CPL 2021 | SNP vs GAW: Vengeance seeking Warriors face table-toppers Patriots in round two

Over-dependence on heroics, failure as collective unit script frequent India collapses

India slipped into yet another embarrassing defeat in Leeds by enduring monumental collapses in both innings which has now become a worrying pattern for the Virat Kohli-led side. Kohli, to his credit, has not offered any excuse such as the absurd “45 minutes of bad cricket” he had offered after the top-order collapse against New Zealand in the 2019 ODI World Cup and instead has come forward to own up the mistakes of his own and teammates. At Headingley as well, he conceded that the team did not play good shots and failed to apply themselves in the face of an exceedingly good spell of bowling by James Anderson and Ollie Robinson. He owned up the failure at the Adelaide oval as well after the historic low of 36 all out against the Australian bowling attack comprising of Mitchell Starc, Patt Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. One can change the protagonist, villain and plot of their story, but the script has remained the same, at least over the last couple of years. They have been vocal about that those periods of the game don’t define the quality of the side, but they would not be honest to themselves if they don’t find this problem worth addressing. But, are they even taking cognisance of the frequent batting collapses that have marred them from becoming an impossible side to be defeated? Let’s see how they responded to the question of batting collapses after the game ends? Kohli had left the squad to come back to India after the capitulation in Adelaide, and the stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane said that the team did not discuss the innings of 36 while starting their preparing for the MCG Test, where they bounced back admirably. On the face of it, the approach of not making a huge issue of a bad phase of play does not appear faulty as too many “conversations” will make players, especially young ones doubt their ability to handle pressure situations while batting. Kohli too reiterated the same stance after the twin collapses in Leeds and said that India will “analyse” only after the next two Tests on what went wrong in the batting department. If the problem was actually an “aberration” as Kohli conveniently suggested, not having a conversation over it and trying to find answers to uncomfortable questions would have been reasonable. But, the issue has developed into a crisis of their own making and hence the point of not terming it as it is becoming untenable. Kohli owned up to failures both in Adelaide and Headingley, but what good is owning up if it does not lead up to a process of crisis management? This space is not suggesting that the team is incapable of handling good bowling in a tough phase of play or it is necessarily a technical issue on the part of batsmen. It’s impossible to ascertain that batsmen who otherwise put on a brilliant display of batting in the very next innings or match right after collapses can fail to arrest a collapse due to technical deficiency. But, why they have suffered so many batting collapses in the recent past? The answer to this question lies in the scoreboard of matches they have played in this period. They seem to have relied heavily on pieces of individual brilliance to get over tough batting conditions instead of putting on a collective batting effort to get through to a big score. Let’s see the games after the collapse in Adelaide and understand the fragility of the batting group and more often than not have been bailed out by one or two batsmen out of seven in the side. At the MCG, after a decent partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill, India had slipped to 175/5 although a major chunk of those runs was made by the skipper Rahane who went on to score a magnificent ton and also stitched a 121-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja to bail them out of trouble. Australia batted horribly in the game in the face of hostile and accurate Indian bowling but if it had not been for the partnership between Jadeja and Rahane, India would not have taken the lead and the hosts would have come hard at them with a target of more than 200 runs to defend in the final innings. In the first innings of the MCG Test, more than 50 per cent of the runs were scored by two batsmen while the rest nine batsmen added 157 runs. If Gill’s 45 will be taken away, the rest eight of them could manage only 112 runs with no other batsmen crossing the 30-run mark. In the next Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, there were valuable contributions from the top order but none of them could make it big on a flat surface to make Australian bowlers toil hard. Not one batsman scored more than 50 runs and India paid for it by conceding a big lead of 94 runs. It took herculean efforts from them to secure a draw on the final day of the game. In the series decider at the Gabba, which turned out to be a generational win for India, the game was folding completely as per the same script. They were down and out in a position to once again concede a big lead before the brilliance of Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar rescued them with outrageous stroke playing. They were up for the fight in the second round and won the game after a remarkable innings from Rishabh Pant on the final day. The lessons from the tour of Australia would have been that there are chinks in their armour in terms of batting and the Test series against England at home should have been the perfect place to launch the remedial process. However, they slipped into another collapse against the innocuous off-spin of Dominic Bess in the first innings of the first Test and in-form Joe Root made them pay. In that home series against India as well, after the collapses in Chennai, it was the partnership between Rohit Sharma and Rahane that rescued them after Moeen Ali had threatened to bring another collapse. The pitches in the last two Tests was shoot out between bowlers and England were too poor to compete with them while it required Pant and Washington’s batting once again that bailed them out of trouble. There have been patterns of the team not being able to produce a collective brilliance where all batsmen produce some sort of scores and take the team towards a score of respectability. The team has produced many heroes in the recent past but the fact that they needed heroics to win games and that it did not come in the form of what should have been a normal affair for top sides as they boast of being is telling a lot of story of their fragility. The story has not been changed on this tour as well. First, they collapsed against New Zealand to hand them over the World Test Championship, while the brilliance of KL Rahul and Rohit saved the day in Nottingham and the first innings of the Lord’s Test. When chips were down in the second innings the pair of Pujara and Rahane put on an attritional partnership before another heroic partnership lower down the order between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami took them in front of the game. If they would be clinical with the bat overall as a team, they won’t have to rely on one individual to do the heavy lifting. Over-reliance on openers had to go awry at some point in time considering England are blessed with the riches of James Anderson and the consistency of Ollie Robinson, who will not have too many off days in their home conditions, and it did happen on the first day of the Leeds Test. Hoping on individual brilliance can not be a strategy and most certainly India would not be too happy at those methods of a win as well. But, as the failings have become too frequent, there are questions marks over the team management’s inability to find a solution to it. If India have to come back from the drubbings in Leeds, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri must fix responsibility in the dressing room albeit by not “demoralising” them. The batting group should seek some inspiration from their bowling attack which is not built around the brilliance of individual players instead all of them present formidable challenges to the opposition by bowling well as a collective unit.

CPL 2021 | Raymon Reifer's all-round show gets Barbados onboard

It was an eerily similar start for the Barbados Royals when they decided to bat first after winning the toss at Basseterre in St Kitts. They lost the openers and the middle order and were soon 82-5 in only the 13th over and everyone including the best of the Royals fans would have thought that it was all coming to a similar end. But there was one man who hadn’t been part of the team’s first two defeats this season and he didn’t know how it was to let go, therefore he held on to it and with Glenn Phillips, Raymon Reifer had an unbeaten partnership of 79 runs in just 46 balls and took the Royals to their highest total this season of 161, giving them something to fight. While Reifer made 31 off 20 balls, Phillips scored a patient 56 off 46 balls. But it wasn’t just in the batting, Reifer came back and made a point with the ball as well, picking up three crucial wickets including that of Andre Russell for a golden duck at that. Thus one change it all took for the Barbados side to register their first win in the tournament and the 30-year-old all-rounder was rightly named Man of the Match. Chasing the 162, set up by the Royals, Tallawahs who smothered it all over the park just a day ago against St Lucia Kings got off to a worst possible start, losing all their top three, all of whom were responsible for the Kings carnage the other day, with only 23 runs on board. Mohammad Amir, Reifer and skipper Jason Holder were rewarded with the wickets. It was hard to come back from there, but with Russell and Carlos Brathwaite waiting in the wings, impossible didn’t seem like a word in the Royals dictionary. Brathwaite did put up a 66 run partnership with Shamarh Brooks to steady the ship. But just as he was about to let loose and allow Russell who was to come after him some luxury to settle in, Reifer struck twice in two balls to crash all the hopes that Tallawahs might have had of a comeback. From there on, with only the bowling all-rounders left to accompany Brroks, only formalities seemed to have been left and they were completed with Brooks getting out on the second ball of the 20th over with still 18 runs needed for the win. In the end, Tallawahs remained 15 runs behind. Brooks top-scored with 47 from 45 balls. In their next assignment, the two teams will collide once again on Wednesday, September 01 (IST) at the same venue.

CPL 2021 | Evin Lewis, Dominic Drakes shine in an easy win for Patriots over Warriors

Guyana Amazon Warriors did come in by beating defending champions and an overall 8-2 lead over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in their last 10 encounters. However, on the D-Day, they were found to be lacking in all three departments which were well exploited by the Dwayne bravo leed team that knocked them over by eight wickets to register their second win on the trot and get to the top of the points table. Chasing an average total of 147, the Patriots got off to a brilliant start as Evin Lewis and Devon Thomas killed the game with their opening partnership itself. The duo added 113 for the first wicket in just 14 overs and it was clear that only one team was winning from there and it were the Patriots, the team playing in their home conditions with a little bit of crowd support in their favour. Eventually, Lewis did get out and another wicket fell down soon, but they were actions that couldn’t have had knee jerk reaction to the result of the game. Thus in the nineteenth over Fabian Allen, who came to the crease after the fall of Sherfane Rutherford’s wicket only 12 runs away from victory, gave Thomas the opportunity to finish the game by giving him the strike on the fourth delivery of the nineteenth over. Thomas was adjudged Man of the Match for his innings of 55 runs in which he made sure that he remained on the crease to guide his team home. Naveen Ul-Haq and Imran Tahir divided the wickets among them. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, strangely enough, Warriors skipper Nicholas Pooran chose to bat first. His decision couldn’t be ratified by his batters as one after another they kept on faltering even as Chandrapaul Hemraj tried his best to hold one end. At 67-4 in the 10th over with Brandon Kings, Shoaib Malik and Shimron Hetmyer back in the hut, it looked increasingly difficult for the Warriors to get to a respectable total. Hemraj too couldn’t continue longer and was caught in the deep at a personal score of 39. Skipper Pooran then tried to accelerate the run rate and scoured 20 off a Fawad Ahmed over. But one shot too many meant he was caught at short fine leg brilliantly by Lewis off the bowling of Allen. In the ned, few lusty blows from Mohammad Hafeez got Warriors to 146 for the loss of eight wickets. Dominic Drakes was the pick of the bowlers for the Patriots as he got three crucial wickets of King, Malik and Imran Tahir at the death, making sure that Hafeez couldn’t play the first three balls of the 20th over. These two teams will be back on August 30 at the same venue and have a go at each other once again where the Warriors would look to avenge this loss while the Patriots would look to make it three in three for their 2021 CPL campaign.

CPL 2021 | SLK vs TKR: Butchered by Tallwahs, St. Lucia Kings look to bounce back against Knight Riders

It is not going to be an easy task for any team to come back after being defeated in the manner that St. Lucia Kings were by the Jamaica Tallwahs in their opening encounter. They were hammered all around the park while bowling and while batting it was just not their day as they got bowled out 120 runs short of the target. It was not even close to what they would have expected their season opener to be with new captain Faf du Plessis in command. On the other hand are Trinbago Knight Riders, who, after going down narrowly against Guyana Amazon Warriors in their season opener, came back strong against Barbados Royals and went on to register their first win of the season in a comfortable manner by six wickets and with plenty of balls to spare. So two teams with contrasting last match results will now go head to head with one trying to come back from a disaster and another trying to build on the momentum. It won’t be easy for Kings to come back, but sometimes you need early lessons to rise up to the occasion. Also, they need to bowl Cornwall too if they are playing him in the XI. St Lucia Kings vs Trinbago Knight Riders: Match Details Match Number: 07 Date and Time: August 29, 2021, 07:30 pm IST, 10:00 am Local, 02:00 pm GMT Venue: Warner Park, Basseterre Broadcast: Star Sports Live Stream: Fancode Pitch Report The pitch hasn’t really had one face so far as it has been slow at times and at other times the ball has just come on to bat nicely. Thus to say that it would be a belter of a wicket would be a bit too hasty for an assumption. But no doubt, it wouldn’t be dead bat and totals around 160 will be competitive. Weather Forecast and Toss The weather at Warner Park will remain hot and humid with humidity being as high as 72%. The temperatures would remain in the lower thirties with the moderate wind blowing from the northeast and thus helping the bowlers early on in the morning. A captain winning the toss would look to bowl first without any doubt. Probable XI Trinbago Knight Riders Lendl Simmons, Sunil Narine, Colin Munro, Tim Seifert, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kieron Pollard (c), Isuru Udana, Akeal Hosein, Ravi Rampaul, Jayden Seales St Lucia Kings Rahkeem Cornwall, Andre Fletcher (wk), Faf du Plessis (c), Roston Chase, Tim David, Mark Deyal, Keemo Paul, Wahab Riaz, Usman Qadir, Obed McCoy, Kesrick Williams Dream XI fantasy team suggestion Batters Lendl Simmons, Faf du Plessis, Tim David Bowlers Akeal Hosein, Obed McCoy, Usman Qadir All-rounders Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Isuru Udana, Rahkeem Cornwall Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin Vice-Captain Tim David Captain Sunil Narine

CPL 2021 | SNP vs GAW: Vengeance seeking Warriors face table-toppers Patriots in round two

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots vs Guyana Amazon Warriors

Pitch Report

Weather Forecast

Probable XI

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots

Guyana Amazon Warriors

Dream XI Team Fantasy Suggestions

Over-dependence on heroics, failure as collective unit script frequent India collapses

CPL 2021 | Raymon Reifer's all-round show gets Barbados onboard

CPL 2021 | Evin Lewis, Dominic Drakes shine in an easy win for Patriots over Warriors

CPL 2021 | SLK vs TKR: Butchered by Tallwahs, St. Lucia Kings look to bounce back against Knight Riders