IPL 2018: Injured Sam Billings was replaced in the squad by Faf du Plessis, admits Fleming

What's the story

The Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming admitted that poor form and an injury to Englishman Sam Billings enabled Faf du Plessis to be presented with an opportunity in the team eleven, as they played against Sunrisers Hyderabad(SRH) in the IPL 2018 Qualifier 1 held on Tuesday.

Quite notably, Chennai won the thrilling encounter courtesy of a wholesome knock by Faf himself, who hence justified his selection into the lineup.

In case you didn't know...

The game between CSK and SRH, also the first Qualifier game of the season, was important to both teams because of the same reason. A win meant that the winning team would go straight into the finals, with the losing team having to play and win the Eliminator match if they wanted another shot for the title.

CSK started the game on a high, with Deepak Chahar bowling Shikhar Dhawan out for a golden duck. The SRH batting lineup didn't really recover from there, losing wickets occasionally, and ending up at 88/6 before Carlos Brathwaite put up an outstanding display that carried the SRH total past 100 and well into the 130s.

Chasing 140, it looked like CSK would carry the game home with ease, but SRH replied with a dose of CSK's medicine itself, with Watson getting dismissed for nought after edging a brilliant Bhuvi outswinger to keeper Goswami, in just the third ball of the innings. After a good start, Raina departed as well, followed by Rayudu in the very next ball. Both wickets belonged to Siddharth Kaul.

As Rashid Khan wiped out the rest of the middle order batsmen Dhoni and Bravo, and with Sandeep Sharma managing to snare Jadeja and Chahar, it looked liked SRH were running away with a win, as their score read 92/7 at one point of time.

The best was, however, yet to come as Faf scored 20 runs off Brathwaite's 18th over, and with Shardul Thakur scoring 15 off 5 in Kaul's 19th over, leaving Bhuvi to defend just six runs in the last over, with Faf on strike. He in turn, promptly dispatched the ball over the sightscreen in the first ball of the over, to seal the game in CSK's favour and taking them into the finals.

Man-of-the-match Faf scored a mighty 67-off-42 in the process. He struck five 4s and four 6s. CSK, which has an outstanding record in the IPL, playing in the playoffs in all the 9 seasons they featured, will play in a record 7th IPL final, having won the tournament on two occasions already. They are now the strongest contenders for the title win this season.

The details

“Sam has struggled a little bit, but he was still a part of our options. He then got hurt in the last game. He fell awkwardly on his hip, which has been quite bruised. He could have played with a push but he was uncomfortable so we took that opportunity to keep Faf in the side. He played the last game. It does change the set-up, with [Ambati] Rayudu going back to No. 4 but that's not a bad thing either,” Fleming said after the win.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers' captain Kane Williamson complimented du Plessis on the knock that hijacked the game entirely and at the same time blamed the loss on a sub-par batting display of SRH.

“Credit to the way Faf played, he batted beautifully but we could have taken some better options to be able to add maybe another 15 or 20 on that surface. We could have taken a few smarter options to get a few more runs on the board but the way we fought back with the ball - it's obviously a tough pill to swallow because we back our death bowling to see us through but today it wasn't to be.”

While Chennai Super Kings will stay back in Mumbai for the cup finals on Sunday, Sunrisers will travel to Kolkata for Friday's Eliminator, where they will play the winners of today's Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) vs Rajasthan Royals(RR) game.

Author's take

Faf du Plessis is South Africa's own version of "Captain Cool", and he has often proved the same, both in the International circuit and in IPL situations. His calm and composed approach at the centre ensured that he was a perfect fit for international cricket - especially in a side that has had the "chokers" label branded onto them since before one can remember.

His orthodox, all-conditions technique and a dynamic approach at the crease makes him an asset in the age of T20 cricket. Keeping all that in mind, it would have been fairer to give Faf more chances in the playing eleven this season, but that was not to be because of the presence of players like Sam Billings who had been doing well too.

But now that a vacancy has opened up, Faf will definitely be in the lineup for CSK in the finals as well, where he will have the chance to repeat his Qualifier-1-heroics yet again.