Inspirational leader M.S. Dhoni never had it so tough — losing four consecutive games as captain in the Indian Premier League. And, the image of the normally cool Dhoni trying to explain to the straight umpire why a wide should not have been given by the latter during the game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday night could well be a reminder that he is feeling the heat after the huge disappointments so far.
Dhoni should be expecting a complete turnaround in the team’s fortunes to stay in contention when it takes on a buoyant Sunrisers Hyderabad under lights on Tuesday.
It is not going to be easy for Supergiants against the confident home team. SRH captain David Warner’s dazzling form with the bat and the manner in which his partner Shikhar Dhawan is slowly regaining his striking ability are ominous signs for any opposition and there is always the striking prowess of the likes of Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Naman Ojha to back the in-form openers.
Significantly, Dhoni commented after the loss to KKR the other night that they have to improve in many areas, especially the bowling unit. “You (spinners) never bowl up to the batsmen, have to vary the line and speed. There is pressure on individuals and some of them are backing off,” he remarked.
He is aware that the bowlers are struggling because they are not “part of a settled team.”
Like Warner said the other day, for any team one big stand at the top could well be the decisive factor.
So, for Supergiants, the onus is on Ajinkya Rahane and Faf du Plessis to set the stage for the likes of Australian captain Steve Smith, Thissara Perera and Dhoni himself to get cracking and help the team post challenging totals. Invariably, it is falling short by 20-30 runs and that is proving to be costly.
Ideal combinationOn the other hand, SRH seems to have found the winning combination and getting everything right after the first game loss. All primarily because of Warner leading from the front. His early assaults, especially when chasing, have made the task much simpler.
But, what makes SRH formidable is the variety in bowling which includes swing merchant Bhuvneshwar Kumar, left-armers Barinder Sran and Mustafizur Rahman, the latter now holds the IPL record of bowling nine consecutive dot balls besides taking a wicket. The Bangladesh bowler seems to be at his best in this IPL as the batsmen were struggling to get away with his yorkers and off-cutters which also saw him return with stunning figures of 4-1-9-2 against Kings XI Punjab in the last game here. With SRH keen to sustain the winning momentum with three wins from five games and Supergiants trying its best to stem the rot (won one and lost the last four), it should be an exciting contest.
