IPL 2023 My Take on the other teams ( Minus CSK )

 

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 fortunes of DC.. DC dearly missed Rishab Pant – He was their match winner and could have helped their middle order as well. One key factor was DC inability to get off to a good start – Warner was too good but Prithivi Shaw had an IPL that he wants to forget. Phil Salt was good in patches but due to the team Combo , he could not figure in the team always. Mitchell Marsh is known for picking up injuries   Middle order was a sore point and there was no Finisher of note.  Much was expected of Delhi but they had a poor outing for 2023

 PBKS

This was a mystery team—Their buys just like SRH were so good at the auction.  They probably missed the cut due to few bad performances – It matters a lot in this format , you cannot have a bad patches hitting you--  Their bowling was a letdown – Arshdeep and Rabada let them down badly when needed—Both leaked runs in the death overs—Shikar was in very good form—PBKS , I thought will ride the momentum that they got when they defeated  CSK away in the last ball.. Teams have to get their momentum right .. PBKS – this year also a disappointment

 KKR

I expected KKR to do very well . With a wily Chandrakant Pandit as their Coach ,  Abhishek Nayyar and Bhart Arun in tow , they should have done more than they did. They did miss their Captain Shreyas but to be fair , Nitish Rana did a wonderful job.  Their spin bowling was a super Combo—Varun , Narine and new find Suyash in  But Narine was not his venomous self – Jason Roy and Venkatesh did their part in batting but it was Rinku who stole the thunder—Knocking off 30 runs in the last over was no mean achievement. Rinku has a cool head  and extraordinary hitting skills – He has been in this team for the last few seasons but this season was his to emerge as a Big Talent  Again KKR should have used that momentum that they  got against that fabulous win against Gujarat Titans to propel but they did not. Andre Russel was a big disappointment ..

 RCB

Faf , Kohli and Maxi—that was the team --- Faf was in extraordinary form.. Except for the three , the batting was let down,  except for one match where Mahipal Lomror hit a fifty..  It was good to see Kohli do his striking best … Maxi  has the range and skill but he throws his wicket cheap -- Time for DK to don the Commentators role than a player – Bowling except for Suraj , lacked bite --  Again too much chopping an d change.   RCB team is a team that flatters to deceive most times

 RR

The Halaa Bowl , Naala Bowl team must be wondering what they did wrong not to get in to play offs.. Jaiswal was in his hitting elements right through and one more talent for the Indian team to watch out for – Butler lost his elements  of form – But there was always depth in their batting . Sanju , Hetmayer would chip in .  Spin bowling combo was probably the best – Ashwin , Chahal and Zampa were too good on their days .  Having beaten CSK on two occasions , they were a team in form  and should have qualified But they had some inexplicable losses and had to pray for other teams to help them qualify , which did not happen.

Sanga must be mad with his team … Most impressive team but they were the ones to be blamed for their missing out on qualification

 MI

 MI always starts slow – They will loose the first four to five matches at the start but then they take  off.. This season was no different. Bowling was a big let down for MI  -- With Bumrah out and Jofra Archer just bowling post his injury recovery , they had to depend on Chawla to pick wickets.  They would concede more but had the batting power to chase down targets.. SKY , Cameron Green , Tim David , Tilak Verma or Ishan Kishan – One of them would bat long and deep and get the runs  Tilak Verma is another star who has had an another good season.. Again a very cool head and amazing hitting skills.  Rohit Sharma looked good in the Dream 11 advts … May be Aamir will cast him in future roles 😊  They found themselves against a Shubman Gill magic  in the Qualifier 2  that they just wilted .But they should be happy for they finished  last in the previous edition.

 LSG

 With a crafty person like Gautam Gambhir in front , you can only expect LSG to be very competitive—Right selection of batters ,bowlers made the team a strong one.. They had to bench Quinton Dekock because of  Kyle Mayers good form at the top . They did loose K L Rahul due to injury but I do not  think that bothered them .. Stoinis , Pooran did their roles most amicably. Bowling bench strength was very good .. it started with Mark Wood firing but fading soon – But other bowlers delivered—This included a long forgotten Amit Mishra with his leg spin , Always  a very impressive Ravi Bishnoi , upcoming pacers  Yash Thakur , Moshin Khan and a engaging Naveen Ul Haq ( we all know who Gambhir and Naveen engaged in )

They lost their plot on the Chennai pitch to MI in the Eliminator

 Gujarat Titans

 Probably the best assembled team—Coaching staff of Gary Kirsten , Aashish Nehra , Aashish Kapoor and a cool Hardik   leading the team , it was a super confident team that we saw in every match – Gill and Saha set the tone and following them was Hardik , Sai Sudharshan , Miller the Killer , Rahul Tewatia the blaster , Rashid Khan . Vijay Shankar – All seemed to be in good nick and knew their roles to the T. They did loose Kane Williamson through injury  but even with that loss , they were a Very Very strong batting squad.

Bowling was lead by Shami ( the ball swung when he bowled ) , Hardik , Rashid , Noor ( what a find ) and supplemented by Josh Little and Mohit Sharma ( where did he surface from ? )  They did not use Mathew Wade till now !  And they had Abhinav Manohar ( batting ) and Alzari Joseph ( bowling ) who had their moments when they got a chance. Pretty powerful squad..

Defending Champions ! Will they Retain ?

Wait for my next blog -- IPL  Things other than Cricket !