Express News Service
CHENNAI: In their second match against Lucknow Super Giants, which they lost, Chennai Super Kings did something that is so uncharacteristic of them. In conditions which their head coach Stephen Fleming later termed it as ‘Niagara Falls’, they handed the ball to two rookies Shivam Dube and Mukhesh Choudhary to bowl 19th and 20th over with 34 runs needed.
With 210 to defend, as Fleming said, at no stage did they feel comfortable. The dew factor which made it difficult for their spinners to grip the ball and took them out of equation, it also made certain deliveries impossible to execute for seamers. In such conditions, unless you have experience behind you, it is impossible to get your plans right. And other than the dew factor, what they missed against Lucknow was the experience of Deepak Chahar and one of Adam Milne and Chris Jordan.
On Sunday, against Punjab Kings, they got Jordan back and for a change, had only one inexperienced seamer – Choudhary. While at the end of the player auctions, all things pointed out to Moeen Ali, Devon Conway, Dwayne Bravo and Adam Milne being their first-choice overseas players, the absence of Chahar has changed all of it. As Chahar continues his rehabilitation process, the presence of three seam-bowling all-rounders — Bravo, Jordan and Dwaine Pretorius — who are more than quite handy with the bat has allowed Chennai to be flexible.
To compensate for Conway’s omission, Chennai, especially given the conditions which make spinners redundant in the second innings of the match, have chosen to strengthen their bowling. And in Bravo, Pretorius and Jordan have three bowlers who could be used in the end and in the middle. Although Jordan was only playing his first match for Chennai on Sunday, you could see what he brought to the table.
A skillful T20 operator whose seam-up can be used in the powerplay and an excellent exponent of yorkers in the death, he played the role to perfection. And so did Bravo and Pretorius – another bowler who has compromised on pace for variety and is a death-over specialist for South Africa. On a day where Chennai conceded 180, the three collectively gave away only 85 runs in 11 overs and shared five wickets between them, defying the conditions.
Like they did against Lucknow, where despite extremely harsh wet conditions, managed to keep the batters in check by bowling wide yorkers and full-deliveries outside off-stump, the trio did the same here against Punjab. That despite being 109/3 at the end of 10 overs, Punjab posted only 180 was largely thanks to the trio.
But, if rustiness did them in their first match against Kolkata Knight Riders and dew had a say in their defeat to Lucknow, on Sunday Chennai Super Kings had only themselves to blame. Especially the batting unit, which lost four wickets by the time the powerplay ended and had only 27 runs on board. And from there on, Chennai headed only one way, towards, their third successive defeat to the campaign, a feat they have never managed in their history.
Of course, these are early days, but it is looking far from ideal for Chennai. While they finally seem to have found the right attack, which only strengthen when Chahar returns, unless their batting finds the mojo, this could turn out to be 2020.
Brief Scores: PBKS 180/8 in 20 overs (Livingstone 60; Jordan 2/23, Pretorius 2/30) bt CSK 126/7 in 18 overs (Dube 57; R Chahar 3/25 Livingstone 2/25, Vaibhav 2/21)
