00:00Jaw-dropping, Shyam. The more and more I see this young boy batting, he brings a smile on my face.
00:14Good evening. Welcome to Straight Bad with Gulb News and Mr Cricket UAE. That is Anil Sahil.
00:19Before we get down to today's match, let's hear it from Anil.
00:23Hi Shyam. Hi Sahil. Great to be with you guys once again. And like every day we say, make sure to log
00:31on to your favorite page, Gulb News, predict the winner. You walk away with this beautiful jacket
00:35as well as three months of subscription, Shyam.
00:39Thanks Anil. It's a doubleheader today and we just came off an incredible chase by,
00:46or a rather easy chase by Delhi. What do you make of Prithvi Shah's batting today?
00:53Jaw-dropping, Shyam. The more and more I see this young boy batting, he brings a smile on my face
00:59and the fearless nature of his batting. I still remember when he was having a tough time in
01:03Australia in the test matches. He got a lot of flack, was trolled all around. He made sure he
01:08corrected himself. And now after that Vijay Azhar trophy where he scored 500, he looks in awesome
01:15form. And I dare say, and I keep saying this, and I will repeat till the World Cup squad is
01:20announced, that you cannot leave this player outside. I'm not talking on the basis of only
01:25this one inning. I've seen him in the past perform. He's a fearless player. And if you
01:29want to win a T20 World Cup, you need a player like Prithvi Shah at the top.
01:35You're spot on because this IPL, he has shown what he's got because he's rectified his technique.
01:41And not just that, his approach has been very positive. So I would back your argument on that.
01:48Now, Sahil, what do you think of Kolkata's bowling?
01:55I mean, I don't want to say the word woeful. As mentioned, that guy Prithvi Shah is crazy.
02:02I mean, Shivam Mavi, last match, if you remember, that guy gave four overs for 13 runs.
02:07Four overs, 13 runs. Today, unfortunately, four on no way, he was taken for 25 runs.
02:13So again, this is the beauty of T20 cricket. So I'm not going to say KKR's bowling performance
02:18is woeful and all. Let's just appreciate the guy's batting. This guy Prithvi Shah is…
02:22You just said it. You just said it's woeful.
02:26But you can't escape the fact that KKR has been struggling throughout this tournament.
02:32Sahil?
02:34The difference today is, why KKR is struggling? Because they do not have that fearless factor
02:38in power play. Somehow they reach 45 runs and they're happy in six overs. Other teams try to go
02:43bang-bang, 60 runs. You see how Prithvi Shah scored 25 runs in one over. KKR somehow reached
02:4825 in four overs. That's the difference between KKR and Delhi.
02:53Absolutely. That is the first-year approach. And did you think that Martin Mr Trick,
02:58he brought in a bad comment quite late in the over. I think it's the sixth over or
03:04something he brought in. And by then, the Delhi chase was pretty much truly over, actually.
03:12You can say to some extent, Shyam. But the fact is, even Cummins has been going for a lot of runs,
03:18especially in the power play. And like Sahil mentioned, Mavi has been bowling well. So,
03:22you have to give credit to Prithvi Shah. He just demolished… Started the demolishing act
03:27from the first over itself and never looked back. So, all the bowlers,
03:31pairing Cummins now… Every time when a team goes for runs, one bowler probably gets stood out.
03:38And today, it was Pat Cummins. So, that's the reason we feel like he brought him late.
03:41But you have to give it to Delhi that they… And especially to this young boy, Prithvi Shah. He's
03:46just 22 years old. And the way he bats fearlessly is a treat to the eyes.
03:52All right. Sahil, you are the KKR man here. Tell us what is wrong with the KKR batting.
03:57Because they have been struggling throughout this tournament. And batting has been their problem.
04:02I am not the biggest KKR fan. I just like their team. Just to make it clear, okay?
04:09Like I said, look, they don't have a fearless factor in their opening pair. Again and again,
04:15why send Nitish Narayan and Shubh Mangal? You got Sunil Narayan and Rahul Tripathi. These guys
04:20are the guys who play fearlessly. You can't send them after the six overs. You know,
04:24after six overs, Sunil Narayan comes at, suppose, number four. It's 10-0. I don't think he has got
04:29a double-digit score, right? So, Nitish Narayan and Shubh Mangal, right? Change the…
04:37Sahil, accept the fact your team is stubborn. You were a fan of KKR. Now,
04:41you are fed up of their stubbornness by sticking to the openers for scoring six overs 24 and 30.
04:47Say that. You are a KKR fan. And they are stubborn about their strict policy,
04:51whether it is McCullum or Morgan. Or I don't know who calls the shot. Or maybe Shahrukh Khan
04:55sitting in India, in Bombay.
04:57And also, I want to mention Owen Morgan has had a rough tournament. This is why they are
05:01struggling. So, yeah, you can say that for sure. You know, it's been tough for Owen Morgan.
05:08True, true. I mean, I would agree with Anish there simply because see, McCullum and Morgan
05:14has been experienced international players. So, when something doesn't work for you,
05:19you need to change things around, isn't it? But that's not been happening here. I mean,
05:25I think it is a no-brainer really.
05:31I want to bring to the notice of all our people who are following our show.
05:36Morgan started the fearless approach of England cricket after seeing what McCullum did in the
05:422015 World Cup. And I find it baffling that both Morgan as well as McCullum are not trying to
05:52follow the same approach where they can get those openers who will give them the
05:56brief start. You see with the England team, the way Jason Roy and Johnny Best will get off the
06:00path. But time after time, we have been seeing that these openers are too slow and playing that
06:0550-over format cricket and still sticking to them. I understand you give them chances.
06:10But now when you have realized that they are not able to get off the blocks,
06:14you need to take some serious changes because you have already played seven games.
06:18And if you don't take that action now, it is late and then you will be out of the tournament, Shyam.
06:24Yeah. In fact, we are nearing the halfway mark. I think if they don't make any radical changes,
06:29they might be in for some serious trouble. I completely agree with you that Rana and Gill
06:35are not Johnny Best and Jason Roy. For that matter, if KK had somebody like Shaw and Dhawan
06:42at the top, maybe this tactic would have worked. But this is not working. They need to change.
06:48You just said that they don't have Shaw and Dhawan. But you have a few players in the bank.
06:54Why can't you utilize them? See, everybody has a pool of players. You have got a pool of players
07:00who have got the talent. You need to make use of them. Like I remember now today,
07:05Morgan saying that we are not getting our act right with the bat and the ball.
07:09So we make sure that we are not doing injustice to the players sitting in the dressing room.
07:13This is a very loud and clear message given by Morgan.
07:16True, true. Okay. It looks like there is no end in sight for KK especially. Let's move on.
07:24Anish, tell us about the first game because I didn't get to watch much of it. So let's
07:28take us through the first game.
07:31Well, Mumbai won a very important toss. And the match was going the way it went yesterday
07:36on the same wicket where the openers gave them a steady start. But at the end of…
07:44In fact, I was going through the stats. At the end of probably 16 overs, both the teams were 140.
07:50But rather 140 after 16 overs. And RR had just managed 32 in the last four overs. But you have
07:57to credit Bhoomra who bowled excellently in that over. He keeps doing this on and on.
08:05And four overs for 15 runs in one wicket, you can't ask anything from Moh. And that's the
08:10reason they restricted them to 172. And Mumbai got the wicket because they were not able to get
08:15the act on that Chennai wicket. The ball was coming onto the bat. And everybody performed.
08:19And Quinton Dickock was the star player who made sure that they finished the game.
08:26Yeah, that is something I noted simply because Rohit Sharma kept saying that we need to bat
08:32deep. And now in the last couple of matches, we are seeing one of the players batting deep. Today
08:37it was Quinton's turn to do that. And that is very encouraging for Mumbai. Now,
08:43Sahil, tell us, where do Rajasthan Royals go from here? They are pretty much like KKR.
08:52Well, as for Rajasthan, you know, they don't have a lead bowler. Like, you know,
08:56Mumbai have Bhoomra, Sunrisers have Rashid. They don't have any star bowler. Can you say
09:02Mustafizud is a star bowler, like a guy who doesn't concede much? No, I cannot say. They
09:08don't have any leader. And they depend way too much on Joss Butler and Sanju Samson. If they
09:12don't perform, then what are they going to do? Today, also Shivam Dubey scored runs,
09:16but he slowed down the game. So, they are also struggling in each factor. And let's be honest,
09:21they have not had any luck. You know, Jofra left. Stokes got ruled out. You know, Andrew Tai went
09:28back. I mean, now they signed Rassi Vandasan, I think. So, that's a good signing for them. Very,
09:34very positive signing for them. Anish, would you say that KKR
09:41fared badly in the auction? They bought Chris Morris and Little Ls.
09:47You're talking about RR bought Chris Morris? Yes. Yeah.
09:51No, but he's been doing well with the ball, to be very honest.
09:54No, no. My question is, did Rajasthan do badly in the auction? Because they put all their money
10:02on Morris and nobody else. Well, you see, they never expected Jofra
10:09to get injured as well as Ben Stokes to get injured. So, at that time, they were right.
10:14And if I have to be very honest, 16 crore on Chris Morris was a bit too high. But nonetheless,
10:20he's bowled decently. He's been bowling well. You know what, sometimes the player's personality or
10:26a person of a player, you feel that they have spent enough. But having said that, Chris Morris
10:31has done well. He's won them one match with the bat. He's won them one match with the ball.
10:37Two-man-of-the-match awards is good enough. And the franchise cannot complain. It's just that
10:42some bad luck of Jofra getting injured, then Ben Stokes getting injured, a couple of players
10:49leaving the dugout and going home because of the COVID pandemic. So, luck not going the way.
10:55But I'm sure next year going around, they will turn this around. Because last year,
11:01they came last. They wouldn't like to come again in the bottom four. And currently,
11:06it seems like they would be probably reaching there only. I don't see them coming up.
11:12They have stiff competition from Hyderabad. But before we wind up, one word about how do you
11:20assess Sanju Samson's captaincy? Because we've seen Rishabh Pant really come up as a captain
11:26because he's been very communicative. He's been taking the lead. What do you make of Samson's
11:31captaincy here? You know, there are two ways of looking at it, Shyam. The captain is as good as
11:37the team. And there's a captain who leads from the front. Now, in the case of Rishabh Pant,
11:42you need to understand he has a side which looks the most fearful side of the IPL. There is a
11:50dangerous side in Mumbai Indians. There is an experienced side in CSK. Then when you come to
11:54the fourth team of the IPL, which is RCB, which is also Virat Kohli, which has experience. But
12:00when you come to RR and you look at the squad, sometimes you feel that Samju Samson has been
12:05unlucky that he's not got the squad to support him. But having said that, if he can lead from
12:09the front, which I said, if a captain can lead from the front by scoring runs, things can turn
12:15around. So he has to put his hand up. Yes, I'm going to score a 70-80 every time I get on the
12:20path. Easier said than done. Thank you, Anish. Thank you, Sahil. Before we wrap up, Anish,
12:27let's hear from you about the competition again. Oh yes, Shyam. You know, today we had in the
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13:11Thank you very much. Thank you, Anish. Thank you, Sahil. And let's gather with you tomorrow.
13:16Thanks. Thanks, Shyam. Wonderful. We had a great show, guys. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye.
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