How and why Sunrisers Hyderabad will win IPL 2018
For all the mess-up that Sunrisers Hyderabad committed in the last phase of the tournament, they have still been a force to be reckoned with in the IPL. Although Chennai Super Kings are veterans when it comes to the final, Sunrisers have enough potential in their ranks to knock them out.
Rashid Khan just too hot to handle
One of the hottest properties in cricket at the moment belongs to Afghanistan. Strange as it may sound, but it has been reaffirmed time and again that Rashid Khan has cemented his position as the best limited-overs spinner in the world and how! Bowling, batting and fielding, in the entire three sections of the game, the aggressive 20-year old from Kabul clicked yesterday to turn the tables on Kolkata Knight Riders and put Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. And CSK would have silently taken notice!
While he was head and shoulders above all the bowlers in the league, at least in terms of impact, he came out all the guns blazing with the bat when Sunrisers were on 134 for 6 with 13 balls left in their innings. Rashid then encountered 10 of those 13 balls and smashed 34 off them, including four sixes and two fours, which literally took the game away from KKR’s grasp. Most importantly, he picked up slower balls with ease and smoked them for boundaries without much effort. Considering CSK’s death bowlers - Dwayne Bravo and Deepak Chahar - rely more on bowling slower and
While it seemed like Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn were in the mood to reduce Rashid's cameo to a mere footnote by guiding the hosts to 67/0 in the Powerplay, the legend-in-the-making came to the fore and tore up the chase with three wickets, including that of Chris Lynn and Andre Russell. After such a performance with both bat and ball, his confidence would be sky high right now and also
MS Dhoni and co’s continual struggle against spin
He was much criticised ahead of the tournament for his lack of form in the T20s, but Virat Kohli always backed the faith that there would be a second wind to Dhoni’s career and that would be really beautiful. While that came in this edition as Dhoni is firing on all cylinders, that was mostly against the pacers, an area that can be exploited by the SRH spinners.
It is a fact to be noted that MSD always use the pace of the ball to smoke any bowler on the leg-side and his apparent weakness on the off-side is a fact well-documented to be repeated here. But, in this IPL, he mostly added that onward trigger movement which is helping his sending the wide yorkers to the backward point boundaries easily. But, with spinners, Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan, the duo have the luxury to not allow Dhoni any room to play those shots, which may result in CSK gaining more pressure.
The former Indian skipper's strike-rate against spin was 107.69 in 2016 and a shockingly low 84.34 last year and although it has improved a bit, as Sandeep Lamichhane and Amit Mishra, found out on the other day, he is still not the best person to teach about how to tackle the spinners. With Rashid spewing venoms like anything, it is SRH who are going to gain the advantage.
Not only Dhoni, CSK top-order, apart from Ambati Rayudu and Suresh Raina to an extent, are not good against spinners and if the pair of Shakib and Rashid can hold two ends up in the middle-overs, it is going to be a herculean effort for the two-time champions to add one more trophy to their cabinet.
Mercurial nature of CSK
The journey has been brilliant no doubt. From a team that no one gave a chance to qualify for the playoffs, MS Dhoni and co. showed the world how big an impact experience can play in the shortest version of the game. But, one thing has been understated is that the senior stars have failed to fire in unison and unlike the CSK of the past, there hasn’t been a sense of inevitability attached to the team this season.
Yes, MS Dhoni and Shane Watson have lived more than the expectations, but there has never been a palpable sense of audacity attached, which may cost them in the final. While one has to salute the way Faf du Plessis paced his innings in the first qualifier against the Sunrisers, he failed to get going in other matches, which made CSK’s life difficult, more often than not. And the whole of the world may term Royal Challengers Bangalore as THE chokers of IPL when it comes to finals, no one does the choking better than CSK. Despite reaching IPL finals 6 times in eight seasons (apart from this one), the MS Dhoni-led franchise has managed to lift the trophy only twice which is indeed an underperformance.
And, with the 2016 champions having champion bowlers like Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Shakib al Hasan in their ranks, they can go all out since the outset to restrict them. But, beware of that one batsman who would once again rise up and will force the world to take notice.
CSK’s lack of death bowler option
Deepak Chahar’s rise as an out and out swing bowler in this IPL has been a story of the IPL and his ability to swing the ball both ways and often get it to skid off the pitch made him MS Dhoni’s go-to-bowler in the pressure situations, even ahead of India pacer Shardul Thakur. His and Lungi Ngidi’s emergence has given MS Dhoni some cushion in the powerplay overs, but if one area, where CSK has been lackadaisical is the death overs.
While Dwayne Bravo has failed spectacularly in the death overs, CSK relied on Chahar to do the job for them, but being predominantly a swing bowler, they are snatching the advantage from him that he would otherwise have got in the middle-overs. Given Wankhede’s square boundaries and track are expected to help chasing teams, having good death bowlers are always beneficial. However, due to Bravo’s bad form, Ngidi and Chahar may take over the responsibility, but their lack of experience means SRH hold an edge in that count.