Watch IPL 2023 analysis: Brilliant Rinku Singh and Shardul Thakur transform Kolkata Knight Riders

Gulf News

The charge of the Kolkata Knight Riders was the talking point of the Indian Premier League last week. Young Rinku Singh deserved all plaudits for his ice-cold nerves and superb skill to blast five consecutive sixes in the final over to script an incredible win for Kolkata on Sunday. It’s more remarkable since it came up against champions Gujarat Titans, who slumped to their first defeat this season. Buried in the ruins was a superb hat-trick by stand-in captain Rashid Khan which brought Gujarat back into the game, but Rinku’s sixes settled the game. Rinku also played a part in the turnaround in KKR fortunes with the win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore last Monday. The RCB were in control in KKR’s home ground of Eden Gardens until Shardul Thakur’s hammered a whirlwind 67 in the company Rinku. The RCB never recovered. But the innings of the week came from the bat of Ajinkya Rahane for the Chennai Super Kings. Just when everyone thought his best days were behind the former India star, Rahane produced an innings of high quality that warmed the cockles of purists. He raced to a half-century in 19 balls, and his 27-ball 67 was filled with orthodox cricketing shots. That was enough to kill off the Mumbai Indians’ challenge. Mumbai are yet to record a win in two matches, and their performances haven’t been inspiring. The five-time champions have been in wretched form in the last two seasons, and this too hasn’t started well. So is the case with the Delhi Capitals, who have lost all their three matches, leaving captain David Warner and coach Ricky Ponting to search for solutions. For more of IPL, watch the video.    See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km

Transcript

00:005-6 is nothing new. But to do that 5-6 in the last 5 balls of the match, that is what makes this knock incredible.

00:07And that too, when you need every single one of them to win that game.

00:15Hello and welcome to our weekly IPL Catch-Up chat show. There's been 9 matches since we last spoke last Monday.

00:22We're not going to go and talk about all of them, otherwise we're going to be here all day.

00:26But to discuss the main talking points, we're joined by Sian from Golf News, superfan Si,

00:31and a very special guest, former England wicketkeeper and current coach of Leicestershire,

00:37Paul Nixon. Welcome to the show, guys. Paul, let's start with you. It's great to have you join us today.

00:43You had a super 23-year playing career. You were a brilliant wicketkeeper, a solid left-handed

00:48batsman, and quite the sledger as well. But my most memorable moment of you was when you

00:54hit merrily for six with that reverse sweep. What a shot that was. What was your most memorable

00:58moment in your career? Oh, wow. Great question. Memorable? Playing for England any time you play

01:05for your country is incredible. Winning a county championship with Leicestershire, that sort of

01:11group in the Big Brother house for six months, to win a trophy is very special. So I think

01:17obviously winning for England, playing for England, but when you win with the guys who you

01:21are in that Big Brother house with in a county cricket season is magical. So I think 1996,

01:26winning the first championship is probably my great memory. Yeah, great memories. And what about playing

01:31in the ICL? Now, look, the ICL came about before the Premier League came. It was the Rebel League.

01:36We all know that. You played there for two seasons. What are your memories of that? I remember some

01:40incredible young Indian talent. The passion of Indian cricket was extraordinary. And just to be

01:47around so many different world-class stars because it hadn't really been done then. It was a new

01:52concept, a new venture. And we had the likes of Shane Bond, seeing Shane Bond up close and personal,

01:58how he went about his business, his mindset, and playing on different wickets and all those

02:05various things that come into it. Just meeting and being with the great players around the world is

02:09very special. Yeah, special times. All right, good stuff. Let's get up to date with yesterday's

02:15IPL games. And for that, we'll bring in Shyam and Sai. Indian batsman Rinku Singh had a great

02:20game yesterday. He blasted five sixes in the last five balls as Kolkata stunned the champions,

02:26Gujarat. Sai, how good was that from Singh? And what went wrong with the champions yesterday?

02:32I think the captaincy of Hardik Pandya was missing in Gujarat Titans. And I'm not sure

02:36whether the selection of the final bowler was the right decision by Gujarat Titans. And what

02:40an incredible innings. Five sixes, unbelievable. Even the commentators were shocked. I mean,

02:45they were saying, okay, it's a try in vain when he hit the first six. Even the second six also

02:50was a try in vain. But when the third six came, oh, it was just incredible. And one of the best

02:55innings in the IPL. And actually, it has actually revived KKR's hopes to stay in the finals.

03:03Yeah, it certainly has done that. Shyam, do you think, I mean, degree,

03:06hell of a knock, wasn't it? To do five sixes at any time, but in a row in the last over,

03:12that takes some real guts, doesn't it? Absolutely. I mean, you need ice-cold nerves

03:17to do something like that. Because this is not the first time. There have been three other instances

03:23in the IPL with Chris Gale, Ravindra Jadeja, and I don't remember the other person. I mean,

03:29yeah, of course, it has to be Rahul Deolte. It happened in Sharjah, actually. So, five sixes is

03:34nothing new. But to do that five sixes in the last five balls of the match, that is what makes

03:40this knock incredible. And that too, when you need every single one of them to win that game.

03:46I mean, to middle that, of course, I agree with Sy there. The choice of Bolo would be wrong.

03:52The Bolo, I mean, actually, I mean, Keyes has served up three full stars. But nothing,

03:57none of that takes away the credit from Ringu's amazing hitting. I think they say,

04:03something which comes closest to him is Carlos Braithwaite's four sixes against England in 2016

04:09World Cup final. That is again four. This is five. Which means the probability is much lesser. Which

04:14makes it an amazing knock. Yeah, it was an amazing knock and a good win for Kolkata. The other game

04:21yesterday, Hyderabad got their first win of the IPL season. They beat Punjab by eight wickets.

04:26It was a huge win for them, Shan. I mean, they were far better with the bat, with the ball,

04:30all around, weren't they? Yeah, especially with the ball, they were so much better. Because

04:37Punjab were doddering at something like 99 for 5 or something like that. And it was not 99,

04:43they were much less than 88 for 5 or something like that. Because from there, it was Captain

04:50Shekhar Dhawan who hauled them all the way here. He latched in, what do you call, 99 runs. And I

04:56think a bulk of those runs came in with the last wicket pair, putting on 54 runs, which I thought

05:03was amazing. But despite that, that was a total of 140-odd. It's not a total at all, which is why

05:10you see an eight-wicket win. So, Shekhar Dhawan's brave knock went in vain for them, for the Punjab

05:16Kings. Yeah, it went in vain. Sai, looking ahead, after that crushing seven-wicket loss against

05:23Chennai, Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma has said that the senior players, including himself,

05:29have to step up and lead by example. They've had a bad start. They've played two matches and they've

05:34lost two. But they're facing Delhi Capitals who've had an even worse start. They've played three,

05:39lost three. They're at the bottom of the table right now. How do you see this game going between

05:43the two struggling teams of the IPL? See, actually, Imran, Mumbai has a history of always being last

05:49in the first seven rounds. And then, when the next round comes in, they accelerate. And this

05:55has been in the past IPLs. And I'm sure Mumbai will come back. And Rohit Sharma will not let it

06:01go. And definitely, Delhi Capitals, being a little without Rishabh Pant, I believe is still weak.

06:08And Mumbai will easily, should actually win this game against Delhi Capitals.

06:12Sai, I beg to differ. Because this is a crappy Mumbai side, seriously.

06:17Because last two seasons, they were doing very bad. And this time also, they don't have a

06:22solid bowler. Because if you look at some of their wins, they were all by fast bowlers. You

06:27had Lasith Malinga. Then you had, later, Trent Boult. And this time, it was supposed to be

06:32Bumrah. Bumrah is not there. And Joffrey Archer, he is coming off an injury. So, he is no longer

06:36the same force, really. He is swinging his way in. Not just that, they benched him last match

06:42because of the injury scare. So, bowling-wise, they are really, really short there. So,

06:47I don't see Mumbai coming around. Maybe they might come back. I know that they have a history

06:53of starting slow and coming back. But I don't think they have it in them in terms of resources

06:58to come back, to make a serious run for the last four slots. Probably, the batting will make them

07:05make the amends for the bowling, you know. So, they have Ishan Krishnan and Surya Kumar. And

07:09SKY is yet to come. You know, he is yet to come to the party.

07:13Yeah, true. Actually, one man can make a difference, which we have seen in this game,

07:20where a single batter makes a difference. You saw Ringu Singh, we saw Ajinkya Raghavani do that

07:25in their match. Oh, what a brilliant thing that was.

07:28Yeah, yeah. So, Shardul Thakur did for them, for Kolkata again. So, a single batsman can

07:34change things around. Yes, certainly.

07:37Yeah. And today, we have Bangalore facing Lucknow. Shyam, you have written about Bangalore's issues

07:42with the death-overs. They tend to struggle badly ever since the RPL started. What can they do to

07:48sort that out? I mean, part of the problem is they don't have any frontline bowlers, really.

07:55See, they have Harshal Patel, who is a death-over specialist. But that's about it. If Harshal goes

08:00for a run, they have a problem. See, Mohamed Siraj is a very good bowler with the new ball.

08:06But at the slog-overs, he can leak runs because he's not an accuracy bowler. He's not the kind

08:12of guy who comes in and fires Yorkers there. So, they have a serious shortage of manpower at the

08:17depth. Very true.

08:21Okay, let's bring back Paul, who's been waiting patiently there. Paul, look, this is the 16th

08:26edition of the IPL now. Have you been surprised by the way it's taken off? And do you think it'll

08:31get even bigger? I really do. No, it's world-class, isn't it? I mean, it's the passion of Indian

08:37cricket is second to none. So, we all watch it around the world. It's tough for a lot of the

08:42English guys now because we had just started out yesterday. We just finalised a lot of our games,

08:47our first games of the county season. So, yeah, it's been incredible. The format's been played

08:54at club level before it started in the evenings. You know, many teams, 20 overs in the evenings,

09:00when it's accessible to people. So, we, as you like, we love it here. We love our blast competition.

09:05Now, we have 100 as well, so to fit into the schedule, which is creating a lot of interest. So,

09:11yeah, the shorter format is exciting and it's accessible.

09:15Yeah, look, Paul, there's 13 England players playing in the IPL this season. We've got Sam

09:21Curran there, who's the most expensive player in the IPL history. Harry Brooke, Moin Ali,

09:26Josh Butler, who you'll know well from the same position that he used to play. Ben Stokes,

09:31lots of players. There's several others. They'll be getting some good experience playing in India

09:35before the World Cup. How important is that, do you think, is it going to be for them?

09:39Enormous, absolutely enormous. Just to have, when you go back somewhere, you're always more calm

09:44and more relaxed. And actually, the more relaxed you can be in big games, the better it is.

09:49There's naturally that enthusiasm, that excited energy. So, for those guys to come back and know

09:56the lines, the lengths, the conditions, the dimensions. They'll be watching all the players.

10:02Everything's videoed nowadays. So, they'll be working well with the analysis guys. So,

10:08the management will be really zooming in for that. So, it's crucial.

10:12Yeah, crucial. Look, England were the defending champions, beat New Zealand in the 2019 edition.

10:17What do you make of the chances in India later this year?

10:22Yeah, we've got a great chance, of course. We're very lucky that we have a lot of world-class

10:28players that come into our competition. The challenges are when the pitches are going to

10:33turn a lot more as the tournament goes on and develops. That'll be the interesting time here.

10:38But I think with the academies that all these guys have gone through of late, I think the sweeps,

10:44the reverse sweeps, the guys that can hit the pockets well, it's tough to hit straight on very,

10:52very turning pitches. So, the guys that are going to play square the wicket are going to dominate.

10:58Yeah, that's for sure. Your team, Leicestershire, they've developed a hugely promising talent of

11:03all-rounder Rehan Ahmed. He's only 18. He's made his debut for the Test side,

11:09the One Day side and the T20 team as well. How good do you think he can be? And do you

11:14think next year, IPL, he's going to be one of the hot picks?

11:18I really hope so. He's a young man whose mindset really reminds me of the late,

11:24great Shane Warne. He met Warne as a youngster. Warne inspired him. Rehan got a brilliant

11:3270-odd this game for Leicestershire, where we've just beaten Yorkshire

11:35last night in an unbelievable run chase of just under 400. So, he's predominantly been

11:41a battering of the balls and he's now going to just make sure that his stock ball,

11:48his googly is his go-to ball. He's just got to get his stock ball, his legs going to be a little

11:52bit more consistent, that same position, a bit more sort of 10-2, 5-12 position to be more

12:00consistent. But the kid's a winner. He's got incredible belief in his game and I actually

12:06think he could bat top order in white-ball cricket for England, no question. He's a

12:11prestigious talent and we haven't seen the best of his batting yet, but I promise you,

12:16he's especially a man.

12:18Yeah, he looks like he's got the makings of having a great career ahead of him.

12:23Who's this player that's playing in the IPL now that's going to be playing for Leicestershire

12:26next season?

12:27Yeah, Ginko Rahane. What a player. What a 50. Record-breaking 50. What an innings. Beautiful

12:34cricket shots. Watching that, watched the highlight, didn't see it live. But yeah, we've

12:39got a brilliant man coming. He's done so well for Hampshire in the past. His leadership

12:46experience is crucial when you're with a younger group, which we have at the moment. So we've

12:51got Peter Hanscom at the moment in his place. Peter got 170 yesterday, so he's in good form.

12:58But Ginko, what an experience. So good on the eye to watch and hopefully he's going

13:04to bring many people in through the doors at Leicestershire, a really multicultural

13:08city in Leicester. And yeah, we're all excited to see him.

13:12Yeah, I think he's going to do really well there.

13:14Sharm and Si, look, in the last nine games that we've had, there's been plenty of interesting

13:18results and some shots, obviously, and some great performances with the bat and the ball.

13:22Who stood out for you in these last eight or nine games for you?

13:26Oh yeah, definitely it was KKR and yesterday's… My team of Sunrise Hyderabad, they are also

13:32coming back. I think with Makram back in the team and with the right team selection, they

13:37are regrouping and should be doing well. But yesterday's match of Rinku Singh and

13:43Ajinkya Rahane's innings. And he is giving a tight run for the number four spot in the

13:50Indian team. And he is a brilliant player. I like his calmness and coolness.

13:56Yeah, for me, more than the person, I would say yesterday's match, Gujarat Titans losing

14:04their first match in this tournament. I think that match was a typical T20 match. See, Kolkata

14:12chasing them down. Venkatesh Iyer were taking them to victory and suddenly, stand-in captain

14:20Rashid Khan decided to intervene. He comes up with a hat-trick and the match changes on his head.

14:26And suddenly, you see Gujarat Titans coasting away to win. 29 runs to win in the last over,

14:34normally, you wouldn't bet against them. So, Gujarat were in the driving seat

14:40until Rinku Singh decided that he could do the impossible. I mean, to me, that was typical T20

14:46match. That was the best match. And the best innings for me, that is not it. I would go with

14:51what Paul Nixon said about Rahane. Rahane's knock was brilliant. I am a purist. I mean, I am from

14:56the old school. I would like to see proper cricketing shots. What Rahane showed in that

15:03match was, you don't have to slog. He didn't play a single shot in anger. All of them were

15:09thoroughbred, pure cricketing shots. All balls hit straight down the field. They were on the

15:15cover or square leg. Everything full-blooded shots. And it was a purist delight. And to me,

15:21that was the innings of the IPL so far. Yeah, that was a heck of a performance from him. Paul,

15:27is it true that you gave MS Dhoni a few tips about how to wicket a few years ago when you met him?

15:33Yeah, very true. Robin Singh approached me and he said,

15:39Nico is just battling a little bit with a wobbling ball in England. Would it be possible

15:44to spend a bit of time with him? The guys are going to be based at Leicester because we've got

15:48wonderful facilities off the ground as well. We've got brilliant nets just off the ground so you can

15:55practice whilst the games are going on. And yeah, we spent a couple of hours together and I had a

16:00great time talking about the heights of the bounce of the ball and how early you can come up as a

16:04wicketkeeper, having your hands out in front a little bit earlier and staying close to the

16:09stumps. And yeah, you know, listen, watching MS over the years has been great. Just love his

16:16calmness under pressure. Just love his mental capacity just to take it all in. And yeah,

16:23it's been great to watch. His keeping journey has been good to watch as well.

16:27Yeah, it's been great. He's still going strong. We'll see how he does as the season progresses.

16:32That's all from us for today, guys. Thank you to Shyam. Thanks to Sai. And last but not least,

16:36thank you to Paul. Head to golfnews.com for all the latest news and reviews. And remember,

16:40follow us on social media. We'll catch up again next week. Until then, take care.

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