IPL 2021 | KKR vs CSK: Hits & Flops as ‘Sir’ Jadeja, ‘Lord’ Shardul foster Super Kings’ dream run

The Kolkata Knight Riders presented some tough challenges with shades of their best, but poor play in crunch moments did not mount a defeating challenge for the in-form side that is the Chennai Super Kings.

There were many key moments in the game and at the end of the day, it was the Super Kings who were at the top on most occasions than their opponents. 

However, the Knight Riders will be thoroughly disappointed in letting a match in their grasp go as Ravindra Jadeja single-handedly took the game away from them. Sunil Narine tried all his magic but fell short of rescuing the Knight Riders while defending just four runs in the last over.

Here, we’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the day that turned the tide towards one side or the other.

Hits

Ravindra Jadeja

Team needing a bowler to dry things up to create pressure and opportunity at the other end—he will do it.

Team needing him to give control through the middle overs of the limited-overs games—he will do it without conceding too many free balls to hit.

There are not many cricketers in the world who have improved so much in their game over the course of the last few years than Ravindra Jadeja has and both the Super Kings and India are reaping rich rewards of investment and perseverance with him.

On the day against the Knight Riders, he was on the top of his game with both bat and ball and led them to a close win to establish their dominance in the season. 

When he walked out to bat, the Super Kings were in a precarious position, needing 27 runs off 13 balls and all specialist batsmen back in the dugout. He had no time to settle and neither did he need any of that as Prasidh Krishna was readying to bowl the penultimate over of the game.

The first two balls yielded only two runs and the Super Kings were desperate position with 24 needing the last 10 balls. The situation demanded sixes and on cue, as he has been doing for the sides he plays for in the recent past, deposited Krishna over long leg and long on consecutive occasions to bring the game to equilibrium.  

Krishna was wrong in executing both line and length to give Jadeja space to hit over the fence and he needed to correct both aspects. Jadeja was switched on and he too knew what Krishna was trying to do. The next two deliveries were bowled at the right line but the bowler faltered with the length and an awake Jadeja plummeted another two consecutive boundaries to almost seal the game for the Super Kings.

He could not sustain his magic in the last over bowled by Sunil Narine as he outfoxed him with his variations. But, that the equation had gone to just one run needed off the last three balls was down to his blitzkrieg and Jadeja, the batsman is justifying the hype and expectations on him with each passing game.

Earlier, he was tasked with the tough task of containing Eoin Morgan who never shies away from taking the game to spinners, let alone of the left arm kind. On the other side, Rahul Tripathi was going all guns blazing.

His line of attack was immaculate and he did not concede even one boundary in his first 12 balls and that is some feat with the kind of batting at the crease. His first 18 balls conceded just 17 runs and Dhoni’s plan of squeezing the Knight Riders was underway in a grand manner.

He put an icing on the cake with the big wicket of Tripathi, who was batting like a dream along with a sluggish Morgan. That wicket derailed Knight Riders’ momentum and only remarkable momentum-shifting innings from Dinesh Karthik, in the end, could people them past the 170-run mark which they had earmarked as “winning total”.

Shardul Thakur

If the last few years have been brilliant for ‘Sir’ Jadeja, the year looks to be going Shardul Thakur’s way in almost the same manner. He can do no wrong either with the bat or ball irrespective of the formats.

He appears an innocuous bowler who does not bring any sort of X-factor to the table for MS Dhoni but his portfolio is rich in big wickets and that provide X-factor to the team. 

The Knight Riders were on a roll as Venkatesh Iyer was carrying on his merry way and allowing the others to go for glory at the end.

Then, in walked Shardul with the ball in hand and the first ball produced an outside edge that Dhoni accepted gleefully.

If Iyer’s wicket was not enough to dent the Knight Riders, he came back in the end overs and sent their biggest X-factor in Andre Russell. 

He conceded just 20 runs from his quota of four overs and took the two huge wickets of Russell and Iyer, and formed an unbeatable combo with Jadeja to keep the Super Kings ahead in the game.

Like Jadeja, he too was instrumental with the bat as he nudged Sunil Narine behind the wicket for a vital three to almost seal the game. His confidence to attempt that shot against the variations of Narine was proof of his coming to his own on the big stage with the bat, and why not after all his heroics with the willow in England and Australia.

Dinesh Karthik

The year 2021 has been a topsy-turvy ride for Dinesh Karthik, who donned many hats in the year. He was a pundit decoding India’s game in India and England in between donning the Knight Riders jersey to finish the games for them.

He came to the UAE before the scheduled final Test of the series between India and England right from the Sky Sports studio but all the active time away from the field did not affect his mindset and capability one bit.

When he walked out to bat, the Knight Riders had underachieved with just 125 odd runs on the board and three overs to go. He had no time to waste and neither did he miss and walloped Sam Curran to all parts of the ground for a 19-run over. Another big over followed as the final over of the innings and Karthik, in the company of Nitish Rana, had carried the Knight Riders beyond the point they were looking to achieve midway through the innings.

Karthik has been an excellent fighter for the Knight Riders and his exclusion from India’s T20 side has always sparked heated debate and disappointment in fans. Whatever happens to him in the near future, Karthik’s finishing game is well and truly intact and albeit India are not willing to use it to their advantage, the Knight Riders are loving the prospect of his flourishing end.

Flops

Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali was bought by the Super Kings to provide the off-spinning variety to the bowling attack and aggression to the top order which was found wanting in the last season.

He has justified the promotion to the number three slot in place of highly successful Suresh Raina and it was quite a pragmatic decision on the part of the CSK team management to ask Moeen to bat freely at number three.

However, he was jaded in mind and could not play the fearless cricket against the Knight Riders today. 

He was given a luxurious platform of 74 runs by Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis in quick time and his job was fairly easy at the start. He had to ensure the Super Kings did not go off the track to chase the 172 runs target.

However, he was proven inefficient and the lack of imagination and improvisation from his side did not provide any momentum to the Super Kings in the middle phase of the game. It was his lacklustre innings that made what was appearing a smooth chase a monumental equation to achieve in the final few overs.

Eoin Morgan

There was a lot of similarities between the Knight Riders and the Super Kings in today’s game and one of the prominent ones was the abysmal batting form of their captains.

Morgan has been struggling this year and the trend has not stopped in the IPL as well. He has managed to amass only 107 runs across 10 matches this season and the record has started so unbecoming for a batsman of Morgan’s reputation and credentials.

On the day against the Super Kings, he was struggling to get the ball off the square albeit the other batsmen at the other end—Rahul Tripathi was going with full freedom and establishing there were no demons in the pitch.

Irrespective of the form, Morgan can be relied upon to take the attack to the opposition camp but Dhoni could bowl a four-over spell of Jadeja when he was batting showcased nothing but his lack of confidence. 

There was also a blunder in decision making from Morgan the captain as he preferred Krishna to bowl the penultimate over and Narine to finish the job in the 20th over. It should be treated as a rule that the best bowler who has the best defending skills should bowl the 19th over of the chase to allow the cushion to the bowler bowling a high-pressure final over. 

The decision looks a lot more ridiculous when one will see it through the prism of experience. Krishna is highly inexperienced to execute his best deliveries in pressure situations while Narine has been a seasoned campaigner to pull off such heists.

The Super Kings surged to the top of the table with another win over the Knight Riders while the men in purple and gold could not advance beyond the fourth position on the points table.