The Fourth Innings

Cricket | T20 | T20I | India | South Africa | South Africa Tour of India, 2022 | 2022 T20 World Cup Crowds' chants and cheering will be volume high as India prepare to take on the Proteas on 9th June in Delhi as part of the five-match T20I series. With BCCI allowing 100% attendance across all the five venues, things seem to be returning to normal. This series if necessary will throw some light on the youngsters as they desperately prepare for claiming a flight to Australia for the T20 World Cup later this year. Earlier, the selectors decided to rest some stalwarts including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah for this series. This meant that the reigns of captaincy be handed to the multi-dimensional KL Rahul. RCB's wicketkeeper batsmen Dinesh Karthik & GT's captain Hardik Pandya are returning to the Indian side.  What is DK's role? There have been a lot of speculations on DK's role. While I think, he certainly gets a spot in the setup, how is the team g...

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 | 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...

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...

Cricket | T20 | IPL | CSK | SRH | MI | DC | KKR | RCB  In this cricket article, I have analysed successful IPL franchises during the 2018-21 period, including but not limited to title winners. Potentially answering the question: How to win the toughest T20 league in the world? , this piece presents what sort of things have actually worked for the teams. Keeping relevance in mind, I have decided to limit my analysis to the latest four-year cycle of the cricket league. A Prolific Top Order CSK ( IPL 2018, IPL 2021 ) Both the times the Chennai Super Kings have won the IPL in the last four-year cycle, one constant has been the huge amount of runs scored by their top order. Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad and to an extent Suresh Raina have contributed heavily with the bat in CSK's title-winning runs. Though many were skeptical of Rayudu 's inclusion in the CSK squad, MS Dhoni was confident in his ability to hit both pace and spin as he had a wonderful I...