Jadeja’s bowling won the day but Pandey was standout performer

Matches between big team always promise high quality cricket and the match between the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals didn’t disappoint at all. Early in the innings there was some good swing bowling and clever changes of pace by the Rajasthan Royals bowlers and they made life difficult for the Super Kings openers. Dwayne Smith stood tall in this period that was dominated beautiful fast bowling. He exhibited brute force as well as some exquisite timing to reach his 50 off 28 balls, counter-attacking RR bowlers with aggression and verve. After the fall of Smith, RR bowlers dominated the proceedings. They took pace off the ball and made most of the pitch that was now starting to grip. The ball dominated the bat for a while and the fall of wickets at regular intervals didn’t help CSK’s cause either. [caption id=“attachment_1494859” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ishwar Pandey looked very good against RR. BCCI[/caption] Raina and other middle order batsmen misread the pitch and tried to play shots that could have been easily avoided. Bad shot selection led to their downfall and while bad luck led to Faf du Plessis’ fall. T20 cricket is not all about going for the big shots. It also needs to be played in small sessions and sometimes respecting the bowling does no harm. Most surprising was failure of Dhoni to gauge the same. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is known to be one of the best readers of game but he fell just when he should have been looking to play himself in. CSK’s middle order need to learn the lesson of adapting to the situation as soon as possible because they now don’t have luxury of an all-rounder like Dwayne Bravo in their team. They need to take the added responsibility of batting through the middle overs and set the stage for Dhoni to slog at the end. Jadeja’s performance was heartening to see. He didn’t let Royals take down the Super Kings’ flag and took CSK to a fighting total. It was one of CSK’s worst batting performances but credit should also go to some clever bowling by royals. Super Kings bowlers tried to make a match out of it. Hilfenhaus and Pandey started well but it was spin duo of Ashwin and Sir Jadeja, which turned match in super kings’ favour. If in last match Super Kings set high standards in fielding then this was the day they would like to forget as a fielding unit. Slow and gripping pitch get the best out of Dhoni’s captaincy. He cleverly utilised the bowlers and made good bowling changes. It was Jadeja’s magical bowling that won match for Super Kings but for me stand out performance was from Ishwar Pandey. He has belief in himself. He has controlled aggression that is the weapon of every quality fast bowler. He maintains good line and length and swings the ball both ways which makes him a wicket-taking bowler. For me, he is future of both Super Kings and Team India. Such victories are draining but these matches also prepare players for big matches in the later rounds. Super Kings have passed this test before their big match against their fierce rival Mumbai Indians and it will give them a big boost. Till that time Super Kings’ fans can savour this #WhistlePodu performance.