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Monday, May 27, 2013

IPL6 for Mumbai

During my morning stroll to the local market, I noticed a vendor who was sporting CSK jersey. Obviously, the topic shifted from tomatoes to last night's IPL final. The Chennai lad mentioned that he switched off once Albie Morkel was dismissed (even though captain MSD was still at the crease) - why? Dhoni needed someone to farm the strike and the ask was too much even for the champion batsman. Fair. Question was asked regarding the decision to send Raina when Hussey got dismissed in the first over itself. Why not send someone like Badrinath who could have settled the innings? Fair once again. It is very enlightening speaking to such folks on the street who are still following the League even with all its controversies (maybe Srinivasan is also having similar conversations!)

The discussion then moved to the spot-fixing controversy that is ongoing. The young lad mentioned that it would be no surprise that couple of days later, there would be reports coming in that talk about the IPL6 final being fixed as well! Very interesting indeed. Interesting because I noticed in Facebook that there were updates from my friends and contacts on how CSK's initial run made the bookies put all the money on a probable win only for Mumbai to win at the last minute! Is this what we have come to? What happens to Kieron Pollard's match-winning innings or Lasith Malinga's toe-crushing yorker to Hussey? Is this not the real deal?

The match itself was a good contest with both teams losing early wickets and making a recovery to post a total, only difference being Mumbai had 23 more runs than Chennai. Sachin Tendulkar's absence from the team meant that he was not part of the eleven that won the title (just like Champions League) but it looks like it did not matter. SRT was enjoying as much as Ricky Ponting. Which team can comprise of players outside the playing eleven that had a combined experience of 60,000 test and ODI runs? Which team can manage a support staff that has Anil Kumble, John Wright, Robin Singh, Jonty Rhodes? Only a team that can be funded and managed by the Ambani's, according to the Tamil lad (it is quite popular in Tamil Nadu to relate Ambani to one who is rich and famous). Such a team could upset a gigantic team like Chennai SuperKings in the IPL final, hoped the team owners. On 26th May, the hope became reality.

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