It's remarkable isn't it, he's just got the knack of making important contributions more often than not.
IPL 2019
- Thread starter Edgar Allan Pillow
- Start date
It's remarkable isn't it, he's just got the knack of making important contributions more often than not.
The collapse was spectacular. 17 balls, 8 runs for 7 wickets wasn’t it? 
For sure. Still don't rate his bowling at the highest level but as you've said, he's definitely got something.
Delhi giving RCB a run for their money..
What is Unadkat actually good at?
Pace? Accuracy? Deceptive slower ball? Yorkers? Swing with the new ball?
Really, what?
Pace? Accuracy? Deceptive slower ball? Yorkers? Swing with the new ball?
Really, what?
Not sure but he was the leading wicket taker a few seasons back.
Agree completely. Being left-handed seems to be his only attribute.
To be fair he's had a very average winter with the test side. How many wickets did he get? If he picked up five across those four test matches I'd be surprised.
He's obviously a very smart thinker and cool under pressure, and those attributes are not to be under-estimated. But you wonder how far he can go as a bowler given he's 5'8 and 125kmh.
I can see him becoming a key member of the England white-ball sides but you wonder where he plays in red ball. He's a luxury in a four-man seam attack unless the ball's swinging, and we need to start finding bowlers who can take wickets in all conditions.
I'd start trying to nurture him as a top-order batsman - he's got the potential to be a genuine star in all formats with his batting and we don't exactly have many options for that role.
RCB’s batting to click today, they’ll get around 200 and just about defend it
Whoever loses today can forget the play-offs (although given that most of RR's foreign players will be going home soon, it probably isn't a big deal for them).
Really like the Royals' leg-spinner, Gopal. He's looked quality every time I've seen him.
Game changing spell by him here. He's got great variation and it seems no one is able to pick it.
Is Ben stokes worth the money they pay him? He's a great t20 all rounder in a national team but in a 4 overseas players slot, he doesn't seem to make a difference enough times. With the ball he's not effective enough.
Was literally about to say the same thing.
He's a good bowler, no doubt, but he's a bit innocuous in Indian conditions. He doesn't have many variations, he bowls a very standard length and his pace is nice for batsmen on Indian pitches - it's not quick enough to trouble the batsman and it's quick enough to go miles when someone connects with it.
He's great in test cricket with the old ball here. But he's just not worth what they pay him batting at five and bowling four acceptable overs.
I think Rajasthan aren't getting value for money generally. A bit like United - they could do with a bit more moneyball in their player acquisition strategy.
Why did they sign Englishmen and Aussies as their overseas players when they knew they'd be going home early? Why did they sign Smith and Rahane? Why are they paying all that money to Stokes when, as you say, there are others who can do a similar job for less money?
They've got a good nucleus of players and hopefully they can keep that together, as this group will only get better. Archer and Buttler are brilliant players and if they can get another quick bowler they could be a real threat next year. But they should definitely try and be a bit cleverer in the market.
Being wank
Sort of agree and disagree. They were the original moneyball IPL team winning season 1 on a paltry budget. Their philosophy has been around picking up unknown players based on scouting and they partner with a company which provides them cricket analytics data, and had a guy Zubin bharucha leading that part - I think they were one of the first to do this in the IPL.
Their owners are savvy - Manoj Badale runs an investment company in London which has made a lot of money from smart investments in fintech UK. 2 seasons ago, they changed their strategy from being penny pinchers to splurging money. I think what they thought was that this is a watershed moment.. IPL teams are going to explode in value and in 10 years it'd have been seen as being foolish to be prudent with capital today. The mistake they made was in the team balance. They had had Smith, so wanted to retain him(1.8 million gone), thought Stokes would be better(1.3 million gone). The rest they bought for acceptable bids, but the 2 big players imbalanced the rest of their team. You need 5 good bowlers to win IPL trophies and they simply don't have those. They've also been loyal to a core set of players who didn't develop the way they anticipated - likes of Rahane, Samson.
Navdeep Saini seems a great prospect. Pace and bounce.
RCB is just plain wank.
RCB are poor at batting, bowling and fielding. Not a great formula for winning cricket matches
Samson has been pretty consistent for them. Butler also proved to be a very good buy as did Archer. Think their squad is mostly fine, they made a mistake last auction when they ended up with 3-4 openers. Still have not rectified it since with Butler opening they have 4 more players in Rahane, Samson, Smith and Tripathi as players who would want to bat in top 3. This seems to be a common theme across many IPL teams where they lack a flexible batsmen who can bat from anywhere between 4-7 and play the role of finisher when needed, for example KKR has the perfect version in Russell. They probably want Stokes to play the same role for them but he is clearly not up to the mark as of now.
Agree re Buttler and archer. Terrific buys but no surprise tbh. What's Samson record been like? I am going off anecdotal when I catch the games - what I meant was that I thought he will be playing for India easily. Went off the rails from that perspective..
Dunno about domestic but his IPL record is good over last 2 seasons or so with average around 40 and SR around 140. Unadkat has tuned out to be their worse buy. Last season buying D'arcy short was also stupid given their top order options.
He should be starting at #4 for us at the WC, easily better than clowns like Rayudu and Rahul. Not his fault that Indian selectors are far too busy turning the national team into Virat Kohli and friends while turning a blind eye towards anyone who doesn't fit that criteria.
No evidence to suggest that he should get a chance for NT. His domestic record is average if not below that even. If anything someone like Shreyas Iyer should have gotten more chances. He was even in the team one year back but was then dropped and never given another go for whatever reason.
The first clue lies in the fact that we haven't been able to nail that position in the ODI team for a while now and the ones that have been tried have failed spectacularly. Samson has been excellent in the IPL two years running, has shown excellent technique and the ability to play at a high tempo with good risk free cricketing shots, which is good enough to make him one of the contenders for that position, something we should have tried by now. Especially given we have a liability like Dhoni in the middle order, we desperately need someone who can accelerate the innings without being a slogger or a power hitter like Pant. The likes of Samson, Iyer and Shaw have been knocking on the door but can't break through the politics that overshadows picking players on merit.
Don't think you can just promote folks from IPL to NT without taking into account the year long domestic competitions. Likes of Rayadu in fact have consistently performed better than Samson in IPL even if latter has shown a better technique while slogging in T20 games. In any case, there is no question that truing to cement top 4 place has been nothing short of a fiasco.
Was thinking why was he not continued to play, checked cricinfo and saw that he played 5 games between dec 2017 and feb 2018, scored 2 half centuries which includes an 88.
Can't understand why did we not keep playing him for the rest of the year, we'd have had a #4 ready by now.
Big game today, two of the most successful IPL franchises. Stoinis played for RCB yesterday, I'm hoping Behrendorff will be available for Mumbai, our bowling needs something desperately.
Expecting Ben to play for Pollard. Maybe Surya will make way for Kishan, but that'll be too harsh on the former.
Expecting Ben to play for Pollard. Maybe Surya will make way for Kishan, but that'll be too harsh on the former.
Will be tough this one. Apart from KKR, the other 2 teams Chennai beat have struggled badly till now. And MI always digs deep when facing Chennai.
Don’t like either of Mumbai or CSK so just wanna see a good match go to the wire. I think Mumbai get a win today though
Chahar is a very underrated bowler. Excellent during powerplay!
29 off the last over to reach 170 for MI
Why don't MI push Panyda up the order? He comes in too late every game. Surely should be coming in ahead of his brother at the very least.
Especially when the openers are shitting it. And the rest of the middle order too.
Well, first defeat by CSK. Last year we won by strength of batting and this year we'll lose by it.
Dhoni's tactics of carrying it till last overs is well and good as long he's playing...but if he gets out it just adds so much pressure to those coming later on. Double edged sword.
Dhoni's tactics of carrying it till last overs is well and good as long he's playing...but if he gets out it just adds so much pressure to those coming later on. Double edged sword.
Yeah completely. If the tactic lives or dies on his dismissal, it's not a reliable tactic is it. Bet Ashwin's plotting his mankading routine already.
Need to drop Watson for Faf. Rayadu being out of form is a worry too.
How would you rejig the batting order though?