ChinmayC Blog

Powered by inspired bowling performances by captain Hardik Pandya (3 for 17), Rashid Khan (1 for 18) and Yash Dayal (1 for 18 in 3 overs) Gujarat Titans, joining the IPL for the first time, broke the backbone of Rajasthan Royals restricting them to just 130/9 in 20 overs and won the IPL-2022 Final by 7 wickets, tonight, the 29th May 2022. Playing at 'home' for the first time the Titans have indeed made the Gujarat fans ecstatic, but the match played in a jam-packed 1.2 lakh capacity crowd stadium in Ahmedabad, perhaps the biggest crowd in IPL history, was not a befitting climax of the absorbing tournament as it proved to be a low-scoring and languidly one-sided one. However, the No.1 team at the league stage, GT have maintained their supremacy beyond any shred of doubt. An astounding performance by them in all the departments of the game. A deserving winner indeed, and mind you, I billed them as hot favorites to lift the Trophy! After early jolts Gill and Pandya steadied the ch...

Jos Buttler has notched up his 4th century of the IPL-2022, a new record, and sealed his team's place in the Final on March 29  routing Bangalore by 8 wickets. RR won an important toss on a bouncy pitch and put RCB in. Except for Patidar whose brilliant ton enabled RCB to reach the play-offs all Bangalore batsmen were hopelessly below par. It is surprising how this team with consistent non-performing stars and the worst net run-rate has progressed thus far. Super cricketers like Kohli, du Plessis etc are expected to perform at least in crunch games. Sheer pace of the RR bowlers, Prasidh Krishna in particular, damaged Bangalore  beyond repair. The Qualifier-2 played in the stadium of the country in Ahmedabad has disappointed the huge crowd. The only moment of crowning glory is indeed Buttler who hit 106 not out in 60 balls with 10 fours and 6 sixes including the winning one. He has almost ensured his Orange Cap leaving KL Rahul behind and out. Anyway, we can expect cracker of a...

Led by captain Hardik Pandya and David Miller the No.1 Gujarat Titans (GT) at the league stage beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 7 wickets in the thrilling Qualifer-1 at the packed Eden Gardens, Kolkata tonight and catapult their team in the IPL-2022 Final, playing in the IPL as one of the two newbie franchises. In the last over by Prasidh Krishan GT needed 16 runs to get into the Final and Miller hit the first ball to a towering six.  Tensions ran high for both teams. But the South African southpaw had none of it and hit the second ball too over the boundary almost nonchalantly, reducing the equation to 4 in 4 balls. And then the third consecutive six in the third ball and all was over. No.1 has thus kept up its persistently classy performance throughout and at this stage looks to be the clear favorites to lift the trophy.   Chasing a rather stiff target of 189 runs in 20 overs the consistently successful opener Wriddhiman Saha got himself caught behind for a duck in just the s...

It has turned out the way I’d analyzed in an earlier post that either RCB or DC is going to fill up the only vacant 4 th spot in the play-offs as MI defeats DC at the Wankhede tonight by 5 wickets. In fact, the five-time Champs Mumbai, coming to its true potential much too late with Ishan, Bumrah and to some extent Rohit firing with the batting mainstay of Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav the latter being sorely missed in the last few matches due to injury, has become the virtual eliminator of the tournament: they first threw CSK out of contention; then they nearly did the same to SRH much earlier than yesterday when Hyderabad was finally ousted as RCB defeated GT by 8 wickets; and today they ousted a very deserving Delhi who needed only a win to secure a berth based on its much better net run-rate than Bangalore. Opting to field first Mumbai restricted Delhi to 159/7 in 20 overs thanks to superb bowling by Jasprit Bumrah who took 3 for just 25 in 4 overs. Delhi has been badly missing...

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) opener Quinton de Kock, the South African southpaw and keeper, created an incredible chapter of a superlative batting display in the Indian Premiere League history by scoring an unbeaten 140 off just 70 balls with 10 fours and 10 huge sixes. He has become the first cricketer with the highest individual score of IPL-2022 so far and the third highest in IPL history after Chris Gayle (175 not out in just 66 balls with 13 fours and17 sixes) in 2013 and Brendon McCullum (158 not out in 73 balls with 10 fours and 13 sixes) in 2008 editions. Quinton has also created the highest opening partnership of 210 runs with captain KL Rahul (68 not out in 51 balls) in IPL history, this being the first time ever when not a single wicket of a team fell in the full 20 overs. Both of the openers showcased a batting display that can give precious lessons in cricket to the budding cricketers, apart from entertaining cricket lovers to their heart’s content. This is indeed the triump...

Against my wishes as a true lover of the game of cricket, I’ve still preferred to use the word ‘dubious’ in the title of this piece. This is essentially because what happened in the 18 th over in the match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) belied all logic and tenets of professional cricket. Further, this basically business-driven tournament has had its long history of controversies and scandals over the decades. Even now, if you surf the internet over IPL matches, you’ll find a whole lot of sceptics who think most the matches are always stage-managed, primarily through the scourge of the game called spot fixing. Well, their views cannot be correct in general, because we’ve been witnessing fiercely competitive cricket in most of the IPL seasons, and on many occasions this writer has commented about the triumph of cricket over business. Okay, now to that moment that happened last evening at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.   Mumbai, opting to field first, ev...

Rajasthan Royals thanks to an intensive bowling effort by all their pacers and spinners, Boult, Prasidh, Ashwin in particular, easily defended their score of 178/6 against the Lucknow Super Giants beating them by 24 runs at the Brabourne stadium on 15 th May 2022. By this super victory Rajasthan moves to the second spot in the points table with 16 points with a healthy net run-rate while the newbie Lucknow slides to the third position, remaining with 16 points. Bangalore in the fourth spot has to win their final match against Gujarat convincingly to move to 16 points and better their sluggish net run-rate. Once they achieve that it’ll be very difficult for the other 4 teams to have any chance of making it to the play-offs. Essentially, with three teams on 20 and16 points each, it means that only one spot is up for the grabs for four franchises with a possibly 14-point deadlock between them.   The real contest is now between Delhi and Punjab, both of them with 12 points and each h...

Putting ‘goodbye’ in the headline could have more significance than perhaps you can possibly imagine; of course, the very few who ‘read’ these pages must have understood. Yes, we’re referring to the Goodbye post a few days back. However, that apparently painful post did not contain any kind of commitment or decisive action on the part of the writer which is significant in light of some famed international cricketers saying quits to the game through public announcements and then coming back again as if nothing was the matter. Therefore, that ‘goodbye’ meant nothing to the public, even if it could’ve hurt this writer a lot since he’s been rather harassed four times in the last four months for the purportedly suspicious visitors to the site who never read, but don’t care to go on a sabotaging rampage. Out of a morbid fear I've stopped posting my links on the social media too. What a pity! But still, why should I care who read and not read but try to damage! This site is very dear to m...

The cameras involved in the coverage are extremely sensitive and emotive. They capture all emotions of the spectators. When a wicket of a certain team falls its supporters look as if they'll drop dead in grief, but the moment they see themselves in the big screens they burst into uncontrollable cheers! So much for IPL loyalties.  😀😀😀 Several times during a match the umpire raises his hand and points a finger very emphatically to his watch. The gullible might feel that it reminds them for how long they've been couch potatoes. No! It's a reminder of a very strategic kind like that of Putin, Biden and the like. For the knowing watchers it could be a signal for a tea or drinks or snack-chaat strategy. So much for strategies.  😀😀😀 The phenomena called The Cheerleaders have not been seen in the three editions, due credit to the Pandemic. With crowds allowed in this edition they could very well have been imported. However, the bio-bubble involved in the cheering process coul...

Right from the beginning of the IPL-2022 Ravindra Jadeja who was handed over the captaincy by Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) had been going through an extremely lean patch. Being one of the greatest all-rounders of the game he had been consistently failing with the ball, with the bat and failing even in his specialty in fielding, dropping catches that is rare in his international career. Under his leadership CSK lost the first five games on the trot, then won the next two and again lost the 8 th ; and Jadeja hardly contributed anything worthwhile in those games. So, it has been on the cards that something is going to happen as a captain cannot possibly be dropped. Finally, on Saturday, the 30 th of April 2022 Jadeja called it a day as captain and requested his leader-mentor MSD to take over again. And Dhoni obliged, and he will be leading CSK again in a crucial game against the tough SRH tonight. However, it’s not clear if Ravindra Jadeja was forced by the team management to step down or ...

This really promised to be one of the most fiercely competitive matches of IPL-2022, at least for me as this involved possibly the two best teams of the tournament—the newbies sensation Gujarat Titans (GT) and the resurgent veterans Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Wankhede stadium Mumbai on 27 th April 2022. And it did indeed prove to be a down-the-wire thriller with the raw pace of fast bowling, power batting and intense body language in the field. It had the classic ups and downs for both teams all throughout. Put into bat by GT, Hyderabad was reduced to 147/4 in the 17 th over, but a power-hitting display by Shashank Singh of 25 not out in the 6 balls of the last over took SRH to a challenging score of 195/6. In the chase after GT got off to a good start with a brilliant innings of 68 runs in 38 balls by Wriddhiman Saha, the 5/25 burst of the raw-pace-sensation Umran Malik happened reducing GT to 140/5, needing 56 runs in 24 balls to win. Then, the best power batting display of t...

Mumbai Indians (MI) becomes the first ever franchise in Indian Premiere League (IPL) since its first edition in 2008 to have lost eight games on the trot at any stage of the tournament. After losing a last-ball cliffhanger against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) that MI should’ve won the franchise succumbed to its 8 th loss against the newbie Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) last night at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. The appalling factor about the match was the total listlessness and the utter lack of a will to win on the part of MI. This reflects very badly on its captain and India captain Rohit Sharma that he should fail to regroup his eleven after loss after loss and after loss…! Ironically, as we said in our earlier pieces, all its matches have been played on its ‘home’ grounds and the performances have angered the fans and also cricket lovers, righteously.   Well, the IPL has always been more of a business extravaganza than cricket that does still allow us to have glimpses of exc...

It was a rare moment. It was vintage Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the firebrand yet cool former India captain, in his long-forgotten role as the Finisher. The match between the bottom ranked Champions, the defending Champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the five-time Champions Mumbai Indians (MI), played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on 21 st April went down the wire with CSK needing a four in the last ball to win. And MSD was at the crease. In that momentous last over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat and CSK needing 17 runs to win, the first ball gets the blast-away Dwaine Pretorius (22 off 14) out LBW; Dwaine Bravo comes in and takes a single to let Dhoni take over; 16 runs to get now in 4 balls; Dhoni hits the third ball to a towering six; next ball a four; the fifth ball Dhoni hits the ball and scampers desperately back for the second run to be able to face the last ball, a feat that he missed in the historic semi-final against New Zealand in the ICC World Cup-2019; now a 4 needed in ...

After watching this cliffhanger of a match between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the second of the Sunday double-header today in Pune I just couldn’t stop myself from writing a bit about it. Chasing a moderately challenging but tricky nonetheless target of 170 runs set by CSK the GT started in a horrible way passing through the phases of regular fall of wickets at 1 for 1, 2 for 2. 16/3. 48/4 and 87/5, losing in the process all the batsmen except for David Miller and without the momentum-building skipper Hardik Pandya, not playing today due to injury. At the stage of 87/5 in the 13 th over GT was looking at defeat needing 83 runs in 38 balls with only one recognized batsman Miller and stand-in skipper cum bowling all-rounder Rashid Khan just coming in who did not quite do well with the bat in the previous matches. As you know nothing is for certain in cricket, a game of glorious uncertainties, Rashid Khan had other incredible ideas as if he was in a dream.   ...

Five-time IPL Champions Mumbai Indians (MI), the maximum number any franchise has won the tournament title, has crashed to their consecutive sixth defeat in IPL-2022 losing to Lucknow Super Giants (LPG) by 18 runs today at the Brabourne stadium Mumbai. The irony gets even bitter as this time the tournament has most of the league matches being played in Mumbai, the erstwhile home ground for the team, leaving the crowds with nothing to cheer for. I just wonder if this is some kind of a jinx with the newly appointed Team India captain in all three formats going on a losing spree like the former captain Virat Kohli with his team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) figuring at the bottom steps of the points ladder in almost all the previous versions of the IPL! Now, MI is looking at a disastrous ouster from the tournament unless it achieves the near-impossible task of winning at least 7 of its remaining 8 matches to stay in contention.   What ails MI? Well, to my mind the biggest factor...