HENNAI: Like wine, spinners mature with age. True to the adage, South Africa’s Imran Tahir looked the best bowler at a practice game of the Chennai Super Kings under lights at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday. With skipper MS Dhoni not in the city, coach Stephen Fleming made two sets of batsmen play against two different packs of bowlers.
Tahir bowled with lot of guile and zest. Almost unplayable, he accounted for Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina and Kedar Jadhav. With word doing the round that the MAC pitch would assist spin, there was ample evidence of that in the South African’s performance. Watson was castled by a flipper, while Raina was stumped, deceived by turn.
“In this format, and in 50-50, wrist-spinners are calling the shots these days. It’s not surprising that Imran is bowling effectively. He has the experience, hunger and ability to perform,’’ said former India spinner Venkatapathy Raju. “Imran is a match-winner any day. Instead of bowling a restrictive line, he attacks and looks to take wickets,” added the former national selector from Hyderabad. Watson made up for his batting failure with the ball, Dwayne Bravo was effective at the death and with Faf du Plessis certain to make the XI, Tahir might just have sealed the fourth foreigner’s slot.
“Tahir is a world-class player. He is the best T20 bowler in the world today. In recent times, he has done extremely well in different conditions and situations. I am confident he will be very useful for our team,” felt CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan. Raina seems to have got his mojo back. With a crowd of 15,000 crowd rooting for him, he carted Deepak Chahar over the fence four times in an over. But none of the Indian bowlers, be it Harbhajan Singh or Shardul Thakur, bowled to potential. Ravindra Jadeja seems to be suffering from lack of match practice at the highest level and leaked 45 runs in four overs.
But what should be pleasing for coach Stephen Fleming is that Rayudu, who opened with Watson, is adapting well. The polished innings he played increases options for the team in the top order. Jadhav, who was picked up for a fancy price, played thrice and failed to impress. Looks like CSK need a few more practice games before deciding on the combination. Tickets for CSK’s matches in Chennai will be sold from Monday. Going by attendance for practice, there is going to be heavy demand for tickets.
ashok.v@newindianexpress.com