Thanks @forvino for bringing this article to my notice - http://www.firstpost.com/sports/ipl/ipl-why-mumbai-indians-will-eliminate-chennai-super-kings-318274.html
I am rebutting to this article now, after the hapless MI
have been completely blown away by Dhoni and company. But even if I had written
this before the match, my response would not have been very different. Mr.
Jayaraman might be a genuine fan of MI. If that was the case, he should have
done more to bring out the positive elements of the team he supports. But his
putting down of CSK really irked me to no limits and that prompted me to come
out with this response.
Let us start with the first paragraph.
Observation
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Mumbai
Indians
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Chennai
Super Kings
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A power
packed batting line up;
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Tendulkar,
Smith, Rohit Sharma, Karthik, Franklin, Rayudu, Pollard
Tendulkar
has had starts but no real big innings. Smith had one good outing and those
three balls against Hilfenhaus. Sharma
has been off and on but has scored over 400 runs. Karthik – a form better left
unsaid. Rayudu has done little in
cruch games.Franklin and Pollard have done nothing.
So except Sachin, Rohit
Sharma and may be Smith based on the last game, there is hardly any power in
this batting line up. And how many opening pairs were tried during the
season? How many players were used during
the season?
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Hussey,
Vijay, Raina, Badri, Dhoni, Jadeja, Bravo, Morkel
Mr.
Cricket has always delivered. Vijay
has not done much but has shown more form after Hussey joined him at the top.
Raina has had his starts but not converted those. Badri has been the sheet
anchor. Dhoni showed how to win games.
Jadeja has not done anything of
significance excepting one match. Bravo and Morkel have shown what effective
finishing means. So with Hussey, Raina (even though not in his best form),
Badri, Dhoni, Bravo and Morkel –
Chennai team packs more power than Mumbai.
The team was hardly tampered with and was perhaps the most settled amongst
all teams. Incidentally George Bailey, the T20 captain of Team Australia has
not managed to break into the playing XI.
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an all-time
legend whose game can adjust to to any format;
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Sachin has
never showed the kind of form he has shown in ODIs and Tests, in T20s. And
particularly this season he has been mostly a sheet anchor.
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Dhoni has
come down the order and proved himself in a couple of crunch games with his
big hitting. And he has inspired his team to some real good wins.
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batsmen
that can launch the cricket ball into the stratosphere with a flick of the
wrist;
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And, if I may
ask, who are these batsmen? Smith? Pollard? How many games have they done
this?
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Dhoni, Bravo
and Morkel have shown consistently that they are much better finishers than
anyone else in this format. (Since I am staying away from this eliminator
game, I am not talking about the flick of the wrist helicopter six of Dhoni)
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a
superstar specialist bowler who can crush the batsman’s toes at will;
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Granted.
Malinga has done more damage, especially at death, than any other bowler by
taking wickets and by bowling economically. Although heart of hearts, I hate
his bowling action to put it mildly.
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Ben is the
fastest bowler but he has not distinguished himself at death. I would rather
have him bowl all four of his overs early in the innings.
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a young
batsman who can finish off the job;
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Same as
point 3
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I would
not say young man but as I said earlier there are three accomplished
finishers in this side.
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a classy
spinner
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Is that
Harbhajan that is being talked about? 6 wickets in 16 matches and an economy
rate of 7.11 with a self confidence that would not let him bowl when runs are
scored.
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Ashwin,
who replaced him in the Indian team, has 10 wickets from 16 matches but his
economy rate is 6.32 only bettered by Narine and Malinga amongst bowlers who
have bowled over 50 overs.
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Really,
there is so much to like about the Mumbai Indians team. On form and on
ability, they should roll over the Chennai Super Kings quite easily
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Really?
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Really!
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Let us now move on to the next paragraph.
“Sure,
Mumbai’s captain is at best, a nut case. He isn’t really pulling his weight as
a bowler or as a captain. But to think, Mumbai have actually finished third in
the season with 10 wins in spite of having Harbhajan Singh as their skipper is a huge credit to them.”
Oh! Wow! A classy spinner is suddenly trashed, accepted as
someone who is not pulling his weight as a bowler. Now, I don’t need to say
anything about this paragraph excepting that CSK are captained by one MS Dhoni.
Period.
Let us now go down a few lines into this article before we
get to this gem – “Chennai
lost their last league match against Kings XI Punjab and were dead and buried, for all the money in
the world, and were at the mercy of results going their way. If there was
someone who could have predicted the results to turn out the way they did,
should immediately buy a lottery ticket, cash in and be on vacation for the
rest of his/her life.”
My understanding of dead and buried is when there is no way
out. Now, it is a quirky schedule that made CSK play their last match before
anyone else, well, somebody had to. Let us assume that the CSK vs KXIP match
was scheduled as the last match of the season and all matches ended up the same
way they ended, the equation would be CSK would be in play offs EVEN IF THEY LOST
to KXIP as long as their net run rate was better than that of RCB.
So calling
the situation dead and buried and the team came through back door is a very
silly observation. CSK had more points and better run rate than three teams
which had to win to go better than CSK and they did not. Do not forget that
even before that match against KXIP, CSK had to win two matches against table
toppers DD and KKR and they did that.
Yes, I did predict this would happen and I did buy lottery
but unfortunately winning lottery was not as easy as predicting CSK would get
into playoffs. Would Mr.Jayaraman help me be on vacation for the rest of my
life?
“Mumbai set
a record in their last league game of the tournament. The Rajasthan Royals had a fabulous record in their home ground.
They had never lost a game at home in which they scored 160 runs. Mumbai not
only knocked the stuffing out of the Royals in breaking that record, they did
it in style and with all their 10 wickets in hand. As far as form and
preparation goes, in the lead up to playoff, it cannot get any better than that.”
RR were out of the play offs by then. They were truly dead
and buried, if I have to borrow Mr.Jayaraman’s words. What is the motivation
level of a team that was already looking forward to finishing this match and
going off to whatever each player had to do next? If flogging dead horses is
what preparation is, yes, MI was terrific at that.
“Chennai
struggled in that match against Kings XI in Dharamsala. The top order faltered
against a decent bowling attack. The middle order pushed and poked its way to a
competitive total, which as it turned out, wasn’t very competitive at all. Adam
Gilchrist showed to everyone how limited the Chennai bowling attack is. A man,
on the verge of retirement, coming back in to the team after having sat on the
bench for basically the entire tournament due to injury, pooh-poohed his way to
the winning target.”
Wow!! What bombastic statements! Yes. Chennai had a tough
match against KXIP as their last engagement. When a man like Gilchirst decides
to retire in style, there is no stopping that man. He would have won a game
against the best World XI that Mr.Jayaraman can assemble. But let us look at what MI did in the match
before their ‘record breaking’ game against RR. This was the 65th
match of the season – MI vs KKR. After restricting KKR to 140 runs, this power
packed batting of MI could not last 20 overs and were all out for 108 runs. And
should I remind that this MI team barely managed to win against the KXIP once
and lost the other time, both times with Gilchrist not even playing?
“If you
were a betting man, you would put your money on Mumbai to face Delhi Daredevilsin Chennai on the 25 May. But then again, given
the ease with which KKR won, it’s hard to count them out. Either which way,
Chennai don’t figure in our calculations.”
I sincerely hope that Mr.Jayaraman is not a betting man and
has not put his money where his mouth was. Anyone who would be writing off a
team led by Dhoni, would be doing it at his own peril and the result just
proved that. And as an ardent supporter of CSK, my bets are on them reaching
the finals this year as well.
