Hari's Corner

Well, this year's IPL has ended on a disappointing note for the Chennai Super Kings, crashing out in the semi-finals when pitted against a determined Bangalore Royal Challengers, when a lot more was expected of this team.

I attribute the reasons for their failure to the over-dependence on Matthew Hayden at the top of the order, the brittle middle order batting, the complete failure of the two all-rounders - Albie Morkel and Jacob Oram - especially with the bat, and the poor fielding performance giving away an extra 10-15 runs every match. Overall, even though Chennai won several games and got into the semi-finals, they never looked like a champion-material team. That they got as far as they did can be attributed to M.S.Dhoni's shrewd captaincy, Muttiah Muralitharan's terrific bowling in the middle overs and the devastating batting form of Matthew Hayden and Suresh Raina in the early stages of the tournament. The rest of the team simply didn't pull their weight when required to do so. In matches which CSK won, the opposition's performance was far below par, allowing the team comfortable wins and not really testing their resolve under pressure.

I think the T20 format has also shown that you cannot rely on all-rounders to deliver all the time and you need a strong bowling attack made up of quality bowlers, not just bits-and-pieces cricketers. Not playing Makhaya Ntini even once and persisting with an off-colour Jacob Oram who really did nothing for the team, proved costly in the end.

The team needs a big re-think before their campaign next season. Many of the non-performers need to be chucked out. Weak players like Laxmipathy Balaji need to be shown the door. Balaji, ever since his come-back from serious injury, has never looked anywhere near prepared for competitive league cricket and his buffet slow-medium bowling is just not enough to restrict big hitters in the opposition who treat him like a spinner who doesn't get any turn. The fielding also needs massive improvement, because the current bunch have looked extremely tardy on the field right throughout.

Overall, the Chennai Super Kings didn't really deserve their semi-final spot this time around. They got a place in because some of the other teams sucked more.