Mumbai Indians scripted one of the best turnarounds in recent IPL history, knocking off 60 in the last 4 to send the KKR camp crashing down. Nitish Rana anchored the innings all around and took off in the last 4 overs, belting Ankit Rajpoot to all parts of the ground. And then it was the showman from India, Hardik Pandya, who took centre stage, embraced it, and just made the game his own.
KKR displayed an ‘art of losing’ like none other, coming up with innovative techniques of throwing in the towel, when all they needed to do was go through the motions with a sense of calm. Suryakumar Yadav and Rishi Dhawan’s ‘brain fade’ handed the game on a plate to Mumbai Indians, but take absolutely nothing away from the way Nitish Rana led the side and from the way Pandya finished it off at the end.
And while the loss was hard enough to come to terms with, KKR have also been dealt with an injury to their star man, Chris Lynn, who will face scans to reveal the amount of damage to his shoulder(which he injured while attempting to take a catch, running backwards).
In the morning game, Gujarat Lions were given another cricketing lesson(or maybe a life lesson) by the all round performance of Sunrisers Hyderabad. You just can’t afford to put all your eggs in one basket, and at least not at the start of the tournament, do it only when you have no way out.
And anyway it’s not like it helped, the Lions’ batting lineup was bamboozled with Rashid Khan’s trickery and couldn’t muster a good enough total on a rather sedate pitch. David Warner and Moises Henriques then made short work of the meagre total, putting the Lions deeper into their hole(cave).
Let’s get to business now!
IPL Fantasy League
Transfer out: Chris Lynn, Moises Henriques, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya
Transfer in: ABD(if he plays), Shane Watson, Sandeep Sharma(if KXIP bowl first), Iqbal Abdullah
Now, I already have Kedar Jadhav, Glenn Maxwell and Yuzvendra Chahal in my team for this game!
Again, a lot depends on ABDs inclusion, because if he plays it is imperative to get him in, no matter what the surface, who the opposition and where the venue.
Case 1: If ABD plays
You just need to get him in, if he is included in the squad. It is mandatory in the Fantasy world!
Players in the consideration set for this game are(other than the ones already in my team) Shane Watson, Sandeep Sharma , Chris Gayle, Hashim Amla, David Miller and Marcus Stoinis.
With Shane Watson opening the batting for RCB and getting to bowl his entire quota of 4 overs, you just can’t leave him out. He is bound to give you a healthy return of at least 70 points if he lives up to his name.
Hashim Amla could be an interesting prospect, especially with the meek bowling line up that RCB have at their disposal but at the moment Amla doesn’t score too quickly for me and even if he ends up getting a 30 or a 40, he won’t be providing me with more points than Watson(Watson bowls too), and hence he sits out.
David Miller comes too down the order and is often used as a floater, something that could be beneficial for the team, but not for Fantasy managers. There has to be some clarity with the players batting position for us to build a strategy around, and at this point I don’t think it’s worth taking the risk. Leave him out.
Marcus Stoinis too won’t feature in the top 5 batsmen, and against the likes of Gayle, ABD, Jadhav and Watson, I don’t see him picking more than one wicket, and thus he isn’t worth wasting that one foreign player slot on.
The Chris Gayle conundrum crops up again and this time majorly because of the success he has enjoyed against the Kings XI side. He has scored 797 runs against Kings XI Punjab, the most by any batsman against a single IPL opponent. But the Sandeep Sharma threat looms large. He has often tormented Gayle in the recent season’s and uses hi out swinger to great effect against him. I expect Sandy to clean him up today as well and hence leave out Chris Gayle.
Sandeep Sharma is the last player worth mentioning here. He has always silently pegged away at wickets without people taking too much note of him. He has an economy rate of 7.62 in his IPL career, something that is outstanding for a bowler who bowls two overs at the death. Last season he bowled at a phenomenal strike rate of 12.00.
But the main question is, do you pick him? Now, I would have to transfer out Kuldeep Yadav to get him in as anyway I wouldn’t be able to carry Kuldeep till KKRs next game, which is on Thursday. But get him in only if Punjab bowl first, as RCB could chase down KXIPs total well before the death overs and Sandeep wouldn’t get a chance to play his trade then. You could leave him out if you have fewer than 65 transfers.
For the uncapped player I’ll be getting in Iqbal Abdullah, as he is the only who takes care of my budget constraints.
Captain: ABD
Case 2: If ABD doesn’t play
Save the transfer, just get Sandeep and Watson in!(Sandeep, only if KXIP bowl first).
Captain: Shane Watson
Fandromeda
Now, I already have Shane Watson and Yuzi Chahal in my team for this game.
Case1: If ABD plays
Get him in, with all your might and then just sit back and relax.
I have Parthiv as my wicketkeeper here and I would without hesitation chuck him out for the in form Kedar Jadhav. Though Vishnu Vinod will be donning the gloves for RCB, Jadhav has done enough with the bat to warrant him a place in the side.
Sandeep will walk in as well because of the aforementioned reasons(but only if KXIP bowl first). Also, as you have more number of transfers here, you get a little more breathing space.
Glenn Maxwell needs to come in as well, as he could maybe go up the order to accomodate Eoin Morgan in the middle. And Maxi is a huge, huge threat up top.
Batting Star: ABD(if he plays), Glenn Maxwell
Bowling Star: Sandeep Sharma/Yuzi Chahal(whoever bowls first)
Happy team picking 🙂
