Three decisions. All made by people who knew what they were doing. All producing outcomes that were avoidable with different information processing at the moment. Handing Deepak Chahar the new ball in conditions that offered nothing for swing. Promoting Tilak Varma in a high-pressure chase phase that needed power hitting rather than anchor intent. Introducing […]
Three decisions. All made by people who knew what they were doing. All producing outcomes that were avoidable with different information processing at the moment. Handing Deepak Chahar the new ball in conditions that offered nothing for swing. Promoting Tilak Varma in a high-pressure chase phase that needed power hitting rather than anchor intent. Introducing […]
The first ball he faced was from Jasprit Bumrah. Six. Over the boundary. Gone. The Guwahati crowd processed what had happened approximately two seconds after the ball had already cleared the rope. Bumrah had bowled a delivery that would have beaten most batters at this level. Sooryavanshi had read the length before the ball pitched, […]
The day’s headline was a 15-year-old hitting a six off the first ball he faced from Jasprit Bumrah. Entirely justified. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hitting Bumrah over the boundary from the first delivery he faces in professional cricket is the kind of moment that defines a career before it’s started. But while the world watched that, Yashasvi […]
Ajinkya Rahane scored 8 off 10 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. That number circulated as evidence of a problem. Virender Sehwag looked at the same number alongside the match situation, the pitch conditions, the wickets in hand, and the partnership context, and concluded the criticism was missing the point. Rahane also scored 67 off 40 balls […]
Cameron Green’s auction price justified itself through one specific proposition: a batter who bowls and a bowler who bats, covering two functions from one overseas slot. He hasn’t bowled a single over. His batting average sits in single digits after multiple matches. KKR is getting one function at poor quality from a slot designed to […]
2 wickets. 9 runs. 4 overs. 18 dot balls. Abhishek Sharma was dismissed before he could attack. SRH’s powerplay plan was dismantled before they’d decided whether to accelerate or rebuild. Mohammad Shami bowled this spell against Sunrisers Hyderabad on a flat surface with minimal seam movement and no swing assistance, and produced numbers that most […]
Mitchell Starc’s absence from the Delhi Capitals’ campaign isn’t a single-match problem. It’s a compounding one. Every match without him means a power play without the left arm swing that creates early edges. Every match without him means a death-over phase without the yorker accuracy that restricts totals in the final four overs. His dual […]
CSK’s death overs bowling plan survived for approximately two overs of the final phase. Then Tim David arrived. 70 not out from an innings that began when RCB already had momentum and needed someone to amplify rather than build it. Sarfaraz Khan’s aggressive 50 in the powerplay had already disrupted CSK’s early bowling plans. Tim […]
Sunrisers Hyderabad built their squad around one specific proposition: the most destructive batting lineup in the competition should be placed on surfaces that allow them to express that destruction fully. Travis Head is attacking in the power play. Heinrich Klaasen is accelerating in the middle overs. A lineup that averaged above ten runs per over […]
Sanju Samson getting started and not converting them is a familiar story. The frustrating dismissal in the transition phase. The innings that promised something exceptional and delivered something functional. At Rajasthan Royals, where his role was clear, and the batting order was built around his specific strengths, those dismissals existed but felt like individual failures […]
111 runs conceded in 40 death over balls. Economy rate of 16.65. Worst among all teams in the competition. These aren’t numbers that reflect a couple of expensive overs against exceptional batting; they reflect a pattern across multiple matches that confirms CSK’s death bowling isn’t a form problem. It’s a structural one. The RCB match […]