Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals make the cut
Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings had already qualified for the Indian Premier League 2018 play-offs, and Delhi Daredevils had crashed out early in the script, leaving all of Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore to slug it out for the two remaining play-off spots.
Here’s how the week panned out.
Kolkata join Hyderabad and ChennaiKolkata left it late, but against a below-par Hyderabad, they got their ‘A’ game to the plate and sealed a five-wicket win, moving into the play-offs as a result.
The win was set up by the little-known M Prasidh Krishna, a Karnataka medium pacer with the experience of exactly one first-class match, 19 List-A games and seven Twenty20 matches before this game. Opening the bowling, Krishna returned 4/30, his victims Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan and Rashid Khan.
That gave Kolkata 173 runs to chase down, and they did it in style. Sunil Narine provided the early flourish, Chris Lynn batted much of the way through, Robin Uthappa kept the momentum going, and Dinesh Karthik, the captain, provided the finishing touches.
Last-day dramaticsThat still left one spot up for grabs, and it came down to Rajasthan – who won their final game against Bangalore on the Saturday to get to 14 points – Mumbai and Punjab. The last two were in action on the final day of the league phase, against Delhi and Chennai respectively. Mumbai’s task was simpler – win and qualify. Punjab not only had to win but win very big to get above Rajasthan on net run rate.
In the end, none of that mattered. In the earlier game, Delhi beat Mumbai by 11 runs to make Rajasthan breathe slightly easy. And then Chennai knocked Punjab down by five wickets to seal the deal – for Ajinkya Rahane’s Royals.
Bangalore lose the plotTill that loss to Rajasthan, Virat Kohli’s Bangalore were also in the running for a play-off spot. But that dream went up in smoke after Bangalore dominated three-fourths of the match.
Rajasthan stopped at 164/5 and after nine overs of the chase, Bangalore were 75/1. But then came the collapse. AB de Villiers stood tall with a 35-ball 53, but Bangalore were bowled out for 134 in 19.2 overs. And that was that.
“We needed more smart decision-making there, and the guys were just not up to the mark and that is disappointing to see,” a dejected Kohli said afterwards. Sums it up, pretty much.
Virat Kohli caught in a spinIn the last six games Kohli played, he was unbeaten on one occasion. On all the others, it was a spinner that did him in. Krishnappa Gowtham, Rashid Khan and Ravindra Jadeja hit his stumps, while Amit Mishra and Shakib Al Hasan had him out caught. Something to worry about for the Indian captain? Perhaps, but he is more worried about tackling seam and swing at the moment, with the England Tests coming up, so this one can wait for a while.
Rishabh Pant’s pyrotechnicsThe horse had bolted by then, but Rishabh Pant, the 20-year-old Delhi Daredevils wicket-keeper batsman, wasn’t about to let his brilliant form go to waste.
Delhi were up against Chennai, and won by 34 runs. And then came the win that knocked Mumbai out. Pant scored 38 and 64 in the two games to take his tournament tally up to 684 runs. One century, five half-centuries, an average of 52.61, a strike rate of 173.60 … Pant did it all for Delhi, but didn’t get the support he needed to take his team into the last four.
Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes leave for Test dutyThat Rajasthan made it to the last four was pretty impressive because their best batsman of the tournament – Jos Buttler – and prize all-rounder Ben Stokes left for home just before their final fixture.
Buttler, promoted to the top of the order, had 548 runs to his name, and with Rahane struggling for form, it was a concern.
“We will miss them. I'm really happy for Jos because as a player you dream of playing Test cricket. It's everyone's dream to represent their country. I'm very happy for them,” said Rahane magnanimously. And then Rahul Tripathi took over, slamming 80* in 58 balls before the Bangalore batting imploded.
Both Buttler and Stokes are in the squad for the first Test against Pakistan, starting Thursday.
No more games for the table-toppersIt’s an interesting one. Of the top five run-scorers at this stage, Pant (No.1), KL Rahul (No.3) and Buttler (No.5) are not a part of the tournament any more. Only Kane Williamson (No.2 with 661 runs) and Ambati Rayudu (No.4 with 586) are still in the mix.
Among the bowlers, it’s more glaring: Andrew Tye (Punjab, 24 wickets), Umesh Yadav (Bangalore, 20), Trent Boult (Delhi, 18), Hardik Pandya (Mumbai, 18) and Jasprit Bumrah (Mumbai, 17) are the top five wicket-takers, and their teams are all out of the competition.
MS Dhoni catches Punjab off guardThere aren’t too many better brains in cricket, and Dhoni proved his smarts yet again in Chennai’s last league encounter against Punjab. Punjab needed to win and had scored 153 after being put in. Not great, but with Chennai at 27/3, it was game on. Suresh Raina was going well at No.3, and while the wait was on for Dhoni to walk out at No.5, out came Harbhajan Singh. No, it didn’t work too well, with Singh scoring 19 in 22, but then there was another surprise. Still no Dhoni. Still no Dwayne Bravo or Ravindra Jadeja. Instead, there was Deepak Chahar, the paceman. This one worked alright – Chahar hit 39 in 20 balls, and then it was left to Raina and Dhoni to finish things off.
Best knockIt was in Mumbai, with both Mumbai and Rajasthan desperate for a win. With Mumbai scoring 168/6 first, it was even stevens, but out came Buttler, all intent and big, swishing blade, and though D’Arcy Short fell cheaply and Rahane moved slowly, Buttler batted on a different plane. His 94* came off only 53 balls and included nine fours and five sixes. The target was reached with two whole overs in hand – talk about leaving a mark.
Best spellHis team, Chennai, didn’t need to win, but Punjab, the opponents, did. That they couldn’t was down in large measure to Lungi Ngidi’s heroics. Chris Gayle, caught down the leg-side for a duck. Rahul, bowled shouldering arms for 7. That was the first half. Then, in the 18th over of the innings, Ngidi got Ravichandran Ashwin to nick behind and Tye to chip an easy catch to Raina at mid-off. His returns: 4/10. Class!
Standout quote“A few tough days at the office now. We didn't bat well, we lost too many wickets early. We put down a catch – that's been our story. We had a horrible May.” – Ravichandran Ashwin after Punjab’s last game.