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Striking early is the key

CSK has to take advantage of lack of firepower in Royals’ bowling department, writes Stephen Fleming

It was another close game for us the other day against Deccan Chargers, but just short of where we would have liked to be.

Hayden, Raina, Dhoni and Oram did well to take us to 165, a tough score, but perhaps it was 20 runs less than ideal. Though our bowling has improved considerably, we need to get more accurate, take more wickets.

On Thursday, we come up against Rajasthan Royals and this is a good time to play them as we are more or less in the same boat at this stage of the competition. They have not been as consistent as they were last year. Their form has fluctuated whereas we have been playing good, consistent cricket despite the results not going our way.

It is still early in the tournament and teams still have the chance of turning things round.

Good leader

Shane Warne is a good leader who has the ability to instil confidence in his team. The win over the Daredevils, who had won their opening three matches, will just boost that self-belief.

Supersport looks like a good batting wicket and conducive to a high score. It is usually not helpful to the spinners but it is the spinners who have been doing well in South Africa.

The late season here has made the pitches surprisingly slow and firm and that has probably aided them. So we will have to be cautious of Warne and Kamran Khan, who was brilliant in the match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

What we need to take advantage of is their lack of firepower in the bowling department when compared to other teams. There is no Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir and that’s hurting them.

Batting-wise, we would like to see the back of the ever-dangerous Yusuf Pathan and Graeme Smith, who will be looking to play a bigger role after Tuesday’s very patient and sensible knock.

We would not like a repeat of what happened against the Deccan Chargers, where Gilchrist and Gibbs made all the difference. Gilly came out firing on all cylinders and took the momentum away from us. This enabled them to play better in the middle overs and to pace the innings.

That last over was crucial and Dhoni being the leader he is, gave over his gloves to go into the field for a better vantage point. Balaji was the best bowler in that situation, and had Gibbs been caught on the boundary, the story would have been different.

We have to get the big hitters out early so that we are bowling at the opposition’s bowlers towards the end. Someone like Gibbs or Yusuf batting at the death puts us at a disadvantage.

Rajasthan are an adventurous team and Shane has cleverly used whatever skills available to him to inspire confidence in youngsters like Ravinder Jadeja, Swapnil Asnodkar and Kamran. He will try and create all the pressure he can and take the pace off the ball by using the spinners and forcing us to make mistakes.

Acknowledging that will be the key to tackling them in this replay of last year’s final.

Gameplan

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