Summer Treat: IPL is indeed a joyous celebration for people across the country
Let’s face it: Grandeur and celebrations run in our blood and nothing epitomises it more than the tantalising affair between cricket and Bollywood that plays to packed galleries every summer. Since inception in 2008 to the eighth edition which ended a week ago at the Eden Gardens, the blockbuster Indian Premier League, cricketainment if you may, has been a huge success story. Not even the best scriptwriters could have sustained this fancy plot, sequel after sequel.
In many ways, IPL has become an intrinsic part of our lives and whatever the naysayers in the minority may point out, the League is indeed a joyous celebration for people across the country, however divided they may be over their loyalty to teams. It isn’t for nothing that it brings out the best in the players given the fierce competition among the eight franchisees and it’s not surprising that some of the best entertainment has come from the men from the Caribbean who have repeatedly shown unflinching loyalty to their IPL teams as opposed to the differences with their warring board.
Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Sunil Narine have all been cold-shouldered by the West Indies board at one time or the other and some even for the biggest competition the World Cup yet, all of them have had a tremendous impact on their teams and been given the respect that they so thoroughly deserve. It showed in the manner Pollard, amongst a host of others, resurrected Mumbai Indians’ floundering campaign and powered them to their second IPL triumph in three years.
The fairytale run of Rohit Sharma’s team is the stuff of folklore; nine wins out of ten from a certain point of elimination to seize the trophy from the league’s most consistent team the Chennai Super Kings was breathtaking. It left owner Nita Ambani gushing with pride and waxing eloquent on the fans’ support as they bested the Super Kings in what eventually turned out to be a one-sided final.
In which other sport will you find such diverse tacticians coming together in a single-minded pursuit of glory? An Indian in Anil Kumble, an Australian in Ricky Ponting, a South African in Jonty Rhodes with of course, the master of ’em all Sachin Tendulkar all goading the players to stretch their limits of excellence to bag the biggest trophy in the shortest format. As has been the case with the previous editions, the international stars delighted their fans with some stunning shows but, as always, it’s been the electric performances from rookies and unknown domestic cricketers that stirred up the passion.
If the big-hitting Gayle, the uninhibited AB de Villiers and the murderous Brendon McCullum were the stars who lit up the arena with some mind-blowing batsmanship, it was the lesser-known domestic players in Hardik Pandya, J. Suchith, Yuzvendra Chahal, to name a few, who walked tall with their illustrious deeds. Karnataka’s Suchith and Baroda’s Pandya, both 21, are not regulars in their state sides but turned out to be the biggest reasons for Mumbai Indians’ stirring run to the top.
Left-arm spinner Suchith played in 13 of Mumbai’s 16 matches including the final and picked up 10 wickets at a cost of 8.64. His eventual tally may not reveal his worth but the think-tank’s confidence in his abilities is sure to give him the push he needs in his career. Pandya turned out in nine matches for the champions but his fearless hitting, especially against CSK and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the league stage, prompted even Ponting to hail him as something of a rockstar.
It wasn’t surprising to see Royal Challengers Bangalore’s leg-spinner Chahal being pencilled in the eleven in all their 15 matches as he emerged the third-highest wicket-taker with 23 sticks behind ‘Purple Cap’ winner Bravo (26) and Lasith Malinga (24). The 36-year-old Ashish Nehra provided a shot in the arm for the veterans as he turned out to be Bravo’s perfect partner for the Super Kings with 22 wickets and his toothy grin while Harbhajan Singh’s bag of 18 not only put Mumbai on the victory path but also catapulted him back into the Indian Test team after two years at the age of 34!
If the Indian bowlers came to the party with match-turning spells, the batting front was dominated by the foreign internationals with four Indians in the top-ten. The belligerent David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad topped the charts at 562 runs followed by Rajasthan Royals’ Ajinkya Rahane and Mumbai’s Lendl Simmons at 540 each.
An interesting piece of statistic shows that the four triple figure marks in this edition went the foreigners’ way with Gayle, de Villiers, McCullum and Shane Watson cornering the landmark. Little wonder then the international stars love the IPL. Of the four Indians who made the top-10 Delhi Daredevils’ Shreyas Iyer at 8th Ajinya Rahane (2nd), Virat Kohli (5th) and Rohit (7th) being the others — was a standout show given that it was his debut season.
There were thrillers aplenty and washouts to dampen the enthusiasm; Kings XI Punjab’s Super Over defeat of Royals was only a consolation as last season’s finalists finished at the bottom of the heap. The 2014 winners, Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders, missed out on a playoffs berth even as the Bollywood Baadshah was kept out of the Wankhede in continuance of the unsavoury scenes that marred the 2013 final.
If SRK and Preity Zinta fanned the flames in the 2014 final at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru, it was a mellow affair at the Eden Gardens last weekend where Rohit’s men asserted their supremacy over Dhoni’s Super Kings. And true to our style, the celebrations will go on till the jamboree comes calling again next summer.
