IPL 2019- Week 01- Top Ten talking points
Mankad. Twin tons. No ball controversy. A 7-ball over (by Ravi Ashwin vs MI), batsman being called back on account of field placement error (Andre Russell vs KXIP), and a super-over. The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League has got off to a roller-coaster start and we are just in the first ten days of the competition.
In this article, we will have a look at the ten talking points of the 2019 IPL this far.
#10 An anti-climatic start but CSK roll on
It was billed as the battle of two stalwarts of Indian cricket; a South Indian derby; a contest between two sides’ who over the years have given us plenty of exhilarating moments that are forever etched in the folklore of the IPL.
So, when the defending champions- Chennai Super Kings and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore went head-to-head in the IPL opener, it was expected to tear the house down at the Chepauk; except the pitch had very different ideas.
On a track which resembled more like a fifth day Test match pitch where the ball turned and gripped like a cobra, CSK’s troika of spinners- led by Harbhajan Singh, applied a stranglehold on the RCB batsmen to skittle them for 70. Harbhajan, in particular, turned the clock back and claimed the prized wickets of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to land a body blow to RCB, from which they could never recover.
That the track wasn’t ideal for a T20 match was echoed by MS Dhoni at the press conference, but that was certainly no excuse to the appalling batting effort by the RCB. On a track where the ball was doing all sort of things, the batsmen- even the likes of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, did not apply themselves and holed out in the deep in trying, and mayhem ensued. That CSK took 17 overs to overhaul the target vindicated how difficult the track was to bat on.
But, as they say, a win is a win, and with it under their belt, the defending champions moved to the Capital to face DC. DJ Bravo made his presence felt after the spinners had hogged all the limelight at the Chepauk. After being clobbered in his first over, Bravo came back to knock over Pant, Dhawan, and Ingram to decisively sway the momentum in CSK's favour. What seemed like a 170-plus target ended up being 148, which the Men in Yellow, courtesy Watson's charge [44] at the top and steady knocks by Dhoni [32], Jadhav [27] and Raina [30] achieved with ease in the last over.
After a dreadful pitch in the opening game, all eyes were on the Chepauk, as to what it dishes out for the CSK vs RR match, and when the home side had slipped to 3-27, it looked like another low-scoring game will ensue. But, Thala MS Dhoni, once again displayed what a champion he is in crisis situations, and in his calculated innings, backed up by last-over assault [28 runs] of the last over of the innings once again set the template not only for his teammates but for the other sides' on how one should approach a situation od crisis.
Post Dhoni's heroics, DJ Bravo came to the party yet again as he successfully defended 12 runs in the last over beside taking the crucial wicket of Ben Stokes' to give CSK their third successive win of the tournament.