Who Is the IPL Team To Fear?

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Hello everyone, welcome to the cricket podcast.

We are here to talk about the beginning of the IPL.

We've got five matches featuring all ten teams from the 2026 tournament.

And we'll be giving you our thoughts on the first impressions that they gave to us.

I am Jack Hope, and I'm joined by Max Ray Brown to do that.

Max, IPL underway.

Give us a little summary to kick things off of your thoughts on the opening round of fixtures.

It's been a game of two halves, so to speak, isn't it?

We had kicking us off with two games of 200 apiece.

With flat tracks and balls slowing everywhere, followed by largely the opposite with the bat,

some pretty shocking displays on offer from the likes of CSK and Lucknell Super Giants,

with the stick in hand, and we've got a lot to chew through.

Added to all of that, of course.

It's the IPL, isn't it?

So there's a few new things in town.

Obviously we've got all the old shenanigans of tier strategic timeouts,

which I forgot about and would rather not have stupid dogs, robot dogs there annoying.

And now we have Kingfisher Birdview, the best seat in the house, allegedly.

Which I think also is a completely unnecessary addition, but it's the IPL and it's gimmicks and it's what we get.

Yeah, there's been a few unnecessary additions.

I've got some thoughts on some of those.

One of the things that struck me a little bit was that I don't think the broadcasting style has changed in the seven years we've been talking about the IPL.

No.

I thought the commentators haven't really changed the way they thought it was.

They're the same.

They haven't really changed.

The music, I don't think it has changed.

The car changes every year.

The car has changed.

The car has definitely changed.

Then maybe they have Michael Slater and they had to fire him for reasons.

Yeah.

That was for real.

What I actually thought after five matches, it's the broadcast wise.

It's starting to feel a little bit dated.

We'll see what happens as that develops through the tournament, see whether they come up with any ideas that I don't know.

It's not that it's not that it's bad.

I get it.

The cricket tells the story.

The cricket is a great game.

It's a fascinating match.

The cricket is like you can have same two teams play each other five times in a row.

The game is good enough that it will hold up and it will be entertaining.

I do think perhaps in a league format, franchise format, there's maybe more that could be done to make them.

Not from a gimmick point of view.

We don't need any more gimmicks.

Maybe a little bit more insight.

Maybe a couple more camera angles.

I don't know what it is.

I'm not a sports production.

When you compare it to, if you compared 2019 NFL or Major League Baseball or Football,

which are the other three sports I've watched really, to now, I think you would notice some quite distinctly different ways of doing things.

In the other people, they still don't even really have a studio presentation.

Anyway, yeah, that's what I thought.

What are you going to say?

Well, I was going to say that I think that's a very valid accusation to level.

But there's a part of me that thinks there's an argument for stability sometimes.

If you've got something that works, don't go around TNT sports and add in graphics of whether you're 100% of your weight is on your front foot

but you haven't happened to fall over.

Some of the high jinks that we get with some other broadcasting inventions of recent years.

The Six Nations comes to mind.

The Rugby, probably not a big one for this audience.

But on ITV, they added in the middle of the first and second half this year, the Six Nations.

They just stuck up an advert on the side of the screen while scrums were going on.

But they do that already, don't they?

I'm touching it.

You know what I mean?

You don't have to reinvent everything all the time if it works.

I guess we'll talk about some cricket.

We're going to go through all five games.

Actually, don't reverse order.

I guess we'll talk about the game that just happened and then go back through to Friday night.

Saturday night. Saturday night.

Saturday night.

Days were all that whack.

The Easter round here.

So it's a short working week and we were off on Monday.

So it's a really weird week.

Yeah, I'm very confused on where I am.

Before we do that, remember to click like and subscribe.

Max, you can do the summary of today's and I'll alternate from there.

What happened?

Yes, last two teams for us to view in the IPL this year.

It was Lucknell SuperChance against the Delhi capitals.

And the question for Lucknell really we spoke about in the preview.

Can their four batters do the job?

Mitchell Marsh scored a few runs.

Risha Pant did not score any runs.

Aida Markram did not score any runs.

Ij Patoni was in there in the middle before Nicholas Purand for no obvious reason and scored zero runs.

Nicholas Purand didn't score any runs and that meant the Lucknell SuperChance didn't really score many runs.

A shout out of course.

Adelson had for 36 of 25 to give a semblance of well credit, I suppose, to what they had.

But amongst all of that with Lucknell not scoring many runs that meant that they used their impact sub on bringing Shabaz Ahmed in to ballast out the batting a bit.

And he scored 15 or 16 slowly, but I suppose kept things going long enough for them to get a few more runs.

But whether that was worth it is a question that we all have to answer shortly because Delhi capitals came out.

And actually it looked like maybe 141 wasn't such a bad score after all when KL Rahul was out first ball to Muhammad Shammi.

The Sanku was out for one.

And this is Shrana didn't trouble the scorers too much.

Three wickets down, Delhi looking in trouble.

Actually, I'll tell also falling first ball.

But hey, Samir Rizvi, he's the man.

He was at CSK for a bit, didn't do very much, but he's over to Delhi and he played a very mature innings.

70 or 47.

He and Trish and Stubbs calm things down, got Delhi towards the end, got them into a position of complete superiority, and then added a nice flourish at the end to make it look a bit better on the scorecard than it perhaps was in reality, finishing things up.

Six wickets left in hand and three overs to spare.

And a decent win for Delhi at the end of it.

Yeah, pretty good.

Delhi, I think.

Uh, old very well.

Like, we did the previous, we'll do some sort of team ratings.

We'll give them ABC or F or something.

Yeah.

At the end of each match review.

I thought the on paper, Delhi, a better than Lucknow.

And in many ways, the on paper version of what you thought might happen was kind of what happened.

If Delhi could bottle up those batters, as you said, it was going to be pretty tricky for Lucknow to score any runs.

And because Delhi have got like a real batting line up, even though they lost some early wickets, it never felt too difficult.

It may be for 26 for right at the end of the row feeling a bit.

Yeah.

I would say, yeah, maybe what I would have been like the fourth over through to the seventh over at the end of the seventh over.

I think Delhi were kind of back in control.

Yeah.

Yeah.

With a minor blip though, they were the better team and came through.

I mean, it highlighted it wasn't an awful game of cricket.

I'm not.

Yeah.

In the middle of the season, this is the kind of game.

Sometimes when you're doing a podcast, you know, to peer behind the curtain, you actually want, because it means you get to start the podcast.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't have to talk about it very much.

And you can, you can go to the pub or whatever, especially as the weather gets a little bit better here.

Like it's cold and grey today.

So what I wanted was an absolute barn burner.

And it didn't deliver that, but like I don't, I don't think it was a poor game.

It was a little, you might say, devoid of talking points.

I suppose you had Risha Pant and Kale Rahul playing against their old franchises playing as the old franchise that captain, I think.

So there's.

There's a little bit of intrigue.

And we saw some nice bowling from Lungi and Gidey.

That's Rajan as well.

329 for him.

Not too bad.

And it was nice.

You know, the other pilot I would have.

It was nice for like an overall to to see and Red Norkia.

He didn't bowl that well, but he bowled gas.

And it's been a while, I think.

Since I've seen him walking around in a way that sort of looked kind of unimpeded and fun.

So maybe it looked a little different.

Didn't it?

Norkia, his action just looked quite smooth and gentle, almost jaffer archer-esque in a way.

Maybe.

So I wonder if he's done a lot of it work on that to avoid entries, but I agree.

Yeah.

Nice to see him back.

For me, though, I mean, they talked about it a lot on the comms.

And it is something that winds me up a lot about teams.

And when they.

Select their 11s was the luck now basically ended up in a situation where they had four bowlers.

And then we're banking on using shoes on the rest.

And he bowed basically lobbed down an over of absolute pie.

And then was unusable for the rest of the earnings.

And that that was it at that point.

And you're like, well, it doesn't matter.

And that you can basically pant gambled on ending it with his best bowlers trying to take a wicket.

Daily capitals, Rizvi and Stubbs were very alive to that fact played them out.

And then yeah, it was it was gone by that point.

Yeah, I don't think tactically, to be honest, defending 140, Richard pant got it wrong.

And there are captains that might have played it by the numbers and brought the spinner on.

And, you know, ended up in the same situation.

But there'd be no talking point though.

I think he he did the right thing to bowl out my hammock chamois.

I think 10th over or something like that.

It was good.

Yeah, to roll the dice there.

Ninth in front.

Yeah, like that's the the limit.

I think there's, you know, probably the limiting factor for this luck now team is that they're betting.

Well, there's a few limiting factors.

We I think we I think I called them the worst team in the.

If we're going to do team ratings, I don't mind starting with like now.

I would say an if they're crap.

Yeah, like they're about as bad as I thought they're quite confused.

Um, trying to.

Yeah.

Jam quite average players really into roles that they they shouldn't be doing.

Shabaz, you've talked about from the bowling from Irish, but only at number four.

That's that's pretty pretty weak weak source.

That's Quentin.

They absolutely bodied Shabaz Ahmed on comes when he came in.

I think without meaning to.

But the line they said, well, the numbers say it all about show as Ahmed.

And the numbers read like 56 matches, 22 wickets economy rate of like 9.75.

It's like, yeah, this guy is not very good.

Well, he isn't.

It's a I like a you can you it's a bit misfying what they were trying to do there.

Well, they have walk on what were they hoping for?

They'd get 200 and.

Like be able to burgle some overs at some point that could go for 12 and over and it wouldn't matter because someone might bow better than him.

Yeah, like I don't know.

I mean, for my like that point of view, we're going to say something nice.

I've given them an F. What would you give them?

Also F. Yeah.

Yeah.

What are there any nice things that we can say about the super giants?

Like is there any any reason?

I can actually quite like the kit.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm not sure I'm a fan.

Still.

Yeah.

Nice.

Chan back actually.

It's been.

Yes.

And he looked good.

He reminds me of, you know, for English people out there, really reminds me of like Reese Topley the way he goes about his kind of a little.

What sort of hit the devil of juice.

And yeah, he was good.

I think that he wise.

Let's hope there.

Go on, go on.

Finish off.

Let's hope.

From a bowling perspective for like now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah.

It's I think there's there's something there to work with with the ball is just the fact that they, you know, they basically don't have an all rounder.

So even in the world of impact subs.

Yeah.

You're rocking up with basically you'll have to pick five ballers six batters and then have one as an impact sub with the bat.

And you can't start your line up with just four people who are going to bowl and then hope you can bring one in.

I think you've just got to put the five out and hope you get away with it.

Yeah.

After Delhi, I would give them a B.

I thought they were pretty decent.

They didn't wow me really.

They're bold very well.

They did bowl very well.

Immediately being 26 or four is a bit of a bit of a concern.

But in fairness, in fairness to Brisbane Stubbs, parts of 119 played in a very professional style as well.

Playing the situation, basically, is great.

You also have to say, you know, they had two Godenducks, Kale Rahul and Axial Patel.

Both of them have God knows how many caps are in India.

They're very good players.

Like it's a bit of a freakish occurrence.

It's not like, yeah, it's not a mistake to open the battle with Kale Rahul.

And it's not a mistake to have Axial Patel batting at five.

They just didn't fire today.

You want those...

You want them to have against LSG.

Yeah, exactly.

And you're happy to get out of a game where they both get Godenducks with two points.

On a scale of A to F.

I'd be as well.

Yeah, I agree.

I think one of the big plus obviously, Samir is B.

Not just the runs today, but if he can nail down that spot in the middle order for Delhi and B.

You know, somewhat competent.

That goes a long way to addressing one of the main concerns we had about Delhi and their batting line up.

So that would be a real boost for them.

Cool.

We'll move on to yesterday then.

That was a match between the Punjab Kings and the Gujarat Titans in Malampur.

It was a pretty decent match.

Like I don't know if people want us to review each match.

Like, did we like it or not?

It seemed to be in that vibe at the moment.

This was of the five matches.

Maybe the match to go back on Skybloss and punch again.

Gujarat Titans batted first.

It looked like we were going to get sort of a run back of last year at some points.

They started reasonably well.

Then they slowed down a bit, then bought the came in and they kind of did that.

Fairly extended consolidation phase that Gujarat did a lot last year.

Trying to get themselves up to maybe a mid-weight score that they backed their ballers to defend.

Maybe in the 180 range.

Unfortunately for them, nobody really launched.

Chippengill, 39 of 27, probably the highlight from their innings.

And that's not blowing anyone away with a strike rate of 144.

But it was better than in the World Cup, 38 of 33.

But still I think you'd say a pretty poor performance.

And then the kind of supporting cast, Phillips and Sharrick Khan, the Wattier.

We've got one ball of Rashid Khan.

None of them did anything that like, really requires.

A callus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bowling wise for the Punjab Kings, Marco Jansen looked pretty decent.

Twenty for one off his four overs.

And he used a Char Hall course of problems in the middle that's what I really tied up.

Butler I think.

And he struggled quite a lot to be honest, Butler.

That meant that Gujarat got to 162.

Well, I'm talking that wasn't particularly imposing.

Surprisingly, I think.

I'm not sure I even really expected him to play.

Surprisingly, Cooper Connelly was the main man for the Punjab King.

72 or 44 for him, not out in his IPL debut.

56 is five fours.

He looked really, really good.

Really strong.

Yes, he was, he was genuinely excellent.

Perhaps immersing and him put on a pretty.

Got what a substantial partnership of about 75.

And that left the Punjab Kings in a pretty strong position.

Perhaps the Christian, he was quite interesting how they, they used him.

The Gujarat Tigers that they basically, well, I mean, they basically didn't until.

Right at the end, almost to the point where they wouldn't have been able to fit his four overs in.

And he, he did rattle.

I think it's fair to say he did rattle the, the Punjab Kings cage.

But it was a little bit too little too late.

They couldn't get Connelly out.

And in the end, lusty blow from heavier Xavier Bartlett.

Have you a Bartlett?

Well, I don't actually sure how you say his first name.

I'm not sure.

Xavier.

Xavier Bartlett.

A six from Bartlett and then they chopped knocked off the rest of the runs.

Very comfortable.

It looked a little bit wobbly at a certain point.

But I think the Punjab King for mostly in control of this match.

Probably from the point where you should, when Gil got out in the, in the first innings.

Max.

Or should be talking point from the Punjab Kings.

Gujarat Tigers.

Probably too.

The probably the match between.

The two close to the match sides, maybe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Two good teams, I think.

We saw faces.

Yeah.

Two teams.

Two teams that basically know how they want to go playing their cricket.

Yeah.

Well, obviously, number one's got to be Cuba Connelly.

Like you say, it wasn't even super sure whether he would play amongst the list of Australians

that ponting has in his disposal.

But yeah, like I said, he looked really, really good at five sixes in that 62.

But some of the shots he was, he played were like, you know, they were proper impressive.

You know, they were the kind of shot that.

English people see Jacob Bethel do and think, my God, this guy's mustard.

I can see what all the fuss is about.

Cuba Connelly was doing all that.

And you know what?

To a degree, he is like Australia's Jacob Bethel, isn't he?

He sees a young blonde cricketer who they very much like.

So, yeah, really encouraging signs for Punjab Kings to see that.

Guru Triton's lack of death hitting, I think, a big issue as well,

something we highlighted when we previewed them.

And that was kind of plain to see on show.

Because against a Punjab bowling lineup that perhaps, you know,

doesn't have a recognized definite death baller.

But it worked.

It worked for them for sure.

So, yeah, it's some interesting, interesting stuff there.

The Prasad Krishna thing, I wanted to touch on as well, that you highlighted.

I actually, I kind of like it, you know, I mean, it was impactful when he came into the game.

But you look at the people that, the Kudra have at their disposal.

I think what they've done makes quite a lot of sense.

Suraj and Robada are up top.

Suraj, do you want him at the death?

I'd say maybe not.

Robada does take wickets, but he's very expensive at the death.

So sort of using him up top is not a bad shout.

He did come back towards the end and was was fairly expensive.

And then Ashok Sharma seems to be the guy like the sort of a death specialist option.

He was like trying to play the wide yorker role and Prasad Krishna was sort of like your enforcer in the middle in a way.

Almost like your test match middle over the whole ball and forcer bang it in and cause problems.

And he did.

And it was good.

You know, I quite liked the, I quite like the makeup of what Kudra tried to do with the ball and it almost paid off.

Yeah, it's a good job of wing games.

And there are teams in this league that would have lost chasing 162, I think.

Possibly both of the teams that we saw today would have struggled against this game.

So I've got like no major concerns for them.

I probably like I was quite hot on them before the tournament.

But the still worries me a little bit.

They need him to play better.

They do need him to play better.

If they're going to have a good season.

So I don't, I really don't think the team works without at least one of the top three getting to 50 runs.

And probably doing it reasonably quickly as well.

But they didn't, you know, between Philips and our car and to Wattier and the four of them.

So you'd expected maybe one of them to go off a little bit more.

Philips wasn't bad 25 off 17.

It's not, it's not an awful show.

But it's not really match changing.

But I don't, I don't think like the positions that they sort of came in in.

Really what good rat Titans are drawn up.

So I, it's a low B.

Maybe a B minus for good rat Titans after that performance.

Punjab Kings, I think.

Probably a high B.

I don't know.

What would you give them?

I'll go B plus, I'd say.

They did nearly, they did nearly ball it.

And I think to be fair to them, I think a turning point.

Where it started to go wrong was after Cuba Connolly,

absolutely blasted the ball bucket.

Shreys are smashed him in a hand, smashed him in the hand, you know,

cause him a bit of grief.

And then he was out quite soon after flicking one straight to Washington,

Sundar.

So you know, maybe whether the pain and obviously just the break in the play

might have had an effect on there.

And yeah, the back is potentially part of it.

But also, Wadera, Shashank, Stoinus, Janssen,

Stoinus isn't getting any younger.

Wadera doesn't massively excite me, Shashank Singh was good last year,

but we didn't expect it cause it was the, they did buy the wrong one by accident.

Or was that S.R.H. that bought the wrong one?

I can't remember.

Yeah, I mean, it's a bit of a, it's a bit of a sign that,

that maybe there's some weaknesses there, but you know, just one, just one game.

And they did come out of it and Kube Connelly always had it under control.

Yeah, and they, they beat a, they beat a good side.

They beat a good side.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Max, we're going to take a break.

Then we will come back.

We still have three matches to talk about and we'll be going through.

Welcome back everyone to the cricket podcast.

We're here talking about the IPL, about to move on to Chennai.

Super Kings V. Rajasthan Royals.

This was a one-sided affair if that was one.

Before we get to that, just remember to click like and subscribe.

Make sure you're sharing the podcast with all your friends and family

as we make our way through the 2026 IPL.

Max, your team Chennai V. Rossi's team, Rajasthan Royals.

The TCP Derby didn't go the way you wanted.

It did not.

No, certainly the exact opposite of what you might expect from

if our respective football teams faced off against each other.

Chennai, batting first, were terrible.

They were absolutely terrible.

You do obviously have to give credit to Rajasthan.

They do have, it seems some fairly tasty options with the bull.

Nandri Berger and Joffa Archer take it, shareings and wickets up top.

Sanju Garn, Geikwad Garn.

Ayesh Matra, first ball.

An exciting prospect from last season.

India under 19s, World Cup winner.

Not doing the business in this time.

They had to row in, suffer as Khan as an emergency ration to length

from the batting order.

He stayed around for a little bit.

He went, it all fell apart.

Basically the top order melted.

Ravi Jadaja, the Revenjark, back in town and causing problems as well.

And yeah, only Janie Robertson's 43 was enough to get CSK over 100.

And it was never really going to be troubling for Rajasthan to chase down.

And it was even less troubling when, of Siravanchi,

scored the second fastest 50 in IPL history.

What?

This kid, man.

This kid.

It's a joke.

Yeah.

52 or 17 balls he finished with.

Strike question.

Four, five, six.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, we kind of asked the question.

We said, we pose the challenge.

We'll pose the question.

Like, well, what would teams do?

Second go around.

I mean, obviously he came out and nowhere last year.

And people didn't really know who he was or where to bowl to him.

Obviously, it's extremely talented.

But normally in cricket, it's a little bit of an arms race, isn't it?

If you show that you're really good at some stuff,

our bowlers will stop doing stuff that means really good.

Either Janie Super King's got it really, really wrong.

Or they need to go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan.

And maybe the league is as a whole needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan.

Because that once again was pretty scary from the literal child.

Great day out for Rajasthan Royals all round, I would say.

Like, couldn't have gone much for the team.

Yeah, if there's a team that like, you know, threw down a rebuttal to anyone who was criticizing their squad make up

or where they might have weaknesses or whatever it is.

It is Rajasthan.

It's difficult. I would say that's the really poke holes in the performance.

Like, you know, what did they do wrong?

They didn't get Jamie over to now so quickly that they had to chase less than a hundred.

I think that's about it.

The terminator is gay. The bowlers look really sharp.

And when it came to like, given themselves a net run rate boost,

they executed that to perfection and the net run rate.

I think it's above four after one game.

Yeah, which is, you know, it is.

Well, it was fantastic stuff for the boys in pink.

What do you, what have you got for me?

I would also say by the same token, you can't read too much into it.

From the Rajasthan Royals perspective, like Bishnoi and Jadaja,

they came together in the middle overs, tied things up.

But by that point, Chennai were in a rather a lot of trouble.

So that has to be tempered slightly, but it's a very, very good sign for them,

given what they're trying to fix from previous seasons.

And yeah, Joffa Ratcha looking sharp is super useful for them, given that we, you know,

we weren't 100% sure what kind of Joffa Ratcha would turn up.

Was it last season that his first outing went, ended up hitting his most

expensive figures in T20s, so he's come back firing off the back of the World Cup.

Great to see 2019, very, very good indeed.

And then equally for CSK, like you have bad days at the office,

and this was a really bad day at the office.

I don't necessarily love what they did with the team.

Matthew Shaw in there at four.

I don't love it.

I'm surprised they didn't go with Prussia and Veer in terms of team makeup,

because I think it makes it a bit easier.

And when you know, when Jamie Overton is like one of your star players,

I think you're in a spotter bother.

So yeah, CSK, bad day.

Let's not say that it's going to be a complete disaster off the back of it,

even though hey, it doesn't look great.

Matt Henry will have better days with the ball.

The top three will have better days with the bat.

It won't always be this bad.

But yeah, I'm not sure CSK know what they want to do with their team,

with their lineup, with their makeup.

And that is what worries me a little bit.

What's the plan?

Yeah, I do agree with that.

Definitely agree with that.

But I got quite a really bad blow to his arm.

Well, I think I've dropped for archer.

So hopefully he's all right moving through the season.

It was going to rate them.

It's very difficult to give.

You might even say, that's OK.

So the frame is slightly, I think CSK and an F.

I didn't think I thought they would be mid-table.

This is the performance of a team that are worse than a mid-table team.

Like anything went right for them.

As you say, they might be better on a different day.

Things swing wildly in the IPL.

But it's difficult to say they were any better than absolutely terrible here.

Now, I was tempted to go for an A.

But I also don't think they're amazing.

So I'm only going to give them a B.

So are we rating on how good we think the team is?

Not there before?

Yeah, it's more like a power ranking.

I'm thinking more from a power ranking point of view.

Right.

Sure.

I would have been giving them a C before the tournament.

Like I said earlier, they threw out a little bit over a bottle

to maybe some of the points you could make.

It's really good, for example.

We were a little bit like, where is he?

Where is he at?

If he's at that, then there's going to be trouble for teams later in the tournament.

But I'm not fully buying into it yet.

I'm not fully invested in register roles.

So I'd probably give them a B.

Better than I thought.

They would be trending.

Trending updates.

Yeah, you?

Yeah, I'm a little hotter on it.

I'd go B.

B+.

I think one of the things about Registar was there.

The key thing about them is the power they have in the power play

and the damage they can do to you.

With Sue and Angie.

Full season.

Can he replicate what Sanju Samson used to do for them alongside Giswell?

Well, good start.

Very good start.

Yeah.

If we go back to Sunday then, this was Colcott Nightriders for Mumbai Indians.

I think he came out firing Captain Rahane, 67 or 40.

That's a great start to his season.

Finn Allen, 37 or 17 cause all sorts of carnage.

Cam Green carried things on 18 or 10.

That's not too bad.

Raghavanshi.

I think a big fan.

I don't know if I would tip him to be a merging pair of the year or whatever it is.

I'm not sure maybe he's emerged at this point, but 51 or 29 for him.

And then Rinku finishing things off.

Maybe not in style.

But finishing things off.

31.

Yeah, it gets him up to 220.

Very few teams chase 220.

That is objectively a really good score they have.

They have played well.

Unfortunately, this was one of the occasions when the other team were able to pull something out of the bag.

And frankly, they ended it pretty quickly.

Yeah.

First wicket fell just at the end of the 12 over 148 for one.

What did that leave 70 to get off the last eight overs?

Yeah.

With nine wickets in hand, including like as much firepower as.

Well, heavily armed state in a certain region of the world.

Let's move on.

Yeah, exactly.

They can to time to be honest and by Indians.

Ryan Rickleton.

I'm sure I'm obviously will take the board. It's 81 or 43 and 78 off 38.

But like you feel like had they've been set 240.

That they might have just got a little bit harder and chase that.

In terms of punishment, there weren't really any bottles on either side that stood out.

Every ball every KKR ball.

What are you talking about?

What are you talking about, Jack?

The Lord shall take care.

We jokes about it before three wickets always saying that's.

Yeah, okay.

Well, apart from Lord Shaddle took care.

No ball has stood out.

He did take three wickets.

I suppose you can't take that away from him.

Max, should we start with KKR?

I think 220 is a good score and I'd stand.

Other people would be like, no, they needed to push on.

Why couldn't they defend it though?

What happened with this team?

Well, sometimes you run into players in top form.

Rohe Sharma turns out, still got it.

That's one element.

I mean, it is the 1KD, right?

And runs at the 1KD are a thing.

They do go hand in hand.

So 220 other 1KD is maybe more like 200 and some other grounds.

It's still difficult to chase, but a bit more chaseball.

And then you just have to look at the bowling offering.

And you're relying as KKR on Narayan and Chakravati there.

That's your main weapon.

And if they don't do their job, then it is going to be a challenge.

You know, you've got Maserabani in his first, you know,

real IPL vibe of Aurora was pretty good last year,

but he's not like top tier and Karthik Shaggy.

Like, again, you know, he's just mid, middle of the pack,

kind of bowling.

And if that, if that level of bowling is coming up against people

on the Mumbai engine side who are as good as they are,

when you consider Jaspreet Bumra went wickedless,

Trent Bolt didn't really do anything.

Hardik Pange was expensive.

They're up against it.

So I think it's just one of those times where like KKR

probably played pretty well and they run into a runaway train.

And it happens.

Yeah, I suppose for KKR as well,

if you were going to provide a little bit of mitigation,

maybe not the bowling effect that they thought they'd be running out.

Yes, they've been quite unlucky.

Harset Runner is just subjectively a bit of boulder

than the two that open the bowling for them.

And you swap him for one of them.

Maybe you've got a better chance for a breakthrough.

It does happen in T20 cricket, though.

It does happen against the Mumbai Indians.

It does happen on good pitches that players get away from you.

You have to hold your hands up.

They've been around on a wicked light.

Sometimes it takes people like Chakrabot in the right-out of the game.

It does.

And it's actually main weapons.

It's a bit of energy.

I do worry about Varan's form, though,

because I mean he was getting a bit of tap in the World Cup as well.

So he's coming off the back of that into a start in the IPL

with a little bit of danger as well.

So yeah, I think we'll have to keep an eye on him and how he goes.

I'm not sure he's using it.

He's good enough to bring it back, but maybe there's something there.

Is it particularly South Africans that he's drawn off to Bowl II?

Because they've really punished him.

Yeah, they did.

They did.

They did.

Maybe, yeah, maybe he's like the Indian version of Tobray Shamsi.

Yeah.

He was offered by India all the time.

Maybe that, yeah.

Yeah, that's a possibility.

If we're going to rate the teams, KKI, I think,

we weren't majorly hot in them.

I probably say a C grade for them.

Like the batting was good enough to win this game fairly often.

220.

I know it's been chased fairly easily.

And people will be like, no, they need way more runs.

But like 148 run opening stands in 12 overs,

even on good pitches are quite rare.

Like we do need to remember that.

So they did a right on that from,

but I can see them shipping a lot of runs this season.

They're definitely going to have to be like sort of 10 over the average

when they post scores, I think,

to be competitive,

because they're going to chuck away a bunch of runs

in quite weird ways.

I expect this year.

I probably give them a little bit more.

Maybe B minus territory,

because I think one of the concerns we have.

I quite liked the KKI bat anger.

It was rightly pointed out that, well, okay.

Well, we all weren't sure about Cameron Green,

but Fin Allen can blow hot and cold.

Rahane, is he really going to be much use?

But actually, I thought it all worked quite well.

They got off to a quick start.

They carried on.

And Rinku was there to finish things off.

Raghavanshi was, you know, we know he's promising,

but he played well as well.

So I think on that point,

if you're always quite happy,

I'd say KKI performed,

probably slightly above general expectations,

but obviously that is tempered by the concerns on the bowling.

But yeah, from compared to like some of the other teams that we've seen,

I think, yeah, pretty decent.

Overall.

And I'd probably have Mumbai down as an A.

I think they played pretty well.

I mean, they won the first game of the season.

When was the last day?

It's been like five, six years since they've done that.

Yeah.

They would have liked to evolve better,

but I think it's probably fair to say that they will.

Yeah.

That's both one concern again is going to be the spin angle, isn't it?

Mark Ande won over for 16,

Gazanfah, four overs for 51.

He's young.

He's exciting.

So hopefully he...

Is he?

Probably it's a bit more than that,

but it's...

No, I don't like that.

It's going to be...

Yeah.

If that is the level they're working with,

in terms of spin in the middle overs,

then there are some grounds in the IPL

that they're going to struggle with quite a lot,

and that could cause them concerns.

But...

Why do you think it's probably a step forward?

For Gazanfah.

Yeah.

At this point...

I mean, he's young.

It's entirely possible.

But only one way to find out though, isn't there?

I think he potentially benefits from being...

in the afghan spin cartel there, I think,

that might be the reputation of other players.

I've got...

Yeah.

Okay.

But we'll see.

I'm...

I'm happy to be...

happy to be proven wrong through the year.

Max, we're going to take a break,

and then we've got one more match to talk about.

Welcome back, everyone, to the cricket podcast.

We are casting our minds back to the first game of the IPL.

This was Saturday afternoon,

Sunrise was hired by the VRCB.

Max, take us away.

Last game of the episode.

Quite a lot of runs.

What happened?

Yeah.

It was another run fest in the Chinaswamy,

as we are so used to.

Sunrise has got us started,

and to be fair,

it didn't look like it was going to be a run fest to begin with,

because Jacob Duffy ran through the top order of Sunrise.

Travis Head was out for 11, Abishik Sharma,

out for seven,

and NKR one off six.

Jacob Duffy finished with three for 22.

To rip the heart,

the beating heart,

out of this on paper,

here's some looking Sunrise's lineup.

But in amongst that,

Ishan Kishan continued his good form

with about 80 off 38,

helped out with a decent 30 from Hyramic class,

and a very impressive 43 at the back end

from Aniket Verma,

propelled Sunrise's to 201 for 9 off 20 overs.

But we must remember that A,

this is the Chinaswamy,

with its postage stamp boundaries.

And B,

this is the Sunrise,

Sunrise's Hyderabad bowling lineup.

Nitish Kumar Reddy,

Jadev Unadkat,

David Payne,

Harsh Dubay,

Esan Malinga,

Hartel Patel.

They did not defend 200 Jack.

They did not come close to defending 200.

They might have struggled to defend 275

if RCB had to get there.

And it was very coley in Devdet Patakal,

who came together to do the damage

or then,

they're very, very impressively.

Devdet, in particular,

61 off 26.

We've had a few years of DDP,

not really making good on some of the early promise.

And maybe,

maybe this is the year where he bounces back,

because that was a good,

impressive effort from him.

And, yeah,

Varet Coley's still got the goods too.

A good weekend for the old guard

of Indian cricket,

a Rohit and Virat.

Mmm.

Even Amishamibol, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Get the band back together,

go all more time.

Did Asia as well?

Did Asia build well?

Yeah.

A lot of these games are kind of gone to script,

I would say.

Like,

this scoreline,

if someone has said,

like, predicts Sunrise was hired

about at RCB,

Sunrise is back first.

This is the ballpark

of what I've said.

Mmm.

I think RCB's batting,

maybe,

that's understanding how good it was.

I think it's the fastest chase in IPO history

of more than 200 runs.

It'd be an effort,

a 15.5 over effort

by the register and royals.

So, there's, you know,

it's a statement,

it's a real statement to chase down

this number of runs that quickly.

But,

it kind of went by the,

by a form book as well.

Like, S.R.H.

Yeah, we know that they're going to try and tee off,

and it would be a bit uneven.

They're innings.

That's exactly what it was like.

Um,

guys took loads of risks.

Some of them got out.

One of them got loads of runs.

Um,

Manaket Verma still,

still going,

um, continuing his,

is good for from last year.

200 what?

Uh, you look at that score,

you think,

sometimes it's going to be good.

Um, as opposed to the 220,

we were just talking about KKR though.

Uh, I think

that this was obviously

not quite enough.

It was 200.

It was a good score.

Decent effort,

but it wasn't really,

it wasn't really imposing.

It didn't take anything wild to chase it.

Um,

if I was going to predict it,

I'd have said R.C.B.

winning the 19th over,

not the 16th.

So,

it's definitely,

it's definitely a really impressive chase.

But, um,

yeah, that's why I'm right.

It's a polling attack.

I don't really see

what they expect to be able to pull off.

With, with that line up,

like I,

it's,

it's astonishingly weak,

astonishingly weak for,

for the IBL.

Um,

I think we said though,

some writers are going to be a fun team to watch,

because it's just going to be runs all over the place.

Yeah.

Uh, I'd stand by that.

Um,

well, they're going to have to score

so many runs to win games in cricket.

I've got no choice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um,

feels up to pick a catch as well.

We should give,

uh,

uh,

and coley,

um,

is the first player ever

to go past 4,000 runs in,

in the IBL.

Um,

she's a pretty good effort by him.

I mean, he's,

he's,

yeah, by the end of this year,

it'll probably be 1,000 ahead,

a second place.

I think seconds,

David Warner at the moment.

So,

you know,

that's a golfed,

like 33% more runs than,

yeah.

Second place.

Like that's,

uh,

well, it's been the quickest

batter,

but he scored bulk runs,

um,

for a pretty long time.

Uh,

if you're going to rate the teams,

um,

RCB,

I'd probably

be close to an A for

maybe an A.

Like I thought they were a pretty

good team,

they played pretty good cricket,

the spatch sunrises,

who are,

at least an intimidating side,

if not an amazing side.

Um,

so yeah,

yeah,

and then I'd say for sunrises,

probably,

A,

C,

um,

and someone has corrected me in the

chat, actually,

uh, I have my stats

like, you know,

4,000 runs in chases,

so it's way more runs in the

IPO,

it's 4,000 running chases,

is what I meant to say.

Um,

so,

yeah, good.

But yeah, ANC,

um,

would you,

what are you rating these two teams?

Yeah,

bang on,

I agree.

ANC,

exactly,

I think,

yeah, sunrises are,

like you say,

it was pretty much what we

expect there,

they went for it with the bat,

it,

sort of came off a bit,

but probably not enough,

and the bowling was as bad,

as we anticipated.

I,

Boone,

who had cat was all right,

opening up,

early wicket,

like that's,

that's what you want

and hope to get from him,

but, uh,

yeah, the rest was,

the rest was expensive,

and they've got a lot of

thinking to do

about how they are going to,

uh,

work out

a winning strategy

with the bowling line-up

that they have.

It's going to be, uh,

it's going to be a bit dicey.

Uh,

and yeah,

I'll see you be really

impressive with the bat,

to, to chase something

down that quickly,

very, very impressive.

And, um,

yeah,

booby-coom,

I'm looking good,

Jacob Duffy looking good,

um,

answers some of the questions

as well.

I mean,

Karina Panja was expensive,

but that happens when you're

a,

a finger spinner,

uh,

in,

so that's

one of the other questions

that we had about,

um,

RCB.

I'm not,

obviously not immediately answered,

but in a game,

at the Chinaswami,

against the tack-like sun risers

that have players like

Karina Panja class,

and that can really,

really do your damage

to, to come out of that

with, uh,

three hours, one for twenty-eight,

is a pretty good return,

indeed.

So yeah,

things looking up for RCB.

My, uh,

my meme pick

for them to come bottom

of the table is,

is looking

in, in dire,

jeopardy already.

A ludicrous call.

Uh, coming up,

we've got two matches,

uh,

till Friday,

KKRV sun risers

hide your bad tomorrow

at Eden Gardens.

So we'll see the sun risers

again,

um,

both teams losing their opening

match,

both teams scoring over two hundred

runs,

um,

Eden Gardens usually,

a decent pitch for a bat,

Max, what's going to happen?

Will any team

be able to stop the other team

from scoring runs?

Or will this just be an

update?

This is it,

isn't it?

It's like,

two hundred and fifty,

two hundred and fifty apiece,

this one,

um,

and which way will it go,

flip over the coin?

Um, I think,

I'm more,

I think I've got more,

hope for KKR

from what I've seen.

Um,

what they did with the bat

against Mumbai,

and think about what they could do

with the bat against

some risers,

I think it might be a step

too far for some risers

to,

to deal with,

I think,

um,

check about in the Ryan,

probably a bit more,

dangerous as well.

So I'm going to go KKR

on this one.

Well,

I'm not that pretty fair,

I, I,

I, I,

I would say this is a genuine

coin toss.

Yeah.

Um, between two pretty

trashy bowling.

I definitely want to

tune in. I think it'll be

great.

Pretty decent batting

up.

So I think you may be

say,

Sunerites are slightly

better at batting,

and KKR are slightly

better at bowling

so they probably net it

out to,

definitely want to tune in. It's already like a reasonably high stage. You don't want to lose

like your first two or three matches. It's a long way back from there. You really have to get on a run.

Already the pressure will be on those two teams. Then on Friday, we've got Chennai Super Kings

for you, Punch Up Kings. Just the regular Kings, I think I've looked better than the Super Kings.

Over the whole of last season and the beginning of this year didn't do anything to change my mind

from that perspective. We've also had a Super Chat from Karthik who says, my conclusion, everyone but

CSK has good players. So surely this is going to be an easy win for Punch Up Kings, Max.

More than you. Exactly. That's why CSK is going to win.

Because all the logic says they will.

Lose. Yeah, I mean, I'm just going to, I'll back my boys. I think they'll have hammered the Chennai

cricket association enough that they start turning out to any pitches like they want again.

And that will be enough for CSK to do the business.

Punch Up has got some decent spin bowlers. Yes, they do, Jack. I know, but we're going to ignore that

fact. Usually, Charles is going to fall over in the warm up and won't be able to play.

I think that's only taking nine wickets. That kind of thing is maybe the best route for victory.

Maybe they should like put a load of oil down in the changing room of the Punch Up Kings.

I hope some of them fall out. I mean, Chennai were so emotional that it's almost,

sometimes, it's almost impossible to think that this team could win, but they do actually have

some good players. I suppose we can say there is a chance. But I'd much rather be the Punch Up

Kings, I think, at the moment than the Chennai Super Kings, despite the lack of the super suffix

from the word king or prefix rather from the word king. Max, that's probably it for the pod.

Anything you want to say? Anything you want to declare?

No, a decent few games, would you say? I mean, there was only one that was particularly close.

A little bit blow out of it. I'm just some of the cricket. It was all right. I thought.

If I was going to... No, I thought it was pretty poor, to be honest.

I didn't think it was a fantastic match day one for the tournament.

It doesn't need one. You get runs of average games all the time, but I think

across five matches, you'd normally want one of them to be really close, and I don't think any of

them were that close. Even though some of them, if you took the scorecard, you might think one by

three wickets with five balls left, that could be a real nail bite. It wasn't quite as close as

that sounds, and that sort of by a margin was the closest. I guess KKRV Mumbai for a few

overs at the beginning there, maybe you thought it would be interesting in the Mumbai innings,

but then they just started winning by so much that it wasn't exciting.

Now you say there was some good cricket play. I don't think this is like a case of poor cricket,

but what you want to see is good cricket be good cricket, because then that creates good games.

There were a few too many situations where it was a team playing good cricket, via team playing

either mediocre or in some cases, bad cricket. Over the season, that balance is out. I'm sure at some

point we'll do a podcast where there have been four back-to-back, last ball games. Like that.

That happens. It's entirely random, isn't it? It's not really a dig at the tournament, but

that's just a cricket. Yeah, I just say it's a fairly sort of six out of ten,

oh, set of fixtures. Yeah, anyway, I see another pod. We'll be back. We'll try and get one

in on Friday, shall we? If we have the time. We said we'd do Monday, but then we were playing

gold, and we got really tired. That was never happening. Yeah, it was a tiring experience.

Very windy, by the sea in England, in March, as we found out, to our

detriment. We'll be back. Hopefully Friday. Bye.