Cricket, in essence, is a simple game. Bat, bowl and field well, you will invariably end up winning.
Well, of course, that’s an oversimplification. Doing the most basic things well, day in and day out, during every single match, is perhaps the hardest thing there is.
And after struggling to string together consistent performances over the last three games, Chennai Super Kings bounced back in the Indian Premier League on Sunday. It doesn’t get more emphatic than a 10-wicket win as Kings XI Punjab were made to look clueless by Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis.
There were three interviews during the course of the second innings in Dubai. The first with coach Stephen Fleming (where he gave us the one-liner of the season with “youngsters in OUR team?”). The next with du Plessis at the end of the match. And finally, with MS Dhoni as the winning captain.
The ‘CSK way’ shone through in all of them. When everyone expected something had to change in their set-up after a hat-trick of defeats, Dhoni surprised with his call to play the same XI that lost the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
But, having lost the toss, CSK went about their bowling and fielding performances, without too many flashes of brilliance but keeping things tight. There were fewer loose deliveries, the plan to make Punjab target the longer boundaries was evident, and more importantly, not a single no ball was bowled. Fleming was caught on camera being agitated, which is a rarity, because the fielding effort frustrated him at times. He later said there was a lethargy that he did not like, but even then, the crucial catches were taken. CSK, in this form, will never be a great fielding side. That much is known.
Even if 179 was more than what the under-pressure batting lineup would have liked to chase, it was a decent outing in the first half for the three-time champions.
It was in the second half that they went from looking like just an OK side to one that many were banking pre-season to reach the playoffs once again. Du Plessis has been in good touch so far this season anyway, but Watson’s intent from the word go proved critical for CSK.
Far too often in the last three matches, the batting lineup was guilty of not showing enough aggression in their approach early on and finding themselves with too much to do at the death. It was an area that was crying out for improvement, and Watson — along with du Plessis — did just that. Even if the win had not been by 10 wickets at the end, CSK had enough positives to take from just the early stages of that opening partnership.
But, the tenacious characters they are, the two batsmen made sure it was not just a win CSK would register in Dubai against a hapless Kings XI side. It would be a statement.
“I think we did the small things right. That’s what was important to us. We believed in the process. The kind of start we got in batting, that’s what we needed. That’s where the experience counts Hopefully, we’ll be able to replicate this in the coming games,” Dhoni said.
“Consistency is something that we bank on. He (Fleming) does not get the recognition he should. The good thing is we decide each and everything between us and when we come out of the room, we have one plan. It’s not that we don’t have debates on selection, but it’s one plan, that’s the relationship Fleming and I have shared for a very long time,” he added.
Of course, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. It is still difficult to imagine how this CSK batting lineup can be consistent challengers and help their side go the distance, but when the pressure was well and truly on, two of their match-winners stepped up. As Watson said at the end, no other side would have stuck to their guns as Dhoni’s CSK did, to trust the same group of players to end a losing streak that was largely well deserved.
At this stage, it is still too early to say if such a reliance on experience and trust in process will prove fruitful or not for CSK this season. What can be said, however, is that both of those aspects are unreal when it comes to MS Dhoni and the men in yellow.
