Royal Challengers Bangalore gave their qualification chances a strong boost with a 67-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the afternoon game. In a game that saw as many as three of the four openers dismissed for ducks, there was much to ponder and discuss. In the night game, Chennai Super Kings gave a whiff of their legacy with a strong performance that catapulted them over Kolkata Knight Riders in the points table and also made the mathematical equation for them to qualify more realistic, although skipper MS Dhoni cleared out that maths isn’t quite his favourite. Here we dive into some of the questions for the four teams that featured on Sunday in the IPL.
How do SRH and RCB sort the Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli questions?
Virat Kohli (L) and Kane Williamson (R) have struggled with the bat this IPL season. Image: Sportzpics
Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson have had dreadful seasons as top-order batters. While Kohli has made 216 runs at an average of 19.64 and a strike-rate of 111.34, Williamson has 199 runs at an average of 19.9 and a strike-rate of 96.14. Batting in the top three through the season, Williamson and Kohli have impacted their respective team’s chances with their low scores and sluggish strike-rate.
The solution to sort this issue might just be similar for both RCB and SRH – move the two players down the order. While Williamson has had success batting deep into the innings with his ability to score runs all around the wicket in the death overs, Kohli’s strike-rate in the death overs is superlative, although it could be argued that it is a byproduct of him being well set at the crease.
With potentially harmful contributions at the top, the move to use them as impact batters down the order might not be really bad. Williamson has a strike-rate of 168.57 in the final four overs in all T20s since 2020. Williamson thwarting Jasprit Bumrah’s plans, especially in the Super Over, in the T20I bilateral series in 2020, is a good case in point about the New Zealand skipper’s skills as a death batter.
Kohli, on the other hand, has a strike-rate of above 200 at the death in his IPL career. This is true even in the last three years when his batting hasn’t been at the best. With Kohli’s returns either slim – three golden ducks stand as towering pillars of evidence – or too slow to make a difference – his slowest T20 fifty this year hurt the team’s chances more than the golden ducks – at the top of the order, moving him down to No.5 for instance with a license to attack may not be the worst move.
Is Rahul Tripathi the most underrated uncapped player?
Rahul Tripathi has batted just six balls in the final four overs in this IPL edition. Even without the external push to up the ante, Tripathi has done it on his own, as reflected from a strike-rate of 164.7 in the season while amassing 308 runs. The Sunrisers Hyderabad middle-order batter has been denied his favoured position at the top, but has managed to make it work at No.3 with his strong presence across the powerplay and middle overs.
In 70 balls in the powerplay this year, Tripathi has struck at a rate of 144.3, the third-best in the season after the Delhi Capitals opening duo of Prithvi Shaw and David Warner. He has also carried that aggression to the middle overs, where his strike-rate is a whopping 168.46. Among the 25 players to bat 100-plus balls in the middle overs this IPL, Tripathi’s strike-rate is the fourth-best.
In the last couple of seasons, Tripathi has averaged over 30 and a struck at a rate of 140 or more despite which he rarely comes into the national team discussions. An elite player at this level as the numbers prove, Tripathi is arguably the most underrated uncapped Indian player of all time.
How brilliant has Josh Hazlewood been as a T20 bowler?
Josh Hazlewood has turned into a standout quick in T20s and is quickly attracting the attention of franchises. Image: Sportzpics
The primary concern around Josh Hazlewood when he came into the Chennai Super Kings setup a couple of years back was his tendency to stick to similar lines and lengths like in Test cricket. But the Australian has shown over the last two years in the IPL and in international cricket that new ball bowlers are as valuable as any. Since 2020, among fast bowlers to bowl 500 or more balls in the first six overs in all T20 cricket, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar has a better economy rate than Josh Hazlewood’s 6.30.
What Hazlewood has done better than Bhuvneshwar is snapping up wickets. He has 10 wickets more than the Indian quick in this phase despite bowling only a handful of overs more. With a brilliant average of 22.2 in this phase, Hazlewood has turned into a standout quick in this format and is quickly attracting the attention of franchises.
RCB’s bid was to make him the powerplay bowler alongside Mohammed Siraj, and so far Hazlewood has been a terrific buy for them. He has 13 wickets in eight matches this year while averaging 16 with the ball and bowling at an economy rate of 6.82.
Is the Gaikwad – Conway pair better than Faf – Gaikwad?
Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad have now stitched together stands of 182, 54 and 110 in the last three matches. The opening pair has been the driving force behind Chennai Super Kings putting up decent totals on board. Last season, it was Faf du Plessis and Gaikwad who put up these brilliant stands at the top of the order for Chennai Super Kings. However, there’s a case to be made that Gaikwad-Conway is much better than du Plessis-Gaikwad.
For one, Gaikwad’s go-slow approach in the powerplay isn’t really complemented well by Faf du Plessis, who also prefers slow-ish starts. Conway, on the other hand, has gone at a strike-rate of nearly 130 since his return for the last three games. More importantly, he is exceptional against spin, like Gaikwad, while also being good against pace. This means teams can’t use spin against this pair – with Gaikwad also being excellent against spin – in the powerplay. With du Plessis-Gaikwad, teams could get away with spin early on as Gaikwad didn’t really attack spin and du Plessis was vulnerable early on against it.
With Conway-Gaikwad, the New Zealand opener ensures spinners don’t go unpunished early on. He clobbered Axar Patel for two sixes in the one over in the powerplay before digging into Kuldeep Yadav post the first six overs. Conway smashed Kuldeep for 6, 6, 4, 1, 4, 4, 4 off seven successive balls.
With Conway and Gaikwad both going big after the first six overs, teams really have no place to hide. While the du Plessis-Gaikwad pair was excellent for building strong partnerships, the Conway-Gaikwad pair is more destructive as we have seen in the last three matches.
Why four overs of madness cost Delhi Capitals the match
Delhi Capitals were motoring in their chase against Chennai Super Kings until rash shot-making brought the collapse. Image: Sportzpics
On the scorecard, it’s a huge margin – a victory by 91 runs in a T20 format is as one-sided as it gets. But dig in deeper and it’s arguably four overs of sheer madness that cost Delhi Capitals a real shot at the target. Delhi had raced to 59 inside the powerplay overs for the loss of two wickets with Rishabh Pant and Mitchell Marsh in good touch. At 72/2 in the eighth over and Pant and Marsh well set, Delhi were well on course to overhaul the target.
Instead, Marsh took on Moeen Ali and was caught in the deep. Although it was a warranted attacking shot, with Pant going great guns against spin, Marsh only needed to rotate strike against spin and look to take down pace. On top of that, Pant played a nothing shot off Moeen next over, chopping on a half-tracker to give away the advantage. As though these two dismissals weren’t enough Ripal Patel slogged a couple straightaway, the second of which got him dismissed.
Mukesh Choudhary struck again twice in the next over and all of a sudden Delhi slipped from 72/2 in the eighth over to 85/7 by the end of the 11th over, making the run chase non-existent.
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