Karthik Lakshmanan
Karthik Lakshmanan, a writer for Wisden India, provides a review from the last few days of the Indian Premier League.
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No end to Pune’s injury woes
Rising Pune Supergiants’ first IPL season continued to go nowhere as they suffered setbacks on and off the field. Australia captain Steven Smith, who scored his maiden Twenty20 century against Gujarat Lions and was expected to shoulder the batting responsibility in the business end of the tournament, picked up a wrist injury during their eight-wicket loss against Mumbai Indians, and joined an all-star casualty list of Faf du Plessis, Mitchell Marsh and Kevin Pietersen. Du Plessis was ruled out for six weeks after breaking his finger, Marsh had a side strain and Pietersen had earlier torn his calf muscle. Why, MS Dhoni said before their game against Mumbai that even Stephen Fleming, their coach, was down with illness! Pune, sixth in the table with six defeats in eight matches, signed up Usman Khawaja as a replacement for Du Plessis, and will now have to look for more alternatives.
Change in captaincy, change in fortunes?
In a significant step to revive their fortunes, Kings XI Punjab, languishing at the bottom of the points table, replaced David Miller, who had only been appointed as captain in February, with M Vijay at the after five losses in six games. “We felt that David Miller’s batting was suffering because of the extra responsibility of captaincy,” Punjab coach Sanjay Bangar said. “The decision was taken to just free him up from additional responsibility. He took it in the right spirit. It is all in the team’s interest.” Vijay, who had led Tamil Nadu in 13 games seven years ago, started with a 23-run win over Gujarat Lions, the table toppers. His 55 held the batting together even as Shivil Kaushik took three wickets. Defending 154, he was proactive and helped by Axar Patel’s four-wicket haul, including the season’s first hat-trick.
New home for Mumbai and Pune
The Maharashtra derby between Rising Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians in Pune on May 1 ended the state’s quota of IPL matches this season after the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions filed by the Maharashtra and Mumbai cricket associations to set aside Bombay High Court’s order to shift IPL matches outside the drought-hit region. Visakhapatnam will now be the neutral home for both franchises, and three of Kings XI Punjab’s home matches originally slotted for Nagpur were shifted to Mohali. As per the rejigged schedule, Bangalore will now host the Qualifier 1 and final while the Qualifier 2 and Eliminator will be played in New Delhi. It is the latest development in the water crisis. Disappointed with IPL being made a ‘soft target’ for every issue, Anurag Thakur’s, BCCI’s secretary, said that the governing council would not hesitate to take the league abroad next season if such hassles persist.
Star performance
Punjab’s win over table-toppers Gujarat was made possible by a stunning spell of 4-0-21-4 by Axar Patel that included the first hat-trick of the season, spread across two overs. With Gujarat chasing 155, the match seemed to be in the balance at one stage before Axar turned it Punjab’s way in a spell that included four wickets from five balls. The hat-trick included the wickets of Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja.
Worst display
With injuries galore and lack of specialist death bowlers, Rising Pune Supergiants struggled to defend totals twice in a row at home. Their batsmen did their bit by posting 195 against Gujarat Lions last week, but the bowlers failed to rise to the situation, conceding a three-wicket win. In their next game on Sunday, Mumbai made light work of a 160-run chase and cantered to an eight-wicket win with nine balls to spare.
Best catch
Mumbai’s Jos Buttler smashed Kolkata Knight Riders’s Sunil Narine to long-off at the Wankhede Stadium, and just when it seemed like the ball would sail over the ropes, Chris Lynn jumped to perfection and caught the ball. Realising the momentum would take him over; he parried it over and then jumped into play again to complete the show.
Best quote
“I was looking at Virat Kohli and I don’t think he was too impressed until he (Shamsi) got a bit closer. I think it’s a bit hard for a captain to stand there and not go (through) the motions. In my team, if someone does that at 150 off 15 overs, I wouldn’t accept that at all. I think it’s a bit fancy, to be honest.” – David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad on Bangalore’s Tabraiz Shami’s ‘bus driver’ celebratory dance after getting him out.
Key game
Gujarat Lions and Delhi Daredevils produced a thriller through the heroics of Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Praveen Kumar and Dwayne Bravo recently, and their return game in Rajkot on Tuesday could be equally exciting. Gujarat sit pretty at the top of the table, while Delhi have claimed four wins in six matches. Whoever tops this clash would take a step closer to the first aim of a play-offs berth.
Key statistic - 2
Axar Patel became only the second Kings XI Punjab player to take a hat-trick, after Yuvraj Singh who has two. With the season’s first hat-trick, Axar took the overall tally to 14 in nine stagings of the tournament.
