IPL 2023: Highs and lows from week one

 

The 16^th season of the Indian Premier League has, in its first week and a bit, thrown up some terrific matches and individual performances as well as some trends which, based on the teams in questions, could prove potentially season-defining. Here’s a recap of the first nine days of IPL action.

Rinku trumps Rashid hat-trick in epic chase

The match of the season, so far. Set a target of 205, Kolkata Knight Riders were once again indebted to Venkatesh Iyer to lead a floundering chase, but the hero of a most remarkable win was Rinku Singh. When Iyer departed for a very entertaining 83 from 40 balls, the equation for KKR was 50 off 24 deliveries. Then Rashid Khan, leading Gujarat Titans in the absence of Hardik Pandya, turned the innings around with a hat-trick that saw him take out Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur.

Rinku held up one end until the last over, from which KKR needed 29 runs. No team in the IPL’s existence had ever chased more than 23 in the final over of a match, and so the odds were stacked against Rinku. But what happened next was the stuff of dreams – or nightmares, in the case of the hapless bowler, Yash Dayal.

Rinku, on strike after Umesh Yadav took a single from the first ball, smacked the next five for sixes to seal a stunning win for KKR, and cleared the dugout in fantastic scenes. A wayward over of full tosses saw Rinku deposit the ball over long-off, backward square leg, long-on cover as he ransacked 30 off five deliveries to finish not out on 48 from 21 deliveries. It was one of the most dramatic and implausible finishes in a T20 match, ever.

 

Warner passes 6000, but Delhi winless

Australian white-ball titan David Warner ticked off a big milestone this past week, becoming the first overseas batsman in the history of the IPL to get to 6,000 runs, and was briefly the holder of the 2023 Orange Cap for most runs, but unfortunately for Delhi Capitals this season has begun on a disastrous note.

Warner, leading the franchise in the absence of Rishabh Pant, has two fifties in three matches but Delhi are winless so far and languish at the bottom of the IPL 2023 points table. Their defeats include margins of 57 and 57 runs respectively, and a pattern of abject inferiority has emerged in all three defeats. The batsmen, Warner aside, appear grossly incompetent and the bowling has lacked bite. So much so that head coach Ricky Ponting has admitted he is at a loss to put a finger on what exactly hasn’t worked for Delhi.

Prithvi Shaw, about whom so many Indian cricket fans are equally excited and disappointed that India don’t pick him anymore, has managed 19 runs in three innings and in each match, he has been undone by pace, bounce and swing. Mitchell Marsh has two cheap dismissals and Rilee Roussow hasn’t looked at ease. And if Sarfaraz Khan is the next big bet from Delhi’s Indian pool, well then there’s a clear problem of depth.

Delhi are in desperate need of a win to stay alive in the competition, but where will they summon the will?

 

Will CSK send off MS Dhoni with a fitting farewell?

Chennai Super Kings have begun well, with two wins out of three, and their squad has the right balance and skill to take this team into the playoffs. Ruturaj Gaikwad has amassed 189 runs in three innings at a strike-rate of 161.53, and such is Chennai’s depth that when Devon Conway was out for a duck, up stepped Ajinkya Rahane with the fastest half-century this season, off just 19 balls, on his franchise debut. Throw in handy cameos from Shivam Dube and Ambati Rayudu and Moeen Ali’s wicket-taking offbreaks, and this is a team tough to defeat.

Doubts remain over the injury-prone Deepak Chahar and Ben Stokes, but so far CSK have shown that the batsmen and bowlers assembled this year could get the job done. Dhoni’s leadership remains astute and his ability to call for reviews is unparalleled, and with indications of this being his final year as a CSK player, there is a growing feeling that the team is doing its best to send Dhoni into the sunset with another IPL title.

 

Jaiswal and Buttler a fine pair, but middle a muddle

Last season’s runners-up sit on top of the IPL 2023 points table, thanks in no small part to the success of their openers Jos Buttler and Yashaswi Jaiswal. Buttler has 152 runs in three innings at a strike-rate of 180.95 and Jaiswal 125 at 164.57, and the duo’s attacking nature inside the Powerplay has proven very critical for Rajasthan.

In the team’s first match, Jaiswal and Buttler smashed 80 runs in the first six overs, which is an RR record for the Powerplay. Against Delhi, the two put on 98 in 8.3 overs. This approach has carried Rajasthan’s batting, but the middle order is somewhat of a concern. Why the team management held back a professional opener in Devdutt Padikkal in the second game when Buttler could not open, and instead chose Ravichandran Ashwin who made 0 off four balls in a match Rajasthan went on to lose by five runs, remains puzzling. And despite Shimron Hetmyer’s brilliant striking, the team keeps him at numbers six and seven. With a more proactive approach in the middle, this team could storm into the playoffs.

 

Dhawan, Punjab’s one-man army

Macho, Punjabi figures with plenty of swag and bravado occupy a special place in the landscape of Hindi cinema, with the likes of father and son duo Dharmendra and, in particular, Sunny Deol top of this line. In the context of the IPL, Punjab Kings’ captain Shikhar Dhawan is reprising one such role with powerful effect.

In three innings as opener, Dhawan, aged 37, has ticked off 225 runs at a strike-rate of 149 for once out. The next best for Punjab? Prabhsimran Singh’s 83 runs, of which 60 came in one innings. Only two others, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Jitesh Sharma, have crossed 50 runs for the season. To carry a struggling lineup in this manner is special from Dhawan.

In Punjab’s first match, he made 40 off 29 which was the second-highest individual score. Against Rajasthan, he batted 20 overs for 86* off 56, where only one other player managed to cross 27. On Sunday, Punjab were in deep trouble at 88 for 9 versus Sunrisers Hyderabad. Dhawan, on 47 off 38 deliveries at the end of the 15^th over when the ninth wicket fell, proceeded to slam 52 runs off his next 28 balls faced to finish on 99* from 66. Punjab ended on 143 for 9, a total which was not enough to stop Hyderabad from notching up their first win of the season.

But given the context of the match, this was a superb effort from Dhawan worth much more on another day.