Will face Chennai Super Kings on Friday after incredible finish to the match in Sharjah
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00:00Hello everybody, once again and welcome to Straight Back with Golf News and Mr. Cricket
00:12UAE, Anas Sajjan. Well, there are close matches and then there are close matches, especially
00:19one that should have been done at halftime. It is a bit of a real scare for KKR today.
00:25Anas, I'll let you say hi and then we'll go through the match.
00:29Hi Matt, hello Shyam, hello happy Abhijeet and Sahil and disappointed Maaz. Well, this
00:37match as you mentioned should have gone one way when it began in the second innings. Delhi
00:42were cruising and they had a brain freeze and like the great Sunil Gavaskar always says
00:47and he kept on saying during commentary, when you are set, make sure you finish the games
00:51and especially on wickets like Sharjah, it's not easy when you come into bat later. And
00:55they almost gave away a gift to Delhi but they had Tripathi probably to have better
01:02sense and head that six. Otherwise, probably it would have been Maaz smiling here and Abhijeet
01:07probably tearing his hair apart.
01:09Yeah, Shyam, obviously you were at the stadium. What was it like there?
01:15I mean, it is absolutely the match turned on its head. In fact, I was pretty much getting
01:20ready to finish my copy and getting ready for an eight-wicket win actually. So from
01:26122 for two, it came down to 130 for seven. I swear and I had completely reworked my copy.
01:34So it tells you how the match panned out. Like Anish said, it was just a brain freeze,
01:39nothing else. And these are professional cricketers. They have been in this situation any number
01:44of times and time and again, they just lose their head and that is something inexplicable.
01:49That is what pressure does. Pressure does to the best of players. I mean, it just freezes
01:54them out and you see collapse like this, which is why P20 matches are always interesting
02:00and you cannot call a match till the last over or till the last ball in this case.
02:05Yeah, it was the final ball. Maaz, I mean, obviously when you saw duck after duck after
02:10duck, I think there was four in a row on that scorecard. You must have thought maybe your
02:14luck was in.
02:16Definitely. I mean, it was at a time in the 70th over, Avesh Khan's over. It looked like
02:20Delhi just gave up and Ashwin just dropped a catch and all were looking very dead. But
02:26the comeback that Rabada gave, two or three runs over and a wicket. One run in fact. Three
02:32runs was from Nokia's over. So that two over just changed the game entirely and it was
02:39not a day for nails and hearts to be honest. I was sitting on the edge of my seat and I
02:43was like, we are back in the game. I left my phone. I stopped tweeting. I was like,
02:47I have to play, I have to focus. And yeah, it was a very, very good match towards the
02:52end. So, but at the end of the day, it's KKR who is in the finals, but very proud of their
02:56capitals throughout the season. They have played amazing cricket. Yeah, a little bit
03:00of hiccup in the last few matches, but to be honest, the last three matches, it was
03:04not a one-sided game. RCB match, Bharat playing the last ball, hitting the six. Last previous
03:11match with CSK was Dhoni's heroics. And this game, as we saw, it was Rahul Tripathi in
03:16the last. So it was not a bad performance, but yeah, not in the finals.
03:21And Abhijit, obviously, as Maaz was just saying, these games are getting more and more thrilling
03:27as we get to the business. And KKR got one more trick up their sleeve as they go into
03:31the final.
03:32Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a shared belief that we all fan have and we backed our team.
03:41I was expecting them to be in the final, to be honest. From day one, they stepped in
03:46to EUAE. So they actually turned the table around and it's just the last one more game
03:53and we are holding the trophy.
03:59And Sahil, welcome. Long time no see, Sahil. Delusions of grandeur there from Abhijit.
04:05Or do you think they have a chance against the... Probably because Chennai have also
04:09had their wobbles. So it is one match. I mean, is this going to be unpredictable or
04:15do you have a firm favorite?
04:17Of course, the Knight Riders have a chance. Abhijit has all the right to brag. You know,
04:21they have won seven out of nine games since the time they've come in. That's no joke.
04:26You know, they were seventh when they came to Dubai. So the Knight Riders have all the
04:30bragging rights and it's not going to be a CSK. CSK are not favorites for sure. It's
04:35totally equal the way the Knight Riders have come into the halfway of this tournament.
04:39Their full credit to them and they should have won today. Yes, they made their lives
04:43harder by themselves. You know, there's two seniors. I blame these two seniors, Captain
04:47Morgan and Dinesh Karthik. You know, these guys have to step up. They cannot keep playing
04:52this cricket and they cannot say it happens like, you know, in the big game. No, these
04:55guys are experienced players and, you know, that's the thing. But they have reached and
05:00now it's going to be a cracker of a final.
05:02OK, and I think Satish has joined us. Are you there, Satish?
05:05Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry for the delay, sorry.
05:08That's OK. As a Chennai boy, I think you want to respond to that. How do you see that?
05:14Even I was a bit taken aback when Sahil said he didn't back Chennai.
05:20Hardcore fan more than me. No, jokes apart, I think Kolkata has had two very close games.
05:28Number one, they played in Sharjah, which was a tailor-made for their bowlers.
05:33Now, in Dubai, it could not be the same wicket. The wicket could be different.
05:38It might not spin the way it has done here, though these are slow wickets.
05:42The difference is in the bounce. Sharjah is a slow wicket, which will have a lower bounce,
05:47which will help the spinners of KKR. Whereas in Dubai, it will have a slightly higher bounce,
05:54even though the ball is slow. So that makes a huge difference in terms of playing the spinner.
06:01But again, just to go back, you had Delhi accelerated their knock a little bit earlier
06:08in the innings instead of playing it too safely. Another 10, 15 runs could have made a big
06:12difference. But having said that, huge credit to KKR for having reached the final. It is again,
06:18like I've been telling this, the top three batsmen have been scoring runs. Once the top
06:23three have been removed, the middle order is pretty, pretty weak. So in a final like this,
06:29it is going to be very difficult. So anyway, I'm looking forward to the final. And
06:36as any day, I would say, I would go back to Chennai.
06:41Okay. And I'll just open it up now, guys, for anything else that anyone wants to add. I mean,
06:46obviously, Pant failed again. It looked like we had another easy game. But now, like we just
06:55mentioned shortly there before, there's been some right nail biters in the last few games. And
06:59hopefully, we can get one more in the final. You see, Matt, these wickets in Shahjah were so
07:05difficult to bat. So like you mentioned that Delhi were slower, like Satish mentioned, they scored
07:12less. But mind you, when KKR came on to bat, batting was much easier. The ball was coming
07:16on to the bat like a football. And the way the openers got off to the start, Delhi were struggling
07:22when they were opening. They just somehow managed to reach that score, thanks to late hitting by
07:27Shreyas Iyer, and to that no ball which Varun Chakravorty bowled. Otherwise, that Hetmayar
07:32wouldn't have been able to hit two sixes. But that's, there are no ifs and buts. But having said
07:36that, what I am not happy about Delhi is they're changing players. In the last four games, they've
07:43changed four players. Let me remind you, in the last match, they replaced Tom Curran.
07:51With this match, they had Stoinis, who came back after a hamstring injury. Now I understand he's
07:57a big match player. But it's a big risk. And you saw him, he was in the massage room. Then before
08:03Tom Curran, you had Ripal Patel. Then before Ripal Patel, you had that offee from Delhi, I can't
08:09remember his name. Four changes in the last five games. It's asking for too much. Whereas you
08:14see CSK, they stick to their core player. Bearing Suresh Raina, they took Robin Uthappa and they
08:21backed him in spite of two failures and then he delivered. So these are small things which I'm
08:26sure Delhi will learn. Ponting is an experienced campaigner. He's won a couple of World Cups for
08:30Australia. It's just that, to get their act, this is a young side, they must be deflated today.
08:35But I'm sure next time they would be lucky and they would cross the hurdle.
08:40Okay. Yeah, anyone else? Anything to add there? I mean, I just think,
08:44otherwise we can wrap it up. I think that's all.
08:46Yeah, I mean, to me, Delhi are exhibiting the traits of a classic choking. Big match,
08:54we choke at the hurdle. I mean, this has been what we've seen even last year also. They came
08:59to the final and were completely blown away in the final. I think they will need one major
09:07win under their belt before they start delivering, especially in knockout games.
09:18I think the captaincy also came into the picture, isn't it? Morgan's captaincy
09:24versus Perth's captaincy. I think that's where that difference came in also, Shyam, isn't it?
09:29Yeah, bang on. That's very, very true, actually. Because the way Morgan was bringing the changes
09:35and I know you wouldn't expect Perth to be in the same class in the same place. First year,
09:39first major captaincy. Yeah, maybe. I, in fact, even thought Nokia should have been in the game
09:47a little earlier than what you did.
09:50I think it's a good…
09:52You can't expect drop catches in such a slow-scoring game.
09:55Correct. Absolutely. Absolutely.
09:57Yeah, if you're coming down to the final ball, these tiny little things can prove to be absolutely
10:04vital. So, yeah, I think we can wrap it up there, guys, unless anyone has anything vital to say.
10:11Sahil, who's going to win? CSK or KKR? Come on now. You have both favourite teams.
10:15All right.
10:15Put your hand up for one team. You can't put both hands.
10:19Okay, we'll do the rounds then. Shyam, who's going to win?
10:22Come on, everybody put up their hands. Sahil, who do you say is going to win?
10:26I don't know. I already got confused. CSK.
10:30I'm a huge SRK fan, so it's always going to be KKR winning it.
10:33They won against Chennai in 2012. So, history will repeat.
10:42Satish, you said CSK. Shyam?
10:45Yeah, I mean, CSK looks formidable. But I think
10:49Kolkata will win simply because they seem to be lucky. They seem to be pulling off
10:54last-gap wins. Maybe even the final could be a last-gap win.
10:58You never know, Shyam. You might not be third-time lucky.
11:04Never knowing. I don't know.
11:05Matt, you are the neutral guy. You have to pick up.
11:09Well, I mean, I tipped RCB at the start, but I also strongly fancied Chennai. I thought they
11:16would do quite well. Obviously, they've been through that wobble. They got a good win last
11:21time, and I think that they might get over the line.
11:24Just like how RCB is out, CSK will be too.
11:29Right, boys. I shall wrap it up there. Thank you, everybody, for joining us here at Gulf News.
11:37As usual, you can log on to gulfnews.com for all our reviews, analysis, previews,
11:43and obviously our live coverage as well. We shall see you on Friday for the final.