be the new Test captain. Earlier in the year 2021 we had suggested a split-captaincy regime, particularly after the stand-in Test captain Ajinkya Rahane led India to an incredible Series victory over Australia in Australia overcoming the 36-all out syndrome and the departure of Virat for home. Rahane had been the test vice-captain for quite some time and therefore, there should’ve been no hassles to make him the regular captain, relieving Kohli the burden of captaining all three formats. In hindsight, we can say that had that decision been taken Kohli would’ve continued to be the white-ball captain thus the confrontations and ego-plays between BCCI and Kohli could’ve been avoided. However, that was not done, and during the last one year Rahane has been in very poor form and perhaps he had played the last innings of his test career three days back in Cape Town. So, Rahane is out of any contention for test captaincy. For similar reasons, Cheteshwar Pujara cannot be considered either.

 

KL Rahul has been an ideal test player, but thanks to reasons unknown he was mostly left out of the test playing eleven except for the latest South Africa series. In this series he captained the second test in Johannesburg without much to be noticed about his leadership and that is the only experience of test captaincy for him. Although he has been captaining an IPL franchise, this cannot be taken as a justification to appoint him as a national test captain. Instead, he should always be in the test playing eleven as a no.3 batsman rather than trying out all means to play him as an opener. He is rock solid, dependable and a fluent batsman at no.3 positiion which is applicable to all three formats.

 

Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar has strongly favored batsman-wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant for the post while talking to a private news channel. But we feel that at 24, Pant is too young and too inexperienced to take charge of a very important position. Again, captaining an IPL franchise is not justification enough for the appointment. He is also a headstrong and an impulsive cricketer often going for very adventurous shots, be it tests or the shorter formats, and making hay only on his day. Further, in the just-concluded Test Series against South Africa his scores had been indifferent but for a 100 in the last innings of the tour, that too for a losing cause. Rishabh first has to cement his place in the test team with dependable and consistent batting. If youngsters are to be considered for a long-term plan then Shreyas Iyer would be a better option, because he is almost sure to make it to the test team after the consistent batting failures displayed by the older batsmen in South Arica. However, in all such cases of experimenting with youngsters they have first to be groomed under an experienced skipper like Virat had gained so much from MS Dhoni.

 

There is another option of considering a bowler for the job. In this scenario the name of Ravichandran Ashwin comes to the fore, because he is very experienced and successful, possibly the best India spinner at the moment, both at home and away, and very handy too as a batsman with two centuries. In fact, Virat Kohli came under a lot of criticism for leaving him out of the playing eleven in most matches in the last two years, particularly in Tests. It’s been a long time since a bowler was given the captain’s job in Indian cricket.

 

Therefore, at least for the time being, the natural choice seems to be Rohit Sharma who is already the regular white-ball captain and would definitely lead Team India into the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 to be played at home during October-November. Apart from the emerging fact that Rohit too has become too big a superstar for the comfort of the BCCI and has often been in and out of the team due to injuries or ‘personal reasons’ which makes it rather tricky to give him the charge to lead in all three formats, he continues to be the ideal choice at least till 2023. During this time youngsters like Rishabh or Shreyas and also the regular vice-captain KL Rahul can be groomed for the job in the long term. Whatever be the decision it ought to serve Indian cricket in the best possible interests for its future in international cricket. All is not well in Team India at the moment, fans like it or not.  

Cricket: Should The Toss Be Tossed Away?

Although the practice of tossing the coin before a cricket Test match by the two captains is as ancient as the game, in recent times we have seen a huge lot of cases where the toss winning team puts the losing team at distinct disadvantages, including an evolving negative mindset. In some cricket playing nations like England, Australia, the West Indies and New Zealand where the focus is on grooming fast bowlers pitches with grass are prepared and once the host team wins the toss in a day match they put the opposition into bat, particularly if the morning is cloudy apart from the moisture fresh on the grass, and obviously the visiting team suffers not at all due to their fault or their weaknesses. The reverse of this is true in countries, particularly India or Sri Lanka, where the focus is always on the spinners, grassless slower-flat pitches are prepared and the toss-winning team naturally bats first, because in most cases the pitch begins to turn dangerously from the 3^rd or the 4^th day onward; the grotesquely turning pitches in India are, no doubt, in some decline after the advent of the shortest-format Indian Premiere League (IPL) in 2009 for obvious reasons. Even in that case of the IPL the toss-losing teams are at a disadvantage, because the winning teams always prefer to chase and as seen in India, anything above 300 also can be chased successfully at the flat batting tracks.

 

This explains why India had been losing most of the away series in the past decades and winning most of the home series, of course in recent years only, due to more thought and efforts being given to groom more fast bowlers. In the seventies and the eighties in home Test series we had witnessed the unique spectacle of watching the one or at most two medium fast bowlers in the Indian eleven bowling just one or two overs at the start of the fourth innings with even the living legend Sunil Gavaskar at times coming in to bowl the early overs and always hitting the ball hard on the ground so that the famous spinners could take over as soon as possible. Such a scenario has been getting extinct since the late nineties; however, the toss disadvantage remains as ever, in all formats of the game.

 

The day-night games, introduced for express commercial purposes, the scene of the toss disadvantage gets more serious. As the autumn season starts, the traditional cricket season through to the winter, dew forms later in the evening. All cricketers/commentators/cricket lovers know very well that the dew makes the ball slippery, making it very difficult for the bowlers, both pacers and spinners, to grip the ball well and direct its trajectory as the bowlers would want. Therefore, the toss-winning team always puts in the opposition to bat first, as is most disturbingly witnessed in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 in Oman and UAE. From the matches of the IPL-2021 shifted to UAE midway we had seen the slow pitches there that makes batting difficult in the first innings and makes bowling difficult in the second innings, invariably favoring the toss-winning-chasing teams, particularly if the match involved two top competitive teams and not the weaker teams or the minnows as opposition, and most of the matches ending as low-scoring and often one-sided ones.

 

Many disappointed fans from India, for that matter for South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh too, would have loved to watch what their teams could have done had they won the toss and chased in those crucially important matches they lost perhaps due to, to some significant extent, the loss of the toss. Since it involved India, a team from the richest cricket board of the world and its strategic business interests globally, the hue and cry over the ‘toss’ is getting noisier and nastier. However, as we have illustrated earlier the toss does affect the matches and does do harm to the toss-losing teams, more if they are almost equals as per the International Cricket Council (ICC) indices and rankings. Now, we’ll see if the toss can be done away with totally or at least partially.

 

Interestingly, doing away with the toss would be the most easier option in the IPL itself, irrespective of my or your opinion about its utility, because the tournament engages 8-10 teams where each team plays each two times on a double-robin basis; in a 8-franchise IPL each team plays 14 matches in all at the league stage. Therefore, at the league stage one competing team should be allowed to choose fielding or batting in the first match and the same option to the opposing team in the second match and so on. In the elimination round the choice can be given based on the respective net run-rates of the two rivals. We have argued many times earlier that the ICC should adopt a similar format ideally with a double-robin where the Super-12 would be just one group like in IPL and each team would play each at least twice.  The toss can thus be tossed away as we have shown. In fact, this standard should be adopted in all ICC tournaments in all formats.

 

In Test series too that we started this piece with, the elimination of the toss is entirely possible. For example let us take a five-match Test Series between India and say England in any country of the two as a host; either India or England should be allowed to opt for bat or bowl first in the first match, followed by India having the choice in the second and till the fourth match. In the fifth and the last Test, may be the deciding one in some cases, the team with the best ICC ranking should be given the option of the choice. In 2 or 6-match Test series there is no problem at all. This can very well work for all bilateral and international Test and ODI (one-day international) tournaments. And naturally, for both Men’s and Women’s cricket.

 

Tossing away the practice of the toss would pave the way for a more egalitarian encounters in the glorious gentlemen’s (gentlewoman’s too) game of cricket. This would never put any team at a disadvantage about which they can do just nothing. This is to make all teams equals in terms of choice, and definitely not in performances which is the game of cricket on the field based on application, dedication and mental calm demonstrated by the players. Countries have been long trying to end the stark inequalities present in both developed and underdeveloped countries and to eradicate poverty. Therefore, why not try the same in the most popular and expanding game of cricket to end the inequalities generated by the toss of a mere coin?  Why not let the coin do what it’s actually meant for?

T20 World Cup: England and Pakistan Enter Semi Finals!

England and Pakistan, the unbeaten teams so far in Group-1 and Group-2 respectively, have earned 8 points each with one match each remaining and have sealed their places in the semi-finals. England is probably the best team of the tournament defeating all tough rivals easily and busting the myth that teams winning the toss and bowling first go on to win the matches which, in fact, have been a trend in the sluggish pitches and the dew factor later in the night at Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai. However, England in particular and also Pakistan have proved that any good team can always win under any circumstances. It had been really tough for England to bat first against Sri Lanka, particularly handling the Lankan good spinners; but their in-form batsmen took up the   challenge and Buttler went on to hit the first century of the tournament remaining unbeaten thus helping the team to put up a healthy total of 163 runs. And then, their bowlers and fieldsmen delivered as in all previous matches to restrain Sri Lanka to 137 runs. This win took their points to 8 and ensured a semi-final, and in all probability to be the top team of the group, of course subject to their last match result against the tough South Africa.

 

Pakistan has been the unbeaten team in Group-2 so far beating all the tough contenders including India, Afghanistan and New Zealand, and then negating the myth of the toss too by beating Namibia, although a weaker side, when Pakistan lost the toss and were put into bat, and notching up 8 points ensuring a semi-final berth. Pakistan is most likely to be to be the yet-to-be-beaten top side in Group-2 considering the fact they have their last match against a listless Scotland.

 

The picture is still not clear as to which two teams from their respective groups would fill the other two semi-final berths. In Group-1 it is most likely to be either of South Africa with 6 points and one match to go and Australia having 4 points, but with two matches left. In a possible scenario of South Africa winning against England and Australia winning against both Bangladesh and the West Indies there would be a deadlock of three teams with 8 points each; but in that case too England is likely to seal its top position thanks to their almost insurmountable net run-rate. The second team would also be decided then based on their net run-rate with both teams, particularly Australia, needing to improve theirs drastically. While Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are out of contention the West Indies still have a fighting chance with only 2 points, but two matches are left for them, one against Sri Lanka and the second against Australia; if they win both they will have 6 points reducing Australia too to 6 provided they beat Bangladesh and if South Africa lose to England there would be a three-team deadlock of 6 points each.

 

Afghan Captain Nabi

We have already analyzed the situation in Group-2 in an earlier post which needs to be adjusted a little now with New Zealand crushing India and getting their first 2 precious points. New Zealand is likely to move rather easily to 6 points in their matches against Scotland and Namibia. The game-changer match for them, on Sunday, the 7^thof November, would be against Afghanistan who already has 4 points with two matches to go. If New Zealand lose that match Afghanistan will have 6 points and an extremely formidable net run-rate, and in that scenario India too will have a chance technically provided they beat all three including Afghanistan with huge margins. If New Zealand win they will have 8 points and will be through to either top or the second position depending on the result of Pakistan’s last encounter with Scotland and respective net run-rates. Therefore, it is still wide open in Group-2 for the second semi-final berth.

 

In all likelihood, considering all the scenarios, the first semi-final should be between England Vs New Zealand or Afghanistan and the second semi-final should be between Pakistan Vs South Arica or Australia. Negative body language of the Indians complaining all the time about the toss or pitches or dew, poor team selection cum horrible changes in the batting order and the commerce involved in placing them in the second slot all the time and a huge gap between their first and second match so that both matches get played on Sundays while all other teams were playing every alternate days in either of the slots. For the latter factor the BCCI is squarely responsible, because they shouldn’t have treated the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 in the same way as their money-spinning IPL-2021. The cricket board must be ruing the fact that the IPL-2021 could not continue in the huge stadiums of India with raving crowds and the same for the World Cup as it was shifted to India earlier this year.

T20 World Cup: New Zealand Crush India As If Fulfilling The Hot Favorites’ Death Wish!

For the second time in a row India captain Virat Kohli lost the toss, this time to New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and the latter unhesitatingly decided bowl first. In Dubai, the venue of this crucial encounter, in all the six matches played so far the chasing teams have won all the time. If that was not enough Kohli took Ishan Kishan in place of a supposedly injured Suryakumar Yadav and allowed him to open which was somewhat justified as left-right combination. But the biggest shocker came when Rohit Sharma, one of the most successful openers for India in all the formats of cricket, did not come in to open. As I mentioned in an earlier post the dropping of a sound opener Shikhar Dhawan who performed very well in the IPL-2021 was a huge mistake and his absence is now felt at every moment apart from disturbing the right-left combination. Then, the non-bowling, the supposedly non-fit Hardik Pandya still remained in the team. The team lost its balance completely and that effectively ended the match for India, now almost out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021.

 

Ishan failed after hitting a four; KL Rahul, relentlessly being promoted as an opener while he ideally remains India’s best No.3 batsman in all formats, failed again; Rohit Sharma, probably unable to adjust to his first-time-in-life No.3 position, failed to push on after hitting a few lovely shots; and captain Virat Kohli added to the drama created by him and his advisers by failing too, reducing the hot favorites of the tournament to 48/4 in the 11^th over. It was now up to Pant and Pandya to do all the repair work. Pandya fully vindicated his captain’s faith in him by becoming the second highest scorer of the innings at 23 off only 24 balls and the highest scorer being Ravindra Jadeja at 26 in only 19 balls, and thanks to them India brilliantly managed to cross the daunting 100-run mark, setting an equally impeccable target of 111 to get for New Zealand. Wow! What an achievement! Earlier, Kohli took in Shardul Thakur too in place of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to strengthen India’s bowling attack, apparently unable to understand the fact that India actually needed at least 10 bowlers to get New Zealand all out, if the wicket-keeper could be spared the trouble.

 

However, the Kiwis were in a merciless mood to fulfill India’s death wish, because they fully realized and were sympathetic that their beloved fellow cricketers have been suffering from IPL-fatigue, bubble-fatigue and all the fatigues imposed on them by an equally merciless cricket board. Therefore, they did not tire the Indians much by sparing the labor of more than 5 overs at 111/2 , winning by  8 wickets. Now the ideal moves would be for Kohli to prepone his stepping down from T20 captaincy, for Ravi Shastri to resign and for the mentor-Dhoni to mentor the team to a healthy mindset of returning home sooner than later.  Anyway, fans need not be discouraged, because the Blues though in the blues can still make it by defeating Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia along with scoring tons of runs to improve their net run-rate and Afghanistan beating New Zealand. Even otherwise, fans can still watch their superstars in the flowing commercials without minding their absence in the field.

 

In other matches South Africa managed to beat Sri Lanka at the death yesterday to keep them in contention for a semi-final berth in Group-1. England, the bulldozer in Group-1, kept on their act by crushing Australia in the other match yesterday amassing 6 points from 3 matches and almost sealing their semi-final berth. Tomorrow's match of England Vs Sri Lanka and the and the double header on November 2 including the match of South Africa Vs Bangladesh are set to clear up the Group-1 prospects a lot. Earlier today, Afghanistan registered their second huge victory by routing Namibia by 62 runs rising to the second position with 4 points and a very healthy net run-rate.

ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2021: The Big One Tomorrow As Super-12 Rivalries Start!

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 started in Oman and UAE with an upset in Group-B qualifiers when Scotland delivered a shock defeat to Bangladesh on 17^th October and the qualifier stage concluded on 22^nd October with another history-making upset as Namibia edged out the test-playing nation Ireland and entered the Super-12 stage for the first time. So, we have now qualifiers: from Group-A—the topper Sri Lanka enters the Group-1 and runners-up Namibia in Group-2 of the Super-12 while the Group-B topper Scotland enters Group-2 and the runners-up Bangladesh in Group-1 of the Super-12 stage. The six teams in each group will play matches between themselves on a round-robin basis and the two top teams of each group will sail into the semi-finals. The highly competitive and tough rivalries of the Super-12 stage starts today with Australia meeting South Africa in the first match in Abu Dhabi and England facing defending champions the West Indies in the second match in Dubai. Notwithstanding the slower pitches of UAE we can expect class cricket and absolute thrillers even though some matches may turn out to be low-scoring with the spinners dominating the proceedings.

 

All attention in the subcontinent is naturally focused of the big encounter tomorrow, Sunday the 24^thOctober, between archrivals India and Pakistan—the kind of encounters that have become rare as the bilateral ties between the two countries have been going through continuous tension since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and later the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan in 2009 after which all international cricket matches stopped to be staged in Pakistan and the country was rejected as a co-host with India in the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011. Since then all bilateral cricket is no longer there except for a brief tour when the BCCI invited Pakistan to play three ODIs and two T20Is in India in 2012. Pakistan players were also not allowed to participate in the IPL bonanza.

 

It is natural for most of the Indians to have reservations against Pakistan playing cricket with India due to the former’s endless duplicity and repeated terror attacks on the Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir. However, we must take this in the spirit of inclusive sports in the form of World Cricket tournaments like in other international events like the Olympics. For their consolation the bilateral cricket has been completely suspended since 2012 even as genuine cricket lovers are really missing the classic encounters on the field. Therefore, the World Cricket tournaments offer us rare opportunities to have the privilege of watching the archrivals in full display. For that matter, Afghanistan, a participant, too was taken over by a terrorist group and that cannot lead to the team’s rejection in the same spirit of sports. Personally speaking human beings in all the countries are similar in sentiments and affection while the policies are made by only a few of the strategic rulers. For example, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan my first thought was about the safety of the lovely and sweet-behaved popular players like Rashid Khan in cricket and many others.

 

Coming back to the India-Pakistan encounter tomorrow evening India seem to have the advantage as they have won all of 12 matches in the one-day and T20 ICC World Cups so far, and lost only in the Champions Trophy with 2 wins for India against 3 by Pakistan. In Asia Cup cricket ODIs and T20Ia India won 7 against Pakistan’s 2 while the Asian Test Championship was won by the latter. Besides, India have been in ominous form in terms of both batting and bowling, gaining from the IPL-2021, the warm-up match wins and the recent victories over Australia and England in away-matches. In the last two years Pakistan won cricket series against Zimbabwe and South Africa while losing to New Zealand and England, and they lost the warm-up game against South Africa in this tournament. However, records don’t matter as far as the performances on the field in that particular day and that three and half hours are concerned. Pakistan has a balanced team with Captain Babar Azam as a dominant batsman joined by Shadab Khan and Fakhar Zaman, bowling all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez who can turn matches in his team’s favor anytime and Pakistan’s always-celebrated pacers and class spinners. All these factors only make the coming encounter in Dubai tomorrow a mouth-watering prospect.

 

The T20 is the shortest format of the game of cricket and arguably the most unpredictable as everything happens within the three and half hours like a movie. Therefore, it is indeed a very difficult question about who is going to win the tournament. India is one of the strongest favorites for the title while World Champions in the ODI World Cup-2019 England has also been on top in recent times followed closely by Australia and a very tough team of New Zealand. Defending champions West Indies and Pakistan can pull off anything on a particular day while the poor show of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the qualifying stage should not make any team complacent. India will also have to contend with new rivalries from a very able Scotland and a spirited Namibia, apart from Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan—the latter no less tough an opponent against any team on their day. The suspense promises to be nail-biting as well as delightful starting today, with double-headers almost every day till the semi-final stage that’d start from 10^th November 2021.

Cricket T20: ICC Men’s World Cup-2021 Begins In Oman And UAE!

The much-delayed ICC (International Cricket Council) Men’s T20 World Cup-2021, originally scheduled in Australia from 18^thOctober to 15^th November 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation worldwide and shifted to India replacing the to-be-held Champions Trophy in 2021 and was again shifted to Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in view of the worsening pandemic situation in India, finally began on 17^thOctober 2021. This is only the official beginning, because for the first five days till 22^nd October the fixtures only figure teams to qualify for the Super-12 that begins from 23^rd October. The ICC has also earlier decided to merge the Champions Trophy (last played in 2018) with the T20 World Cup and this means that there will be a back-to-back T20 World Cups this year and in 2022 also. India play their first match of the tournament against the archrivals Pakistan on 24^th October, 2021, amid some dissenting voices concerning Pakistan’s continuing terror attacks in Indian territories.

 

The ICC has increased the number of participating teams from 10 in the 2019 version to 16 this time, giving participatory status to 104 countries; this expansion plan of the ICC is being viewed in light of popularizing this format worldwide and making a strong claim for this cricket format to be included in the Olympics-2028 in Los Angeles from 21^stJuly. This T20 format, the shortest of the game, is considered to be ideal for the Olympics schedule. Out of the 16 teams in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021, 8 teams have qualified directly and the remaining 8 teams are divided into Group-A and Group-B, each group of 4 teams would play matches on a round-robin basis and the top two teams from each group will join the Super-12. All 16 teams have been selected on the basis of their ICC rankings with sole exception Oman which has earned its place by being one of the hosts. In the Group-B double-header played on the first day Papua New Guinea defeated Oman and a listless Bangladesh had to succumb to a spirited Scotland, both matches played in Muscat, Oman.

 

We are giving the stage-wise break-up of the teams below which explains the format of the tournament too:

Stage               Group             Teams

Round 1:        Group A         Sri Lanka, Ireland, the Netherlands and Namibia

Round 1:        Group B         Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Oman

Super 12:        Group 1          England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, A1 and B2

Super 12:        Group 2          India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, A2 and B1

 

This leads to some confusion in reading the image on the top, taken from the ICC website, where semi-finals are shown as between A1 Vs B2 and A2 Vs B1 which actually refers to the top two teams in Super-12 stage from Group-1 and Group-2 respectively. In effect there are four groups in the World Cup, each group teams playing each other on round-robin basis and after the first stage of four emerging qualifier teams the Super-12 groups can also be deemed as Group-A and Group-B.

 

The typical format of the World Cup makes the gaps between the matches of your favorite teams stretch up to a week. For example, India after playing Pakistan on 24^th October in its first match plays its second match only on 31^st October against New Zealand. In all, India play just five matches before the semi-final knockout stage which is disappointing for the cricket lovers and fans: some major competitive teams never get to play against each other at all throughout the tournament. For this, I’ve always been maintaining the need for the ICC to change the format of World Cups, let it be the one-day Cup or the T20 Cup from Group-wise round-robin only to making the whole of Super-12 to be played on round-robin basis that’d make the tournament tougher and more competitive. Of course, it’d take more than a month, but some critics say that the present time period of about a month is too long for the limited number of matches. The World Cup T20 has more or less started following the Indian Premiere League (IPL) style and glamour indices, but not following the basic format of competition. Of course, not as many as 14 times, but all the 12 teams in the Super stage should be allowed to play each other at least once in one-day format and twice in T20 format.

 

However, the competition is indeed going to be tough with every team-nation trying to win the title for their fans, and the defending Champions the West Indies would definitely try to win it again, apart from the tough ones like India, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa, and the dark horses like the unpredictable Pakistan or Bangladesh or Afghanistan and the like. As has been proved on numerous instances anything can happen in those three-to-four-hour games like the twists and turns in suspense/thriller movies. From the IPL-2021 experience it emerges that spinners may get the advantage thanks to the rather sluggish pitches of UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. 

The Full Schedule:

IPL-2021: The Last Of The MSD?

The MSD of Indian and world cricket has been a phenomenon in terms of aggression yet simple approach, skillful captaincy in all three formats of the game, unorthodox right-hand batsman with raw yet powerful hitting, one of the best examples in wicket-keeping in world cricket, one of the fastest runners between the wickets and always smiling and composed in the field. MSD simplified means the one and the only—Mahendra Singh Dhoni. On October 15, 2021 in the IPL-2021 final in Dubai which was MSD’s 300^thmatch Dhoni led his franchise CSK (Chennai Super Kings), since 2008, to its 4^thChampion title defeating KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) convincingly by 27 runs. The earlier title wins under Dhoni’s captaincy were in 2010, 2011 and 2018.

 

There have been rumors floating around in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) about the 40-year-old star cricketer’s retirement after IPL-2021 which seems realistic now that he has played the 300^thmatch and also winning the title, creating a moment of glory in leaving. However, the unpredictable, as far as retirement is concerned, cricketer has denied all rumors and made it clear that if not as the captain of CSK he’d continue to be available as a player. After the final encounter of the IPL-2021 MS Dhoni also said that with two new teams coming for the auctions for IPL-2022 the best of interests for CSK would naturally be kept in mind and the Indian cricket board BCCI would be the final authority to decide on his position or place in the team. If he retires indeed then we have seen the last of the MSD here in Dubai, and unfortunately we missed seeing him bat as it was not necessary for him and there was also the rare drop of a catch behind by someone who is never known for such lapses. But fortunately, we had again seen him in the role of a ‘finisher’ in the Qualifier-1 where he hit the required 13 runs in the last over to take CSK straight into the Final, defeating DC (Delhi Capitals), the top team in the points table.

 

As for the IPL-2021 Final Dhoni’s CSK almost sealed the encounter when its top four batsmen took the winds out of KKR—the batting explosion led by opener Faf du Plessis with 86 runs off just 59 balls and significant contributions by opener Rituraj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali—posted a mammoth total of 192 runs on the board. KKR, the team that performed brilliantly in the UAE leg of the tournament, basically consists of 5 or 6 contributing players—the two consistent openers of Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, the three spinners of Narine, Chakravarthy and Shakib (a late addition in the absence of the unpredictable Andre Russel), and pacer Mavi, at times joined by batsman Rana. All others, unfortunately, were more of liabilities than assets including most prominently the KKR captain Eoin Morgan and wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik—their glaring inability to lead the team when required. In the Final too, despite an opening partnership of 91 runs in good time, the following batsmen failed miserably including Narine on whom the team depends as a batsman too. Also, the point to be mentioned here is that KKR played most of their matches in the relatively sluggish pitches of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and won mostly low scoring matches, their trio of spinners and Mavi restricting the oppositions to less than 150 most often. The high-scoring match on an easy pitch the CSK total score was literally beyond KKR standards.

 

Coming back to the MSD phenomenon, we still remember him as the long-haired young boy from a small town Ranch in Bihar, running enthusiastically around the field—hitting the ball very hard, keeping the wickets and even bowling on rare occasions. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was selected for Team India in 2004 for the shorter format (ODI) and made his Test debut the next year. In 2007 he took over captaincy from Rahul Dravid in the ODI format and became the Test captain too in 2008 taking over from Anil Kumble. The disastrous result in the ICC Cricket World Cup-2007 when India was eliminated at the league stage was a huge setback for Dhoni; but in the same year in the inaugural ICC Cricket World Cup T20, named as its captain too, Dhoni led the team to his first ICC World Cup defeating Pakistan in the Final. MSD played 90 Tests amassing nearly 5000 runs with a healthy average of 38, 6 centuries, a double century (the highest of his career at 224) and 33 fifties. In 2013 under his captaincy India became the first team in 40 years to have whitewashed Australia 4-0 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy played in India. During his tenure India occupied the top spot in the ICC Test rankings for the first time. He brought aggression into the team, paradigm shifting the team’s usual ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ to ‘snatching victory from the jaws of defeat’.

 

In the ODI format (one-day international) MSD played 350 matches and amassed more than 10000 glorious runs, the fourth Indian to do so, with 10 centuries, 73 half-centuries and an amazing average of 50.53 (his highest and a memorable score of 183 against Sri Lanka in 2005).  He also became the first wicket-keeper in the world to complete the 100^th stumpings. MSD raced to his second ICC World Cup by winning the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011 in India by holding the fort in the Final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai forming a winning partnership with Yuvraj Singh, and the ecstasy that followed that we cannot ever forget. His third ICC World Cup came in 2013 when India won the ICC Champions Trophy -2013 played in England, first started by the ICC as a knockout tournament and called the Mini World Cup, post-2017 it got replaced the T20 World Cup), defeating the hosts in the Final that got reduced to 20 overs each due to rains. So, MSD became the only Indian captain to win all the ICC World Cups, apart from two Asia Cup victories. In the T20I format, Dhoni played 98 matches amassing 1612 runs with a healthy average of 37 and two half-centuries.

 

The MSD phenomenon has been getting tremendous praise both nationally and internationally by famous cricketers. He has earned the title of ‘Captain Cool’ for his simplicity and easy manners on the field, and is also known for his ‘helicopter shot’ signifying his raw hitting power and unorthodox approach to the game. He initially started as a lower order batsman, but was promoted to the top order thanks to his prowess and utility, and then settled more or less as a middle-order batsman. He has been given the honor of figuring in the ICC World Test IX 3 times as captain, a record 8 times in the ICC World ODI IX of which 5 times as captain of the team along with ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2008 and in 2009. In India, the modest boy from Ranchi won Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007, Indian civil honors Padmashri in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2018.

 

The MSD phenomenon has not been without its share of ups and downs, criticisms, controversy and unpredictable behavior. He suddenly laid down his captaincy from the ODI format ahead of a series in 2017 making himself still available as a player. More dramatically, he announced his retirement from Test cricket amidst a Test Series in Australia in 2014-15 leaving it all to Virat Kohli to handle. He retired from all formats of international cricket on 15^th August, 2020, perhaps prompted by his famous run-out against New Zealand in the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup-2019 thus failing to ‘finish’ the match, and the aftermath of his non-selection for the international matches by the BCCI. Dhoni had also been criticized by his moves to oust the stalwarts of Team India one by one bringing in new blood, of course seemingly favoring some players, and of late for his inability to accelerate in batting. In the aftermath of the World Cup-2007 disaster for India Dhoni’s Ranchi residence was vandalized by perhaps disappointed fans. His IPL franchise CSK was involved in a bitter match-fixing controversy that started in 2013 for which the franchise was banned for two years in 2015, and Dhoni was purchased by Pune for one year after that. In 2018 he came back to lead CSK again and won the third Championship title that year.

 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni remains in UAE for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup T20-2021 where he will play his role as a ‘mentor’ or ‘mental conditioner’ for Team India. No one could be better positioned for this role. He has been known to be very close to India captain Virat Kohli (who has recently announced his stepping-down as captain from the T20 format after the World Cup), and the latter gained immensely as captain from Dhoni’s guidance on the field as MSD was still playing for the team in the shorter formats. In actuality, nobody would ever tire of watching the MSD phenomenon in some kind of a role, playing on the field or otherwise. Such is this player of cricket who has continuously been showered love and affection throughout India and elsewhere.

IPL-2021: Play-Off Encounters To Start From Sunday, The 10th October!

Finally, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made it to the 4^th spot in the play-offs of the Indian Premiere League (IPL-2021) on the basis of net run-rate, staging an intensely spirited fight against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the first of the double-headers played in Sharjah on 7^th October. Thanks to a brilliant start led by the openers Shubman Gill (56) and Venkatesh Iyer (38) KKR put up a total of 171 runs for RR. Although the total was not unassailable the KKR bowlers responded equally intensely and bowled out RR for just 85, even lower than what they achieved in their previous low of 90 runs against Mumbai Indians (MI). For KKR the player-of-the-match pacer Shivam Mavi capturing 4 scalps for 21 runs in 3.1 overs, pacer Lockie Ferguson getting 3 for 18 runs in 4 overs and spinners Shakib and Chakravarthy capturing one wicket each. The huge victory margin further improved Kolkata’s net run-rate to over +0.5 which meant that Mumbai had to defeat the Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin of 171 runs—a feat considered ‘mission impossible’ by all cricket experts and lovers. So, KKR’s place in the play-offs was almost ensured.

 

Defending Champions Mumbai, in the double-headers played simultaneously in Abu Dhabi and Dubai (for the first time in the history of IPL) yesterday the 8^th October, tried in the most gallant way to accomplish the impossible. Fortunately, they won the toss and obviously elected to bat so that there was no limit to the target they wanted to set. Ishan Kishan (84 in 32 balls), restored to his natural position of an opener, blasted his way to the fastest fifty in the UAE part of the tournament off just 16 balls and went on keeping the run-rate over 12 per over consistently. When Mumbai scored an incredible 124 in 9 overs a total of 270+ seemed probable and the ‘mission impossible’ looked probable too if they bowl out the lowly SRH for a total below 100 runs. Had Rohit Sharma not fallen early the impossible could have been a distinct possibility. But, as is usual in cricket, either the good phases or  the bad ones do not last long and MI, further helped by a fiery 82 in 40 balls by Surya Kumar Yadav, had to satisfy themselves with 235/9 runs, the highest score by a team this season and the first time any team crossed 200 in UAE. With nothing to lose Hyderabad batted freely keeping up a healthy run-rate finally losing by 42 runs. Mumbai had achieved the primary target of getting 14 points, but failed to overhaul the net run-rate of KKR, thus eliminated at the fifth position.

 

In the second match of the double-header played on 7^th October KL Rahul blasted his way to 98 runs off just 42 balls not out, just missing out on the fastest century made this season so far, winning the match for this team Punjab Kings (PBKS) against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by six wickets, achieving the target of 135 runs in only the 13^thover. This huge win gave PBKS 12 points and an improved net run-rate to remain in contention, hoping for Mumbai to lose very badly to SRH. With this result, two consecutive poor outings for Chennai are not going to help the team much in the coming challenges, staying put in their second spot thanks only to the still higher net run-rate. The celebrated Indian former captain MS Dhoni too seems to be doing nothing much to write home about. 

 

In the other match of the concurrent double-header yesterday in Dubai, Delhi Capitals (DC), secure in the top position with 20 points, faced the struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and put into bat progressed fairly enough to a total of 164 runs thanks mainly to the openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, the innings ending without a single half-century by any batsman. RCB faltered at the start losing both Kohli and Padikkal early, and it was because of a brilliant innings of 78 not out of the new-found KS Bharat and Glen Maxwell (51) that RCB got closer and closer to the target. Even then, the victory was very tough going to the last ball when 5 runs were needed. And Bharat played an exhilarating six of the last ball ensuring a win by 7 wickets, but failing obviously to overhaul the net run-rate of CSK to move to the second spot. Despite the win RCB has something to worry about: with 7 wickets standing they had to produce an improbable six in the last ball to win this match; as also in an earlier match against the lowly SRH with 4 wickets standing and more significantly AB de Villiers at the crease, RCB failed to clinch the issue losing by 4 runs; and the issue of AB de Villiers indeed, this brilliant batsman still in a subdued situation for tactical errors by team management.

 

The play-off matches are starting tomorrow, Sunday the 10^th of October. Qualifier-1 will feature the top two teams DC and CSK—the winner straightaway entering the Final and the loser awaiting the result of the Eliminator that will take place on Monday the 11^th of October between the No. 3 RCB and No.4 KKR—the winner meeting the loser of Qualifier-1 and the loser getting eliminated. Qualifier-2 is to be held on 13^th October between the loser of Qualifier-1 and the winner of the Eliminator—the winner of this match entering the Final to be played on 15^th October.

 

As per performance consistency and intensity DC and the KKR are highly placed to win the IPL-2021 title, unless CSK and RCB manage to produce something out of the ordinary. Yes, cricket being the game of glorious uncertainty nothing can be predicted. And that makes the coming matches very exciting to wait and watch out for. We’ve fortunately seen some class cricket involving all the departments of batting, bowling and fielding in the last four matches and hope this would continue. (All photos: iplt20.com)

IPL-2021: Low-Scoring Matches In The UAE Low In Terms Of Cricket Too, Double-Headers To Decide The Fourth Play-Off Spot!

The low-scoring matches during the second leg of the Indian Premiere League-2021 (IPL-2021) held in the United Arab Emirates are mostly lacking in terms of cricketing charms—meaning exciting and memorable knocks by celebrated international players—barring the lone century of the tournament scored by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Rituraj Gaikwad that turned out to be for a losing cause and an exciting hat-trick by Harshal Patel of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). We are missing the usual great cricket by players like AB de-Villiers who is playing lower down the order for unknown reasons, David Warner, Chris Gayle who came and went out of fatigue without causing any harm to any opponent, Steve Smith, Andre Russell as usual, Kieron Pollard, Quinton de Kock, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and others. There are of course good knocks by Kohli, Sharma, KL Rahul, Glen Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Shikhar Dhawan, Paddikal, Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja and few others, but failing always to stick on for memorable innings. However, the second league has produced quite a few last-over or last-ball thrillers in a few of the low-scoring and rare high-scoring ones. Obviously, most of the bowlers, both pacers and spinners, are doing better than the batsmen, but not in the category of ‘class cricket’.

 

The second league of the tournament is also marked by unpredictable performances of the franchises. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), after a listless first leg in India, displayed menacing performances in UAE winning several matches and becoming a serious contender for the play-offs, but then losing one or two due to tactical errors. While Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) has been consistently lowly the Rajasthan Royals (RR) had been very unpredictable beating the dominant CSK by chasing a very tall target of 190 runs and getting royally thrashed for 90 all-out by a desperate Mumbai Indians (MI). Delhi Capitals (DC) has been the most consistent team with ten wins so far while CSK and RCB had been more or less consistent with losses less and wins and Punjab Kings (PBKS) also showed ups and downs depending heavily on KL Rahul.

 

At the moment DC is sitting pretty on top with 20 points already qualifying for the play-offs; CSK is second with 18 points, already in the play-offs  having the highest net run-rate; and the third position is occupied by RCB with 16 points, qualifying for the play-offs quite some time back, because considering the  remaining matches for the other teams no team can accumulate 16 points, and their narrow and unexpected loss to SRH only hampered their chances of capturing one of the two top spots, but each of these three teams has still one more match to go like all others. The fourth spot for the play-offs has been the most suspenseful feature of the tournament, with four contenders of KKR, MI, Punjab Kings (PBKS) and RR—the latter seemingly ruled out though for having an almost irreparable net run-rate.

 

Two double-headers today and tomorrow, October 7 & 8 are set to decide the team for the fourth spot while the scenario of a 12-point-each stalemate between four teams cannot be entirely ruled out if RR happens to improve their net run-rate dramatically. In the first match today PBKS (with 10 points) is facing CSK and has to win the contest and also to improve their net run-rate to remain in contention still, provided KKR and MI lose their respective matches, and CSK would like to win it very much to occupy the top spot if DC lose their last match. The second match today is going to be the most the most exciting one with KKR playing a virtual semi-final against RR—a win for them would increase their chances of an almost sure spot in the play-offs expecting MI to lose and otherwise also they seemingly have a better chance to qualify as they have a better net run-rate than MI—and if both KKR and MI win their matches they would be locked with 14 points each and the net run-rate would decide the fourth spot.

 

In the double-header tomorrow, in the first match MI is likely to prevail over the lowly SRH easily thus increasing their points to 14 and probably improving their net run-rate which is still in the negative; the second match tomorrow between RCB and DC will be a tough one with both trying to register a win—DC to ensure their top spot and RCB to capture the second spot which is actually ruled out due to a huge difference of net run-rate with CSK. In the way the IPL play-offs are played the top two teams always enjoy an advantage of having two chances to fight for a place in the Final.

 

The Qualifier-1 and the Eliminator will be played on 10^th and 11^th October respectively and the Qualifier-2 on 13^th October. The IPL-2021 Final is to be played on 15^th October. All these matches will be held in Dubai and Sharjah. As we know, the ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2021 is to be held in UAE and Oman from 17^thOctober with the warm-up matches already starting. Therefore, the UAE venues are set to continue as the hotbed of T20 cricket for quite some time more, and are sure to regale cricket lovers. We hope the pitches of UAE would generate exciting matches with ‘class cricket’ coming back which can be expected as this time it would be all national teams fighting for their respective national pride.