GT suffered back-to-back defeats at the end of their group stage. Both LSG and CSK have exposed their weakness in chasing high totals without the contribution of their top order. Their bowling department has to do a lot of homework before knockouts. GT suffered an immense defeat of 83 runs while chasing 231 runs as they got bundled out on 147 runs. Let’s look at the reasons for the defeat.
Poor bowling strategies
Arshad Khan came to bowl the second over. He was targeting the good length area and the short pitch deliveries. Ayush has a slightly open stance, and he will be in a good position to slog those deliveries. Ayush struggled to hit the full-length deliveries in the initial matches.
Prasidh Krishna came to bowl the 4th over, understood that, and bowled 3 dot balls, didn’t give him the width to swing the bat, and the fourth ball was a bit fuller and Ayush mistimed it, caught at mid off by Mohammed Siraj. But, he had done the damage in Arshad Khan’s over by smashing him for 28 runs.
GT bowlers couldn’t get wickets in regular intervals and were also leaking boundaries often, as CSK batters never felt pressure anywhere in the innings. Every batter had a decent start, and they were building partnerships regularly.
Devon Conway ( 52 off 34 ), Ayush Mhatre ( 34 off 17 ), Urvil Patel ( 37 off 19 ), and Shivam Dube ( 17 off 8 ) helped keep the momentum in the first half of the innings. Shivam Dube was dismissed by Sharukh Khan. But Shah Rukh Khan should have been introduced earlier in the innings against Devon Conway. Conway had problems with off-spin.
Dewald Brevis took charge in the second half. Other than Prasidh Krishna, none of the bowlers targeted him with bouncers. They didn’t try many variations, like slower ones and yorkers. They did bowl some slower ones, but missed the length and landed in the slot.
Siraj who bowled decently in the powerplay went for 20 runs in the 19th over. He missed the yorkers and landed in the slot, and Brevis did not fail to maximize them.
Brevis settled and capitalized the start given by the top order, helped the team put a huge total of 230/5 on the board. He was dismissed ( 57 off 23 ) on the last ball of the innings. Jadeja couldn’t time the ball and keep the momentum, so he played the second fiddle role for Brevis.
Their partnership fetched 74 runs from 39 balls. Brevis faced 21 balls and scored 52 runs of it. Jadeja stayed till the end with 21 runs off 18 balls.
Batting Collapse
Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan showed some rush for the boundaries in the initial overs as the target is very high. Shubman Gill lost his wicket to Anshul Kamboj in the third over, searching for a boundary. The same story for Jos Buttler and Sherfane Rutherford.
Jos Buttler was dismissed by Khaleel Ahmed in the 4th over and Rutherford got out for a duck against Anshul Kamboj in the 5th. GT lost 3 wickets in three back-to-back overs and that affected their momentum in a huge chase. For the first time in this season, GT has lost 3 wickets inside the powerplay.
Sai Sudharsan and Sharukhh Khan built a partnership from there. They utilized the two overs from Shivam Dube and scored 33 runs of it. The score was 85/3 in 10 overs. GT had a outside chance at that position. But, Jaddu came and changed the whole scenario.
Both Sharukh Khan ( 19 off 15 ) and Sai Sudarshan ( 41 off 28 ) were caught at the point region. The chased the outside off delivery, but coudln’t time it enough to clear the fielder. That double wicket over changed the momentum entirely towards CSK.
After that, it was just formalities. GT tailenders couldn’t survive for the whole innings and got all out for 147 in 18.3 overs. Noor Ahmed and Anshul Kamboj took 3 wickets each while both Jadeja took 2 wickets, Pathirana and Khaleel Ahmed picked 1 each.
It was a complete all round performance from CSK, and GT need to fins answers for their middle order and bowling weakness. Their bowlers conceded 220-plus for the second consecutive time and that too at their home ground.
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