MS Dhoni has realized that Chennai Super Kings will not be much help in the batting order. This past Sunday’s match against Mumbai Indians was a good example of how he can make a huge difference with the right numbers with the bat.
DhoniFor the second time in a row, he promoted himself further Ravindra Jadeja — Yes, he can still do it! In previous matches, the all-rounder was scoring at a mediocre strike rate and never threatened the opposition. In a couple of matches, Sameer Rizvi also batted ahead of Dhoni.
Perhaps with those matches in mind and how Jadeja’s batting strike rate has been problematic for CSK, Dhoni walked out to bat at number 6 ahead of the Indian all-rounder against MI. He did the same against Kolkata Knight Riders last week but by the time he walked out to bat, the match was almost CSK’s and there was nothing much for him to do.
However, on Sunday, although he played only four balls, he scored an astonishing strike rate of 500, including three consecutive sixes off Hardik Pandya in the last over, and his batting greatly affected the outcome of the match.
Finally CSK won the match by 20 runs. Without those 20 runs of his, who knows what would have happened? It would be safe to say that Rohit Sharma’s innings was more important in the context of the game than Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten 105 off 63 balls at a strike rate of 167.
Yes, Mathish Pathirana bowled exceptionally well to help CSK win but with a good total of 206 runs on the board he helped them equally by applying scoreboard pressure on the opposition batsmen at all times.
It’s time to realize that the T20 format is not about big individual scores. It never actually was. Only in recent years has the realization hit home. If those runs come at a strike rate of, say, around 200, they make sense. But if a batsman has bowled 60 balls – half the number of balls available in an innings – and he scores just 100 runs, most likely, he will end up on the losing side.
Virat Kohli’s century against Rajasthan Royals the other day reinforces this point. Like Rohit, Kohli scored 113 runs off 72 balls at a strike rate of 156.94. RR comfortably won the match with five balls to spare with Jos Buttler scoring 100* at a strike rate of 172.41. In light of the modest 183 RCB put up on the board, the English didn’t really need to be in the lead. Thanks to Kohli, RCB faced a deficit of at least 20 runs.
A few days earlier against KKR, Kohli again held the bat with 83 off 59 balls at a strike rate of 140.68, and KKR were chasing 183 with 19 balls to spare, matched by Sunil Narine’s 47 off 22 balls. the winner There are many more examples to prove that short innings with good strike rate (around 200) have more impact than big innings with average strike rate.
Flat pitches, short boundaries, exceptional bats, making all batsmen more daring, batsmen with the mentality of Kohli and Rohit cannot bank on their bowlers to make up for their shortcomings.
Back to Dhoni… In the 20-run loss to Delhi Capitals last month, he scored 37* off 16 balls. Had they chosen to bat for a couple of points, CSK, with their formidable power-hitting offering, would have certainly backed themselves to get over the line.
Not ahead of Jadeja and Rizvi… For now Dhoni should consider batting ahead of Kiwis star Daryl Mitchell, who is currently struggling a bit. The former India captain, unlike Jadeja and Mitchell, needs to play a few deliveries before he consistently throws the ball into the stands. In the loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 5 April, Jadeja (31* off 23 balls) and Mitchell (13 off 11 balls) batting ahead of Dhoni at No.5 and No.6 respectively, did not help Chennai. Not many have the skills that Dhoni has, and CSK should make the most of it.