Chennai Super Kings are beginning to look like their consistent selves of the past as they got the better of Kolkata Knight Riders by 18 runs in the second game of the day in Mumbai.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Matt sounded like dramatic, looked like dramatic, but to be very honest, KKR were always chasing the game.
00:14Hi guys and welcome once again to Straight Back with Mr Cricket UAE. That is, of course, as you all know, Anish Sajjan.
00:20We're joined today again by his son, Saheel, and also Amsham from Gulf News, along with myself, Matt Smith.
00:25We had our second doubleheader today, a hectic day all round, but first we'll go over to Anish and say hi.
00:32Hello, Matt and hello, Amsham and hello, Saheel. Hello, beautiful people of Gulf News community.
00:38I hope you're logging onto our page and predicting the winner. We are having exciting matches every
00:42day and you guys can walk away with this beautiful jacket and three months of subscription from Gulf News.
00:50Thank you and again, thanks for saying we're beautiful. I always like that.
00:54So we had two games, very chalk and cheese games today. Sunrisers eased to a very comfortable,
01:01low-scoring victory over Punjab and then there was a much more dramatic one that's just finished
01:06between Chennai Super Kings and KKR. Chennai put up, I think, the highest score so far in this year's
01:13competition and KKR almost got there thanks to some dramatic late batting. Obviously,
01:19you can take us through that match first there, Anish, and see what you think about that one.
01:24Thank you, Matt. The match sounded like dramatic, looked like dramatic, but to be very honest,
01:29KKR were always chasing the game once they were 30-5 because chasing 220 and we are 30-5
01:36is very difficult to come back. But they came back thanks to the blitz by Andrew Russell,
01:40who came back on his own on this one-kidded stadium. I said that this type of wicket will
01:44help him and then a little help from Dinesh Karthik and last but not the least from Pat
01:50Cummins on whom they've invested almost 15 crore Indian rupees. He proved that he can also bat
01:54and he almost won the game. But credit to CSK, they held their nerves, they fielded well at
02:00the right time and ensured a victory by 18 runs is a very comfortable victory, I would say.
02:07Absolutely, and we'll come over to Sham in a sec. Obviously, there was a little wobble towards
02:12the end there. I think it was the 16th over where Sam Curran got hit for 30 runs off Cummins,
02:18I think. A lot of teams maybe could have had a bit of a shaky nerve and lose the bottle at that
02:25point. But Sham, as Anas just said, they held their nerve. Yes, in fact, it was the 16th over,
02:34that over with four or five sixes there from Curran. Actually, that was the one which gave
02:42Calcutta SNIFF a chance. Otherwise, till that point, they were never in the game. Despite
02:48DK's big hitting, despite Russell's big hitting, they're still chasing their tails, actually.
02:54So, that particular over gave them a chance. But even then, like Anis said, it was an uphill
03:01climb because Cummins was batting with tailenders. So, you just need a couple of balls to get them
03:06out. But I would say even Nagat Modi made a mistake of going for the big hit rather than
03:13giving them a strike more. Even at that point, they were 40 off 20 balls or something like that.
03:20So, there were enough balls for Cummins to play. But I think Nagat Modi made the mistake of going
03:26for the big shot and got out. But like Anis said, yes, CSK had the match pretty much under control.
03:35The only question was, will they lose their nerve? I mean, if Dhoni is around, they can't lose their
03:40nerve. If you look at it, 16th over, you get Sam Curran taken to the cleaners. And two
03:49hours later, again, he hands the ball back to him. That is Dhoni for you.
03:54Yeah, it's good to just mention that to Sahil, actually. Dhoni came in and he actually had a
03:58quick word with Curran. I think he got hit by another six. He came in and added another word.
04:05And then they got that crucial tail end wicket. So, Sahil, I mean, do you think that this is
04:13showing good strength of character for Chennai now to get a game like this under their belt?
04:17And also, what does it do for KKR's confidence, having got a 200 score on the board but still
04:23losing? First of all, like Mr. Shyam said, when you have Dhoni in it, you have the nerves to win
04:31the game. Come on. Like, he's captain cool. Even though after Sam Curran going for 30 runs in one
04:35over, did Dhoni say anything? No. He said, relax. There was a strategic time and he was relaxing
04:41his ball. Shardul was also going for runs. He didn't say anything. That's why he's termed
04:44captain cool. And yes, and good to see Dhoni getting some runs also for the bat. Quick runs,
04:50you know. So, credit to him. And yes, they kept their cool. You know, I just have to admire,
04:56I have to say that I have to admire Pat Cummins' innings, really. It was not like he was just
05:00hitting it. He was timing the ball to perfection and he took everyone out of the park. And fast
05:06for KKR, yes, their confidence is low. I mean, personally, I don't find them that don't have a
05:12great squad. Captain Morgan, he's one of my favourite players, I have to say. But
05:16fortunately, he has been absolutely terrible with the bat. He's not been great with his
05:21captaincy. And he must be also thinking, oh my God, my main bowler Pat Cummins going for four
05:25overs, 58 runs. He must be thinking, oh God, what am I supposed to do now? He brought in Sunil
05:30Lyonsder and Shakib. That did not work out at all. What can they do now? KKR looking out of shape.
05:37But Sahil, I think you should be happy, simply because you were worried about KKR yesterday.
05:43They say, you said their batting is misfiring. I mean, you were saying that Russell was not doing
05:50well. Here you are, Russell showed who he is today. I mean, if it was not for a bad
05:54misjudgment, I think that would have been a bit of an interesting end. Because if he had
06:03Russell and Cummins coming together in this form, you don't know what would have happened.
06:08Honestly, yes, I guess you can say, yeah, Russell did bat well. But after how long you're seeing
06:12100 Russell bat like this? I want to ask you since last tournament, have you seen him done
06:17anything like this? Last time, I barely saw him do anything. This is his first game after,
06:22I think, 20-odd games. Yeah, I will give credit to him. But he bowled really poorly.
06:29And he got out to a wrong ball. He shouldn't have got out that way.
06:32Sahil, now Dad Dhoni is captaining well. You should be happy. The team you are backing
06:35has been winning. So, be happy. Of course, I am happy. MSD is a fantastic
06:39captain. You have to give full credit to him. He kept his cool.
06:43Dad Dhoni. Dad Dhoni. You have a dad and you have Dhoni.
06:46We have not even mentioned Faf's show earlier for Chennai that actually kind of set them up.
06:56That's what set the stage for this really strong innings. If you look at the way that they were
07:02batting, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, quite solid numbers all the way through even to,
07:06as Sahil said, even Dhoni got into the double figures. And there was no way back for KR from
07:13that point. Faf, Rituraj, even Moeen again getting a good quarter century in there.
07:21That's what they have improved compared to last year, Matt. You see, last year,
07:25they were struggling to get a good start with Watson and Faf not able to fire.
07:30This time, even though Rituraj has been struggling, today he kept his composure. And mind you,
07:35his shots were jaw-dropping. His cover drives were really a treat to watch with the eyes.
07:41And Faf is an experienced campaigner. He showed why he is one of the best in the shortest format.
07:47Scored a brilliant 95. Very unlucky to miss out on 100. But the platform set by both the
07:52openers laid the foundation for the rest to go for big runs. And 220 is always daunting
07:58for an opposition. Okay, no score is safe on a Wankhede stadium. But 220 and when you have
08:03a captain like Dhoni, you can believe that they can defend 8 out of 10 times.
08:11Okay. And Satish, I was just going to say, we just mentioned Dhoni getting 17.
08:20Moeen has been this almost an unsung hero for Chennai as well. He seems to be almost
08:25putting himself back into the English. By the way, we have Gautam also with us,
08:28just for your knowledge. We've missed out on him. Okay. Hi, Gautam.
08:34Hi, guys. We were just running through the… Gautam must be disappointed. He's a silent man.
08:39KKR is blown away again. Gautam, we need to hear from you what went wrong. No, I'm not really
08:45disappointed. I think we have discussed, we have touched upon virtually all the points.
08:52See, obviously, the good thing about Chennai is they're looking like the Chennai as we know them.
08:58But a few, you know, the takeaways from Dhoni's captaincy, I'll say that,
09:03you know, you don't take knee-jerk reactions on the basis of one game or two games.
09:09Nituraj in the last three matches, he got 5-5-10. Today, he was, you know, he really played a classy
09:17innings. Now, if you look at KKR, the problem with KKR is, you know, they have got a very,
09:24very demanding fan base here. There are already, I mean, just to fill you in, there are already
09:30muted calls for his head because as Sahil said that he hasn't been getting runs.
09:36His captaincy, like if he has a plan A, from there, he possibly doesn't show the
09:42inclination to switch to plan B. He's a World Cup winning captain. That's why you can't,
09:48you know, you have to give him that long rope. Like today, you know, this Sunil Narine,
09:55he got a fair bit of respect from the Chennai batsmen. But if you have to keep a middle order
10:01who can chase or can go anywhere near the 200-plus, then you ought to have played Sakibal Hassan,
10:07I think. If you really want to add some meat to your batting, what happened was a complete fluke,
10:14that six-wicket partnership of 81 between Russell and Karthik, it doesn't happen every day. And then
10:21Cummins was amazing. I mean, he showed he has some 60-odd in the test,
10:26but he showed that he can really tong the ball. But they were always up against him.
10:33Do we think that maybe, obviously, does that score flatter them? Considering that
10:40they were five for 31 or whatever it was that you mentioned earlier?
10:44I think that score could have been a little flattering for them. I mean, it's always get 200
10:51on the board, but we never got nothing to lose. You know, you can play with a lot more freedom.
10:58Okey-dokey. Now, very quickly, we'll look at the earlier games. Obviously,
11:03those two games today, it was much more of a one-sided affair. Sunrisers had an easy chase,
11:10they chased down 120, I think it was eight balls to spare. But again, it didn't really look as
11:17though that was ever really in doubt. Anis, do you think that we're seeing Sunrisers that can
11:24contend this year? Well, Sunrisers definitely had the experience of playing at Chennai,
11:30and they read the wicket better than probably Rahul, even though he won the toss and decided
11:35to bat. But they did not learn from what Delhi learned playing against Mumbai. When they knew
11:40that you have selected to bat first, they should have aimed for a total of around 140 to 150.
11:46By scoring 120, you're always behind the game. And what smartness Sunrisers did was,
11:53they took the game deep, but made sure they'd lost only one wicket. And that's why the victory
11:59looks very comprehensive. But had, you know, there are no ifs and buts, but a 20 runs extra
12:03in the bank would have put pressure on Sunrisers because they had lost three games chasing,
12:08and it would have been the back of the mind. And mind you, they had Williamson today,
12:11so they controlled the game in the middle and finished the game quite comfortably in the end.
12:16And again, Sahil Sham, Johnny Bairstow and Warner both delivering with the back again.
12:22Are we getting more people that are justifying their price tags alongside
12:27Morris and who did we mention the other day as well? Maxwell, justifying their places in the team.
12:35No, this is different. I mean, these guys are veterans. They are proven customers. They have
12:41been doing the same thing for Sunrisers over the last few seasons. Here is the Chennai wicket,
12:52and the thing is, they played it very nicely. Even 120 is difficult on this wicket. What they
12:58did was just they got all the most of their runs in the power play so that they could take it easy
13:06or when the going got tough. And at several points, they were just taking singles and just
13:11pushing it along, making sure that they don't lose the biggest. In fact, they had a 73 on the
13:16board by the time Warner left and Kane Williamson is a old waffle that he knows how to handle the
13:23situation. He just kept rotating the strike. And they were home and dry pretty easily. And actually,
13:29although it looked easy, I thought it was not as easy as they actually had to struggle for it.
13:34But what they did was they padded sensibly, very smartly and played cerebral cricket.
13:40I would say that Ion Morgan should learn from this because this is the way to play the Chennai
13:45wicket, actually.
13:47Okay. And Saheel, where does this leave Punjab, do we think? Because they started strongly.
13:53They got a great win in their first match, but now they seem to be having a little bit of a crisis.
13:59You know, when I saw their starting XI, they took out their two foreign bowlers, Meredith and
14:04Jai Richardson. I was like, okay, who's going to bowl for them? Who's their main bowler?
14:08I was like, okay, I don't know where they're at. They're like KKR. They don't know who their
14:12squad is, to be honest. And for Sunrisers, they should be grateful that Warner and
14:18Johnny Bester got them to a 70-for-1. If, suppose if Warner and Bester got out early in the first
14:23or second over, I don't think Sunrisers would have chased it. And they're grateful that Kane
14:27Williamson is back fit. He took it till the end and won the game for them.
14:31To get them over the line. Cool. Gautam, what's your takeaway? Now that we've had a couple of
14:36doubleheaders and everybody's got a few games in the bank now, we can actually throw this open to
14:41everybody. Where do we stand now that we're into the second week of the competition?
14:47No, it's still early days. But what's happening is, I think Chennai is certainly, you know,
14:54crystallizing into the team. They've filled up those holes very well. I mean, Moeen Ali is
15:01providing with the X-Factor at No. 3, as well as his tight off-spin. And so, if you've got
15:08Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, then Ambati Raidu, and then Dhoni is, you know, today he came up at No. 4.
15:17So, it showed that, you know, he is getting that, you know, he knows best, you know, like
15:23how his game is going. So, that's why he could come in at No. 4 and give it a final push.
15:28It was a bit of a slog, but he's definitely looking in better shape than what he was in the UAE.
15:37So, they are the teams to look out for. Mumbai, of course, are Mumbai. But Rohit has given some,
15:45you know, warning signals to his batsmen that every match, we can't be defending this modest
15:50total. So, you need to up your game. And of course, RCB, they're looking too good to be true. I mean,
15:57it's just, you know, three out of three. So, these three are definitely there. And then we'll see,
16:02there'll be a lot of changes in the shuffle. I mean, you can't rule out Hyderabad either.
16:07They're a very, very resilient team. And today, as Sahil said, I mean, the return of Kane,
16:14I mean, he works as a kind of pivot that you don't even know that, you know,
16:19and these low-scoring games, he's absolutely a gem.
16:25Anybody get anything else, Sahil? Do you think, I mean, we didn't mention DC there
16:31in that lot. Surely, you think of something about them?
16:37Sahil?
16:41Yeah, of course. I had mentioned earlier that DC are title contenders. Like I said,
16:45look at their squad depth, man. Like Ajinkya Rane doesn't fit in their lineup. You know,
16:50Steve Smith somehow fits into the team, you know. And Nokia, he's a top bowler. He had a fantastic
16:56season last year. He also can't get a spot. So, I think Delhi are definitely title contenders.
17:02How are you going to beat my team? How are you going to beat my team, RCB? Sahil,
17:05you have no chance to beat RCB. Think about, plan to beat my team, RCB.
17:08No, but Anish, I thought Bombay was your team.
17:13Bombay is always my team. But RCB is my favorite.
17:20Oh, setting on the fence.
17:28Shyam is also supporting RCB.
17:31No, see, I am an RCB supporter, but I think Mumbai will win.
17:37Yeah, looks like. At the moment, they look the team to beat. It's going to be fun.
17:42We'll see if people start wearing their colors on their sleeves a bit more as we get towards
17:47the playoffs or in risk of possibly missing out on the playoffs. That's great. That's great, guys.
17:55But again, like Gautam said, this is early days. If you look at the last edition in UE,
18:00the whole league turned on its end.
18:05Yeah, there was, I can't remember, it was one of the teams made a push right from the bottom
18:08of the table and made it to the playoffs.
18:10Hyderabad, you're talking.
18:11That was Punjab, Punjab, Punjab.
18:13Punjab also. Punjab, yeah.
18:15Punjab, I think, had four wins or five wins.
18:17They had a five-match win streak, which brought them back into the reckoning. But again,
18:21they just fell by, they just barely missed it.
18:26And also, the other odd thing this season is as we move from, we're moving from one
18:32location to the other. And that will put another spin on this competition as well,
18:37as people have to adapt to different conditions for a period of time away from home.
18:42Brilliant. Great show, Matt, today. Bye-bye.
18:46And we'll just say, guys, everybody, again, thanks for listening. And we'll just say,
18:50don't forget to log on to our Facebook for our competition. You name who you think is
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18:59and a three-month subscription at Golf News. So thanks very much. Thanks, Shams, Ahil.
19:06Thank you, guys. Thanks, Shams. Thanks, Matt. Bye-bye.
19:20Bye-bye.