Mumbai find fine youth power for future; top four identified in IPL 2022
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00:00Delhi lacked the intensity that should have been there right from the start. Because it's a knock-out game for them.
00:15Hello. Good evening. We welcome you to another episode of Straight Bat with Mr Cricket UAE and Gulf News.
00:25Unfortunately, Mr Cricket Anish Sajan is not with us this evening. So my guests are A.K. Satish,
00:32the Sports Editor of Gulf News and Mr Naresh Mansukhani, a devout Mumbai Indians fan. I think
00:39today's match has given him plenty of takeaways, positive takeaways for the next season.
00:46And a big smile.
00:49Yes. So I'll come to that. I will first ask Satish to sum up the way the match went,
00:56and then we will take it from there.
00:58I think to start with, Delhi lacked the intensity that should have been there right from the start,
01:05because it's a knock-out game for them. And it is better they lost in that league phase,
01:11because obviously, if this is the intensity they are going to show in a knock-out game,
01:15I'm sure they will not go past the next one. At least we can see RCB, who seem to be better
01:22winning the last few games, I think. So that way, I would say. And right from the start,
01:29Delhi didn't get a right start, losing three wickets. And from 54-4, it becomes very difficult.
01:35And thanks to Mumbai's generosity by dropping or leaving a few catches and
01:43rather giving a few runs, extra runs, misfielding and all that, they made some runs.
01:50But at the end of it, when Delhi was fielding, I think they certainly didn't look like the way
01:57Champions side should have played. Yes, Panth dropped a sitter, but that's not the only one
02:03which is in focus. They could have gone for the review, which was also a big blunder.
02:08But all in all, I think Mumbai played the way Mumbai should have played. Like,
02:15coming to Mumbai other side. So in all, it's a good win for RCB, I would say.
02:22Yeah, I mean, see, RCB always packed a punch. I mean, the problem was with that,
02:28you know, with the disaster which they had and for which they were found wanting in the
02:33net run. But, you know, 159 on this wicket, I mean, Delhi had their moments.
02:40And, you know, even when they were defending, at one point of time when, you know, Rohit was
02:47out of sorts, but then when as long as Ishan Kishan and Dewan was coming and he was getting
02:55his eye in, yes, Brevis, the run that had climbed to 10.6 or something at the halfway mark.
03:02So where did they let things slip? I mean, to both experienced players, they had picked them
03:08up for attack. I mean, Brevis was particularly severe in Kuldeep. I was very impressed with him.
03:13So what do you think Delhi could have done better while defending?
03:17Simple, Gautam. They should have taken the catches. Catches in matches. Like,
03:22they dropped the catch of Brevis, who went on to score another 15 runs or 17 runs after that.
03:28And David was taken off the first ball, but they didn't go for a referral. Like,
03:35you can't make those two blunders. I'm not even talking about the misfield that both the teams did.
03:40Yes, you can say it's a nice guy. You can drop catches. That's fine. But at least when there
03:45are two referrals, you could have still gone ahead and taken one at least. You could have
03:50tried it. So I think that's where they missed it. They missed it in between their years more than
03:56their game. Right. I'll come to Naresh Bhai. Naresh Bhai, you know,
04:05shall we say it's a case of better led than never? A lot of positive pointers today.
04:10I mean, the batting lineup, the way we see it panned out, it's turning out to be a good
04:15investment for next season. You add Sky to this middle order. And then you can look at
04:21Team David as a perfect replacement for Pollard. I mean, I shouldn't say replacement,
04:25but one has to move on. Your thoughts on this, Naresh Bhai?
04:31Yeah. And Gautam, four wins out of the last six games. I think that's good. You know,
04:37you can say, as you said, never led than ever. We have kind of progressed in the second half.
04:42And definitely, I think we did better understanding the conditions in the second
04:47half than we did in the first. Daniel Sams was very different in the second half after being
04:54benched for a couple of games. So, a lot of positives. And as you said,
04:58with Suryakumar back. Suryakumar, Tilak, Brevis and Team David. I think these four,
05:03if fit, should feature in every game next season.
05:08And you add that with Rohit and Ishan Kishan. That's a formidable batting line.
05:13Yeah. And Daniel Sams with the ball. If now, you can say, Bumrah is getting complemented with him,
05:19at least in the power play. So, those are the good takeaways in the second half. But yes,
05:26you felt the absence of Sky in the last few games. Because he could have taken you home,
05:31even in those two games which we didn't win in the second half. Today's game also,
05:37first 10 overs, we had the game well under control. 55 for 4. And then they went on to score 100 plus
05:43in the second half. 160, I agree the kind of blunders Delhi made. I think they could have
05:50defended. I felt 140 was good enough on this for us to chase. We chased 20 more because of
05:56Delhi's blunder. But yeah, I would say, in a way, at least a good end to the season. Though a poor
06:03one, but at least it has ended well. Right. Is Sanket coming in?
06:11I think he's still not logged in. Yeah. Okay, fine. Okay. I'll have another question on that
06:20note for you. I mean, it's an obvious question. That is of Rohit. I mean, today, it's a question
06:28of, you know, you try to force the pace in the power play, you get dismissed. But
06:33throughout the tournament, I mean, barring those scratchy 40s and all that he scored,
06:38I mean, once again, the left-arm passer is posing problems out of him. He doesn't seem to be
06:45the same batsman. So do you think there is a case for him as well, to maybe take a break in
06:52the South African series and come back fresh? Because there's a lot riding on him, mind you.
06:57You know, it's a very thin line between he taking rest or he wanting to get his
07:04better combination, thinking of the World Cup coming up, you know, from the Indian team
07:10perspective. What we played before the IPL, that was West Indies and Sri Lanka in the T20 series.
07:19Many more new names have come out of this IPL. Probably Rohit would want to take them into the
07:25side and see how those combinations work. So probably that makes a case for Rohit to play
07:30and lead the side against South Africa. At the same time, what has happened, what mentally he
07:35has gone through with a poor IPL, a break can also be recommended. But I think it's going to
07:40be his call in the end, like how it was going to be Virat's call to continue or no in this format.
07:47But if you ask me personally, I would like Rohit to play because he needs to get the act together
07:51with the bat. It's been his worst year in the last five years, the IPL season. But surprisingly,
07:57being the bottom of the table, Ishaan and Rohit have still been the second best opening pair,
08:02you know, after KL and Quinton de Kock. So you can imagine how others have struggled as opening
08:06pairs. But I would like him to play at least couple of games, if not the entire five-match series.
08:15Right. I'll come to Satish. Satish, there's the Rishabh Pant issue. I mean, it's today,
08:26of course, he at least tried to hang around and play according to the needs of the situation
08:30fine. I mean, a player can have a bit of a lean patch. But, you know, even a few months back,
08:36we were talking about him as one of the potential, you know, future India captaincy candidates, but
08:42there are no others in the horizon. He's making some, you know, in bowling, for example,
08:47I felt that he could have continued with Khalil for another over, give him that extra over
08:52after the power play. Then the number of DRS calls that you just now spoke about.
08:59So what do you make of him? And do you think he's a natural leader or he should be left to
09:03do what he does best? Gautam, before I go to Pant, I'll also need to add what
09:10Naresh spoke about Rohit. There is no substitute to being on the field. I think the best way to
09:17get your form back is to play. Yes, you might be miserable. You might be not getting your timing.
09:23But again, Rohit was not one of those guys who had the perfect footwork. He was just a hand-eye
09:28coordination player. He had that wonderful timing. Once he gets a few knocks… Even here, he had a
09:33few knocks. Only thing is, he was a little… He knew that the entire team was resting on his
09:39shoulders. So that pressure must have put him… Made him to take that extra risk, which he wouldn't
09:45do when he plays for India because he knows there are many others who could come up and do that. So
09:50he should play and I'm sure he'll come back in flying colours with the Indian team when he leads
09:56there. I have no doubts about it, but he should be playing. Coming back to Pant, Gautam, we still
10:02need to understand that Pant is still young and he is still holding the responsibility of a very
10:11big franchise. It's not a small franchise. Delhi has… All franchises are big. The captains are
10:19always answerable, as we have seen. They can be quite ruthless when it comes to that.
10:24The expectation and the level of pressure is higher. That's what I'm trying to say. And
10:29maybe a Punjab or maybe a Rajasthan… Pressure in Delhi might be higher. Because of the number
10:35of staff and the strength and the way they are approaching the game. Because obviously,
10:39when you have Pant, when you have Watson and all that, you are going to have some pressure on the
10:44performance. But having said that, I think some of them… His form, I have no problem because
10:50he doesn't play with form. He is an innings player. One match, he will score a 100. Next
10:54innings, he will score a zero. So that kind of a player he is. I'm not worried about his batting.
11:00At least he is showing much, much more maturity while playing these games, which is fine. But I
11:05think captaincy… I still feel he is not up to the mark yet. But he is still young. We need to
11:11give him that benefit of doubt at this point of time. Not those mistakes like the ones he did
11:19today, which he could have still gone ahead because anybody would have done that. I'm not
11:23justifying him for today. But I'm talking about the overall perspective. But again, mind you,
11:29he has been well-groomed by somebody like Warner. Even Warner didn't tell him to go for a reference.
11:35So there are many things. It's not just him alone. There are another
11:4010 people in the team. They could have forced him or they could have pushed him,
11:43including the bowler. They call it… In T20, the scenario changes so quickly. They call it
11:50the leadership group, etc., etc. Yes, I think we'll have to take your point on board. And also,
11:56if you look at the bigger picture, Satish, I think the team has been through a lot. I mean,
12:00there was a phase when six members, including two players, were down with COVID. Then again,
12:06there was another incident. Overall, when we look at it, I mean, they are…
12:12And there was an umpiring blunder, which happened or rather that umpiring episode,
12:16which happened with the full toss against Rajasthan. So a lot of things, the team has
12:21gone ups and downs. I think they have handled well. And I think they should still be happy to
12:27go ahead with a head high, held high. But they could have done a lot better than what they have
12:33done. But it's again a learning curve for Delhi, once again, like in the past years.
12:39Right. I'll come to Nadeshbhai. See, you know, now basically, tomorrow, we have got a match,
12:47which is of academic interest. But now we are also looking at what each team can, you know,
12:54take, you know, the takeaway from this campaign, because we have got
12:59Sunrisers Hyderabad versus Punjab, right? Tomorrow.
13:03Yeah. So both these teams, especially Sunrisers.
13:07Sunrisers, I would say that, you know, they started on a poor note, then they came back
13:11kind of flattered to deceive with that, you know, four-man pace attack. So I'll come to
13:19Nadeshbhai and see that, you know, Sunrisers, they have at least had the test of winning the
13:25title once. So what are they taking away from this tournament, number one, and number two,
13:31once again, Punjab, blow hot, blow cold kind of a campaign. So I won't ask you who's going to win,
13:38but I'll say that what have been the positives for them from this campaign?
13:43Positives. Okay, so I'll start with Hyderabad first, I think
13:48Williamson needs to bat, not bat as an opener, you know, and I think he realized it in the last
13:53couple of games and changed that. So that's one thing which they have corrected in during this
14:00campaign. Yes, they played the four-pace attack, but somewhere I felt, yeah, at the first half,
14:07the conditions in Mumbai, you know, kind of supported that. But in the second half, I felt
14:13they were challenging the conditions by continuing to play a four-pace attack and could have probably
14:19looked at a two-spin attack, though they are similar to Mumbai when it comes to the spin
14:25experience. They don't have that kind of spin experience. Yes, they have Washington Sundar and
14:30Sachit and they didn't properly… But Sundar, Washington was also injured, so in between…
14:35Injured in between, yeah. So, yeah, and… But did they use, just to interrupt you,
14:44they didn't use Abhishek Sharma at all? No, he bowled, I think, two overs in between one game,
14:50he bowled two overs, which he bowled quite well. Yeah, and that's where they were
14:56challenging the conditions more, especially in the second half, you know, spin was making more
15:01impact. But, yeah, positives have been Puran, he's done very well. Abhishek Sharma in patches,
15:08but he's done well. And even Makram has lived up to the expectation. Rahul Tripathi, the last
15:16inning, especially against Mumbai, Rahul Tripathi was phenomenal. So, yeah, they have positives,
15:22and one thing good I liked about Williamson was, he left Umran Malik to just bowl pace.
15:30There was nothing else expected from him, just keep continuing bowl pace and he started getting
15:35the wickets also. Yes, last few games he was expensive, but no more to try any variation
15:41at this point of time, early in his career. And because this game has lots to do with slower ones
15:46being bowled by fast bowlers. And that was one thing good, Umran was not required to try that.
15:51Natarajan, you can say, has been a little disappointing in the second half.
15:55Bhuvi has been phenomenal. Unfortunately, I don't know whether he would be considered for the
16:01Team India setup, but he's been, I think, the most economical pacer in this season,
16:06Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. The wickets table may not support him, but he's been extremely economical.
16:14So, a good one for Hyderabad, considering that they revamped completely after what they had
16:19last year. They ended last and all the captaincy fiasco. But I think in Williamson,
16:24they have the potential who can take him, take the team very far. He did it in 2018 when Warner
16:30was not available. Yes, yes. He did a very good job. And the sad part is, tomorrow he's not going
16:35to be there. He's not there. He's not there. I think Puran will lead them tomorrow.
16:40Why not? Bhuvaneshwar can also lead. But I think they will try out some more new guys
16:46who are on the bench. The thing is, now it's a question of trying to finish on a high.
17:01Sorry, I think we lost Gautam. Yeah, you are there, Gautam.
17:05Yeah. Can you hear us? Yeah. No, I think there is a connectivity issue.
17:16No, I will. Yeah. You're back. You're back. Yeah.
17:18Yes. I will quickly move over to... Yeah, I think it's fine. It's fine. Yeah.
17:26I will quickly move over to Satish on that note. There will be always a time and scope for
17:34discussing on how the battle lines have been drawn. But I would see as a kind of the four
17:41most deserving teams have possibly ended up in the top four, finally. What do you feel? How do
17:46you want to sum it up? I think about somewhere just after the midway, about when nine games or
17:51ten games were done, these are the four teams that were there in the top four. The order was
17:56different, of course. Gujarat and Lucknow were in the top. And Rajasthan was somewhere in the fourth
18:02and RCB third and RCB on fourth spot. I think that stayed. That's where I think one of the
18:10Sunday specials, we did that. And I think that has stayed, which is quite a good thing. And I'm
18:17quite happy with the way things have happened in the sense, a lot of things have gone. They have
18:22come after a lot of scrap. Some of the matches, they were completely down and out. And they have
18:28come back and they have set their places in the playoffs, which is quite a good thing.
18:35And yeah, I think it will be an interesting contest from here on, Gautam.
18:42You know, Punjab and Delhi did well in the auction, you know, Gautam. Punjab and Delhi did very well
18:47in the auction. So that would disappoint them. And Punjab… No, but the problem with Punjab was
18:52they didn't gel well as a team. They were individual brilliances, but they didn't gel
18:57really well as a team. Because there was one point of time, the bowlers were bowling well,
19:02and the batters were not doing well. And there was a time when the batters were getting runs
19:05and the bowlers were conceding runs. I think they didn't do it as a team. I think that's where they
19:10lost it, if I remember right. Yeah, I mean, only thing is, if you look at the bigger picture,
19:15I mean, they are also in it for the glory. I mean, while IPL has kind of worked out its
19:21revenue model very nicely. So there is no problem on that score. But like the way Rajasthan Royals
19:29after having a very good auction, I mean, they are now where they wanted to be. From there,
19:34it's a matter of one evening, I mean, things may go wrong. And even if things go wrong,
19:40they're getting another chance, you know, two bites of the cherry, as they were saying.
19:43Correct. So the only, you know, few pluses, maybe when India announced their
19:5215 member or 20 member team, whatever for the home series in South Africa,
19:57definitely Arshadip Singh is going to be there. If not, about Mayank, I'm not too sure,
20:04in the T20 scheme of things. Those are small bonuses. But overall, we'd like to conclude,
20:12you know, now that with this final four spotted, I think that the best four are in there.
20:18And a final word from Naresh Bhai on that. I mean, were there any other team who thought,
20:23I mean, obviously, Mumbai, you know, it's a different story. It's a very unusual story.
20:29Would you feel that somebody else deserved better?
20:34Yeah, I feel that's what I feel the way the kind of game Punjab was playing.
20:42Yeah, go ahead.
20:43I think we have lost him.
20:48I will conclude this night's discussions. The battle lines are drawn. Once again,
20:52to remind you, tomorrow is the final and 70th game of this league engagements where
20:59Sunrisers Hyderabad are playing Punjab Kings in a match,
21:02which is more to decide the final position or their final position.
21:06Yeah. Okay. I think we have lost Gautam. Anyway, thanks for watching. And please do keep
21:17watching our channels, golfnews.com. Please do log in and take care. Good night. Bye-bye.
21:36you