IPL 6: A skeptic’s account of the CSK - SRH match

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the site.

Modest doubt is call’d the beacon of the wise- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

Through this article, I do not have any intention of proving how wise I am as a person. Rather, it should be viewed as an observation from a cricket enthusiast who has been following this beautiful game for the last twenty five years.

Also, please keep in mind that I am not suggesting that every game in IPL is being manipulated or it is only CSK who are being handed special privileges. Somehow over the last two years, this tendency of taking every single match to the last over and trying to create an exciting finish in most matches at times makes me feel circumspect.

As a case in point, let us look at Game No 34 between CSK and SRH that was held yesterday. Chasing 160 to win. Chennai needed 46 runs off the last 4 overs to win, when the last strategic time out was taken. They had 7 wickets in hand and Dhoni and Bravo were at the crease. Now those of us who have followed MSD’s style of play in the last couple of years can easily relate to this kind of a situation. Dhoni likes to get his eye in, and once he is set, he can pull off even stiff targets in the last few overs. There was no surprise in that.

However, there were two things that made the match interesting. First, Bravo was struggling to put bat on ball and he had scored only 4 runs off the 11 deliveries faced till then. Second, Dayle Steyn still had two overs up his sleeve.

Steyn bowled the 17^th and the 19^th over. Now even the best bowler in the world can have an off day and he can be carted all over the park. We also understand that even if he bowls well, he can be taken apart by a player who is widely regarded as one of the best finishers in limited overs cricket. There is no problem with that either.

However. what did surprise me was the intent, or rather the lack of it, that was demonstrated by Steyn. Let me illustrate this with some examples. First, in the 12 balls that he bowled in that spell, he did not even attempt a single yorker. It is one thing not getting it right on a given day, but not even attempting one is surely going to raise questions. Moreover, from the reaction of the fielders and TV commentators it did not even appear that there was heavy dew on the field. So the fear of the ball slipping out of hand and turning into a full toss was not legitimate either. This, from someone whose outswinging yorkers have spelt the death rattle for many batsmen at different stages of the game, all over the world.

And that is not all. In the second delivery of the 19^th over, fielders were inside the ring on the offside. And Steyn bowled a length ball and gave width outside off stump. Dhoni scooped it over the point fielder for a boundary. The fourth delivery in that same over was again short and drifting down the leg side. It was below the chest height of Dhoni. And the fine leg was up in the circle for that delivery! Any proper connection and there was a boundary for the taking, infact even a mis-hit could have easily gone for four with that field setting. However, Mahi picked up the fielder at fine leg and got a single. The penultimate ball was bowled to Jadeja. It was again a length ball and there was plenty of width on offer. There was no protection on the off side this time either. It was a perfect ‘hit me’ ball. It is a different matter that ‘Sir’ Jadeja found the hands of the point fielder with laser sharp precision. The final delivery was yet another length ball to Morris who could not put bat to ball.

This is where seeds of doubt start creeping in. Sunrisers are in a good position in the league table, so it is difficult to buy into the idea that the pressure was just too immense on Steyn. And moreover, even after all those sixes that Dhoni hit, Steyn still had runs in the bag to defend. So it became very difficult to accept that Steyn, the best fast bowler in the world, was so shell shocked that he not only forgot to try a single yorker in the last 2 overs, but also kept pitching the ball in areas that were not in sync with the field that was set for him.

Now comes the tale of the final over. Now even before we get into details, let me acknowledge that Dhoni is good enough to plunder any bowler in the world for 15 runs in the last over. So by no means am I suggesting that had Sammy bowled the last over the outcome of the match would have been different. However, with the choice Cameron White made, it appeared that he was keen on shutting out any hope for victory that remained.

The fact that Ashish Reddy had not bowled (till the 19^th over) in that match is well documented. Along with this, we must also keep in mind that Ashish was not called on to bowl in the last 2 matches for SRH either. He had last bowled on 14^th April against KKR in the middle overs. He was given a total of 2 overs to bowl. So the fact that he is a part-timer is well established. Add to this the fact that he hasn’t had any international exposure, plus the packed house crowd at Chepauk and it is difficult to serve a better recipe for failure. Predictably, he froze and Dhoni put him out of his miseries in just 4 deliveries.

Now some people may argue that he was given the ball because he can take pace off the ball. By that logic, even Sammy has a slower ball up his sleeve. And the fact that his pace can be quite deceptive has been well documented in various international competitions in the last few years. I remember Sammy got the better of Sehwag quite a few times in a Test series one year ago, even after Sehwag had settled down and gone past 50. And with international experience, he could have been expected to handle pressure better.

And yes, there are people who give the Joginder Sharma analogy. First of all, please bear in mind that unlike Ashish Reddy in this case, Joginder had bowled 3 overs, given 13 runs and picked up the wicket of Younis Khan. Moreover, Joginder is a different type of bowler as compared to Harbhajan. In the last over of a match, a skipper may not like a spinner to be bowling to someone like Misbah. And finally, in the 17^th over, Misbah had plundered Harbhajan for 19 runs, including 3 sixes. So if you keep these factors in mind, I don’t think that Dhoni had taken as massive a gamble as we try to portray it as. Even that could have gone wrong, but atleast the line of thinking was not difficult to comprehend. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Cameron White.

In conclusion, I would say that we all know that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. And the unexpected quotient is only expected to go up in T20 format. But in the last couple of years, there have been quite a few instances where many of us have felt that this ‘uncertainty’ quotient has been stretched from time to time by hitherto unforeseen powers. I just decided to illustrate my observations through the example of one match.

I sincerely hope that I am wrong and this is just a figment of my imagination. Cheers to cricket and long live IPL.