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 […]
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 […]
Three consecutive losses to start the season. Last in the table. The same franchise that won five IPL titles under Dhoni now sits at the bottom with a death over economy of 16.65, a batting order that keeps reshuffling, and a leadership structure that looks reactive rather than composed. These three losses are the visible […]
75 off 42 balls against the Gujarat Titans. The scorecard shows an excellent innings, and most match reviews stop there. They shouldn’t. Dhruv Jurel’s contribution to Rajasthan Royals’ win included identifying which boundary to target against which bowler on Ahmedabad’s asymmetric surface, suggesting the tactical plan that used googlies specifically against left-handers to force risky […]
Eleven required. One over remaining. Elite finishers at the crease. The situation that separates death-over specialists from death-over experiments. Tushar Deshpande bowled six yorkers. Not six attempted yorkers with variations mixed in when the pressure climbed. Six yorkers. The four runs GT scored came from the margins of execution rather than from Deshpande changing his […]
Mohammed Shami came back from injury as a seam-and-swing bowler. That’s what everyone expected to see. The bounce, the outswing, the hard length that climbs above the hands. What IPL 2026 batters are actually facing is something different, a Shami who mixes pace in the powerplay before the batter has established their timing, bowls fuller […]