Three teams left out of ten…. one team from Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad will play the final and KKR has already reached the final. In terms of fan following, KKR has the most craze among them and their fans have already considered their team as the champion. Is KKR really going to become champion this time?
Talked to KKR fast bowler Harshit Rana in the afternoon at around 1 o’clock. He told that our practice session is about to start and it will continue till night. Players practiced vigorously in different groups. The biggest quality of this team is that it has learned to overcome their weaknesses. Their weaknesses are proved to be their strengths. Mitchell Starc’s condition was like that of an expensive pet elephant till a few days ago, but on one important occasion, Starc made the team win. He dismissed Travis Head, Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed in the powerplay in Qualifier-1. He found Head on late outward movement, Nitish Reddy on a changed length and Shahbaz on a ball that was almost on the cross seam.
Secondly, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer was sometimes proving to be the weak link of his team but he was also successful in making the team’s victory easy by scoring a half century at a strike rate of 242 on that occasion. Thirdly, after the departure of Phil Salt, it seemed that his absence was going to be costly for the team as the Gurbaz who was included in his place had a strike rate of around 135 last year and other recent performances in the shortest format are not fruitful. Irrespective of all these things, Gurbaz impressed with his mark in his short inning. Venkatesh Iyer has been impressing with his excellent batting since the beginning.
The second qualifier and final is in Chennai. It is true that CSK is out of contention this time, hence too much spin track cannot be expected, but in the matches held in Chennai so far, the spinners may not have got as many wickets as the fast bowlers, but spinners bowled with tight lines and lengths. KKR and Rajasthan Royals are going to benefit more from these situations. While Sunil Narine has controlled the runs well, Varun Chakravarthy has shown his ability to take wickets. Similarly, for RR, Ashwin should focus on off-spin bowling only. He is never able to impress with his defensive mindset. Chahal will also have to regain the form of the initial matches. SRH is weak in this area. Left arm spinner Shahbaz has been able to take only three wickets in 14 matches, while Vijayakanth, who came from Sri Lanka, has taken only one wicket in three matches. It would be better if SRH trusts Mayank Markandey and local boy Washington Sundar in the important match.
Trent Boult showed in the last match that no pre-decided strategy can be made against him. Faf and Virat wanted to step out and play them in front so that they are not given much chance to swing, but Boult did not allow these two openers to play by changing his length. Avesh Khan completely stopped RCB from scoring big by taking three wickets.
Rajasthan’s biggest problem is their middle order. Sanju could not walk in the last three innings. The team is completely dependent on Riyan Parag. If both the West Indies batsmen – Hetmyer and Rovman Powell played a good cameo role in the last match, then they will have to do the same in the qualifiers. Without the strong middle order, this team cannot reach the finals relying only on bowlers. SRH’s reliance on the top order has also proved costly.
