Coach Jennings: Strategies went haywire at the Semis

We were back in Durban for our semi-final match hoping to win it after losing two group games at the Kingsmead. But it was not to be. We started the match well. It was however proved that morning doesn’t always show the day.

The rains put the brakes on our progress and at one point even threatened to take the match away from us. And when the rain finally stopped and the game restarted, nothing seemed to go our way. Dale’s catch to get rid of Mike Hussey was superb but it also injured his lower back so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital. He was kept under observation by the doctors. The absence of somebody of Dale’s calibre hits any team badly. It was no different for us. All the strategies went haywire as we had to rely on part-time bowlers to finish the quota of overs.
We were back in Durban for our semi-final match hoping to win it after losing two group games at the Kingsmead. But it was not to be. We started the match well. It was however proved that morning doesn’t always show the day.

The rains put the brakes on our progress and at one point even threatened to take the match away from us. And when the rain finally stopped and the game restarted, nothing seemed to go our way. Dale’s catch to get rid of Mike Hussey was superb but it also injured his lower back so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital. He was kept under observation by the doctors. The absence of somebody of Dale’s calibre hits any team badly. It was no different for us. All the strategies went haywire as we had to rely on part-time bowlers to finish the quota of overs.

But all this doesn’t mean that Chennai and especially Raina didn’t play well. Chennai was undoubtedly the better team on the day and they thoroughly outplayed us. Raina made batting look much easier on the pitch than it actually was; full credit to him for his performance.

The target was not easy and we needed two or three big partnerships. But Rahul’s soft dismissal opened the gates and we kept losing wickets at regular intervals, something that has been a feature of our Champions League campaign.

The big-hitting troika of Robin, Ross and Whitey failed to click putting on immense pressure on the others. Unlike the last two matches, Virat failed to recreate the magic with Manish waging the lone battle at one end.

But we still have positives to take from this campaign despite the losses. Manish and Virat are maturing well as batsmen and Vinay keeps proving his effectiveness without being flashy. They have been a good bunch of boys to work with and after the auctions later this year I don’t know who will remain in the team and who wouldn’t but as fans I guess you are always going to be there. A big thank you for backing the team through everything