The IPL 2008 - Grand Finale
June 2nd 2008 14:46
After two damp squibs of semifinals back to back, great things were expected from the finals. And did it offer that and more! It was a heart stopper, a gut wrencher, the seat edge thriller that haunts our dreams.
In the end the Peacock blue pipped the Yellows to the post. But the team from Chennai competed magnificiently. They were in the contest till the very last ball of the match. And that in itself says a lot about the team and most importantly the man in charge of the Yellows - Mahendra Singh Dhoni. We will come back to dwell on Chennai and Dhoni very soon.
But to understand the seesawing contest from start to finish, one has got to go back to the start of the finale. With Chennai's Parthiv and Vidyut at the crease and Sohail Tanvir raring to go with the new white cherry. The first ball of this final had a heck of a good appeal from Tanvir where I thought Parthiv was a dead duck to the bowlers' in dipper - for the second time in this tournament. Billy Bowden though thought otherwise. And from then on, Parthiv played fluently and with far more authority than he had shown in the earlier part of the tournament. Even though Tanvir was taken off after a single over at the start, Vidyut continued to struggle and was eventually out for 16 runs which were more due to his hook or crook approach than too many meritable shots.
This brought in the victorious pair of Raina and Parthiv Patel from the last semifinal. Immediately, the two showed their form in proceeding to score crisply off the Rajasthan bowlers. Watson was briefly threatening while Munaf was just about effective. However it was again that impressive all rounder, who has been selected to the national team based on his showing, Yusuf Pathan. Yusuf while picking up 3 wickets also ended up finishing his quota of overs with an economy rate of less than 7 an over. An outstanding performance. I also thought that he did not get a close LBW shout - again against Parthiv.
The match was about to change just then. Shane Watson got the breakthrough that the team wanted and this brought in a surprise package. Beefy and holding the bat confidently in the left hand. Albie Morkel, for the first time in the tournament walked in at the fall of the 2nd wicket. I think it says a lot about Dhoni's confidence in Morkel as also his confidence in his tactics and reading of the game. The other reason why I thought that was a great move from Dhoni was that Warne and Yusuf were bowling together and it might not have been the easiest of the beginnings for Dhoni who had already had a rough time of it against Warne earlier in a league game.
The move seemed to work for a brief while where Morkel smote a huge six. But Yusuf it was who again had the last laugh in getting Morkel to hole out. At this ponit of time, they had the free stroking Raina at the crease. And in walked captain cool M.S.Dhoni. Dhoni with 29 off about 16 balls along with Raina who added yet another half century to his tally got their team beyond 160 - which I thought was quite a good total considering that momentum was sucked out of the innings in the middle period when Yusuf was operating with Warne. Credit should go too to Dhoni in confidently countering Warne for an over or two and also collecting a sparkling sixer off the genius' bowling.
The complete Chennai innings was also a showcase of Warne's ideologies as regards limited overs cricket. The usage of the deep cover and fine third man against specific people was exemplary. No doubt that it meant the difference between 2 or 3 singles and 2 or 3 boundaries. His bowling changes were as ever crisp and the team had no problem resopnding to his directions. Towards the end of the innings one got the feeling that the Chennai team were short by 10 to 15 runs. But a total of 160 plus in an all important final in a T20 competition has to be competitive and creditable.
With the Rajasthan team, Asnodkar and Niraj Patel walked briskly out to meet the Chennai new ball bowlers. I am sure they had not bargained for coming up against an inspired Ntini who literally breathed fire. He was hitting the low to mid 140s and his length was just about spotless. Niraj Patel found that out to his disadvantage as Ntini again bullied the left hander into venturing into an unwise pull shot and got that inside edge to hit the stumps. Viewers were reminded of the same bowler's mastery over Shaun Marsh just a day back. Goni from the other end too bowled with the same control and steady pace that has characterized this man as a lion hearted performer all through this tournament. Despite all this though, Asnodkar still seemed to find the gaps. And in the event, he did not find the gaps, he created them for himself - through the ground or over the fielders. Kamran Akmal and Asnodkar were motoring along until that fateful Morkel over where Asnodkar square drove a full loosener of a delivery straight to Raina. This brought in Watson to the crease. And he was solidity personified in his stay at the wicket.
Morkel today had shifted up a gear and it was really really interesting to see him hit speeds as high as 140 kmph on a regular basis when he was bowling in the finals. I am pretty disappointed that the same bowler was mostly in his 120s for most of the tournament. When talking from the outside one never knows what the true situation of a bowler is, but if he was fit, he ought to have been putting in the same kind of effort throughout the tournament.
Well, coming back to the spirited chase of the Royals, Kamran Akmal succumbed to pressure and ran himself out to a nonexistent run to mid on. Ntini at mid on fairly threw the stumps out so hard that they almost danced and tumbled their way off the playing square! Which brought Yusuf Pathan in to partner Watson.
Together they plundered runs at will from the Chennai attack. At this point, it feels really hard to point out a captaincy mistake from Dhoni. He had done most other things right in this game. But what he did not get was the timing of Murali's bowling stint - yet again. Balaji - still working his way back into top competition - was allowed to bowl a couple of overs at Watson and Yusuf Pathan, who promptly used this duration to get used to the pace and bounce of the wicket and get his eye in. If Murali had been introduced up front to this combination, one never knows what would have happened.
On his way to a swashbuckling half century, Yusuf Pathan smote 4 huge sixes. En route he was also dropped by Suresh Raina off Murali. To Raina's credit he gave the chance all he got, ran back from mid wicket under that steepler and almost got it in his palm. But it did not stick and Yusuf just grew from strength to strength. And in the meanwhile Watson simply cut out all risks and attempted to play the perfect limited overs game in punishing only those balls that asked for it and picking up the ones and the twos. It had come to a stage where there were only 8 or so overs remaining and the runs required were about 20 more than the balls remaining. At that stage, Murali was still on. And in his penultimate over, Watson managed to york himself.
Warne again pulled a rabbit out of his hat in sending the woeful and out of form looking Kaif in. Mohammad Kaif may have scored just 11 runs but he did not disappoint. He countered Murali beautifully and even stroked him for a really valuable sixer between long on and mid wicket. That is what confidence does to men. The captain's backing goes a long way towards influencing your performance - no doubt about that. Eventually he perished to a doosra from Murali. But then, the situation had tilted definitely in the Royals' favour - it seemed like. But this was before, Yusuf was run out - courtesy a sizzling pick up and throw from Raina. At that point, it seemed like he had made amends for the earlier dropped catch.
Even the normally ice cool Dhoni was jumping with joy and excitment at the fall of Yusuf's wicket - who departed after a stunning and brutal haf century. And soon after that , Ravindra Jadeja the talented U - 19 youngster threw his wicket away first ball in trying a wild heave.
This left Warne with Tanvir to negotiate the final 3 overs and get 20 odd runs from them. Dhoni did not have too many options even as Balaji did not seem to be at his best today. Very correctly he used Ntini in the penultimate over who started off really well. But Shane Warne again seemed to change the match by producing a cover drive of rare beauty off the last ball of that over to bring down the runs required to just 8 off the last over.
And Balaji it was who was going to bowl the last over. Tanvir was on strike and it was expected that the match would be finished with a big hit. But contrary to such expectations, the match went right to the wire - the last ball. A run required off the last ball. At that point, Dhoni could still smile. This, after Balaji had just messed things up with a wide off a slower delivery gone wrong. And to add to this, Parthiv had not collected cleanly thereby allowing the Royals with 2 runs and an extra ball. That the Indian ODI captain still could smile said a lot about his temperament and his leadership style. This man is simply amazing. But then it gets better too!
Tanvir duly got the single required off the last ball. But what was amazing after that was not the Royals' victory celebrations. I have been watching cricket for some time now and Indian cricket in particular for a majority of that time. What I had not seen till that time was the losing captain initiating a huddle and pepping his boys up and telling them he was proud of them and their performance.
That gesture in itself is enough to convince anybody that Dhoni is the right man to lead India. And this presentation of a united front continued onto the post match conference where Dhoni refused to blame any individual - Balaji for a rather inspid spell, Parthiv for a very costly fumble or Raina for a crucial drop chance.
To sum it all up, one feels that the best team in the tournament have won the inaugural IPL. But the Chennai team's performance invokes the infamous hitch in the throat phenomenon. Warne might be the winning captain. He deserves it every bit. But India, in Dhoni, may just have found the right man to take the team along - through thick or thin.
A fitting finish to the dazzling IPL tournament, one feels.
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