Ambati Rayudu’s counter-offensive lone bright spot for sloppy Chennai
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00:00I can say what I said a couple of weeks ago, when I saw Arar sending Ashwin at number three,
00:06and today I saw Mitchell Santner again coming at number three.
00:09I believe probably he wore the cap of Sanju Samson and captained the side today.
00:22Good evening. Welcome to yet another episode of
00:26Straight Bad with Gulf News and Mr Cricket UAE, that is Anish Sajan.
00:30Today we have got a panel, you know, we have converged after a rather gripping game.
00:36We have got the man himself, Mr Anish Sajan. We have got the Gulf News sports editor,
00:41aka Satish, and two of the fans from the rival teams, Anmol Verma, who will be understandably
00:48happy after the, you know, Punjab Kings pulled off a close one. And of course, we have got our
00:55knowledgeable friend Arjun from, you know, who is a diehard fan of Chennai Super Kings.
01:02First up, I'll come to Anish Bhai. How do you sum up the match, a tight one and enjoyable one,
01:08I reckon? Thank you, Gautam. Hello, Satish. Hello, Anmol. Hello, Arjun. And hello to all the
01:13lovely people of Gulf News. Well, to sum up, I can say what I said a couple of weeks ago,
01:19when I saw Arar sending Ashwin at number three, and today I saw Mitchell Santner again coming at
01:24number three. I believe probably he wore the cap of Sanju Samson and captained the side today.
01:29Firstly, when he was bowling, Santner bowled two overs for eight runs, and he doesn't get to bowl
01:34four overs. He did this in the last game also against Mumbai, where he bowled only two overs.
01:38And what you see baffles me, that after, you know, Uttappa got out, you see Santner coming
01:45in the left-hander to take strike. I have never seen Santner coming so early. Maybe he must be
01:50doing it in the domestic for New Zealand. And then when you mess up with the power play, you can't
01:56expect Santner, okay, if it comes off, it comes off. But he's not your pinch hitter. Come on, guys.
02:00And then when Raidu brought them back into the game, it was again Jadeja who messed up with the
02:05bat this time, was trying to hit the ball hard. I don't know, when you know when MS Dhoni has
02:09finished the game last time, why are you coming ahead of him and messing up a winning game?
02:13So CSK have themselves to blame. Maybe it is Jadeja's decision, whose decision, I don't know.
02:18But it's a decision which has cost them the game.
02:22Right. That's your spot on, I think. I will come to Anmol with this. You know, Anmol,
02:29it's not that, you know, it, you know, it changes the position of Punjab Kings appreciably. But after
02:37three, you know, back-to-back losses, if you have won a close game, which you pulled off with,
02:42you know, with an 11-run margin, it does give your morale a boost. And there are quite a few
02:49things which you have done right today. How do you sum it up, Anmol? Yes, firstly, I am very happy
02:55with the performance of Punjab Kings. And I'm very happy with each of the Punjabi squad, that
03:02how they have played today. Firstly, to start with Dhawan. Actually, I know this is a T20 game,
03:08but he's an ODI player. And he played the right way on the, in this pitch, as this pitch was
03:14performing and this pitch was so slow. And he required a lot of class to time the ball. And
03:21he played with the, and he played with the feel. And something as he, so does often in the ODIs.
03:28And to sum up that everything was good with Punjab today. Some Raidu masterclass was there
03:35in between. That was a negative side. But Arshadib did a quite good job. He deserved
03:41all the respect. He deserved all the credit, which he has done in today's match.
03:47Right. Okay, I'll come to Arjun. Arjun, what do you think, did you fancy the chances of CSK,
03:58to be very honest, when finally they were left to get as much as 27 runs in the last over? Yes,
04:04of course, MSD was there. But then as Anisbhai said, I mean, MSD had come in at a time
04:10when things had only got difficult. What do you think, Arjun?
04:16You know, I think the last over, it was already gone by that time. 27 runs, you can't even get
04:22that in a video game. So, I think what they should have done different is their opening.
04:30And I say this a lot. It's because CSK always starts horribly in the powerplay. They can only
04:37get, sometimes they get above 30 runs. But most of the times, even less than 30 runs.
04:44They need a strong opening lineup. They can't always rely on Dhoni to finish it.
04:51Of course, Raidu played an absolutely amazing innings. I love that one over where it was like
04:564-6-6-6-6-4. And even though he was injured, I think Raidu did a good job. But CSK needs
05:06a better batsman. I'm sure we can somewhat groom Dubey into a good batsman. And Gaikwad,
05:13of course, he can, once he gets in form, of course, he's very, very deadly. But
05:20yeah, today's match, at this point, CSK fans are just watching CSK matches for fun.
05:26They just want to see the players play. No pressure. Yeah, yeah. Dhoni. Yeah.
05:31Right, right. On that note, I'll come to Satish. Satish, a few things in this match,
05:37you know, which I'd like to pick your brains about. I mean, the normal cricketing intelligence
05:43doesn't ever go out of fashion. One, of course, the way we saw Shikhar Dhawan pacing his innings.
05:50Subsequently, you know, you've got Sandeep Sharma, who has played over 100
05:56IPL matches. This is his second stint with Punjab Kings. The over where Raidu took him on,
06:07I mean, the way, the balls that he was pitching, it was just in the slot for Raidu to hit all over
06:12the place. Now, the same, you know, when Arshdeep comes, bowling under pressure, such a difference
06:20he had been able to make. So if you can just talk about this normal cricketing intelligence,
06:25whether you're playing a T20 or whatever you're playing, that always works. What do you feel,
06:30Satish, about it? Gautam, that over, I won't really bother much because, yeah, obviously,
06:38like when the opponents are going to throw the bat at you, sometime or the other, they are likely
06:43to click. That's probably only one over. But if you look at from the other side, Chennai has been
06:51almost, they have bowled 22.2 overs. If you look at, they have bowled 11 wides. And a bowler like
06:59Bravo, I think that is where the team lost more than the other side. I think Punjab did everything
07:08right. And I'm quite happy with the way Mayank rotated his bowlers. He brought in, made the right
07:13changes. When he started putting pressure at a time when Raidu and Rituraj were going together,
07:22he brought in Arshdeep and Rabada again back to put more pressure on them to get that wicket.
07:27So I think that everything was done well by Punjab. And I think one over of Sandeep Sharma,
07:34whether you played 100 T20s or 200 T20s, it doesn't matter because obviously,
07:42it's going to come at some stage and Sandeep Sharma doesn't have the pace to
07:46trouble the batters. And I think the Chennai Super Kings made their homework so that they
07:51wanted to attack him. And it paid off. But the fact remains that Bravo has played more than
08:01200 T20s that he was playing the ball. 500 wickets. Yeah.
08:06He was literally bowling outside the pitch to be called a no-ball. And I seriously don't
08:15understand where they went wrong. Their fielding was not up to the mark. I'm getting the feeling
08:21that this is the Chennai that was there two years ago when they were absolutely clueless. Because
08:27if you look at one over where there was a mid-off and two balls were bowled on the slot for Shikhar
08:35they want to play those drives. So all these matter. Who's the captain, Satish? Who's to
08:40be blamed? Will you again say that MS Dhoni is driving the shots? No way. It is Jadeja, of course.
08:46Can you just give me one justification of Santner coming at number three? Does it make sense?
08:53I don't know. Maybe if Mohin Ali was playing at number three, he was a far
08:59recognized batsman than Santner. Satish, you cannot compare Santner to Mohin Ali.
09:02Exactly. What is the logic of sending him at number three? For God's sake,
09:07can anybody tell me? Gautam, Arjun, I have no idea. I'll come to Anisbhai about it. I mean,
09:15Anisbhai, this cricketing part is there. But at the same time, Liam Livingstone, I just like to
09:22speak a bit about him. He's the guy who made the difference in the first leg match against the
09:28same opponents. And today, that 19 runs of 77 balls. Once again, he had proved himself to be,
09:35though he got clobbered while he was bowling. He had, you know, kind of cemented his place.
09:42What do you feel about Liam Livingstone, Anisbhai? Well, Punjab has been surviving in this tournament
09:48because of two players batting. One is Livingstone and one is Rajapaksha. Finally, better sense
09:52prevailed that they got Rajapaksha. Okay, not because he scored, he would have failed also,
09:56because he's coming back after five matches, after scoring well in the first two games.
10:00Yeah, two catches were dropped early in the innings.
10:04Having said that, you see, the momentum was built in the end by Dhawan and Livingstone.
10:14But the platform was given by Rajapaksha and Dhawan. I would still say that he should open
10:20the innings, Rajapaksha. Because he's a guy who can utilize the powerplay. You want to maximize
10:25the powerplay. Powerplay is like gold. If you don't make runs in the powerplay, you are misusing
10:31it. Okay, you might lose Rajapaksha for a duck. But then you play the same game what you played
10:35today, what Mayank and Dhawan did. Right. And Anisbhai, another thing here. See, we are
10:44criticizing Chennai Super Kings fine. But you know, with more than half your league matches gone,
10:51when you have played seven, eight matches, and you know that you don't have a hope in hell,
10:56you know, for really to make it. How difficult is it for a team to strategize right and go through
11:03with the rest of the matches that okay, you finish fifth or sixth in the table? I mean,
11:08how practical is it for a team which has won four titles? I mean, does a kind of sense of
11:14resignation set in somewhere? I wouldn't be able to, you know, justify whether
11:19resignation has set in. But yes, your moral is down. And we can, to be very honest, in this
11:24whole tournament, Chennai has won two games. And mind you, both two games, the last game,
11:29especially against Mumbai, they've won from nowhere. That is because MS Dhoni could play
11:34that knock in the last two. The one game which they won against RCB was with ease. That also,
11:40I felt that if DK, there are no ifs and buts, but DK almost took them there. They have forgotten
11:45how to win. But the fact remains that CSK this time under Ravindra Jadeja has looked as clueless
11:52as I would say that Mumbai has been this time with the likes of Ishan and Rohit.
11:58Right. I'll come to Satish about it. Satish, I'll come to Arjun. I'll definitely come to you
12:04after this. Satish, see, I remember we having a discussion. You know, it was a hurriedly convinced
12:11program when MSD had stepped down at the 11th hour and Jadeja was made the captain. And I
12:18remember Anisbhai saying that it's going to make quite a difference. So we thought that, okay,
12:23I mean, Dhoni will be there. You know, his mentorship will be there. But Jadeja hardly
12:30got, I mean, in fits and starts, maybe he was doing the right thing. But overall, he had been
12:34bit of a disaster as a captain. Satish, your take on that? It's so disastrous that the entire team
12:43looks clueless, Gautam. They do the basics wrong. You don't drop catches. At least, you know,
12:49like every match, there have been three to four catches dropped. You don't let the ball go through
12:53your legs and hands and fingers and everything. These are some of the elementary mistakes.
12:58Whether it is… Again, that shows what an important role Dhoni has played. Because
13:03six players from the team that won last year are still there. But still, Jadeja is not able to
13:11make them into a cohesive winning unit. And I think they need to go back to the drawing board
13:17and see where they are going wrong. Absolutely. It's not about the skills. Everybody had the
13:23skills. But I think, mentally, they are not in the game. That's what I get this feeling. Though
13:29I am a hardcore Chennai fan and I don't think that it is justified because they have won four
13:34titles. But still, these are some of the elementary stuff which even a club cricketer would be
13:41pulled up if they don't do that well. Satish, here, I mean, before I go to Arjun, one quick
13:48thing I want to ask you. That is, you see, I mean, it may sound odd but the fact remains that
13:56we speak about MSD's leadership skills. We speak about his finishing skills. The last match is
14:02still fresh in memory. But when you take a decision as important as that, say, seven days before the
14:11tournament starts, so we don't know, at least I don't know what was the trigger or whether he
14:18wanted to keep this for the last and pull off that one. Now, doesn't the team management
14:26come to a decision? I mean, is the individual greater than the team that you suddenly feel
14:32like stepping down when the entire hype had been built with a person X as the leader and you have
14:39got Jadeja. And finally, you know, we are laying the blame at the doorstep of Jadeja. So how fair
14:48is that? I mean, you know, the team works. Basically, CSK has given everything to MSD.
14:55You know, he runs the show. You know better than I do. Now, do you think that individual's
15:01preferences should take precedence over this? What do you feel about it?
15:08I don't think it's an individual decision, Gautam. It's a team management decision and
15:12they must have spoken about it. Yes, they came in at 11th hour as something different. But
15:18we are blaming Jadeja because he accepted to be the captain. He could have very well said,
15:22no, I don't want to be the captain. But he said, yes, I will be there.
15:26Then we are looking at possibly a leadership crisis for a team which bonds so well like CSK.
15:38But in that case, they could have even given it to Bravo. He's been a West Indies captain.
15:41So that's what, it's a collective decision, team management, they have come with a decision to
15:48maybe groom Jadeja for the next year. But that is fine. See, again, that's what even if Dhoni
15:55was there today, will you tell Bravo to bowl on the stumps? Is it possible? Is it necessary?
16:02That is true. That is true. Your team is, you know, the captain is as good as his team,
16:06you cannot deny that. So these are, you can't tell these players to take those simple catches
16:11that come their way. And you can't know like, these are something, that's what I keep telling
16:15you. These are elementary where even the one thing which I would say blame Jadeja is, with this
16:21pressure, he was a bit clueless in his game. His bowling has failed, his batting has failed,
16:27even his fielding has failed where he has been dropping catches. Apart from that,
16:31the captaincy per se, not much can be done because the players have to take responsibility
16:37themselves because they are all professionals right now. Yes, Arjun, you were saying something?
16:44Yeah, about the captaincy. I think it's wrong to blame Dhoni for all this. He's a human being
16:54after all. Like, you can't expect him to captain forever. He's in his 40s now. I think Jadeja
17:02should take the blame. He can be a good captain. It's not like you're born with these kind of
17:09skills. You have to learn these kind of skills. And I think Dhoni as a mentor or coach would be
17:15a much better idea than still keeping him in the team. Because Jadeja needs to be groomed into that
17:21kind of captain. He won't be as good as Dhoni, of course. But we still need a good captain to
17:28run CSK. It's not like we're just going to go with a backup plan and choose Bravo. We need Jadeja
17:34and he needs to become better as a captain. Yes. I mean, he will possibly grow into the role. He
17:45has spent more than a decade in international cricket. You're right. I get your point. Yes,
17:50I will come to Anisbhai now. Anisbhai, a quick word about the competition which we are running.
17:56We still have more than a month to go of the tournament. If we just quickly run through
18:01and then we will talk about tomorrow's game, an important one. Well, the prediction you've got to
18:06make about every match, who's going to win the match. I predicted today's Chinna is going to win.
18:10That's why I'm very, very upset. But the fact is that this IPL has given us a lot of surprises.
18:16Predict the winner, go on to your favorite page, Gulf News, and you walk away with a T-shirt which
18:20Anmol is wearing along with a track and a cap and a year's digital subscription of Gulf News.
18:26Right. Sounds good. Anisbhai, on that note again, I'll come back to you.
18:32Rajasthan Royals, certainly the team to beat along with Gujarat Titans in the way the league has
18:38gone so far versus RCB. Now, RCB, it's quite critical. I mean, the thing is they're still
18:45on 10 points. But after that 68, you know, they need to regroup quickly and find their bearings
18:52against Rajasthan Royals. How will the task be cut out for them? What do you feel? How the match
18:59is going to pan out? It's going to be difficult. Mind you, last time they were caught on the back
19:03foot by the seam bowling and the fast bowling of Sunrisers. And I wouldn't be surprised if
19:09Rajasthan Royals unleash the same with Bolt, Prasidh Krishna, just to go all out over them.
19:16And we'll have to see how RCB come back. They have been heavily depending this year
19:22on one man, DK, who's been scoring. The top order has been absolutely failing.
19:26Some contribution has come from Faf in one of the innings, a couple of innings, and a little bit
19:31from Maxwell. But I'm afraid the likes of the Virat Kohli's, the Rabat's, they've all failed
19:36badly. And I see our outright favourites to go on to win, even though in the first
19:42match when they played, RCB chased thanks to DK. But I'm not sure it's happening tomorrow.
19:47Right. Satish, your take, please, tomorrow's game?
19:53I think it's going to be Bangalore tomorrow, because Butler has been in amazing form,
20:02but the law of averages could take over sometime.
20:05Why the law of averages did not come in the last seven games? Why it will come tomorrow?
20:09Exactly. I'm just hoping that. Because, you see, it's too good to be true to keep scoring
20:16every game 100, because without Butler, Rajasthan looks clueless, number one. But the number two and
20:21the most important is, second and the most important is, even if they score 220, the
20:28bowling is not sure. They are leaking runs. Two games after scoring 200-plus, they won by
20:3610 runs and 15 runs. That means in bowling, there are some serious issues, despite having
20:43two best spinners in the country at this point in time.
20:47Right. Arjun, your take, please. Rajasthan Royals versus RCB. Who do you think are the favourites?
20:55Like, according to the stats, I think it's going to be Rajasthan Royals. But, you see,
21:01in this kind of tournament, the stats don't really matter, because the table could just
21:07switch any second now. So, actually, I choose RCB, because they've been in good form,
21:15sure, a few times during that. But I think against Rajasthan Royals, like Satish said,
21:23without Ross Butler, they are clueless. Anmol, what's your take? Anmol, I mean,
21:32do you think… I think I'll put this question a little differently to you. Do you think Virat
21:37Kohli is finally going to come good after this string of, you know, the Golden Ducks, etc? We
21:42have spoken at length. We can go on and on about it. But let's just try to find out from you. Do
21:49you think he's waiting to turn the corner tomorrow? Yeah, Virat Kohli. It's been 100
21:55matches without 100. Or even if we say that he's going with a rough patch. But lastly,
22:04I will say to Virat Kohli that a king is a king. And you can't forget his class. But after all,
22:12he deserves to be a rest. He deserves a rest from a tea, from a baggage that he was carrying
22:20from a long time. And he is not performing. That is his mindset or what is going in his mind.
22:28I can't predict that. And I can't say anything about that.
22:33Right. Yes, it's been a bit of a conundrum, as we call it for RCB because they cannot afford to
22:40rest him at a critical stage in this tournament. Because, you know,
22:44one slip here and there, and you always keep hoping that this man comes good, this man comes
22:48good. So, you know, on that note, if you ask me, I will still say that it's difficult to look beyond
22:55Rajasthan Royals and form. But at the same time, as Satish says that, you know, if Butler fails,
23:02then they haven't been tested that much. I mean, because in the lower middle order,
23:07there are people like Yogodarian Pirag, who was good with his cameos, hasn't had taken that
23:13responsibility so far in his three, four years that he had been with Royals. But still, I would
23:19say it will be Royals. And let's see how it goes. And meanwhile, thanks for tuning in with us.
23:26And tomorrow, we'll again come back for another edition of, you know,
23:30our straight back with Gulf News and Mr. Cricket TV.