SRI'S Blog

  It was one of those most patience  testing finals… Finally it did end after three days !! Yes , with a Rain washed match day forcing the use of the reserve day which it turn had  its halts due to rain and then finally CSK running out deserved winners on Tuesday early morning.   MSD Dhoni won the toss and with rain predictions , took the option to bowl first. Little would have MSD expected a poor bowling and fielding display from his team.   Gill should have been a goner at the start, but Chahar spilled one of Tushar and then Chahar dropped Saha of his own bowling. At this level, these catches should have been taken , With the reprieves , the GT openers got off to their rollicking start with Saha being the aggressor of the two. They tonked the bowling merrily and it required the super speed reaction of MSD to have Gill stumped. MSD was too good behind the wickets. And I hear that he does not practice wicketkeeping !   Sai Sudarshan is a solid player.  But he is not the Miller or T

  Will start with the  table bottom  Finishers   SRH This franchisee always does well at the Auction – They go after in Form players   and get them too.   But what happens to the form of these players at the time of the actual tournament is anyone’s guess… The team got off to a bad start with their captain Markaram joining in late   post his National duty and by that time, the team was already struggling.. Their hot buy Harry Brooks –( although he scored a century ) was a big letdown.. Chopping and changing the team and unable to get the right balance they finished bottom of the league.. Mind you , they have heavyweights in their Coaching team.. Brian Lara , Muthiah Muralidharan , Dale Steyn to boot.. And decent players too    But if you cannot get your combination right , you are   a gonner   Delhi Capitals   If SRH had their high power coaching team , DC would beat them hollow in terms of their line up – Ricky Ponting , Dada , Shane Watson but hey could not influence the fort

  CSK roared back in the current edition if the IPL storming in to the finals. One would think that they surpassed  not just themselves but the expectations of the Yellow Army as well. Finishing 9 th in the previous edition having won only four matches , the expectation would have been marginal . It would have been great if they  had bought exciting  players in the auction preceding the 2023 edition.  They bought in Ben Stokes ( little play time and very little impact ) , Rahane ( considered an average buy or a replacement for Pujara but what a transformed player he was and super impact ) .. Rest no great buys were not of any note. But the CSK management made One big difference —MS Dhoni will lead the team and that was it ( 2022 edition saw a derailed succession plan fail ,Recovery actions   was too late   from a tournament standing perspective)   .   There was only one reason for CSK to get in to the finals and it was Dhoni s leadership – It was astute , clever , cool stuff suppo