OPINION
Follow Us14 years ago, the Indian Premier League - a product that quickly caught like a wildfire in the country – was born. Over the years, it has been home to several high-scoring thrillers, centuries and hattricks. But on Monday, the clash between the Royals and the Knights had it all, it had a century, it had a skipper stand tall and then came in a bowler to rule the roost.
When the ball was swinging early, Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal were giving themselves enough time. The former, in specific, knew that he was key to his side’s chances considering the dearth of batters in their setup.
Prior to this clash, Buttler had already left an indelible mark on not just the Royals but on the league itself. “White-ball cricket heralded an age of fearlessness, power and innovation and those who could not keep up were left behind,” read a powerful line from Freddie Wilde and Tim Wigmore’s book, Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution.
The very definition of fearlessness, power, and innovation was Buttler. In the past, we have decoded what makes the right-hander, arguably the best T20 batter at the moment, it is his ability to read the situation, to visualize where to place the ball.
On Monday, his knock was an exhibition of a T20 masterclass. The English Vaathi (Master) started to take the league by storm. At the end of the powerplay, the Royals had already bossed their way to 66, which in reality isn’t a whole lot, is it? However, 46 of those 66 runs had come off Buttler’s blade. Padikkal, at the other end, marveled and when had the opportunity, scored just 8 off 10.
Such was the Englishman’s form that the commentators were in complete awe. Shivam Mavi, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, name the bowler and they were at the receiving end of the blitz. It was like a carnival, Buttler, who wasn’t quite there during the first season of the tournament wanted to leave an impression for the future.
Every delivery was traveling way faster than any bullet train could in the world. A shake of a shoulder, moving his feet, and then thumping the ball dead right in front was his approach. And then he stood marveling at times but most of the time, he knew that the ball was sailing. The freakish nature of the innings was such that everyone stood as a spectator, admiring the destructive nature of the Englishman.
Whip, short-arm jab, pull, thump, loft, name it and you would have found that shot played on Monday by Buttler. Most of the boundaries were unreal, it was pure timing from the right-hander, who perhaps has one of the best hand-eye coordination in the white-ball format. When he got to his century, there was a beaming smile but more importantly, a thumping hug from Shimron Hetymer, who enjoyed the century more than the Englishman, himself.
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On a day where this madness, this carnival called the IPL was born, you would have been disappointed with just one performance, wouldn’t you? In entered Shreyas Iyer.
"His (Shreyas) mindset is clear about what brand of cricket he needs to play as a batter. At the same time, he's aware of what he as a captain needs to do to take his team to the playoffs and win the title,” Ravi Shastri was in full praise of Iyer.
And Iyer proved why. Iyer isn’t flawless as a batter, his flaws are quite evident. Prior to his encounter, the KKR skipper’s scores read 26, 10, 54, and 28. Multiple starts but nothing ever got converted into a material score. It was a perfect stage for him, the conditions were still true for the batters, it was a ground that was quite familiar for the Mumbaikar.
He took the backseat when Aaron Finch got going and when the ball was in his arc, it was out of the park. Iyer’s innings showed plenty of positives, he stood true to his nature as an attacking batter, and he understood his weakness and played it to his strengths.
Iyer took on the match-ups, he attacked Royals’ attacking bowlers – Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishn and Ravichandran Ashwin – and showed immaculate technique while at it. He took on Ashwin, constantly clearing him over the smaller boundaries at the Brabourne, leaving the left-handed Rana to handle Yuzvendra Chahal.
It was almost a perfect innings and a perfect night for Iyer before Chahal and Ashwin stepped up. Ashwin had the perfect ploy to dismiss Andre Russell, his carrom ball would go down as one of the best dismissals. It was so anti-climactic that it was perfect.
The Chahal nail to Kolkata’s coffin
One over, 17 runs, brute force from Finch had almost made Chahal surrender his powers. Second time lucky? Nope, the duo of Iyer and Rana nudged the ball and got seven runs, keeping the run-rate in check. Surely third time lucky?
The more the night proceeded, it was more frustrating for Chahal, the leg-spinner. On a surface that perhaps has been the best in the IPL this season, bowling leg-spin was the last one you would want to do. There wasn’t a great deal of turn but Chahal’s wizardry is such.
For a man who has bowled over 140 overs at Chinnaswamy, it didn’t matter how the surface was. It was always a game of skill for the 31-year-old, who since the start of the tournament had turned a new page. He was more and more in control of his game, his skills well-polished and with the ability to put brakes on the scoring rate.
However, four, six, three should have left him dejected, right? Nope, that was literally the start of the night for the leg-spinner, it was the sixth delivery of his third over. He had just one over, Rajasthan were long chasing a game that once looked in their control. But when Rana holed out, there was a glimmer of hope.
The glimmer of hope is often the starting point of many a fairytale. There was a glimmer of hope that led to Ole Gunnar Solskjær scoring that winning goal in 1999. A hope that sparked a comeback win for Liverpool in Istanbul. A spark is all that is needed for big-match players.
“I had to take wickets in this match to change the result. I worked on my bowling. I spoke to the coaches and the skipper. I was thinking of a googly but then I didn't want to take a chance,” said Chahal after the thrilling win.
Chahal took that spark and then used that for destruction. In the space of six deliveries, the 31-year-old bowled the over of his life. An over that saw the back of Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, and Pat Cummins.
Six deliveries turned the moist and dampened RR faces into gleams of joy. Three deliveries out of which gave Chahal: jubilation, it was a hattrick. One of the highest order, considering that over 400 runs were scored with relative ease.
It was possibly the best gift anyone could give back to the IPL, it was the perfect definition of the product that had sent several million households into frenzies. It was the first IPL game that involves a century, a five-fer, and a hattrick. On Tuesday, two sides – Royals and the Knights – paid the perfect homage to 14 years of IPL – a humdinger.
Thank you, IPL!