CSK's transformation, DC openers' smashing form, RCB's resurgence - IPL 2021 first half recap

When a team is down and out, it needs one person to lift them up, but in CSK's case, in coach Stephen Fleming's words, it was the attitude apart from the obvious change in personnel. Last year, CSK became the first team to be out from the playoffs race when they had lost 8 out of their 11 games and one of the main reasons for their dismal performance was the lack of acceleration in the middle overs. The philosophy of keeping wickets and going big at the end worked against them as when the time for the launch came, there wasn't much gas left in the tank.

However, this year the CSK side not just filled the tank with extra gas but every component of the tank was firing on all cylinders. Mr IPL Suresh Raina came back, they recruited Moeen Ali and if they play Dwayne Bravo, CSK were batting till No 10 and the depth in the line-up gave the freedom to the top-order and they became the beasts of the middle-overs.

The teams usually restrict the run-flow during the 7-15 overs but the men in yellow with the bat as swords were here for the kill in these overs, From struggling to chase scores of 160-170 last year, they were putting totals of 190-220 consistently and chasing scores of 170 in 17 overs, almost making a mockery of the targets.

This was the main reason in CSK successfully winning four out of five games in Mumbai, which was their home ground for the first part of the season and had five wins in their kitty out of seven games they played.

Shikhar Dhawan brought his form from the last season and Prithvi Shaw brought his purple patch from the Vijay Hazare Trophy where he was having centuries for breakfast, lunch and dinner scoring 827 runs and Delhi Capitals were in safe hands. The Capitals had a little pressure on them to maintain or even better the last year's form when they qualified for the first time in an IPL final for a Delhi franchise and the openers took care of it.

In the first game, the duo stitched an opening stand of 138 runs against CSK and the 189-run target looked very small after that. Next was a 59-run partnership in just 5.3 overs against Punjab Kings. Next an 81-run stand against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Next a 132-run partnership in 13.5 over against KKR when Prithvi Shaw hit six fours in an over. The next was a 63-run stand in 6.1 overs against Punjab Kings.

The duo set up five out of the eight games the Delhi side played this year. In the three games they got put cheaply, Delhi won only one of them, which shows how much impact these two had on the Capitals batting show as they were consistently chasing scores in the range of 170-190 in a jiffy.

Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore, who haven't had the lack of superstars in their ranks over the years have been faced with a couple of main problems every season - one dependable batsman after Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and a genuine death problem. One was purchased to solve one problem, the other was the surprise package.

RCB splurged 14.25 crores to acquire the swashbuckling all-rounder Glenn Maxwell's services for a specific role of providing the depth in the batting. Thus, Maxwell slotted in at number four and RCB had AB de Villiers batting in the death, most dependable.

This gave Maxwell freedom and time both. At number four Maxwell could afford to play a few balls and then with an assurance of de Villiers coming in after him, he could launch and play his natural game and he did both perfectly and RCB helped Maxwell come back into the IPL, smash sixes, score a fifty after a gap of five years.

As for the other, With Kyle Jamieson and Dan Christian playing, RCB had to rely on one of Mohammed Siraj or Navdeep Saini for the death over, however, Harshal Patel, whom they traded from the Delhi Capitals started in place of the latter and instantly paid dividends for the Virat Kohli's men.

Patel's strength the slower balls worked effectively on the Chennai surface and he troubled every team. Starting with the Mumbai Indians, he picked five wickets in the tournament opener, becoming the first bowler in the IPL to take a fifer against MI. And, he was the designated death bowler for RCB, providing crucial wickets and restricting oppositions.

Even though he started to go for runs when RCB came to high-scoring grounds like Mumbai and Ahmedabad, but he still was taking wickets and was head and shoulders above anyone else with 17 wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders were the pre-tournament favourites having lugged the holes with the required players in the line-up with the recruitment of players like Shakib al Hasan, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Ben Cutting. However, like last year, KKR's problems start with the top-order and run throughout their batting order and the lack of a genuine death bowler hurt them.

After winning the first game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, KKR started getting affected by slow starts from the openers, especially Shubman Gill, who apart from one innings of 43 runs didn't look his usual self. Nitish Rana, after a couple of fifties tapered off, Rahul Tripathi was giving them pretty 30-40s but wasn't going on for long, but one of the big reason for KKR's dismal show in the 7 games they played was the form of skipper Eoin Morgan and being the captain he couldn't be dropped and the random batting positions of him, Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell didn't help them as well.

If KKR couldn't drop their overseas skipper because of his form, Sunrisers Hyderabad did. After a poor auction and not filling up gaps by picking up solid Indian middle-order batsmen, the result of Sunrisers losing five of their first six games was David Warner, the only batsman to score 500-plus runs every season since 2014 he has played in, the captain who led the Sunrisers to their only title, being sacked from captaincy and dropped from the side.

Kane Williamson took over the sinking ship, but the SRHmanagement tried to plug the wrong hole. The holes were in the middle of the ship, but it was never addressed and one bad game and Warner was not there in the picture anymore.

The only way the Mumbai Indians juggernaut could be stopped was by the scheduling of the 2021 season of IPL where they were playing their first five games in Chennai and the next four in Delhi. Two surfaces, which are traditionally known to be slow and low. While the first lived up to the billing, the second surprised everyone but slow tracks in Chennai meant the big hitters, the flamboyant batting line-up of Mumbai Indians was going to struggle on those surfaces.

That's what took place, the famed batting line-up of the Mumbai side couldn't curb their natural instincts and weren't able to post totals or chase down totals. Their bowlers bailed them out for a couple of times but batters not standing up meant they lost three of their first five games but as soon as they reached Delhi and found that there was a road in the name of a pitch at the Arun Jaitely Stadium, the MI batsmen were licking their lips.

First, it was time for Quinton de Kock to finally arrive in IPL 2021 and he played a measure innings of 70 runs and then a Kieron Pollard in god-mode against his favourite opponents in CSK. Pollard's 34-ball 87*-run blitzkrieg helped MI chase down 219 runs and now they had won both their games in Delhi.

Nicholas Pooran was one of the stars for Punjab Kings last year, giving them late high finishes, bailing them out in time of need. However, it was a total opposite and one of the big reasons for Punjab's poor show.

Pooran just scored 28 runs in 6 innings at an average of 4.66 striking at 84, which is half of his last year's strike rate of 169. Pooran's dismal form was one of the main reasons for PBKS' downfall this season especially in the middle-order as apart from one innings by Deepak Hooda, none of the batters performed well for them as that resulted in them falling 15-20 runs short, which Pooran used to provide them and he was ultimately left out of the side and was replaced by Dawid Malan. Kings own 3 out of 8 games they played.

South African all-rounder Chris Morris became the most expensive buy in the player auction in the history of IPL when Rajasthan Royals broke the bank, acquiring him at INR 16.25 crores. Many were skeptical and were fearing if the big price tag could affect the player in his performance. But Morris had other ideas as he brought his A-game in his return to the Royals side, after six years.

Morris helped the Royals win one game with the bat when he smashed 36 runs off just 18 balls hitting four massive sixes to beat the Delhi Capitals, he performed with the ball consistently as along with Delhi's Avesh Khan, he was in second place with 14 wickets in the purple cap race.

With overseas players going one after the other or not arriving, Morris had to stand up and be counted and the tall Proteas did perform to his name and the price tag.