Sourav's street-smart ways can work well

Sourav Ganguly is an excellent tactician and while his batting may not live up to the heady days of the previous decade, his street-smart ways could actually work well for the new franchise. Mark Waugh writes.

It was one of the best matches I have seen in recent times. The Chennai Super Kings looked out of it for most part of the game but those last two overs epitomised why predictions can go out of the window in this format.

It was a surprise to see Virat Kohli bowl that penultimate over, but the other option that Daniel Vettori had was another newcomer, who had gone for plenty in his two overs. What Vettori could have done differently as a captain was to get those overs from his fifth bowler out of the way earlier than the 19th over.

Difficult art
Captaincy is a difficult art in a sport like cricket, but T20 cricket takes a lot out of you. A lot of it is to do with gut-feeling and to be able to understand patterns in a game.

Captains could do with a lot of advice from the seniors in the side, taking a bit off their plate as well! It was good to see Shaun Marsh return to form against the Pune Warriors. Marsh has always been an excellent batsman, but his issue is that he is a confidence player. The Chennai-Pune game on Saturday will be the one to watch out for. Sourav Ganguly is an excellent tactician and while his batting may not live up to the heady days of the previous decade, his street-smart ways could actually work well for the new franchise.

(The writer is a former Australia player)