Another week of IPL has been completed and in all honesty, there were some disappointing and one-sided matches early on but we have seen a spectacular return to the excitement in the last 2 nights with both games going down to the final ball of the final over. Full details of the week's highs and lows are below and you can find match reports of those 2 recently completed thrillers by other Scorum cricketer writers on the below blogs
As always let me know your thoughts on what has been going on in the world's premier T20 franchise league in the comments section below.
The Good
The West Indies are on a roll!
2019 has already been a successful year for West Indies cricket and with several of their stars now having very influential campaigns in the IPL there are high hopes amongst not just fans of cricket in the Caribbean but all around the world that this once proud collection of cricketing nations will begin to flex their not inconsiderable muscles on the world stage once again.
I think I have revealed in previous blogs that when I was a kid it was my dream to be a West Indian fast bowler, I guess in the same way that a football-crazed child might want to play centre-forward for Brazil regardless of their nationality. Having a strong West Indies team is a massive plus for cricket as a whole and there is now a lot of talk about how well the side might be able to do in the World Cup that starts in 6 weeks time. While some of that is based around WI’s performance against England in February, the hype has very much been enhanced by the staring roles that several of their current players are putting in.
While the above 3 have all been in and around recent West Indian ODI squads it remains to be seen whether players like Kieron Pollard who has played a couple of brutal innings for MI this year alongside Sunil Narine who was last year’s MVP in the IPL will be considered. Both have spoken recently about their desire to represent their country again but both have also been accused by the WI Board of putting T20 franchise cricket ahead of international commitments. Neither Narine or Pollard have played 50 over cricket for WI since the autumn of 2016 when a now infamous spat between the squad and cricketing administrators lead to a tour of the sub-continent being cut short. Could a last-minute reconciliation take place and would the availability of those 2 players enhance West Indies chances of winning the World Cup?
The Bad
Hitting the stumps isn't enough these days........
We have seen at least 2 incidents this week and possibly a 3rd last night where the ball has hit the stumps and not dislodged the bails. Anyone who has followed cricket for a while will have witnessed the phenomenon occur but it usually happens once in a blue moon not multiple times in the space of a few days. Occasionally the bails will just jump straight up and then go back into their grove or you might get a weird incident like the one below where the ball manages to hit the bails from above which understandably has less chance of them being knocked out of position.
However, the examples that we have seen this week suggest that perhaps there is something of a design flaw with the current "Zinger" style stumps. I have no idea what they are made of but given that they are full of flashing lights and video cameras it can be fair to assume that they are not the solid wood variety that you and I would play with down the local village green on a weekend. Is this having an effect on the likelihood of the bails coming off or is it just a coincidence that we have had a spate of such incidents?
Judge for yourself with this short clip
Have you ever seen a ball hit the stumps like that and not knock the bails off?
The Ugly
MS Dhoni stages a pitch invasion
The end of last night's match between Rajasthan Royals and CSK had it all! There was a dramatic run chase that swung one way then another. Ben Stokes looked to have lost it, then won it then lost it again and in the middle of all the chaos of no balls and 6s MS Dhoni AKA Captain Cool lost his rag and ran onto the field to remonstrate with the umpires.
It was an interesting night for Dhoni full stop after the great man was cracked full in the helmet by this Joffra Archer bouncer
At first, Dhoni seemed fine but then after a little while he became laboured at the crease and on multiple occasions sunk to his knees in order to catch his breath following a couple of scampered 2s. He did receive treatment on the field but in general, it seemed to be for cramp as opposed to for a head injury. Just when it seemed likely that we would see Dhoni do what Dhoni does in guiding his team to victory he was cleaned up by a peach of a yorker from Ben Stokes who earlier in the over had bowled a front foot no ball that looked likely to gift the match to CSK.
With the game now back in the balance Stokes then sent down a waist-high full toss to new batsmen Mitch Santner which appeared to be called a no-ball on height by the umpire at the bowlers end only to the be overalled by the umpire at square leg. A debate between Ravi Jadeja who was at the non-striker's end and the umpires broke out but then quite inexplicably MS Dhoni strode out onto the pitch to take up the issue.
I know where I stand on the issue and I've already seen some heated debate in one of the chat rooms that myself and a few other cricket lovers of Scorum frequent but what do you think? Was Dhoni right to walk on and argue with the umpires? Do you think that blow to the head had an effect on a man who is usually so calm in the big moments of a game?
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