IPL 2021: Wily bowlers guide CSK to playoffs

Dubbed Dad’s Army in a forgettable campaign last year, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) returned to the same country with pretty much the same squad and became the first team into the play-off rounds of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a six-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

This was CSK’s ninth win in 11 games, four of them coming on the trot in UAE where they began by beating the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI). Since then, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) too have been tamed.

In all those wins, CSK had either an opener scoring big or a big opening partnership. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis began from where they left off against KKR, and needing 135 to win, that was the job half-done. CSK did wobble towards the end, losing Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina and Du Plessis quickly. Had Jason Roy pulled off a gravity-defying blinder to dismiss MS Dhoni, maybe CSK would have had to wait for another day. 

ALSO READ | IPL 2021 SRH vs CSK Highlights

But Roy couldn’t and Ambati Rayudu released the pressure with a four and a six off Siddharth Kaul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who went for 13 in the 19th over. Dhoni hit a four in the 19th over and a six in the 20th to finish the game which means he could be regaining his touch as CSK go into their 11th playoff.

Given that in the last four innings in Sharjah, 130 was the highest score, SRH wouldn’t have felt too downcast with 134/7 at the halfway stage. Especially after Jason Roy and Kane Williamson, the batters who sealed a rare win on Monday, fell cheaply. Roy nicked Josh Hazelwood to Dhoni setting the big Australian on way to his best IPL figures (4-0-24-3) and Williamson fell to the wiles of Dwayne Bravo, playing the wrong line and being trapped leg-before. Three balls after the powerplay, the duo instrumental in beating Rajasthan Royals had been dismissed and things were looking dismal for SRH. Again.

On a sluggish wicket where the ball was also keeping low, the first two overs fetched five runs before Wriddhiman Saha changed gears. Deepak Chahar began by getting Saha to play down the wrong line before the SRH opener pulled one for six and then lofted one over long-off that fetched a similar return. With the first ball off the next over yielding four leg-byes, it did look like SRH were finally up and running but then Roy fell.

Saha survived being dismissed off a no-ball from Shardul Thakur but when the night needed an innings of the calibre of what he played in the 2014 IPL final, he fell in the 13th over. Then, Saha had made an unbeaten 115 off 55 balls. Even an innings like Gaikwad played against MI when he made 88 would have done. On Thursday, Saha top-scored for SRH with 44 but off 46 balls. By the time Saha fell edging a pull off Ravindra Jadeja to Dhoni, Priyam Garg too had been dismissed and from a healthy 41/1 after the powerplay, SRH were 74/4. This after CSK coach Stephen Fleming had said during a mid-innings interview that they were a bit “too relaxed” in the field needing Dhoni to address that in the strategic timeout.

ALSO READ | 'He isn't called Lord Shadul just like that': Sehwag lauds CSK pacer

Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad promised a revival. Samad’s six off Hazelwood ended a 48-ball boundary drought after Williamson’s cheeky scoop off Chahar in the sixth over and Sharma hit the Australia pacer over cover for an overboundary. They had taken 12 off a Thakur over but fell within a ball of each other in the 17th over. Jason Holder, whose 29-ball 47 at this venue almost took SRH to a win against Punjab Kings, could not do a repeat and it fell on Rashid Khan to provide some flourish at the finish.

Crucial to reining SRH in was CSK’s 46 dot balls. Thirteen of them came from Hazelwood, who dismissed Sharma and Samad, and 10 were bowled by Bravo. If Hazelwood and Thakur could land their wide yorkers, Bravo cleverly varied length after beginning with an eight-ball over in which he bowled two big wides on either side of a delivery that foxed Williamson. And as has been the case through this sojourn in UAE, Jadeja didn’t put a foot wrong. Jadeja and Bravo got in seven overs in which no fours or sixes were hit.