The Fourth Innings

Cricket | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | IPL 2022 Review | RR | GT | RCB | LSG | DC | PBKS | KKR | SRH | CSK | MI It's only been a few moments since Gujarat Titans won the coveted IPL trophy. The 15th edition of the T20 cricket league saw two new teams being added to the competition - Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Supergiants. In an interesting (but not shocking) turn of events, the two most successful franchises in IPL history, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, finished at the bottom of the points table. After nine weeks of enthralling cricket action, Gujarat Titans have emerged as winners. But this IPL season, like the ones before, has given us a lot of talking points, ranging from auction strategy to plan execution. Mumbai Indians (10th) Mumbai Indians basically had no one to support Jasprit Bumrah. Unlike previous seasons where the Mumbai team would be filled with T20 superstars, IPL 2022 saw them play Daniel Sams, Tymal Mills, Murugan Ashwin and Basil Thampi in their first XI. Thei...

Cricket | T20I | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | RCB | Virat Kohli Every cricket, IPL and RCB fan wants Virat Kohli to score runs. A trademark Kohli innings is a lesson in batting with all of defence, taking singles and hitting boundaries executed to perfection. It is paced brilliantly and there is minimal risk involved with orthodox cricketing shots. I have not come across a more complete batsman in all my cricket following. Oh, the elegance of that cover drive, him holding his pose as the ball races to the boundary, and then fist-punching his partner as the bowler stands in despair. I miss that. I miss the old Virat Kohli. I am not going to argue over whether it is his misfortune or just poor form. The truth is he is not scoring runs in this IPL season. Him taking out his frustration while looking up into the sky after his dismissal v PBKS summed up the emotions of most of us. It is just not happening for him and however much you want to hold on to him, he is giving lesser and lesser reasons ...

Cricket | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | Gujarat Titans At the end of IPL Auction 2022, I too like other cricket pundits started writing down the best XIs for every IPL team. When I came to the Gujarat Titans squad, I asked myself, "Is Gujarat Titans a good team?" That is when a few thoughts crept up in my mind. Who was going to bat at 3? Will Hardik Pandya be forced to bat out of position? Are Rahul Tewatia and David Miller good enough to take them over the finish line every time? They have got Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson and Rashid Khan, but what after them? Like many, I too discounted the team from 2022 IPL Playoffs contention and focused on stronger looking teams. But today, I stand corrected. Hemant Brar  summed up Gujarat Titans' campaign quite nicely for me:" If Tewatia won't, David Miller will. If Miller won't, Rashid Khan will. If Rashid won't, someone else surely will. " That's been the story for the Gujarat Titans this season. They have fo...

Cricket | T20I | 2022 T20 World Cup | India | T20 | IPL | IPL 2022 | RCB | Dinesh Karthik  Finishing cricket matches for RCB in IPL and keeping wickets. 285 runs at a strike rate of 192.56. No it's not AB de Villiers, it is our very own Dinesh Karthik. Don't believe me? Just Google "Dinesh Karthik stats in IPL 2022". In a cricket career that has seen many ups and downs, it is safe to say that Dinesh Karthik is at his peak right now. Remember the Rubel Hossain over in the Nidahas Trophy Final ? Now imagine that same hitting form over an IPL season. What do we get? Millions of people who follow cricket wondering, "Can Dinesh Karthik make a comeback?" Let us come back to that later. "My specialty is that I can bat at five, six, seven and help India in setting up the best score possible or in winning games......." ~Dinesh Karthik, via ESPNcricinfo Hitting 43 boundaries this IPL having faced just 148 balls is phenomenal. What makes this extra special is...

For the second consecutive time this IPL season, KKR have managed to defend a score quite comfortably ( v SRH and v MI ). They say defending a total is the most difficult aspect of T20 cricket which is why most captains have opted to bowl first in previous editions of the IPL. Yesterday KKR captain Shreyas Iyer opted to bat first and that I think set the tone for rest of the match. KKR looked very strong after the completion of the IPL Auction 2022. They turned that into performances winning three of their first four matches before suffering a five-match losing streak, before winning v RR . Cricket, or rather sport in general, is all about momentum and Kolkata had clearly lost it midway through the tournament. Their top order was failing, Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana were inconsistent and most of their bowlers leaked runs. While people like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav had been excellent, other international cricketers like Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch produced ordinary ...

A chase of  210  is always challenging in T20 cricket. But when you have a lineup as strong as RCB does in IPL 2022, you are expected to do better than lose by 54 runs. Credit to the Punjab bowlers for sticking to their plans and backing an excellent performance by their batters. But RCB...oh...RCB, is this another one of those years? They say nothing hurts more badly than a false hope. I feel for RCB fans right now. Year after year, the promise of a new dawn, but the same old issues haunting them. Sometimes I wonder if we could associate the word "chokers" with this IPL franchise. Seven Playoffs and three  IPL finals, yet no trophy to show. Let's not dive too much into the past and focus on this year. The only issue that came up after this year's mega auction was that RCB would have to play atleast two inexperienced batters in their top seven. After giving ample opportunities to Anuj Rawat, they have now settled on Rajat Patidar and Mahipal Lomror, with Shahbaz Ahmed...