IPL Week VI: CSK nab Brevis, Ro-Hit back in form, Starc shows class

A five-way tie at the top of the log just over halfway through the 18th edition of the IPL is exactly what the marketeers would have dreamed of, although Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals may yet pull clear of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants having played seven games to the others’ eight.

Mumbai Indians have been revived by the return of Jasprit Bumrah and have surged up the table to sixth, alone on eight points, having recovered from their traditional slow start, while the Kolkata Knight Riders have work today with three wins and six points from their seven games.

The remaining three teams are propping up the table with just four points apiece, although the Rajasthan Royals have shown far more spirit and form than the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings, who are way behind on net run-rate in ninth and 10th place.

Neil Manthorp reviews week six…

Match of the Week: High-scoring games are alright, but there’s nothing like the drama of a low-scoring one, especially a really low-scoring one. Punjab had ‘no chance’ after being bowled out for 111 in just 15.3 overs but they defended the lowest score in IPL history on the back of brilliant legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s 4-28, Marco Jansen’s 3-17 and some enthrallingly inept batting from KKR who subsided to a scarcely credible 95 all out in just 15.1 overs. Genuinely un-look-awayable.

Batter: Rohit Sharma, the old dog! Just when even his closest friends and allies were beginning to wonder whether he still had ‘it’, the 37-year-old blasted 76* from just 45 balls with four fours and six sixes as Mumbai Indians humiliated the Chennai Super Kings by nine wickets with 26 balls to spare. Suryakumar Yadav’s 68* from 30 balls (6x4, 5x6) came at a far more impressive strike rate, but it was Rohit, despite all his achievements, who had a point to prove after a dismal start to the competition. And prove it he did.

Bowler: Jasprit Bumrah has huge boots to fill – his own. Mumbai Indians missed him terribly in their first three matches, all of which they lost comfortably, but his return after injury has ignited the team’s resurgence, and a brilliant 1-21 helped set up the four-wicket win against SRH. And he backed it up in MI’s second game of the week with 2-25 against Chennai Super Kings. The man’s a bowling genius.

Performance:  Will Jacks seems destined forever to be classed as a part-time spinner, partly because he can be such a devastating batsman. But figures of 3-0-14-2 helped limit the increasingly hapless Sunrisers to 162 for five before the tall, English allrounder top-scored with 36 from 26 balls (3x4, 2x6) to help the Mumbai Indians’ resurgence with a four-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium.

Clanger: CSK’s Sri Lankan slinger, Matheesha Pathirana, bowled 10 balls against MI which cost 34 runs but, in fairness to the poor chap whose assigned job is bowling leg-stump yorkers as the bowling equivalent of a batting ‘finisher’, the game was well and truly over by the time he came on to bowl. As are CSK, it would seem…

Overseas Player: DC’s Mitchell Starc defended nine runs in the last over of regulation play to force a Super Over against RR and then conceded just 11 more in the extra six balls, allowing Tristan Stubbs to win the game with a towering six over midwicket. The Aussie left-armer can be more expensive than an apartment in Cape Town on a bad day, but on a good one, he’s priceless. Three days later, however, Jos Buttler smashed him for five consecutive fours, and he was back to being a studio flat in the Waterfront. So Buttler’s 97* from 54 balls for GT chasing down DC’s 203 for eight to win by seven wickets with four balls to spare takes the award.

Indian Player: MS Dhoni is back. For now. An unbeaten 26 from 11 balls, batting at No 7, saw the old finisher doing, again, what he used to do best. CSK will need more of the same to get back into play-off contention, but the five-wicket win against LSG was a good start. But, as always, the impact of a short innings can be just as decisive as a long one, and Abdul Samad’s 30* from 10 balls (4x6) made the difference for LSG in a two-run win against RR.

South African:  Marco Jansen 3-0-10-2 for Punjab against RCB in a 14-over match helped set up a five-wicket victory. Tristan Stubbs (31) for DC v GT was in vain but continued his recent consistency. But Aiden Markram top-scored for LSG (180 for five) with 66 from 45 balls and then showed no mercy to 14-year-old opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi (34 from 20), stumped by Rishabh Pant to help clinch a thrilling two-run win against Rajasthan.

Talking Point: There is an undeniable element of schadenfreude about CSK’s plight, as there was when Mumbai Indians lost their first three games. With five titles apiece the ‘Galacticos’ of the IPL tend to provide entertainment for the ‘rest’ when they struggle although, currently, even those most disinclined to support the men in yellow are more inclined to stare at the ground below them rather than MS Dhoni and his disjointed team without a shred of confidence between them.

Look out for: Dewald Brevis. CSK have got nothing to lose now, except some more matches. They have nabbed Brevis from the bosom of arch-rivals Mumbai Indians where he was considered part of the ‘family’, although not under contract for this year’s IPL. He is, however, an intrinsic fixture at MI Cape Town and the MI franchise in the MLC. If Brevis can play like he, too, has nothing to lose, we could see some fireworks.