From throwing a surprise in the batting order to smashing sixes after sixes, CSK have done it all

Deivarayan Muthu31-Mar-2020If you’re a Chennai Super Kings supporter, you’ll remember MS Dhoni’s sensational 29-ball 54 not out against Kings XI Punjab in Dharamsala in 2010 and that rare, pumped-up celebration where he jabbed himself in the jaw like a boxer. That was probably the moment when Dhoni became Chennai’s . Here are five less-known contests that only hardcore Super Kings fans will recall.Spin barrage at Kingsmead
v Kings XI Punjab, 2009
Kingsmead isn’t Chepauk, but Super Kings’ spinners rallied to make their team’s 116 for 9 in this game the lowest total successfully defended in the history of the IPL. Kings XI’s line-up was packed with left-handers, so Super Kings looked to counter them by yanking rookie R Ashwin off the bench and uniting him with the vastly experienced Muttiah Muralitharan and part-timer Suresh Raina.Muralitharan let rip biting offbreaks and , and at the other end Ashwin relentlessly attacked the stumps and took the prized wicket of Kumar Sangakkara. From a reasonably well-placed 32 for 1, Kings XI collapsed to 92 for 8 at the end of the 20th over, with the three offspinners returning combined figures of 12-0-38-6.Yellow Magic Orchestra: his team-mates get their hands on Suresh Raina, who took four wickets and effected a run-out against Victoria in the 2010 Champions League T20•AFPRaina the Ripper
v Victoria, 2010

The Super Over ended in defeat for Super Kings, but it was an achievement that they even got there, given Victoria were, at one point, cruising at 104 for 2 in pursuit of 163. Then Muttiah Muralitharan dismissed Matthew Wade and Andrew McDonald off successive balls in the 12th over. But David Hussey took charge of the tricky chase, and it came down to 24 needed off 18 balls when, from out of nowhere, Suresh Raina prised out two wickets in the 18th over and then another two in the first three balls of the 20th. Victoria eventually needed one run off the last ball. Bryce McGain wildly slogged and missed an offbreak, and a subsequent mix-up saw MS Dhoni chuck the ball to Raina, who completed the run-out. Hussey then sealed the deal in the Super Over, cracking Ashwin for three sixes. Super Kings’ batsmen – Vijay and Raina – ultimately came up well short amid a thin drizzle.When Ashwin was used as opener
v Kolkata Knight Riders, 2013

Super Kings don’t usually tinker with their line-up much, so when they were set a target of 120 by hosts Kolkata Knight Riders in 2013, everyone expected M Vijay to walk out to open alongside Mike Hussey though Vijay was out of form. Instead, Super Kings elevated R Ashwin to the top. While he only scored 11 off 13 balls, the match provided a rare instance of MS Dhoni’s men going against the grain. In the end, Hussey’s steady 40 and Ravindra Jadeja’s rapid 36 – he struck at 257.15 on a surface where nearly everybody else struggled – sealed victory.Close but cigar: Dwayne Bravo nearly went for 19 off the last over against Delhi Daredevils in 2015•BCCIWhen they stopped Morkel in time
v Delhi Daredevils, 2015

Chepauk was used to watching Albie Morkel launch mighty sixes and whistling for him. However, in 2015, he was in Delhi Daredevils colours and gave Super Kings a serious scare with a 55-ball 73 in a chase of 151. Even as wickets kept falling at the other end, Morkel dug deep and took it to 19 needed off the last over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo. Morkel edged the first ball past the keeper for four, and mis-hit the next to long-on for a single. Bravo had Imran Tahir holing out the next ball, but Morkel walloped the fourth over midwicket for six, and followed it with two runs off the fifth. Delhi needed six off the last ball, and Bravo missed his length. Morkel wound up and lofted the ball, but it bounced once before reaching the long-off rope. Delhi were denied by about six feet. MS Dhoni’s cardiac Kings had finished on the right side of yet another thriller.Dhoni fireworks in Ranchi
v Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2013

In his first two high-profile matches in his hometown, Ranchi, one for India and one for Super Kings, MS Dhoni had not done much with the bat. In the third, this Champions League T20 group match, he launched Thisara Perera for five sixes in an over, including one that was reminiscent of the six over long-on that won India the 2011 World Cup. In all, Dhoni shellacked eight sixes and a four during his unbeaten 63 off 19 balls. Suresh Raina dazzled with the bat too on, hitting 84 off 57 balls. Darren Sammy tried to match Super Kings’ big hitting in a chase of 203 with his 50 off 25 balls, but Dwayne Bravo and Mohit Sharma closed out a 12-run win with their variations.

In a game that went into a Super Over, both players showed exactly why they are so highly rated

Saurabh Somani29-Sep-2020It was 2017. Jasprit Bumrah was suitably abashed when reminded of the incident from 2014, staring at the floor and shaking his head while saying, “Yes, I know… even now people tell me, ‘How could you do ?’ I don’t know what I was thinking. We were under pressure at that point and I don’t know why, anger just came out. I’m normally not like that.”ALSO SEE: Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore live score, September 28 2020In IPL 2014, Mumbai Indians were playing Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were batting, and the Royal Challengers needed 72 to win in the last eight overs, a required rate that was less than what they were going at, having motored to 116 for 2 in 12 overs. Bumrah came on for his third over, slanted one into de Villiers who was moving across, and took out leg-stump. And then he told the departing batsman where he could go, not very politely.Bumrah was not then the supreme machine he has become across all formats. He wasn’t even close to an India call-up, having played eight first-class matches, nine List A games and 17 T20s before that match. De Villiers was established as a batting maestro, equally at home against red ball or white, in 20 overs, 50 overs, or across sessions. Who was this upstart who dared ‘disrespect’ a legend?All the evidence from Bumrah’s now substantial career points to that not being ‘disrespect’ as much as an outburst by a 20-year-old who had had been pitchforked into the limelight, and was still learning how to deal with it. Which is why, three years later, in a hotel room in Nagpur during a Ranji Trophy semi-final, the man who was now a capped international still had an embarrassed smile and a shake of the head when asked about the incident.He couldn’t have known it in 2014 – he might have thought fleetingly of it in 2017 – but the contest whose first installment began with a mouth-off, would evolve into one of his more enduring challenges in the IPL.Bumrah didn’t bowl to de Villiers in his debut IPL season in 2013, but the two have faced off regularly since. Bumrah in fact, has bowled more to de Villiers than he has to any other batsman in the IPL, save Kohli. De Villiers is also the only man with two entries in a fairly exclusive list: most runs taken off Bumrah in any T20 match. Nobody else makes it twice in the top six, but de Villiers is there with two entries, having taken 27 runs off Bumrah twice: on Monday and back in IPL 2015.De Villiers overall record against him is pretty good, with 98 runs and two dismissals, at a strike rate of 144.11. That figure was boosted by the way de Villiers tore into Bumrah on Monday, carting 27 runs off eight balls. Until then, in all IPLs, de Villiers’ strike rate against Bumrah was just 118.33.But even in their battle during the Royal Challengers’ Super Over victory against Mumbai, it was not a one-way triumph for the batsman. De Villiers bossed the contest during regulation play, but in the Super Over, Bumrah didn’t come off second best. His team lost, but that was because he was defending a paltry seven runs – and he still stretched it to the last ball.Mahela Jayawardene, the Mumbai coach, likened it to a boxing bout.”AB and Boom is always going to be a great tussle,” Jayawardene said after the match. “I think they went at each other, it’s a little bit like a boxing game, but we probably didn’t have enough runs for Boom to defend.”In regulation play, de Villiers was masterful. Quick off the blocks, he was already fluently hitting the ball when Bumrah came back at the death, and de Villiers engineered a course correction in their head-to-head match-up. A four and two sixes came from the 17th over, and the 19th brought another four and a six, the boundary peppered from extra cover to deep square leg.Overall, the deliveries that had been most effective from Bumrah to de Villiers were length and short of a length outside off. On the day, Bumrah couldn’t find the right length to hit, even though he kept his line around off stump. But with de Villiers already moving well, a short ball outside off was as likely to be swatted to midwicket as crashed through cover. Round 1 went to the batsman.The Super Over though, found Bumrah with his radar back. Against any other batsman, he might have succeeded too. But against de Villiers, merely bowling what you want to is not enough. Throughout the over, he had fine leg up. The plan seemed clear: yorkers, or their closest equivalents, outside off.The thing with a batsman like de Villiers though, is that you cannot just bowl to plan. Sometimes you have to bluff. Slipping in two successive short balls was part of that bluff. The first one was a snorter and nearly got him a wicket, but de Villiers successfully overturned the caught-behind decision on review. Surely, he wouldn’t try that again? Maybe Bumrah figured that’s exactly what de Villiers would think, and would not expect another short one. Ergo, another short ball might be a good idea. There was plenty right with the thinking, except the batsman at the other end. De Villiers is so beautifully balanced at the crease, his centre of gravity might well be in his feet. And his freakishly quick eye means he has more time than most to adjust. So even though he wasn’t expecting a short one, he could essay a pull shot. He wasn’t in control of it, but he didn’t need to be. He just needed to clear short fine leg.Bumrah’s last ball to de Villiers was an inch-perfect yorker tailing into him. De Villiers still got some bat on it, and took a single. Round 2 was drawn.De Villiers walked off the winner, but Bumrah wasn’t defeated. Round 3 beckons.

According to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index, Delhi Capitals would have won the game had Rishabh Pant effected the run-out in the eighth over

ESPNcricinfo stats team20-Oct-2020Nicholas Pooran’s 28-ball 53 was the key contribution in Kings XI Punjab’s third successive win, but according to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index, the result would have gone the other way had Rishabh Pant effected that run-out off the penultimate ball of the eighth over. Pooran had already been involved in Mayank Agarwal’s run-out earlier in the innings – though that was probably because Agarwal didn’t respond to what was a legitimate call for a single – but here, when Glenn Maxwell refused the call, Pooran was well short of the crease and should have been out.ESPNcricinfo LtdHis dismissal then would have reduced Kings XI to 70 for 4 in the eighth, with not too many batsmen in the hutch. As it turned out, Pant’s flick missed the stumps, the batsmen ran an overthrow, and Pooran then made the most of that reprieve, slamming 42 off his next 19 deliveries. By the time he finally got out, Kings XI had moved along to 125 in the 13th over, and the required run-rate had dropped to less than a run a ball.According to Luck Index, Kings XI would have scored 23 runs fewer had Pooran been out in the eighth over, and Delhi Capitals would have won the match. This calculation is done by an algorithm which distributes those 19 extra balls that Pooran faced, among the batsmen who remained unbeaten, and if necessary, those who didn’t bat in the innings. (This calculation takes into account the expected balls that each batsman is likely to play, based on their quality.) Considering that Kings XI didn’t have much batting firepower after Deepak Hooda and Jimmy Neesham, it is fair to assume that the other batsmen wouldn’t managed these runs. That theory is further reinforced by Kings XI’s skittish approach to the final overs throughout the tournament.Delhi Capitals will be ruing that missed chance, but for the tournament itself, this result is a good one, and keeps more teams in the hunt for the playoffs, and the top two positions.

Their one-day batting seems to be evolving with each game, and could soon leave the rest of the pack behind

Andrew McGlashan29-Nov-20201:40

Gambhir: Smith not that far away from Kohli in ODIs

Steven Smith’s innings at the SCG on Sunday felt like a highlights package and at the same time, it a highlights package.We might as well have been watching his spectacular display two days ago when he scorched a 62-ball hundred (that premise could have applied to most of Australia’s innings). Instead, we were watching it produced all over again: another 62-ball century, which if not for a slip of Marnus Labuschagne’s feet, would have been 61 deliveries.On both these occasions he could not have wished for a better situation: the ideal foundation provided by David Warner and Aaron Finch, a flat pitch and a bowling attack struggling for any consistency and control. However, even though Smith’s batting feats have been mind-boggling in the past, it has been a particularly notable 72 hours for him.Were we watching another evolution of Smith the batsman? This isn’t to say he was doing things that he hasn’t done before – he has a T20 century off 54 balls and has dissected many a bowling attack in the one-day format – but the sustained nature of the onslaughts felt different.What the one-day game gives Smith is that one thing he loves: time at the crease. While Test cricket offers him his ultimate indulgence, the 50-over game allows him to evolve an innings.Another day, another ton for Steven Smith•Getty ImagesHe has not been slow at any point of these centuries, but in the first of them he was 30 off 30 balls and today was 21 at a run-a-ball. Then, the hands have really gotten to work. On Friday, he scored 75 off his remaining 36 balls and on Sunday he cracked 83 off 43 from the same position.As is often the case with Smith’s batting, the standout feature has been the placement. The run towards his second century showed how he can work the field at will. A slower ball from Jasprit Bumrah was driven through backward point. In the next delivery, the most delicate of late cuts beat short third man. The final ball of the over was taken from around fourth stump to fine leg.Facing Yuzvendra Chahal in the next over, there was a brace of scampered twos with perfectly paced shots either side of a straight six. The ball after reaching his hundred he played the most astonishing stroke of the innings, stepping right across outside off and scooping Hardik Pandya over fine leg, while ending up rolling in the crease. Next ball, Smith toe-ended a wide delivery to short third man. Despite everything he had done, he was still furious with himself.Scores of 350-plus won’t be needed all the time, but on flat pitches like this, a team needs the ability to do it. Smith’s displays have been part of two hugely convincing Australia batting performances – this was their third-highest total, and Friday’s is also in the top 10. A longer run of matches, in a variety of conditions, and against some better bowling needs to be viewed before any significant conclusions are drawn, but there are signs that Australia’s one-day batting is undertaking the evolution it needed to remain with the leading pack.The ODI series in England last year was won by a brilliant stand of 212 between Glenn Maxwell and Alex Carey and now the top order has filled their boots in these two games. Warner, who limped off with a serious-looking groin injury early in India’s chase, and captain Finch form a formidable opening pair: this year alone they have four century stands (three in three matches at the SCG) and during this partnership of 142, they went past David Boon and Geoff Marsh into third in Australia’s all-time list. Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh are just over 200 runs ahead of them, then there is work to do to catch Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.Glenn Maxwell switch-hits during his half-century•Getty ImagesThen you have the engine room of Smith and Labuschagne at No. 3 and 4. The latter is still evolving as a one-day cricketer, but his 70 off 61 balls in this match, while not as dynamic as Smith, ensured things did not stall. And if Smith is bringing a new gear to his ODI batting, it will take the pressure off Labuschagne.They are followed by a combination of allrounders, the central figure of which is Maxwell. His last five ODI innings have brought 294 runs at 73.50 and a strike-rate of 143.41 (and in this series it’s 108 runs off 48 balls). If Maxwell has found his home in the one-day side, so many of Australia’s plans will come together.Given the uncertainty over the cricket calendar in a post-Covid world, it is not yet entirely certain when Australia’s next ODIs will be after this tour. Currently, it is scheduled to be a short tour to West Indies in the middle of 2021, but the match in Canberra on Wednesday will be the last on home soil until next season. Can Smith make it a hat-trick of hundreds? You wouldn’t put it past him.

Our virtual cricket assistant reluctantly weighs in on this whole Test series business

Alan Gardner03-Feb-2021Hey Srini! What’s happening?
Good day. Would you like to set your preferences?Yes, that’s a good idea. I like Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Test matches.
You have selected: Virat Kohli, Ben Stokes and the IPL.Hmmm, still seems a bit glitchy. Let’s start with a simple one. Hey Srini, what’s going on in the cricket?
Cricket is a game that exists in order to make money. It is played in a bubble and broadcast on television 365 days of the year. Would you like to discuss investment opportunities?Umm, not right now. But there does seem to be a lot of it on, even during a pandemic. What are the big events I should look out for?
IPL 2020 concluded on November 10, 2020. It was won by Mumbai Indians. IPL 2021 auction is scheduled for February 18 – would you like to set a calendar reminder? IPL 2021 begins in two months and…Okay, Srini, thanks. Lots of IPL, that’s good. But isn’t there a big tour about to happen? India’s first home games in over a year?
Team India is scheduled to play the following fixtures: Friday, February 5, 2021 vs Team England, day one, 1st Paytm Test, Anthony de Mello Trophy, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai; Saturday, February 6, 2021 vs Team England, day two, 1st Paytm Test, Anthony de Mello Trophy, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, Sunday, February 7, 2021 vs Team Engla…Man, this could take a while
() … Sunday, March 28, 2021 vs Team England, 3rd Paytm ODI, Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. Would you like to hear more?No, no, no, we’re good. Wow, that’s a long old tour. Definitely stick all those dates in my calendar. So who are some of the big names on the England team?
India vs England 2020-21, ones to watch: Sam Curran, allrounder, value INR 5.5 crore; Mark Wood, fast bowler, INR 1.5 crore…About turn: let’s hope the spinners have done their homework•Getty ImagesHang on, didn’t I read that those two had been rested for the first part of the tour?
…Sam Billings, wicketkeeper-batsman, INR 1 croreWait a minute, he’s not in the Test squad! Srini, are you just listing English CSK players…?
David Willey, allroun… () Chennai Super Kings are the IPL franchise with the greatest fan following, indomitable serial champions and known for the “knowledgeable crowd” at their Chepauk home. Would you like to hear more about “Yellow Army”?No, I’m not interested in the IPL right now. I want to hear about the Tests
()Hey Srini! Come on… Look, the tour starts in Chennai, right? I’m sure you’ve got something to say about that
() Chepauk is one of the strongholds of India cricket, a ground where they have a win/loss ratio of 2.33. Since the year 2000, India have won five Tests in Chennai and drawn three. Their last defeat came in [file not found]. It is also the venue where India made their highest Test total – 759 for 7 declared, against England in 2016.Oof, so England know what to expect then!
England’s total of 477 in that game was the highest score in Test history to end in an innings defeat. Related YouTube content: Cricket’s Most Epic Fails.Bookmark that for later. So back-to-back Tests in Chennai, with India practically at full strength and riding a wave of emotion following the historic events at the Gabba a couple of weeks ago, eager to seal a 13th consecutive home series win and confirm their World Test Championship final spot. It really will be sink or swim for the tourists, won’t it?
You might say they’re likely to have the buoyancy of a bag of wet cement.Burn! Nice one, Srini… But don’t forget there’s a day-night Test to come in Ahmedabad. Who knows what may happen there?
() Gurunath Meiyappan did not have any role within the team, he was just an enthusiast. Let the commission look into it. Mike Hussey doesn’t know what he’s talking about…Torrid heat, fanatical crowds, fortress Chepauk – what’s to worry about?•Gaurav Sundararaman() We really need to work out what keeps triggering that…
Sorry, did it happen again?Don’t worry, you’re doing really well. Can you just sum up the challenge for England over the next few weeks as succinctly as possible?
No question they’ll be up against it. Big first-innings runs are a must, but with an inexperienced top order much of the burden will fall on Joe Root. If he cracks, India’s attack is likely to go through the rest quicker than those Chinese prawns that did for Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting in Chennai 28 years ago. There’ll be long, hot days in the field, so stay patient and hang in there – particularly the spinners. India’s batsmen will assume you can’t turn a door knob, but that might just mean they leave it ajar. Hope that someone – Ben Stokes? Jofra Archer? – can produce a bit of KP magic (or even the Shaun Udal variety might do). Do your homework in advance, or it may well come back to bite you.Homework, eh? Any recommended reading?
A quick check of the latest booksellers’ charts tells me the No. 1 title in Sports > Indian cricket is . According to my algorithms, that’s going to be a hard one to dislodge.This is all great advice. And at least England won’t have to deal with fanatical Indian crowds, what with the whole bio-bubble thing…
Ah yes, about that. Tamil Nadu Cricket Association will be letting people in for the second Test.Crumbs. Anything else?
Yeah, get a theme song. “Ring of Fire” works. “Highway to Hell” might turn out to be more appropriate.Can’t help noticing you’ve not mentioned Sam Curran…
He’s definitely one to watch in IPL 2021.Srini, show me an extended comedic device that has overstayed its welcome.
Done.

The franchise will be banking on the allrounders and Gaikwad to add urgency to their approach

Deivarayan Muthu04-Apr-20212:47

Gambhir: CSK won’t be able to make the playoffs

Where they finished in 2020Second from bottom, with six wins in 14 matches at a net run rate of minus 0.455. It was the first time that the Chennai Super Kings didn’t make it to the playoffs in their 11 seasons in the IPL.Potential XI 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Moeen Ali/Faf du Plessis, 3 Suresh Raina/Robin Uthappa, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Imran TahirBattingThe Super Kings had the second-worst run rate in the powerplay (7.13) as well as in the middle overs (7.37) in the last IPL. They could remedy this go-slow by fitting in their new recruit Moeen Ali at the top. The England allrounder had led the way for Worcestershire Rapids in the powerplay in 2018 and 2019 by regularly and effortlessly hitting over the top. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who finished the 2020 season strongly, with a hat-trick of half-centuries, will likely continue to open.ESPNcricinfo LtdSuresh Raina has returned to the set-up after abruptly pulling out of the last season, but he is past his prime, as is MS Dhoni. Both players – and even Ambati Rayudu – haven’t had much game time since the last IPL. To compound their worries, Ravindra Jadeja, too, hasn’t played competitive cricket since January 2021, having sustained a thumb injury during the Test leg of the Australia tour. The lack of game time for the middle order might prove a thorny issue for the Super Kings again.Faf du Plessis, who carried the Super Kings’ batting and fielding in the UAE, might be relegated to the reserves this season because of the team combination.Related

CSK fast bowler Hazlewood withdraws from IPL 2021

Boost for CSK as Raina and Jadeja enter team bubble

BowlingJosh Hazlewood has opted out of the tournament and Lungi Ngidi will only join the squad later after his South Africa commitments, but Dwayne Bravo is fit again, having bowled at the death for West Indies against Sri Lanka at home. Sam Curran, who earned a glowing appraisal from Dhoni in his first season at the Super Kings, and Shardul Thakur, who has been a wicket-glutton in recent times, lend more variety to the seam attack. The presence of a number of Indian batting options this time could allow the team management to seamlessly slot Imran Tahir into the XI.The absence of an offspinner last year left them vulnerable against left-hander-heavy sides, but now they have Ali and K Gowtham to counter them although neither Wankhede nor Chinnaswamy will aid spin. Nevertheless, the attack looks in much healthier shape in comparison to the batting line-up.Young player(s) to watch out for. This was coach Stephen Fleming’s quip last year. The Super Kings continue to rely on their over-30s seniors, but if they choose to give Jadeja breaks and manage him more carefully after the recent injury, R Sai Kishore offers them a decent option. The 24-year old is a left-arm version of Washington Sundar who threatens the stumps and hits hard lengths in the powerplay. Sai Kishore had finished the most recent Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament with an economy rate of 4.82 – the second best among bowlers who delivered at least 20 overs. Last season, he had the best economy among bowlers who had sent down at least 20 overs.Then, there’s the 22-year old Harishankar Reddy, the third-youngest member in the squad behind Bhagath Varma and Curran. The Andhra seamer can bowl yorkers from a sling-arm, whippy action and had even knocked over Dhoni during a practice match at Chepauk last month.Coaching staffStephen Fleming (head coach), Mike Hussey (batting coach), L Balaji (bowling coach), Eric Simons (bowling consultant), Rajiv Kumar (fielding coach)Poll