Federer, Nadal, steam into Indian Wells quarters
Chennai Super Kings Avg Avg Runs Avg RAVINDRA JADEJA: With bat, ball and in the field, Jadeja is effectively three players in one who balances Chennai’s team. In the middle overs, Jadeja was one of only four spinners to register an economy rate of less than seven runs per over in last year’s IPL and his tally of 11 catches was only bettered by Shikhar Dhawan’s 12, of non-wicketkeepers. Jadeja was rarely required with the bat but, when called upon, he scored at a healthy rate of 120.27. Runs Runs INDIANWELLS: Former champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal edged closer to a blockbuster semi-final showdown at the ATP I n d i a n Wel l s Mast e r s o n Wednesday with brisk fourthround wins. World No 2 Nadal overpowered Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-4 to book his quarter-final berth in one hour and 26 minutes.
Federer, seeking a record sixth title in the California desert, needed just 64 minutes to get past Britain’s Kyle Edmund 6-1, 6-4.
Nadal said his performance on a windy stadium court wasn’t as good as his 6-3, 6-1 third-round win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
But he was more than a match for 113th-ranked Krajinovic, breaking him early in each set and saving the only break point he faced.
Nadal, who lifted the Indian Wells trophy in 2007, 2008 and 2013, is in the last eight for the first time in three years after missing last year’s edition, skipping both Indian Wells and the Miami Masters with a hip injury. Avg Chennai bat deep and have a wealth of options to choose from when selecting their middle order. Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson routinely laid platforms for Chennai at the top of the order, allowing the engine room of Sam Billings, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to prosper later in the innings. That depth in Chennai’s middle to lower order allowed them to score at more than 11 runs per over in last year’s competition, the second fastest of all teams in the IPL.
A measure of how remarkable Chennai’s 2018 success was the fact that they had built their squad around playing their home games at the Chepauk Stadium, only to have to relocate after one match to the more seam-friendly MCA Stadium in Pune. They have the attack to cover all scenarios with the spin threat of Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra Jadeja alongside David Willey’s left-arm swing and the raw pace of Lungi Ngidi. Mohit Sharma has been resigned to supplement local pace talent of Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar. 11.2 11.1
INDIAN OVERSEAS
9.9 9.9 9.6 9.3 9.0 8.9 13 of the 25 players on Chennai’s roster are the wrong side of 30. While it could be argued that having an experienced core is a positive – and it certainly did Chennai no harm last year – there is a suspicion that players such as MS Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo are on the decline and the squad lacks freshness with only a handful of young Indian talents emerging. As problems go, it’s far from the worst, but Chennai will have to start the 2019 season well if they are to avoid accusations of it being a season too far many of their stalwarts.
For all the options Chennai have with the ball, the one player they seem to lack is a truly dependable death bowler. When bowling first last season, they only once restricted their opponents to less than 40 runs in the last five overs and only twice kept the overall score below 140. More often than not, they had the batting power to chase down big scores, only losing two games in which they batted second, but the fact remains that Chennai had the second highest economy rate during the last five overs. They will need to restrict teams on a more regular basis.
11.9 11.0 10.4 10.4
9.6
9.5
DD CS KK RC RR K R B IP H M
I KX SR
9.5
8.9 H RC B CS K KK R IP M I DD RR KX SR