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The coming together of Super Kings
Thursday, May 29 2008
It has been a roller-coaster ride for the Chennai Super Kings to their semi-final destination in the Indian Premier League. Winning the first four games put them in the front of the eight-team pack, but dramatically, the fortunes hit a low with three consecutive defeats before they picked themselves up to eventually make it to the knock-out phase.
Through the ups and downs, the Super Kings kept their composure and showed great character, not once tumbling out of the top four slot, although there were justifiable fears over their qualification to the semi-finals. Yet, when it came to crunch situation, the Super Kings rose to the occasion to beat the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers in their final league game to book their tickets to Mumbai, the venue of the last three games.
At the start of the league, V B Chandrasekar, Director of Cricket Operations, kept harping on the first four games. “We have to win these games, for it will have a lot of bearing on our semi-final prospects. Four victories will also give us the momentum and thereafter, we can look to consolidate our position,” he had said about a week before the tournament commenced.
Looking back, one can now appreciate the logic behind such thoughts. The Super Kings, perhaps, were at the top of their game when Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey and Jacob Oram were in the ranks. The trio made sizeable contributions to the four victories before leaving for home to join their respective National teams on international tours.
The Super Kings have never looked as solid as their performance graph traced a zig-zag course after the trio left. Defeats to Chargers and the Bangalore Royal Chalengers, both of whom finished at the bottom of the league table, exposed a few chinks in the Super Kings’ armour.
They touched their nadir against Rajasthan Royals, getting dismissed for 109 and then Sanath Jayasuriya’s 48-ball century blasted them out of the park in Mumbai. It was thought that their bowling attack was suspect, and there were sufficient reasons to believe it was so.
“I think, our bowling has since stabilized and now has a settled look about it,” reflected Chandrasekar. “Our batting too is looking pretty solid, and so, I think, the team is as good as it can ever be under the circumstances,” he observed.
It is another matter that no Super Kings player figures among the top five in batting or bowling on conclusion of the league. But conversely, the Super Kings have tallied 150-plus in nine of the 14 matches, including 200-plus in three games. As for the bowling, the fact that they are the only team in top five with a negative Net Run Rate tells it own tale.
The induction of Lakshmipathy Balaji has certainly pepped up the bowling that is also in the capable hands of Manpreet Gony whom coach Kepler Wessels described as “find of the IPL”, and Albie Morkel, the all-rounder from South Africa. The two other frontline bowlers, Makhaya Ntini and Muttiah Muralitharan have only given glimpses of their ability that has made them World’s leading bowlers.
Gony heads the bowling with 14 wickets, followed by Morkel (13) and Balaji (11) whose 5 for 24, including a hat-trick, helped Super Kings beat Kings XI a second time, at home. Balaji, having returned to competitive cricket after a long lay-off owing to injury, has been the pick of the lot. Although lacking in pace, he has more than made up with line-length bowling besides a deadly, toe-crushing yorker.
Chandrasekar pointed out that should Muralitharan and Ntini also get into their flow, then the Super Kings will possess a potent attack that could well take them all the way in the IPL.
“Great players have a way of playing a big role on the big stage, and let us hope that both Murali and Ntini fire in the semis,” he said. Perhaps, the same applies to the rest of the team that skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs to motivate to up their levels on Saturday. The occasion cannot be any bigger, nor the challenge.
-- A.P.
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