Strong Indian show made it a league to remember
Most runs by Ruturaj Gaikwad, most scalps by Harshal Patel led a solid show by Indian players in the IPL
KOLKATA: Separated by two time zones and four months, it was an Indian Premier League (IPL) of two halves but Chennai Super Kings (CSK) reigned supreme in both before beating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 27 runs in the final to win their fourth IPL title. From hurtling towards disaster with multiple bio-bubble breaches while India was in the grip of a terrifying second wave of the pandemic to giving us a season to remember for the right reasons, this has been some turnaround by IPL. Here are its five major takeaways:
Captaincy unaffected
The reverse, like in the case of Virat Kohli with Royal Challengers Bangalore, has often happened but it can get lonely if form deserts a captain. Not for MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan though.
Both World Cup-winners had a harrowing time with the bat—dhoni aggregating 114 runs in 16 matches at an average of 16.28 and strike rate of 106.54 while Morgan ended with 133 runs in 17 matches at an average of 11.08 and strike rate of 95.68—but they didn’t let it affect their day-to-day running of the teams.
From identifying in-form players to picking the right bowlers at the right scenarios, it was vintage Dhoni all along at the helm. Morgan has to be credited for taking the difficult decisions—sticking with Sunil Narine, leaving out a recovering Andre Russell during the knockouts and giving KKR’S young Indian core a free hand while pulling them from seventh position to the finals.
You know Morgan has ticked all the right boxes when Dhoni chooses to start his post-match speech on Friday with KKR:”IT’S difficult to come back and do what they have. If any team deserved to win the IPL, it’s KKR.”
A very Indian IPL
Rarely has IPL been this Indian in flavour. The top scorer (Ruturaj Gaikwad) and wickettaker (Harshal Patel) are Indian but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. From Avesh Khan to Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh,
Ravi Bishnoi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Chetan Sakariya, Kartik Tyagi, KS Bharat and Venkatesh Iyer, this IPL has seen a sharp spike in uncapped Indians turning match winners. Each of them has charted different ways to success but Iyer’s is special. An MBA in finance and a Rajinikanth fan, Iyer let go of an offer from Deloitte to concentrate on his cricket. From not getting a single game in the India leg, Iyer opened KKR’S batting in the UAE and aggregated 370 runs in 10 games, with a highest of 67 against Punjab Kings. Standing tall with a terrific range of shots around the ground, Iyer is a treat to watch when he is in full flow and is touted to play for India soon. Along with Malik and Khan he has been asked to stay back in UAE as cover/net bowlers for India in the World T20.
No one-season wonders Many young cricketers come through the ranks, few leave a mark. After a forgettable season where CSK finished seventh, Ruturaj Gaikwad came back stronger to hit an unbeaten century (against Rajasthan Royals) and top the honours with 635 runs in 16 games at an average of 45.35 and a strike rate of 136.26. Dhoni inculcated the belief that runs would come if he could just stay put. “One of the games I spoke to him about, if you’re an opener and if you get off to a good start, there’s nothing that says you can only bat 10 overs or 12 overs. Why can’t you bat 18, 19 or 20 overs?,” Dhoni said recently. “Right after that he did that. He batted 20 overs, which means that he is very eager to learn and I feel he is somebody who plays authentic shots and I think he has done really well for himself and I think he is a really good talent.” Having set up the game in each of the knockouts, Gaikwad has placed him perfectly for an India call-up soon. Devdutt Padikkal—already an international—too did well in his follow-up act, scoring 411 runs in 14 matches and keeping himself in the fray.
The return of Narine
Any other franchise would have given up on Sunil Narine. Not KKR. They kept retaining Narine, helped him work on a remodelled action while trying him out as opener. He was a work in progress, not getting enough sting out of his remodelled action but KKR were still patient. And then finally, Narine came into his own. An absolute class act throughout the UAE leg,
Narine reserved his best for the Eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore when he took 4/21, including the scalps of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, before hitting three sixes to guide KKR to the second Qualifier against Delhi Capitals. In the final too, where every other bowler erred in length and leaked runs against a rampaging CSK batting, Narine returned an enviable 2/26. He will not find a place in the West Indies squad for the T20 World Cup but after taking 16 wickets with an economy of 6.44, Narine knows batters will think twice before writing him off.
End of an era?
Where do Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Suresh Raina and David Warner go from here? Nobody knows. There will be a mega auction and two new franchises next year but with a deluge of quality Indians and younger overseas players to choose from, the once Goliaths of IPL may have a difficult time finding a team. Most of the exits were low key too. Gayle left the IPL bio-bubble seeking time to prepare for the T20 World Cup. Raina, one of the best white ball players of spin ever, didn’t make it to the XI in the playoffs after a string of low scores.
De Villiers left without scoring a fifty in the UAE leg and for a while Warner had refused to come to the ground after being benched due to form. For all we know, this could be Dhoni’s last IPL season as well.