The IPL 3 and the Lion's Roar

One week into the ICC world T20, one cannot be gunned down for showing less interest and involvement in following the matches. The first week of the world T20 has been a sober,sad gloom affair. Dead pitches, small crowds, low scoring matches, rain interruptions, Mr. Duckworth & Lewis and huge grounds have made it even worse. The World T20 in the carribean could have been a good prelude to the IPL but not a good successor (atleast the first week).


The IPL 3 was the better than previous two editions. Th reasons being, one , It was back in India with packed stadiums and two for the entertainment factor, both on field and off field. Throughout the 45 days and there was enough news and buzz which could have kept a cricket fanatic awake 1 hour more than a hot cup of tea.


On Field, IPL 3 was fun, entertaining and cricketing success. It began with a bang and like the previous two editions the underdogs won the tournament.


The success of the Chennai Super Kings was a team effort. what made the success even admirable was the way in which it was achieved. It was not the Matt ' mongoose' Hayden, niether was it Muttiah ' willy' Muralitharan. It was about the lesser know Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati and some better know player like Suresh Raina and Doug Bollinger.


7 matches down the tournament at the end of first round the Chennai Super Kings were staring down the barrel. They needed to win 6 out of their remain 7 matches to make it to the semis. The first round was a disaster for them. Their bowling line up was looking so bad that even a batsman who plays gully cricket in the streets of andheri could have strolled into the cricket field and wacked a six of any of the CSK bowlers. Injury to Dhoni let them further down , Mathew Hayden was a complete flop except a dynamite innings against the Delhi daredevils.


The eighth match was probably the turnaround factor for the Men in Yellow. It was an invention of a player called Murali Vijay, who helped them chase a formidable total. Then came the biggest twist. A huge fast bowler called Doug Bollinger who has just finshed his national duty in New Zealand was drafted in by the CSK bosses. He landed in Chennai, overcame jet lag, bowled the best spell in IPL, took 3 wickets for a miserly conceded 15 runs and completed a masterly flop flip catch in the boundary line to take CSK to Victiory. 99 out of 100 times such an effort would have earned him the Man of the Match in a high scoring match. Bollinger was on the other one percent that day. The reason being, Chennai's Boy Murali Vijay had come to the party yet again and this time more severely. He had scored 127 runs of just 65 balls with proper cricketing shots and because this innings laid a platform for a late Albie Morkel assault, Vijay was awarded the Man of the Match. Most importantly, CSK has found a solution to their bowling woes in Dougie Bollinger.
There after CSK overcame Sachin's Mumbai, Dada's Kolkota before losing to Deccan Chergers and Delhi daredevils. Amidst all the heroics there was Suresh Raina who was consistant and there was a 20 year old kid who was drafted in to maintain balance of the team, who never looked back after that. He was Ravichandran Ashwin. Not even the likes of Chris Gayle, Brandon Mccullum, Adam Gilchrist were able to read him. To add to his credits he was donning the mantle of a new ball bowler.. The cunning tall offie from chennai was mixing it nicely. He was deceptive with his pace line & length. He had it all, The arm Ball, The carrom Ball, The genuine one, The quicker one and the looped one.

By the time all this fell in place CSK was becoming a formidabble outfit. They needed to cross Kings Eleven to reach the semis. A huge target to chase and loss of openers didnt make their chase a smooth one. Raina and Badri gave them the foundation through some lusty hits . Some rolled to the fence others landed on the roof. By the time both departed the job was just half done and they had only their out of form captain and Albie Morkel left. With 45 required out of last 3 overs CSK lads were ready to pack their bags to catch a flight to their hometowns, but their captain had other ideas. The brutual power of Dhoni was unleashed and the captain wrapped it up for his team. His emotional outburst after the winning six showed how much he wanted the win.
Then came the Deccan Chargers in the Semis in a low scoring match. CSK seemed to have lost it after their batting effort. The twist was that they had 3 tweakers in their bowling line up. The bowling and fielding lifted CSK to a final berth.
The Final was CSK all the way. It could have been so different had Mumbai Indians held on to the 2 chances offered by Raina. Raina tore them apart and the others in the team decided to play around him. The chase from Mumbai Indians was ordinary, barring Sachin and a very late attempt from the Carrieban 'Monster' Pollard . The very first over was a Maiden from Ashwin, who by this time was a very confident bowler. Dhoni's innovation has accounted for Pollard and CSK boys had done it.
The IPL3 was probably the worst prelude to the ICC world T20 because of it's fatigue factor. Lets hope that Dhoni and his men will bring back the glory of the 2007 .... Would love to see MSD and his men doing it again..... INDIA ROCKS.... MSD ROCKS..... Cheers guys...