Woohooo !! What a game that was last night ! One of the best in the IPL so far, if not as close as some of the others ! I was there once again right in the thick of the action ! The last couple of games had been a bit low-key what with them being scheduled on weekdays and Chennai losing out. But on Saturday night, the Chidambaram Stadium was once again packed to the rafters - for the first time since .. ummm .. the Kolkata game yeah ! And Dhoni and his boys did not disappoint.
It is hard for me to pinpoint what was the highlight of the the night ! Was it the sight of the world's best bowler, Muralitharan and the best batsman Sangakkara, donning opposite colors, meeting at the center of the ground before the game ? Was it Preity Zinta arriving at the stadium from the gate right next to the stand where I was sitting and then moving along the boundary ? Was it Badrinath smashing the ball and in particular being the first batsman in the IPL (need to check this) to maximize the free hit ? Or was it Dhoni's two big hits each of which landed a few feet either side of me ? Or those by Marsh that cleared the ground with so much ease ? Finally, was it that fantastic spell by the folk-hero Laxmipathy Balaji ?
The King's X1 were easily one of the more sporting teams to have arrived in Chennai - particularly the Sri Lankans in the squad. That meeting between Sangakarra and Murali was quite clearly a photo moment (as was Preity's entry later, Preity actually looks prettier in person than on camera, a rare phenomenon) - of course I could capture neither due to my lack of possession of a decent camera-phone. Later, during the game I could see Jayawardene helping out Chawla, patting him on the back and giving him tips when he was being hammered.
Badrinath's batting was superb. For long I wanted to see this guy in action having heard raving reviews about him from Tamil Nadu cricket followers. Dhoni really took to Chawla but preferred to play out his other team-mates, Irfan and Sreesanth, both of whom bowled really well I thought. At one point when Sreesanth bowled Dhoni a bouncer, Yuvraj came up and had some words - I don't know what he said, but clearly Yuvi was in quite a foul mood today and that was not elevated when he flopped royally when batting.
180 was a fair score, though by no means a massive one. But we got behind the home team from ball one when they were in the field and made such a noise that the pressure was huge on the visitors. The fielding at the start was quite brilliant, especially with Murali hitting the stumps with great regularity. And on a couple of occasions when some of the fielders were sloppy, Dhoni really let go at them and asked them to focus. Well, Shaun Marsh did hit some towering sixes right out off the ground, but once Balaji got himself into the act there was only really going to be one winner.
Balaji may have only briefly shone on the cricket field, but already he is a mini-legend. Not entirely for his cricketing skills, which incidentally, are substantial, but also for his massive, easy almost casual smile and his long locks of hair. Just ask the Pakistani girls who saw him in 2004. The Balaji of today is much slower in pace, than in his heyday and with a remodeled action, yet the skill is still there. Last night he got surprising bounce that none of the other bowlers on show could manage and first destroyed the threatening partnership of Sarwan and Marsh. And finally when his good friend Irfan was looking like spoiling the party for Chennai he came up with that unbelievable sensational hat-trick which will not merely go down in history books, but also in the folklore of Chennai cricket for generations to come.
Once again, a close game with a local hero coming up trumps in the final act with the whole stadium cheering form. The best formula for an IPL game, in my opinion. With Badrinath and Balaji being the main protagonists in this act, the Super Kings look serious title contenders once more and this time based on local talent than imported.
