CSK vs MI — Match 1 — IPL 2020

Every CSK fan would’ve screamed till their lungs wore out when the Yellow army played a great game against their arch-rivals MI on September 19, 2020. The boundary-line catches by Faf, Sam Curran’s surprise 18 off 6 in the second innings, our beloved Thala walking into the field for the first time after he retired from international cricket, all of this, tag along with a competitive performance from MI, it was a fantastic exhibition of cricket that night at Abu Dhabi.

While the lions are preparing to take on Rajasthan Royals tomorrow, let’s take a look at the key moments, decisions made mid-game and brief analysis of the last match.

• With 7 matches for MI set in Abu Dhabi, we can consider that to be their home ground for this reason. But it is very much different from MI’s actual home ground Wankhede. MI has hit a total of 47 sixes at the Wankhede stadium while hitting just 15 at Abu Dhabi. This clearly shows that they’re not yet familiar with the field yet and need to adapt a lot, as quickly as possible, in order to get a better boundary score. Also, the pitch at Abu Dhabi is a bit slower. Had it been Wankhede, Rohit would have cleared mid-off and avoided being dismissed.

• Rohit’s Dismissal — Dhoni’s sudden field change was a key factor for this wicket. He brought mid-off up, which forced Rohit to play over mid-off, which resulted in the dismissal. Also, Rohit’s average and strike rate against left-arm spin and leg-break during power plays has been poor, which also played a role.

Rohit Sharma against leg-spin, since IPL 2017:

Balls faced: 120

Runs scored: 131

Dismissed: 9

Average: 14.55

Strike rate: 109

• The decision to promote Jadeja and Curran up in the batting order was taken with 5 overs remaining as Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya had 1 over each then. This gave a left-hander advantage to the batsmen as the ball would come straight towards them, making it easy to hit and slog. This was why they were promoted over Dhoni.
• Given the temperature and dew conditions, any team which wins the toss would choose to field first. The only possible explanation for this would be that the dew factor would be high during the second half of the match and UAE averages at 40 degrees Celsius during September. Taking this decision after winning the toss already set the path right for CSK towards a comfortable second inning.
• M.S.Dhoni has driven the team towards victory in 19 out of the last 24 toss wins. Also, CSK has emerged successful in 5 of their last 6 chases. This added to the toss-factor increased the chances to win for CSK.
• 8 overs of spin were bowled in each innings, during which CSK clocked an impressive 3–63 off theirs, while MI registered 2–73. Despite Krunal Pandya & Rahul Chahar having a strong long-term economy, MI couldn’t take away much with their spin effect, which might be the negative effects of dew during the second half of the game.
• Movement usually tends to increase at the beginning of the second inning, which can hardly be seen during the first. So teams would prefer chasing and might look to play out the first 2–3 overs till the ball rolls on the ground. Then the dew factor comes into play which dampens swing, after which they can go all guns blazing.
• CSK’s fielding was not up to the mark as there were a lot of mishaps, which would’ve been fairly noticed by everyone. Something which caught our eye particularly was that they were too slow in handling the ball. A dozen doubles were scored by MI, out of which 7 to 8 were the result of misfields or slower response by the nearby fielders.
• The last time MI won their opening match in the IPL was in 2012. MI beat CSK on April 4, 2012, at Chepauk, which was roughly 3090 days ago. Back then, the current Indian skipper Virat Kohli was an up and coming batsman with just 12 international tons. Smith had zero tons for Australia and Tendulkar was still playing international matches.
• Watson struggles against MI pacers. It is crucial for the opposition to get Watson’s wicket as early as possible and MI has got just the right pace attack to do this job.

Shane Watson Vs MI Pacers:

Strike Rate: 83.52

Average: 25.33

Against the 5 Mumbai pacers Watson has faced since 2018 (Bumrah, Boult, McClenaghan, Hardik Pandya and Dhawal Kulkarni), he has a strike rate of 83.52 and an average of 25.33. Out of these 5 bowlers, except Hardik, all others bowl in the power plays and it makes sense why Watson had not gone big in the last match.

• De Kock’s dismissal usually plays a pivotal role in the fall of MI’s batting line-up. He has been caught out for about 27 times in all of IPL. This is because, once he hits a couple of boundaries, his aggression spikes. More often than not, this results in de Kock playing a poorly timed shot straight into the hands of a fielder.

• De Kock has lost his wicket mostly to the short deliveries. Whenever a short ball is bowled, he blindly tries to pull or hook it for a six. Again, this mostly ends up as a shot with bad timing. This explains why he has been dismissed 19 times by a short ball. This was what happened in the last match too.

• De Kock has lost his wicket majorly to fast bowlers. To be more precise, he has been 6 times by left-arm pacers and 17 times by right-arm pacers, which adds up to a total of 23 dismissals. From this count of 23, 13 times account to slower balls. He is easily deceived by the slower balls as he often tries to hit the ball out of the park, but the lack of pace on the ball makes it difficult for him to time the ball perfectly and hence costs him his wicket. This explains how he lost his wicket in the last match.

The points mentioned above are few out of the many reasons which lead to the victory of CSK against MI in the last match. As the team gears up to face Rajasthan Royals, here is Fandemic’s predicted line-up of RR. Sit tight CSK fans, for last match’s victory is just the beginning towards a triumphant season for the lions.

Probable XI:

1. Yashasvi Jaiswal

2. Robin Uthappa

3. Sanju Samson

4. Steven Smith

5. David Miller

6. Riyan Parag

7. Tom Curran

8. Shreyas Gopal

9. Jaidev Unadkat

10. Jofra Archer

11. Ankit Rajpoot/ Mayank Markande/ Varun Aaron/ Mahipal Lormor