Shreyas Iyer's captaincy a big takeaway from Knights' first win
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00:00To my disappointment, you know, it felt like CSK never turned up with the new
00:04captain Jadeja. I would not bet the captain is the batsman who let them down very badly.
00:17Good evening. Hi. Welcome to our first episode of Stredbat with Mr. Cricket UAE
00:24for the IPL season 2022. This is Gautam Bhattacharya of Gulf News. We have got with us
00:31Mr. Anish Sajan and who today was in Bombay to watch the, you know, the opening match of the
00:39new season, which ended up with KKR scoring a six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings.
00:47And also with me, I've got AK Satish, Sports Editor of Gulf News. Yes. So, Anishbhai,
00:55first up to you, how was it to see the crowd back after two seasons in India? And how was the
01:01feeling? I think you wanted to get a taste of it first up. That's why you had gone there.
01:08Yeah. Hello, Gautam. Hello, Satish. And hello to all the beautiful people of Gulf.
01:12Yeah. You see, I definitely wanted to get the taste of the crowd coming back to the stadium. So,
01:17I made up my mind that I'm going to go no matter what. Took the flight early morning. Took me 12
01:23hours to reach from Dubai to Bankire Stadium. But having said that, that's the passion of cricket
01:29we all have. And I finally made it. But to my disappointment, you know, it felt like CSK never
01:35turned up with the new captain Jadeja. I would not bet the captain is the batsman who let them down
01:39very badly. And by the end of 11 overs, CSK were down and out 60 for 5. And finally, we saw
01:46probably the old clock turning with MS Dhoni. But in the end, it was too less a sport to defend.
01:51And it was a cakewalk for KKR. I'll come to you, Satish. I mean, what we saw, the one-killer
01:59wicket lived up to its early reputation. The ball was seeming. The spinners got a bit of bounce.
02:05And the moment after, soon after, Umesh Jadhav struck. I mean, Chennai were always playing
02:10catch-up, but they kept on losing wickets. But do you see a kind of alarming signal in that?
02:17It's just the first game.
02:29Gautam, traditionally, Chennai has been a slow starters. So, I don't see it any different even
02:34this season. But having said that, Chennai is also missing two of their main players, Moeen Ali
02:40and Deepak Chahar, of course. That makes it 8 among the 11 who played in the last final.
02:46But having said that, again, coming back to the one-killer wicket, even though the savers had
02:52some swing, the spinners had spin, it was also a very true wicket where it allows you to play your
02:57shots. I think the initial wickets, to be precise, the wicket of Uthappa and Ambati,
03:09in quick succession, that actually put Chennai on the back foot. That's where the
03:15slide started. And it was too late for others to come and, especially Dori, to come and play that
03:20knock. Otherwise, it would have been under 100 was at one point of time, Chennai was looking at
03:24as a target.
03:27Coming back to Aneesbhai, you see, you've got Chennai with Moeen Ali not playing this match,
03:34he's still in the quarantine. You've got Ambati Raidu and Robin Uthappa at 3 and 4 of Chennai
03:42Super Kings. I mean, do you think it's just getting it a bit too far? I mean, does it open up
03:49that old question again that should MS come up in the order once again? I mean, maybe not at 3
03:54and 4, but maybe at 5. Do you want to see a change in the batting order?
04:00You can argue now, Gautam, by saying that MS should come up. But to be very honest,
04:05even he was at C because I saw the full game of CSK batting and MS just couldn't read.
04:10Neither he could read Varun and against Naren, he was totally at C. He just couldn't play the
04:15spin as well. It's only in the end overs where they hit 47 runs, where they ended up scoring 132.
04:21But yes, it doesn't look good with Robin Uthappa and Ambati Raidu coming at 3 and 4. So probably
04:28they need a little bit of firepower with Moeen Ali coming in. We'll have to wait and watch.
04:33Again, as Satish mentioned, first games, Chennai has always a slow starters. Even though last year
04:38they were not. Last year they started well at Wankhede Stadium. But you'll have to give them
04:43the benefit of the doubt that this was the first game. But you know what, other players have come
04:48to play too. Today, CSK, I felt, did not turn up at all. They looked like a team which had just
04:54come on a holiday. That was the case two years ago again, right? They played in the UAE that
05:01year. I hope it doesn't carry on for a long time. No, no. Yeah, I mean, it's really early days.
05:10I mean, it's a new season. It's a completely different ballgame. I mean, look at the
05:16pace bowling attack of Chennai. I mean, you've got Tushar Deshpande and other men who did a
05:23fair job to start with. But they had so little runs to bowl at. You know, they couldn't contain.
05:29But I'll come back to Satish a little here. What do you think are the positives for
05:35KKR from this game? I would say that Shreyas as captaincy is the biggest positive, number one.
05:42And second is, I think, Bharath Arun has worked his magic as a bowling coach. We all know what
05:50he has done to the Indian team. So, if you look at the bowlers, they were completely in total
05:55control of a good batting line-up like Chennai Super Kings. So, that means, they are playing to
06:02their full potential as bowlers. And the other very interesting point is, Ajinkya Rahane and
06:10Billings. Probably Billings played one game last season and Rahane probably none. And they were
06:16the main scorers for Kolkata. That also speaks very highly of the team management of Kolkata,
06:22which has reposed faith in these players, whom they have seen the talent or the skills in them,
06:29while picking only three foreign pros. That's another statement which Shreyas Iyer has made,
06:35which is a pretty good thing. So, all these are positives for Kolkata. And I think they have
06:41started quite well and made amends for their loss in the final in Dubai. I think that was the
06:49biggest difference, like where the captain Owen Morgan was not scoring runs. Here, Shreyas Iyer
06:54was cool, composed and he was there till the end, even though Rahane, they lost in the end and
07:00Billings also. So, it was altogether quite a collective clinical performance from Kolkata.
07:09Anisbhai, I mean, like you have captain teams at a different level. Now, this guy Shreyas,
07:15I mean, I've always felt that looking ahead, he's one guy whom India could have even groomed for
07:20white ball captaincy. I mean, he's just about 27. Do you really see a future leader at a higher
07:27platform in him or do you think it's too early? No, you hit the nail, Gautam. I'm glad you've
07:33mentioned this point because this was an ideal opportunity for BCCI to groom a young captain
07:39like MS did in Virat Kohli. Because you have got Rohit Sharma with due respect to what he's
07:45achieved in IPL and to whatever he did now in the series against Sri Lanka and West Indies.
07:50But this was an ideal opportunity. I'm not saying this because Shreyas Iyer won today's match.
07:55But we have seen the way he confidently led Delhi to both the playoffs and in fact,
08:00one final they lost to Mumbai. So, this guy had all the potential. It's just that they needed to
08:06get that potential and give him that confidence. Now, what India is doing is India is waiting for
08:10two more years till Rohit Sharma passes on the baton and that I believe India while are waiting
08:16for the next to next World Cup. That means you're talking about losing out in this T20 World Cup
08:21and T50. They are desperate to win a World Cup. That's why they didn't want to take a chance.
08:25Right. Before winding up, one word from Anisbhai on the big game tomorrow. I mean,
08:32you've got the Delhi versus Mumbai game coming up. So, your take on that?
08:40Well, terrific game. It's going to happen in the heat of Mumbai. I saw the temperatures 35 degrees
08:45hot and humid happening at the Brebon Stadium. I will still favour Delhi just because of the
08:51firepower you have. But like Gautam always mentions, you can never rule out Mumbai. Mumbai
08:56and their home ground are always tough to beat. We'll have to see how they turn up at Brebon Stadium.
09:01But I will still, if I have to back a team, I'll back Delhi.
09:06Just one word quickly from you on the two games tomorrow. Whom do you think? Who has the edge?
09:11I still feel Mumbai didn't have that firepower because I think they've spent a lot of money on
09:18one player, Ishan Kishan, in the auction. And again, Rohit Sharma, Surya Kumar Yadav,
09:25all these guys are not in full flow. So, going by that form, I would still love to back Delhi. But
09:36having said that, Mumbai in Mumbai is a dangerous proposition. So,
09:41I would say it's a 60 or a 55-45 in favour of Delhi.
09:48Right. Well, and before we wrap up, Banerjee, if you can just speak about the incentives that
09:57our followers have on offer.
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10:27That sounds awesome. On that note, we leave you and we'll be back tomorrow with the post-match
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10:40Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Thank you.