After the 17th over, it seemed that there was no way Chennai Super Kings could get away against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first Qualifier of the IPL. Hitherto, in the two death overs, they’d managed only five runs. 43 more was required from 18. They have pulled off great heists, but this one was Mission Impossible.
This was the time when the Sunrisers bowlers got together and choked teams. The scoreboard said Faf du Plessis was on strike. Wrong, it was just his shadow. The scores of 11 off 13, 33 off 33, 27 off 15, 14 off 15 so far in the IPL suggested so. And, against the Sunrisers, the masters of defence, with that sort of scores, he wasn’t expected to win the game.
One over later, Williamson brought Brathwaite on. Sunrisers have been excellent at the death this IPL. But Brathwaite wasn’t a key contributor to that. He’d till then only bowled 10 balls in the 16-20 overs. But Williamson trusted Brathwaite. Du Plessis trusted in himself. He said after the game that he’d watched videos of him playing at the Wankhede to restore his confidence. In the future, when his confidence is low again, he can well watch the video of what he did to Brathwaite in the next over.
The three fours and a six he hit in that over shut the Orange Army up in the stands, made Williamson’s straight face look serious and spoiled a great night that Brathwaite was having. CSK’s glimmer of hope became a steady flame. An over later, as his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni would do, de Plessis finished the match off with a six.
Du Plessis’ innings apart, focus should also be on the men, who led their teams to the top two spots in the league stage. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kane Williamson might seem poles apart in the way they bat. But in the way they lead, there are many similarities. And among the striking ones, the first is the seeming stoicism on field – the sheer unflappability even during a great crisis; the second is that both aren’t afraid of the unconventional (Dhoni exemplifies this with his batting itself) – they go against the grain in picking the team, setting fields; the third is that both take added responsibilities with the bat – with a vulnerable middle order, Williamson has to play the sheet anchor and attacker, depending on the situation and Dhoni has had to reinvent himself so his team didn’t need to hunt for someone for the finisher’s role.
In the teams’ previous meetings before this match, Chennai’s batting might had overpowered the Sunrisers bowling lineup, making both matches seem one-sided. But with the final spot at stake, this match was expected to be close and both men made a host of decisions that made the Qualifier 1 a humdinger.
Not bowling Harbhajan: Harbhajan Singh was expected to be one of the key factors of this match. After playing 49 IPL games at the Wankhede – most of them for the Mumbai Indians – he’d be all too familiar with the venue’s conditions. He has taken 49 wickets there – only Lasith Malinga has more wickets at the venue. So, Harbhajan was expected to bowl at least a couple of overs for CSK. But no, he didn’t. It was a strange decision, but one Dhoni has shown a tendency to make this year. The abundance of bowling options in his side meant Ravindra Jadeja and Karn Sharma, at various times in the first half of the tournament, played in the XI without having to bowl. Dhoni makes those decisions on the go and given Jadeja bowled a brilliant four-over spell to a lineup dominated by right-handers, Dhoni chose not to use Harbhajan. But for a couple of expensive overs by Shardul Thakur at the end, he was vindicated in doing so.
Picking Brathwaite, the batsman, ahead of Hales: After three straight failures, Alex Hales seemed to have found form against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 17. In a chase of 219, he’d made 37 off 23 with three sixes and two fours. But the innings ended on the 24th ball when AB de Villiers pulled off a stunner to dismiss him. For the next match against Kolkata Knight Riders, however, he was dropped for Carlos Brathwaite, who made 3 off four and picked up two wickets. That was, however, a dead rubber for the Sunrisers. So, Hales was expected to be back for the crucial contest against the Super Kings. But Williamson persisted with Brathwaite and it paid dividends: the West Indian, with a 29-ball unbeaten 43, revived the SRH innings from 88/6 in 15 overs and get to a competitive score of 139.
Sending Rayudu at 4: Ambati Rayudu’s scored 396 runs in 10 games at an an average of 44 and a strike rate of 147.21 while opening the innings this IPL. Last time the two sides met, Rayudu opened the innings, scored a 100 and made the contest a one-sided affair. So, it would have made more sense for Dhoni to retain the spot of his team’s leading run-scorer. But, at times, he makes decisions that escape the understanding of many of his watchers. And, Rayudu, at No 4, scored his first T20 duck in over a year. But the CSK skipper has indicated that if du Plessis is playing, Rayudu will play the role of the floater because of his versatility. Had the result been different though, this decision would have certainly been scrutnised more.
Bringing on Rashid for Dhoni: One of the most expected player-vs-player battles for this match was MS Dhoni vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar. For, both are masters at the death and the possibility of them facing each other in the last over of the match loomed larger when Dhoni opted to chase at the toss. Bhuvneshwar did bowl the last over of the match. But Dhoni wasn’t around till then. Williamson took out the finisher in the middle overs with another of his trump card: Rashid Khan. Of course, Dhoni’s got no problems with leg-spinners. According to CricProf, he averages 43.90 against leg-breaks. And, leg-breaks are Rashid’s bread and butter. But Rashid’s also got a venom that he mixes up so well with his leg-breaks: the googly. And, against googlies, Dhoni’s average drops to 12. On Tuesday, Williamson got on Rashid when Dhoni was in the middle. And Rashid bowled a superb googly to castle him.
Asking Brathwaite to bowl the 18th over: Brathwaite with the bat revived Sunrisers’ hope at the death. But with the ball, once again at the death, he almost killed it with a 20-run over. Till then, CSK were limping towards a defeat, needing 43 off 18. But that Brathwaite over changed the fate of the match. Williamson, however, defended the decision after the game. “Yeah, certainly we backed Carlos with his death bowling,” he said. “That’s why he’s in this side, as another death option. Unfortunately, that’s the game we play that when you’re under pressure sometimes life gets a little bit tough and credit to the way Faf batted, he batted beautifully. To be fair, that’s not what I look at in terms of where we wanted to correct ourselves. I think with the bat, we could have taken some better options in order to get maybe another 15-20 on that surface.”
Picking Faf du Plessis: “How did we win this guys?” du Plessis admitted to asking this to his team-mates after the game. But, before the beginning, another question arose: “Why did you pick Faf, Dhoni?” Du Plessis came into Tuesday night’s Qualifier with 85 runs from four innings at 21.25. But Dhoni trusted his experience over form, picked him, asked him to open the innings, and Faf hung around till the end like a shadow, scoring less than run-a-ball, pushing and nudging. But towards the end, one realised he wasn’t a mere shadow, he was a spectre that spelled doom for the Sunrisers. From 17 off 21, Faf finished with 67 off 42. A Dhoni-esque knock was Faf’s way to repay Dhoni’s faith in him. And made Mission Impossible, possible.