By Sunil Sarpal

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) led by MS Dhoni and Gujarat Titans (GT) led by Hardik Pandya were pitted against each other to play for IPL 2023 Final. The venue of the match was Ahmedabad but the match on Sunday was washed out due to incessant rain and re-scheduled for play on Monday.

It was a belter of a pitch but for initial seam movement that provided little spin.

Dhoni, after winning the toss elected to bowl first, considering that in the event of intervening rain, the contest shall be reduced in target and number of overs. It will benefit the team batting second. In the ultimate analysis his prediction proved right and CSK lifted the IPL 2023 trophy for the 5th time.

A few salient features emerged from the match. They are enumerated below :-

1) The stumping effected by Dhoni of in-form Shubham Gill off the bowling of Ravinder Jadeja was a mercurial work behind the stump. Mind you Gill notched up 3 centuries on the trot before this match. and was a hot favourite facilitating GT to lift the trophy.

2) For Gujarat Titans the stand-out performers with the bat were Sai Sudershan and Saha. They both batted brilliantly and posted a formidable total of 200 +.

3) With the intervention of, rain after the first inning, the contest was limited by a reduction in overs and scaling down of the target.

4) The relatively disappointing factor was that the match could not be decided in a 20-over contest.

5) Even though MS Dhoni was not fully fit and one of his knees not taking the rigorous of running between the wicket, he has not called it quit from IPL and shall appear in the next year’s IPL too for CSK.

In conclusion, as per the post tournament analysis, some of the batters have performed exceptionally well.

1) To start with, Shubham Gill has notched up three tons.

2) Followed by Virat Kohli who posted two back to back hundreds with a fifty.

3) Batters like Ishan Kishan, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh and Surya Kr Yadav stole the show exhibiting T-20 style of shots. They redefined the game of cricket by introducing the formula – throwing caution to the wind.

WHAT A TOURNAMENT CALLED IPL

by Sunil Sarpal

As we approach the final today, in the on-going IPL season, Virat Kohli belted out back  to back centuries for his franchisee RCB.  Virat stole the show but unfortunately his team RCB could not even find a place in the play-offs.  Kohli leaves a solid impact on his followers with the kind of flourish seen in his knocks.  He plays conventional cricketing shots all over the park in a commanding fashion that bowlers are left clueless where to pitch the ball and where not.  

The behaviour of the pitch on which match is played plays a pivotal role in batting performance.  

    Indian pitches generally are spin friendly.  

    In Australia the bounce is waist high. 

    In England, the conditions provide more swing.  

    In New Zealand, there is more lift from the surface and swing too.

    In West Indies, the pitches provide low bounce and are on the slow side.  

A batsman needs to adjust to conditions first and plan which shot should be played and which not.  

Kohli with 76 International tons in his pocket in all formats has enormous experience and exposure to any given condition.  He therefore is the backbone of Indian batting and other just revolve around him.  Dislodging him therefore becomes next to impossible.  He stands tall among his contemporaries.  

People and his die-hard foes becomes so critical about his inclusion in the side when he goes thru patchy and lean periods.  They immediately write him off but Kohli has in him to bounce back with vengeance.  

Kohli proclaims; “As long as God so desires, I shall keep on playing for India.  

He is a modern-day iconic figure and others just want to emulate his work ethics.  

He stands tall among the legendary figures India has produced so far.  

If he remains fit and rarin-to-go,  he will set such high benchmarks that he will be hard to dislodge.  

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