MS Dhoni rolls back the years; Suresh Raina timing impeccable: IPL Week 7 in review – Part 1

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Sidhanta Patnaik, a writer for Wisden India, provides a review of the past few days from the Indian Premier League.

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ONE FOR THE AGES

He wasn’t going to exit the stage without stamping his class and power, was he? An MS Dhoni-led side failed to progress beyond the league stages of the IPL for the first time. However, his season’s last knock, an unbeaten 32-ball 64 that helped Rising Pune Supergiants beat Kings XI Punjab in the wooden spoon clash, was one for the ages. Just as everyone was talking about his 360-degree wicketkeeping skills, Dhoni gave another reminder why he remains one of the game’s best finishers. With 23 required in the final over bowled by Axar Patel, Dhoni farmed strike and backed his age-old technique, that of transferring the pressure back on to the bowler. Axar wilted, and a four and three sixes, including two hits over the fence off the last two balls, drew just a faint grin from the man who got his calculations right yet again.

SPREADING THE WINGS

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple Inc, was in the house when Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium – the IPL’s 33rd venue – gave a glimpse into cricket’s ever-rising demand and the potential that remains to be tapped in India’s tier-two cities. Inside the boundary, the fielding standards continued to make players seem more akin to machines than athletes. The run outs executed by Shadab Jakati (Gautam Gambhir) and Carlos Brathwaite (Shikhar Dhawan), and the catches taken by Virat Kohli (Karun Nair), Chris Gayle (Sam Billings) and Jayant Yadav (AB de Villiers) over the last few days have overlapped imagination and questioned the context of adjectives such as “brilliant”, “spectacular” and “outstanding”. Remember Jonty Rhodes running out Inzamam-ul-Haq at the 1992 World Cup? Of course, yes. Recollect Andre Russell juggling the ball back to Piyush Chawla before stepping over the boundary line at the start of IPL 2016? Erm, not really.

STORY OF THE SEASON

Struggling for survival, Royal Challengers Bangalore won their last four matches on the trot to qualify for the play-offs in style. Virat Kohli’s monumental season tally of 919 runs, at an average of 91.90 and a strike-rate of 152.40, has been positively infectious. Bangalore have a strong chance to play the home final on May 29, but even a failure to do so wouldn’t undermine the new benchmark set by Kohli. Bangalore’s entertaining play has made them the neutral’s favourite, a tag that Delhi Daredevils wore for large parts of the season. Delhi failed to sustain the momentum because of their strange experimentation policy which Paddy Upton, the coach, termed as “man matching”. Only Karun Nair, Sanju Samson and Amit Mishra featured in all 14 matches, and the constant changes proved costly in the final analysis. The strategy, unfortunately, overshadowed the good bits, like Karun’s unbeaten 83 in a last-ball win against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

STAR PERFORMANCE

Having come under flak throughout the season, Bangalore’s bowling unit put up a stellar show in their final must-win game against Delhi Daredevils. On a two-paced pitch in Raipur, they restricted Delhi to 138 for 8 – the lowest they have conceded this season while bowling first. Fittingly, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shane Watson, their two best bowlers, led the way. Chahal picked up three wickets, while Watson gave away only four runs in the final over.

WORST DISPLAY

Kings XI Punjab’s four-wicket loss against Rising Pune Supergiants to take the wooden spoon summarised their season’s journey – their batting and bowling departments failed to click as a unit on a consistent basis. They could not seal key moments in matches that hung in the balance, and Axar Patel failing to defend 22 runs in the final over against Dhoni was one of the many lowlights of their season.

BEST SHOT

Suresh Raina’s inside-out lofted shot off Morne Morkel in his first knock post fatherhood to the cover boundary took him past the 4,000-run mark and ahead of Virat Kohli atop the IPL batting charts. Judging the bounce of the ball on a bowling-friendly track in time was the secret behind that shot.

BEST QUOTE

"To combat Virat, if I had an answer to that, I will be making a lot more money." – Chris Morris, quoted in DNA, when asked how to dismiss Virat Kohli.

KEY GAME

The loser of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi on May 25 will be out of IPL 2016. Kolkata have the advantage, having beaten Hyderabad, who finished above them in the table, in both their encounters. Their last game, where Kolkata prevailed by 22 runs, exposed Hyderabad’s bowling in the absence of an injured Ashish Nehra, and it could be crucial again when the two teams meet for the third time this season.

KEY STATISTIC

Virat Kohli’s match-winning unbeaten 54 against Delhi took his tally of fifty plus knocks to 17 in 2016; Chris Gayle had made 16 such scores in 2012. Kohli too became the first batsman to make 10 fifty-plus scores in one T20 tournament.