IPL 2021 | CSK vs RR: Hits and Flops as CSK get back in groove

On Monday night, commentator Harsha Bhogle complimented Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni that the unit is already looking like a champion side that it has been over the years. 

Well, Mr Bhogle was certainly on point after CSK are back to where they belong and they are back with a bang. After starting the IPL 2021 campaign with a forgettable performance against Delhi Capitals in the first encounter, the MS Dhoni-led side turned the tables for themselves with a couple of scintillating wins on the trot. 

They first thumped Punjab Kings and have now grabbed a thoroughly dominating victory against Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan Royals. 

Chennai’s show against Rajasthan was nothing less than a master-class. They ticked all the boxes and did it with precision. 

Batting first CSK posted 188/9 in 20 overs, a score that looked 10-15 runs short of what they should have scored especially after the kind of start that Faf du Plessis gave them and the way Dwayne Bravo chipped in late in the innings. 

There were no huge, match altering scores from the CSK but a positive aspect was that almost everyone contributed with the bat. While the Super Kings are back on track, the Royals have already started to show the signs of their yearly struggle. 

They have now lost two out of the three matches in the early phase of the tournament. A major concern for the Rajasthan-based franchise and its team management is the way they have lost this particular encounter. 

Despite starting with some firepower hitting from Jos Buttler, RR just lost their way in the middle and were soon tottering at 95/7. Of course, when you have MS Dhoni in the opponent group you will face some troubles. 

RR were once cruising when Dhoni unleashed something for which he is known for. Applying some masterstrokes to not only restrict the run flow but also fetch some wickets.

Well, without ruining your excitement, let’s discuss the hits and flops from this mind-blowing clash between RR and CSK. 

Hits

Faf du Plessis

Old is gold. In Faf du Plessis’ case, it seems as if old is diamond. It took him just three balls and three strokes to make his fans go awestruck about his batting once again. The right-handed batsman was playing on 15 off 11 when he faced Jaydev Unadkat who had a pretty decent game in the last outing for the Royals. 

The South African took on the in-form bowler to probably disrupt his line and length playing his favourite paddle scoop. 

If the youngsters want to learn the art of playing these scoops, they should just turn on the videos of this South African maestro.

Coming back to the game, du Plessis smacked Unadkat for a couple of boundaries towards the fine leg region and then hammered him for a maximum. Ah! What a sight that was. 

He came down the track and hit the left-arm pacer over the long-off boundary, who was of course in some form in his last game. Full marks to the way the right-hander dominated Unadkat in that particular over. 

The six was followed by another boundary straight back over the bowler’s head. The four deliveries that the former South Africa captain faced certainly set the tone for a huge total for the side. 

Faf of course didn’t stop here. He notched 33 off just 17 that included four boundaries and a couple of sixes. The kind of form in which du Plessis is in, CSK just need to give him a better opening partner. 

It’s not that Ruturaj Gaikwad isn’t talented or hasn’t got the ability but that sheer amount of pressure is pretty visible when he is at the crease. 

He is failing to get his eye in and that has been a troublesome thing for him as well as for the team as they have failed to get a steady start for a very long time now. 

Gaikwad once again failed to do justice to his talent on Monday against RR after he was sent back in the hut for 10 off just 13.  

He is making the life of the bowling unit miserable when he is on song, has been pretty good with his shot selection and has been on point as to which bowler to target and when. An opening partner of his sorts can do wonders for the Chennai team. 

Sam Curran

There was a tweet from Harsha Bhogle for this wonder kid Sam Curran that said, “Just have to admire @CurranSM. Does everything the team asks of him. Cameos at the end, takes the new ball, happy to bowl at the death and always contributes.”

The statement is genuinely on point for the England all-rounder. In a very short span of time, Curran has produced few performances that have attracted a lot of praise for him from all around. 

What is more attractive about his game is the way he learns from his mistakes and makes those small changes quickly. For instance, during the match against RR, the left-arm bowler was hit for a maximum by Manan Vohra on the leg side. On the very next ball, while Dhoni once again showed why he is seen as one of the most intelligent brains in the cricketing vicinity, Curran did obey his captain at once. 

MS stationed Ravindra Jadeja in the deep mid-wicket region and probably anticipated perfectly as to what was coming next. Curran pulled the length back on this one a bit and Vohra once again went for a similar shot that he had struck a ball earlier. 

The right-handed batsman miscued his stroke this time and Jadeja grabbed a blinder in the deep to send cobra packing. 

The left-hander picked up a couple of wickets that included the dismissal of RR captain Sanju Samson. 

Curran was also looking decent with the bat and he in fact played a little cameo of a 6-ball 13 before getting runout in a yes-no call with Bravo. Though he just scored 13, it still included a six off his willow that he struck in Chetan Sakariya’s over. 

The left-arm pacer who is one of the RR players who had a good game on Monday was riding on some confidence after he had scalped a three-for that included the big wicket of MS Dhoni. He bowled a short delivery way outside off that was picked perfectly by Curran who hammered it away for a six over the deep cover boundary. 

Well, that’s all part and parcel of the game and we hope Sakariya who is a promising bowler learns quickly from his mistakes. Though, he has been pretty impressive till now. 

Talking about Curran again, just as Harsha Bhogle mentioned about his three-dimensional game, the youngster from England is surely an asset to any team for which he plays. 

Moeen Ali

In our last segment of hits and flops, we had joked about how players who leave RCB start performing well while Glenn Maxwell who has joined the Bangalore-based franchise is looking in good shape. 

Well, what Maxwell has been doing in this edition of the IPL is simply remarkable but what Moeen Ali did on Monday is fantastic. 

Ali who “joined CSK from RCB” is in some fine knick for quite some time now. 

He is scoring runs at a brisk pace and is also picking up wickets for his team.

Well, this is a very boring way of describing the kind of performance the England all-rounder unfolded against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai. 

If you were glued to your TV sets while Moeen was out there in the middle, the only thing you could do was, sit back with your hands behind your head with a tub of popcorn by your side. It was an instance of a perfect T20 knock. 

Ali just scored 26 off 20 balls that involved two sixes and a four. But that brief innings was again nothing less than a training handbook of how to pick and choose the balls that are in your slot and deposit them in the stands. 

Moeen hit his first maximum against Mustafizur Rahman who has been deceiving the batsmen with his pace and the cutters. The left-handed England batsman though read this slower ball perfectly, went back into the crease and clobbered it to the deep-wicket boundary. 

The second one came against his ex RCB teammate Chris Morris. Morris bowled a short delivery and once again Moeen went back into his crease to smack a flat six over mid-wicket. 

Spending time in RCB camp with Morris surely would have helped Moeen to execute this stroke. 

Well, jokes apart, he was on song for the time that he stayed at the crease. But this was just the first half of the show. Another one was waiting in the wings. 

A dry cricket ball started to give some help to the spinners after the 11th over as Ravindra Jadeja who was taken on by Jos Buttler in the previous over was castled in the 12th by the left-arm spinner after he totally misjudged the turn. 

Looking at the kind of help the spinners had started to get, Dhoni got his ace of spades into the act. He handed the ball to Moeen Ali who responded straight away in the best possible way he could. The off-spinner first trapped David Miller in front of the stumps who tried to play a sweep and was totally beaten by the pace. 

The South African batsman was dismissed for 2 off 5. 

The off-spinner then got rid of Riyan Parag after inviting him to take the aerial route and give a catch to Jadeja in the cow corner. He was sent back for 3 off 7. 

Parag was followed by Moeen’s old friend Morris and it seemed as if we were just watching a reply. Just like Riyan, Ali once again invited Morris to go big and he did but no with accuracy. 

The Proteas all-rounder found Jadeja at the same place to get dismissed for a two-ball duck. Jadeja on the other hand was having a gala time after he took four catches and picked up two wickets in his allotted four overs for 28 runs. 

Moeen eventually returned with figures of 3/7 in 3 overs. 

Flops

Sanju Samson

No one knows what is really wrong with the Rajasthan Royals skipper. The right-handed batsman has set a pattern for himself that he starts off the IPL season with a bang and then just fades away. This is repeating again. 

Samson probably played the finest of innings against Punjab Kings while chasing a 220 odd against them where he almost took his side over the line. Sanju scored a magnificent ton during the course in that match. 

But he has looked totally out of colour after that encounter especially in this match against Chennai Super Kings. 

The target was surely a big one but Jos Buttler had set a perfect tone and was looking steady despite him scoring runs quickly. All of a sudden Samson who was new at the crease tried to go after Sam Curran on the fifth ball that he faced in the innings. 

Curran bowled a slower one and the RR captain tried to pull it over the mid-wicket region but failed to execute the timing on the shot and gave a catch to Bravo stationed at mid-on. 

It was probably one of the easiest catches that the West Indies cricketer could have got. The skipper departed for just 1 off 5 leaving his team in some spot of bother that eventually turned out to be one of the major reasons for their defeat in the match. 

Whether it is due to the captaincy pressure or maybe because he receives a lot of suggestions from all around but one thing is for sure that the wicket-keeper batsman hasn’t done justice to his talent neither he is taking the onus now. We hope that Samson gets in form back as early as possible because a couple of more defeats here and there for RR will put them under a tremendous amount of pressure. 

Jaydev Unadkat

We have always talked about the cruelty of this game and how it just balances everything for a player. 

Jaydev Unadkat who was probably one of the heroes in the last match for RR after he bagged three wickets at the cost of just 15 runs in 4 overs went wicket-less in the encounter against CSK and also leaked runs at huge economy rate. Unadkat returned with figures of 0/40 in his 4 overs. 

The left-arm pacer’s confidence was sent for a toss by CSK opener Faf du Plessis who hammered him all around the park to score 19 runs in the fifth over of the innings. Faf scored 18 of those after smashing three fours and a six in the same over. 

Unadkat is another player who can’t really be a part of your fantasy XI team because of the consistent inconsistency that he shows. While the left-arm quick bowler can be lethal on his day, he can be taken on by the cleaners on the other. 

The fast bowler who plays for Saurashtra in the domestic circuit tries to put extra efforts as soon as he is hit for a boundary of a six. The continuous change in the line and length doesn’t allow him to make a plan against a particular batsman and execute that. 

The only thing that Unadkat needs to understand for now is that he has the ability, pace and accuracy. It is just that he needs to back himself whenever he is going for some runs. 

So, there is some very good news for CSK fans as the team is back in the groove, the players are chipping in well and making some visible contributions. They defeated RR by 45 runs.

On the other side, RR have to re-think about the strategies. Maybe a change in the batting line up works for them. 

That’s all from this edition of hits and flops. Keep following us for all the LIVE updates from the cricketing world.