 So the Tata Indian Premier League is in full swing and you can't keep the West Indians out of the game. Although there was a team showing from Andre Russell in Kolkata Night Riders seven week it lost to Chennai Super Kings earlier on Monday. Russell could only manage a runner ball 10 while fellow West Indian the international retired Sunil Narain carved out 20 ball 27 KKR were restricted to 137.9 from their 20 overs. CSK then got to victory at 141 for 3 in 17.4 overs and Narain finished with 1 for 30 from his four overs. The most noteworthy performance had however taken place over the weekend when the Caribbean Flare in this season's tournament took centre stage. Guyanese Allrounder Ramario Shepard first smashed an unbeaten 10 ball 39 to lift Mumbai Indians to a 29 run win over Delhi on Sunday. Their first win of the campaign Trinbegonian left-hander Nicholas Puran then followed suit in the day's second encounter as he too fashioned an unbeaten knock 32 from 22 balls to help look now Super Giants to a 33 run win over Gujarat Titans. Their third win on the truck Nikhil Timchandani joins us via zoom to discuss the latest West Indian performances in the competition. Always great to have you on the show Nikhil and I think Ricardo had said last week that he picks KKR to win the Indian Premier League this year and they very well may do but they had a stutter today didn't they. Yeah I think it was interesting really to see how things unfolded. You look at first two weeks of the IPL. It has been a lot of batting dominance a lot of flat surfaces plastic surfaces that hasn't really offered much for the bowlers but this was the typical quintessential chip off surface that we sort of expected where you're always going to have something in it for your spinners and the guys who score runs are more often than not those that are probably the better players of spin. It's interesting because you listen to the pitch report the way that the KKR started Narain and Raghu Banshee put on 56 from 36 and I thought well wow this is a 200 like surface but it changed so quickly. So it's a big fact during of when the toss win the game because you saw how the true factor then came in and help CSK's butters in the second inning. So yeah I think this is what we expected from Chaypot going in. It's why Chennai have invested heavily in guys like Mahesh T. Chana. They've got most of these are who can take pace off the ball. And of course Jereja who was very good today but look this is a team built for home conditions. They've won 70 percent of their matches at the Chaypot and if they can continue in that trend they're going to be definitely in the playoffs and then be a hard team to beat come the end of the IPL. Yeah we looked at the weekend's result and we saw where Romario Shepherd exploded and Nicholas Puran continued his good match winning or match finishing form a good look for the Western displayers heading to the T20 World Cup this summer. Yeah well Lance I think we know that Romario Shepherd's biggest thing has always been opportunity. I mean you even look at in the CPL he doesn't face as many deliveries and I think it's almost worked in his favor in situations like this where he's almost mastered the ability to come in and not have five or ten balls where he can get himself set. He has to literally go from ball one and in the game where you win by 29 runs he gets 32 off the last over. It is absolutely massive. I think he has nailed himself on for the rest of the tournament. This guy on screen Nicholas Puran. I think we need to have a serious discussion about him when it comes to West Indian prospect because the finishing ability of him and the regularity in which he's been able to sort of bat in the middle overs and even at the back end but strike at one sixty one seventy. Lance it's made me rethink are we using the course for and the right way for the West Indies. Is he better at three or is he better at five where you can literally take apart the best bowlers in the world at the back end of the innings and capitalize. He has been for me the reason why that now are so strong this season impact in every game. Yeah. And I've always been impressed with Nicholas Puran. He's one of my favorite cricketers globally and I agree with you. I think there is a lot of explosiveness in his cricket and on his best day he can take any any bowling attack apart. Yeah. And I understand the discussion. Everyone will say well look you want your best T20 players the butlers that they're at facing the most deliveries. But when Nicholas Puran does bat early so let's see bats at three for the West Indies comes in the public. A lot of times he's facing the swinging ball or facing that team's best bowlers where the ball is new. So at times he can actually be dismissed. Obviously it can work in both ways. But I'm watching him in this IPA the way that he's taking down teams from over 12 to 20. I think it could it could really help the West Indies. It'd be interesting to see after this IPA if he continues in this vein how Darren Sammy and them sort of see him best because you can have a situation where maybe you send rather firm up the order who's another left handed option who can bat at four. And then you have to run at five to sort of finish your innings because you look at class in Puran Russell. These guys are winning games for their teams because of the finishing ability in this IPL. Yeah. And just going back to Romario Shepherd for a moment you mentioned about him getting opportunities. This is only his second game for Mumbai since the IPL started and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Massively. And many forget that Shepherd went a whole season at Sunrises didn't play a game. Lucknow Super Giants last season he didn't play. So it's been a long time coming for him. What I think he adds for them is I know you went for 54 runs in the last game but it was a batting paradise. I think a death bowling option. So it takes some of the load off of Jasper Boomer and definitely this power hitting. It allows Hardik Pandia who we saw bat at four for the first time this season where I think he's best suited because now you have another finisher almost like a Pollard S from a couple of years ago. You've got Tim David and Shepherd who obviously put on that mammoth partnership and it's not often that you see Tim David as a spectator at the other end. It just tells you the magnitude of this guy's hitting ability. Massive massive I think deal for West Indian prospects going into the T20 World Cup. Yeah. And a quick comment on Rajasthan Royals 4 and 0 so far in the tournament. Nikhil Shimrun Hetmar has been playing Robman Powell. No games yet. Yeah. Best bowling lineup in the tournament for me. It's crazy that my hasn't really done anything with the bat and it's because he hasn't had the opportunity to. It's a top order that has fired supremely well. Joss Butler got a hundred a couple of days ago. Rianne Parag is in the top run scores. Samson their captain has started well as always. But that bowling lineup those two spinners Chahal and Ashwin both and Nandre Berga credit to their scouting team for bringing in the left arm Stephen from South Africa. I just can't see an area where they're weak in terms of the bowling side of things. They're suited from all conditions in the IPL. And if you win a couple more games you're pretty much nailed into the playoffs. Obviously it's a different game when you get into those playoffs. But that bowling lineup you know the same lads. They say batting wins your games the bowling wins your tournaments. They're well on track to win this competition. Yeah. And is there any worry at all Nikhil about Robman Powell not playing up to this point. He hasn't played any competitive cricket since the PSL I think that would be well. Mid-March would have been the last time he played. But as the team tries to well Weston this players try to fine tune their skills for the T20 World Cup any concern that Robman isn't seeing any action just yet. And he's a Weston this captain. Yeah. From a Westonian perspective of course we would love to see him play. Unfortunately Rajasthan they have their best interests of their team at heart. So no surprises for me that they've backed up just because of how well he's done in the last couple of years. Three seasons he's struck out over 150 in that number five and six position for them. So I'm not surprised that they've stuck with him. I think luckily for Westonian fans that the fact that Robman Powell is not in the team is good. That is Hepmeier who's playing in front of him because another Westonian who is trying to sort of show the captain show the selectors and head coach that he can make a difference in the T20 World Cup team. I don't expect that top order to fire like this throughout the tournament. It's a long season. And I think Hepmeier who in my opinion I've seen a couple of videos of him on social media. He looks a lot leaner. He looks a lot fitter. And just seeing a couple of clips of him hitting the ball in the last couple of games he's hitting the ball well. So I mean he would have asked for a better opportunity with Robman in and working closely with him to impress. So let's see what happens. All right. Nick always great talking to you here on the Sportsmax zone. Of course you can see IPL matches on Sportsmax and or Sportsmax app or our next live commentary game is on Tuesday morning. So fans can look out for that as we continue to monitor the world's greatest T20 franchise tournament. Nick I will talk to you again soon. I'm sure it cheers. Let's have a good one. Yeah. Great. And we'll be back with more on the Sportsmax zone after this.