A humdinger that went up to the penultimate league match
The last two weeks of the tournament have been bizarre to say the least. Just when you expected a team to comfortably make it through, either they come crashing down or the opponent puts in a surprise performance.
Take the CSK v DC match for example. DC were flying high and were expected to cement their place in the top 4 with an easy win. But lo! They came crashing down and dithered into pieces as the CSK batsmen and then their bowlers landed punch after punch. But after such a glorious performance CSK had 3 matches that they'd like to forget as they ended their disappointing campaign with successive hammerings from MI, GT and RR. In all, CSK's fall from glory must be attributed to their inconsistent auction strategy and the injury to Deepak Chahar. Also, the decision to hand captaincy to Jaddu only helped to complicate matters further.
After the CSK debacle, DC put up impressive shows against RR and PBKS. But luck deserted them on the penultimate day as MI sprang a surprise on them and ousted them from the tournament thereby allowing RCB to go through. DC definitely were in with a shot this time but were done in by unexpected challenges. First Covid played rampage on their initial form and then Prithvi Shaw missed a few matches due to illness. Rishabh Pant's lack of conviction in captaincy and in batting also proved costly.
PBKS pulled off a little surprise of their own when they whacked RCB in emphatic fashion to keep top 4 hopes alive. But their subsequent loss to DC put their hands in the fate of RCB and MI. As RCB and MI shut the windows, PBKS were left to rue what could have been as they decimated SRH in the final game of the league stage in what turned out to be a dead rubber. Both PBKS and DC had better performance quotients than RCB but failed to click when it mattered and found themselves out of contention. Mayank Agarwal's floppy season and over dependence on Shikhar Dhawan pulled them down.
Equally ordinary was SRH's performance. After stringing a sequence of 5 successive wins, they fell into a rut losing 5 on the trot - the last of which was a loss to KKR. That loss almost condemned them and threw them out of the tournament. Fortunately a win against MI put them back in contention, albeit at the mercy of RCB and MI once again. With nothing to gain after RCB shut the door on them, they played their poorest match of the tournament against PBKS to finish 8th. Lack of variation in batting and bowling made them predictable and teams were easily able to negotiate them with ease. Skipper KW's form only piled the misery.
KKR showed promise during the early stages of the tournament only to falter in mid-season. But they did seem to have regrouped after victories over MI and SRH. An extraordinary rear guard action against LSG by Rinku Singh almost carried them across the line but they fell short of the finishing line to crash out of the tournament. KKR suffered from dependence on Dre Russ to save them every time they played. While Russ did seem to deliver, crunch games did not go their way and led them to elimination.
Like CSK, MI had a season to forget. Having invested heavily in their core from past seasons at the auction, they struggled to get the best out of the rest. After picking up their first victory in week 6, they crashed once again as they lost to KKR but surged back to dump CSK out of the tournament. With nothing to play for they ran SRH close before denying DC a place in the play-offs at the death. Rohit's form, Ishan's form and SKY's injury were talking points on the outside but deep within MI had a millions problems to deal with. Apart from the top 3 there was no one in the line-up to look up to when in crisis. Jasprit Bumrah had a decent season and yet it looked like a bad season for him since the other bowlers rarely gave him any support. And their foreign contingent was the weakest group of all 10 teams in the tournament.
Moving on to the top 4, RCB squeezed through on the penultimate after leaving it late to leave their fate in the hands of MI. They made up for the huge loss to PBKS by easily defeating GT but with a large negative NRR, their hopes hinged on DC losing to MI which eventually turned out to be so. Luck has never been with RCB over the past 14 seasons and going by what transpired in the last 2 weeks, RCB fans can definitely hope "Ee saala cup naamde". Kohli's return to form in their last match must be a welcome sign while DK (after the national team call-up) must be flying high.
LSG also squeezed through as KKR almost toppled their applecart. But they only had themselves to blame for this as they looked insipid against GT and RR in their previous games. The fact that they made history with the IPL's first 200 run opening wicket stand (was undefeated as well) could have disappeared had KKR held their nerves in the chase - special mention to Ewin Lewis for taking the catch of the 15 IPL seasons so far. Thankfully, LSG have KL and QDK in form and will hope that they can carry them all the way to the pinnacle.
RR were the team to beat at the beginning of the tournament. They had a few slips in between but were quite adept in bouncing back every time. After a disappointing loss to DC, they came back strongly to see off LSG and CSK to get into the top 2 - which means two attempts at reaching the final - always a privilege. With a well balanced batting line-up and a bowling line-up that can induce fear in the opposition they seem determined to go for glory this time. Jos Butler and Sanju Samson do hold the fire power to help with this.
The tournament's hot favorites are GT though. They hardly broke a sweat getting though LSG and CSK before an experimentation against RCB resulted in a loss. But having already snapped top spot with a game to go, they had every right to experiment as they did. Hardik Pandya is a transformed player (& captain) and with players like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Shami, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mathew Wade and Wridhiman Saha in support it's been a dream run. Nobody has finished games this season like GT and they'll hope that those finishing skills would come good in the play-offs as well.
Week 7 performances
Excellent: DC, PBKS, GT, KKR
Good: RR
Fair enough: MI, RCB
Mediocre: SRH, LSG, CSK
Week 8 performances
Excellent: RCB, LSG
Good: RR
Fair enough: MI, PBKS, DC, SRH, GT
Mediocre: CSK, KKR
Performance quotient
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