With only 4 teams left in the race, we’re all set for the business end of the tournament this year, and the journey till now has been nothing short of entertaining. Before trying to predict the winners, let’s try to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the top four. Dc and Csk are the table toppers and will be facing each other in the first qualifiers. As far as Dc’s strengths are concerned, their pace attack and their openers are the key elements. If the openers could get off to a good start and set the tone, it would release some pressure off players like Shreyas and Pant, and then they have Hetmyer and and Axar who could go hard at the end. And to back it up they have an incredible pace attack of Rabada, Nortje and Avesh to join with the spin twins Ash and Axar, and they can defend any total put in front of them if they all perform well. And about their weakness, I feel like the exhuberance of youth in the team can sometimes lead to overconfidence on the pitch and if you watched last night’s game against Rcb, you’d understand;it’s just about the lack of commitment on the field and the urge to go after every bowler in the game. With Csk, the performances of the in form batsmen Faf and Ruturaj will be the key. We’ve seen the middle order struggle for the past few games, so if the openers could start off well, then players like Rayudu and Ali can carry on from there and give Jaddu the license to attack at the end. And about their bowling department, I feel like Thakur and Hazelwood will be their key. If they could bring their A-game into play, then we’ll be in for a thriller ! To point out their weakness, I guess they lack attacking batsmen in the middle order. Apart from Jadeja, they have not really been able to accelerate in the middle and sometimes that might put them in a tricky situation.
The next two teams are Rcb and Kkr.
The Rcb batting lineup is filled with extraordinary batsmen and game changers, but with his current form, Maxwell might be the most important player in the eliminator. He is someone who not only scores those crucial runs but also does it with a high strike rate. Not to forget Srikar Bharath who has been in great touch lately. Their weakness is their past performances in similiar knockout situations. They’ve got to get it out of their heads and stay focused. With Kkr’s batting, V.Iyer and Tripathi are the key batsmen in my opinion and also the return of Dre Russ could be a great addition to the team. Lockie ferguson and Mavi were the game changers with the ball last game and they’ve got to do it again if they want to win the next game. As far as their weakness is concerned, I feel like consistency has been a problem for them over the years. They’ve not had enough consistent performers in the past and have to focus on delivering clutch performances in the upcoming games.
Wordsbykenaniah 