IPL 2018 | Talking points - Ishan Kishan, Dwayne Bravo, and everything in between

04/08/2018

Can the tournament have gotten off a better start than this? Probably Not. While 15 minutes before the end of the game, it was Mumbai Indians’ game to lose, CSK’s old dog Dwayne Bravo and Kedar Jadhav turned the game around in a flash to present CSK a win that they would remember for a long time.

Mumbai juniors leave CSK’s all-round woes wide open

Mumbai were always going to struggle in the powerplay after MS Dhoni’s decision to field first after winning the toss due to the tinge of grass on it. As Sunil Gavaskar predicted, it was not that difficult to score runs after the ball stopped moving sideways, but the pair of Shane Watson and Deepak Chahar bowled brilliantly to send Evin Lewis and Rohit Sharma packing, and all Mumbai needed their domestic players to fire on all cylinders and boy, remember, they have the best domestic batsmen in their team.

Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav are no stranger to the big stage though and they know how to find ways to score runs. When Dhoni decided to throw the ball to his old mate Imran Tahir and Mark Wood, the Mumbai duo exploited their lack of incisiveness. The short balls were guided for the mid-wicket boundaries and although the CSK duo created a couple of chances, Ishan mostly played on the front foot that ensured the body weight was going forward. As the ball was coming easily onto the bat, the duo ensured that they got into the position easily and apart from the first few deliveries and didn’t throw their bat around on every delivery outside the off-stump .

Same could be said for the Pandya brothers, who made Mark Wood’s debut miserable. CSK bowlers were guilty of bowling way too full to Krunal and the elder Pandya brother, who is excellent at driving the balls on the full, managed to lean back and send them over extra cover. Hardik also used the short ball thrown at him to good effect to guide the ball on the up. While both the cameos, at the end, didn’t make any difference in the inevitable result of the game, CSK team management will have to discuss what went wrong and the team also will have to be more responsible to make their comeback season one to remember.

Mayank Markande and the reality of “dream debut”

Mayank Markande - Remember the name. The leggie from Punjab was on a plane to Bangalore to participate in an Under-23 BCCI match just a day before the auction and when the auction process started the following day, he was anything but sure that he wouldn’t be picked in any team. However, when after the end of the day’s play, he came back to check his phone, he had 37 missed calls and 300 Whatsapp messages congratulating him on making it to the IPL.

Cut to April 7, 2018 - Almost two months later, he found himself bowling to MS Dhoni, of all people and how his debut turned out to be! The leggie kept on his pursuit of bowling stump-to-stump and with variation in place, every ball seemed like a wicket-taking delivery. In his first over itself, he conceded only two runs and dismissed Rayudu before trapping Kedar Jadhav in the penultimate ball of the over, albeit his appeal was turned down by the on-field umpire. However, he was not a flash in the pan nor was going to sit calmly.

He came back to bowl another over of precision and judgement and think whom was on strike? MS Dhoni may have been past his prime, any bowler would do well to remember how dangerous he can be once he gets going. But Markande was bowling at a batsman and not at any names and Dhoni, in no time, got confused on the inside edge and the googly did the rest for the team. To wrap it up, the leggie dismissed Deepak Chahar for a golden duck to underline that he would take it as his own.

Dwayne Bravo and the thrilling 15 minutes of the game

“Jab Sher aur Sher ke Beech Ladhai hoti hai na, tab Sher hi jeet ta hai, Chote” - The answer by the elder brother as a curious question of his younger sibling in the IPL ad was nothing but what the IPL has stood for since 2008. But if the two brothers would have congregated in their drawing room to watch the tournament opener today, the elder brother would been left disappointmented for not abiding to his vow. Cause the game was worthy of an IPL opener and the end result was something worthy of the intense rivalry that Chennai-Mumbai has always been.

61 runs were needed off the last five overs and it was Mumbai Indians all the way. But Bravo, who played a part in many CSK wins in the past, owned the stage like he had never put off that yellow. The Caribbean player milked 20 runs off Mitchell McClenaghan in the 18th over and scored as many runs in the next over of Jasprit Bumrah. However, with seven needed off seven balls, he was dismissed by the Mumbai spearhead, but man, Jadhav was here. The 33-year-old, who suffered a hamstring injury earlier in the day, came in and played out three balls, which again brought the lost smile back in Mumbai dug-out. However, that smile didn’t stay there for long as Jadhav scooped a shot over fine leg to reduce the equation to 1 off 2 balls and ended the game in CSK’s favour by hitting a four off the next ball.

There might be many games, which have been more entertaining than today’s, but undoubtedly, this would go down as one of the most memorable matches in the history of the IPL.