Every Tuesday throughout this Indian Premier League season we will review what we’ve seen in the previous week of the IPL with some serious points mixed in with some light-hearted ones and I’ll also assess how I see the competition panning out as we go along the way.
We’ve had four matches in the season thus far but that has been enough for us to see each franchise in action and here is what we’ve taken from the tournament to date.
Bowl first and win!
We may be relatively early in the season but already we have seen all four matches won by the side who have fielded first. That is nothing new in IPL of course, as chasing sides have had a very good record in years gone by, and that looks set to continue throughout the ongoing campaign. Not only have all four sides who have batted second gone on to win, but only one of them had to go into the final over to do so. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues, or as the wickets settle down sides bowling second can begin to defend totals.
Delhi need Glenn Maxwell and fast
It was huge news when Gautam Gambhir was let go by the Kolkata Knight Riders, and when he returned home to Delhi his arrival was celebrated, but given the slightly more sedate pace that he scores at it is imperative to have fast scorers around him. With the exception of Rishabh Pant, the Daredevils lack power in their middle order so Australian star Glenn Maxwell can’t arrive quickly enough. He missed the opening Delhi match to attend the wedding of Aaron Finch, but the good news is he was expected in India over the weekend and should be in place to provide the necessary power to the Daredevils batting.
New personnel but same problems for Bangalore
The Royal Challengers Bangalore might have signed new bowlers for this season but the struggles of defending a score clearly remain as Kolkata Knight Riders comfortably chased down 177 against them on Sunday. In fairness to those bowlers, the score put up by their batsmen looked a dozen light from the outset, but at no point in the run chase did you think the outcome would be anything but a Kolkata win, and that was even with Chris Lynn getting out cheaply. The Royal Challengers began the tournament as the bookmakers’ favourites for the title, and while their batting looks supremely strong, they will need to start defending totals if they are going to justify their lofty tag.
Rajasthan need a rethink after disappointing defeat
The Rajasthan Royals are back in the IPL but they will not have been impressed with themselves in their opening match, when they were useless in truth. They had got themselves in a decent position after the batting powerplay, but some ordinary dismissals and a complete disregard for the basics left them putting up a paltry total. They compounded the misery by dropping Shikhar Dhawan in the first over so that was a match to forget. I would suggest that a rethink of the batting line up is needed. Ben Stokes looked a spot high at four while Jos Buttler was far too low at six. If Rajasthan are going to be challengers in this tournament they must utilise their gun players much better than they did in Hyderabad.
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Player of the Week
Our first ‘Player of the Week’ award goes to Dwayne Bravo for his wonderful all-round performance on the opening night of the competition. As the tournament goes on Bravo will be in the side mostly for what he contributes with the ball, but we saw in Mumbai that he remains a more than useful batsman as he smoked seven balls out of the park in a brutal 68 from just 30 balls, which saw Chennai Super Kings come back from the dead to touch off the defending champions in the final over. Add to that effort his four overs for just 25 runs in the field, and Bravo is a worthy first winner of the ‘Player of the Week’ award.
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