IPL 2018: The wheel has come full circle for Chennai

The total of 179 was difficult to chase down in a final as only twice bigger totals have been surpassed in the last 11 years, both of them by Kolkata Knight Riders. MS Dhoni’s leadership was seen in a different level during this IPL. 

The former Indian captain showed why he is called Captain Cool to mastermind some incredible come-from-behind wins for Chennai Super Kings. He said in a pre-match interaction before the final that he believed one player should take the lead role so that others could bat around him in each of the matches. 

On Sunday in the final, it was Shane Watson, whose brute power was too much for the Sunrisers bowlers. 

Watson had meted out the same treatment to the Rajasthan bowlers on his way to his first century this season. 

Though CSK had a bunch of match-winners in Dhoni’s side, it was one player who rose to the occasion in each of its wins, whether it was Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis or Dhoni himself. But his master stroke was during CSK’s win against Kings XI Punjab during the league phase. 

In a modest chase, the Chennai team lost three early wickets when Dhoni promoted both Harbhajan Singh and Deepak Chahar ahead of himself. While Bhajji did not do anything exceptional, Chahal surprised himself and the captain by taking the pressure off to bring down the run-rate with a scintillating 39 off 20 balls. 

Pinch-hitting in limited-over cricket is a forgotten practice in recent times, but the CSK captain proved it could still work in crunch situations. 

Rashid Khan’s emergence as the most effective spinner in T20 is in a way a warning to the Indian team going into the one-off Test match against Afghanistan next month in Bengaluru. With Mujeeb Zadran, he could torment the Indians if the pitch assists the spinners there, especially in the absence of Virat Kohli.