Hello Friends,
Wishing all of you a happy Dushera.Stay safe & celebrate this festive season from home.I am sure even amid all the glitters of the festive season you guys wouldn't have missed any action from IPL. In case you have, here I am with all the updates from yet another thrilling week of IPL. We are entering the last week of league phase,but not even a single team has qualified for the playoffs yet.That promises the coming week to be a cliff hanger. Last week witnessed the top 3 teams missing out on sealing the playoff spots, CSK's changed approach with an eye on the future, KXIP's continued resurgence,Sunil Narine & Ben Stokes' match winning knocks. Special mention for Mandeep Singh(KXIP) &Nitish Rana(KKR) for showing the courage to continue playing in spite of personal losses.With everything to play for, teams will definitely be gearing up for that final push for a playoff spot in the coming week. Let's now quickly have a look on last week's featured performances.
Complacency..the forever nemesis of success
All of us must have heard the term complacency as we experience it in some form or the other in our life. If not prevented in time it can create severe roadblocks on the way to success.Only way not to fall in its trap is to keep the focus intact on your desired destination until reached. We probably saw the evil side of it during the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad(SRH) & Kings XI Punjab(KXIP) where SRH succumbed to a shocking defeat in spite of controlling the match for most of the time.Chasing a target of 127, they got a great start by the openers during the powerplay.But somehow they found a way not to capitalize that start. They lost 7 wickets for just 14 runs which eventually handed them their worst defeat of the season so far. Asking rate was always under control.Batsmen just needed to rotate the strike & hit an odd boundary or two to reach to the target. But they failed to do so. lack of intent to rotate the strike or play the big shots made their work even difficult. Credit must go to their opponents for not giving up & trying their best to defend such a small total.Slow nature of the pitch made it further difficult towards the end to play shots. But the Hyderabad team was in a position from where they could have easily finished the game with few balls to spare. But they couldn't. Once again they could not capitalize on a good start & failed to close the game which has been quite common for them this season. At this juncture of the tournament where even a smallest of the mistake can throw you out of the playoff race,this was a big blow to them.Hopefully their batsmen learn from this mistake & come back with better intent in the coming matches. In case they fail to qualify for the playoffs this defeat is definitely going to haunt them for long. On the other hand it was the fourth consecutive win for their opponents who kept believing in themselves & rectifying their mistakes match after match. A successful individual or a team would never get complacent before achieving the desired result.Probably KXIP is a prime example of that as they are on their way for the biggest turn around of the season so far.
Keep it simple
Chennai Super Kings(CSK) team has been the talk of the town throughout the season mostly for the wrong reasons. Even after disappointing performances in most of the matches they were eager to perform to best of their ability to bring back the smiles on their fans' faces. With almost out of contention for a playoff spot they came to the match against Royal challengers Bangalore(RCB) to give a noteworthy performance. On the other hand RCB came to this match with full of confidence being a win away for a guaranteed playoff spot. A win in this match could have seen them grabbing the top spot in the points table. But their arch-rivals had other plans.The men in yellow completely outplayed the team from Bangalore . But how could they do such a turn around after an extremely poor performance against Mumbai Indians a few days back? Keep things simple. Yes, that's the mantra Dhoni & his team has followed over the years to fetch extraordinary results. But somehow that was missing in their previous performances this season. Probably extreme pressure to repeat their success of past somewhat made them thinking too much about the outcome of the match rather than doing the basics correctly. But this match saw the glimpse of old giants of IPL where they dominated the opponent completely. They did the small things right. Bowling in the right line & length during the death overs, intent to score while batting & holding on to catches were some of the areas where they could not do well consistently this season. But this was the day when they rectified all their mistakes to a major extent. Batsmen were playing with lot of freedom. There was not much of a pressure of either points table or qualification for playoffs. Good to see Ruturaj Gaikwad,an Indian youngster rising to the occasion & playing a match winning knock.Above all there was the calming influence of captain cool to ensure that things don't go out of control at any point of time. Hopefully they continue to keep things simple in the rest of the matches & come back stronger in the next season.
Courage overpowers adversity
Courage is the only thing that can help us sailing through adverse situations in life. As mentioned at the beginning it was heartening to see players like Mandeep Singh & Nitish Rana giving their 100% in the field despite going through personal losses. Kudos to their commitment towards their teams. We saw another example of such resilience during the match between Rajasthan Royals & Mumbai Indians. Ben Stokes joined the tournament little late to be with his ailing father. It was not easy for him to come out of that sort of a situation & perform in high pressure tournaments like IPL. But he is a champion cricketer & has shown extreme courage in the cricket field through his performances in last couple of years.He joined the Rajasthan team at a time when they were struggling for some sort of momentum in the tournament. it was not easy to start performing immediately after a long break. Moreover he was asked to open the batting for his team which was not a role he is used to while playing for England. But as a true champion he took up that challenge too. Results were not as satisfactory as expected in the first few matches. There was a debate whether he is the right man to open the innings specially in the presence of his fellow countrymen Jos Buttler. But he chose this must win match for his team to wipe away all the criticism. A match winning century by him not only kept his teams' hopes alive to qualify for top four but also shown how mental strength can overcome adverse situations in life. Not to forget Sanju Samson's contribution too in this match who was also struggling with somewhat inconsistent form.Whether Rajasthan advances further in the tournament or not, Stokes' courage will definitely be remembered for a long time.Fascinating to see the kind of inspirational performances these guys keep on giving. Probably that's the reason IPL is the best T20 league in the world.
Stay tuned....
Click here for Part-IV of this series.
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Ben Stokes: Dan Heap, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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