The Theatre of the Absurd

There is something no right about the Indian Premier League Season 2 2009. Part-timers are taking hattricks, teams are losing from just winning positions, teams are winning from impossible situations and teams at the top of the (points) table are going down to teams ranked below them…

“THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD”

Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh are two part time bowlers and hardly bowl for India. Yet they are the only two bowlers in this tournament to have taken hattricks. Another part-timer who has taken a decent bag of wickets is Suresh Raina. He has hardly bowled for India and has one career wicket to his name in all forms of cricket for India. Notice that all these part-timers are Indian – bizarre! Here are their statistics with the ball in this tournament (courtesy of cricinfo): Another interesting aspect of the IPL was teams either losing the game from just a commanding position or winning from near impossible situations.
One game that comes to mind is 10th match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals. Chasing 151 for victory, Kolkata were 144/6 heading into the final over, requiring just 7 runs from 6 balls to win. Here was how it went: Cricinfo Commentary:

Kamran will bowl the last over to the well-set Ganguly 19.1 Kamran Khan to Ganguly, 1 wide, poor start, bowls it short and really wide outside off wide and Ganguly wisely lets it go 19.1 Kamran Khan to Ganguly, 1 run, drifts on the pads and he whips it to fine leg, Agarkar has the strike 5 off 5, one wicket here could change things 19.2 Kamran Khan to Agarkar, 1 run, Agarkar bravely exposes his stumps to a full delivery and carves it down to deep extra cover 19.3 Kamran Khan to Ganguly, no run, Kamran fires it on the blockhole outside off and Ganguly chases it and his bat hits the pitch, Kamran reckoned there was bat on ball, no Sir, not even close 19.4 Kamran Khan to Ganguly, 2 leg byes, nudges it softly towards midwicket and they scamper hard for the second run and Ganguly makes it 19.5 Kamran Khan to Ganguly, OUT, Oh boy what’s happening here! Ganguly makes room and tries to slash a short and wide delivery and gets an outside edge to the keeper, Rawat asks the question but Kamran doesn’t even look back, Ganguly can’t believe what he’s done SC Ganguly c wicketkeeperRawat b Kamran Khan 46 (30b 4×4 2×6) SR: 153.33 If it’s a tie, then the result will be decided by a Super Over. What tension! Here’s Ishant 19.6 Kamran Khan to Sharma, 1 run, OUT, It’s a tie and a Super Over! Ishant cracks a full delivery outside off and Warne flings himself to his left and intercepts it, they take the second run and Kamran runs across, gathers the ball and flings it to the keeper, Ishant was nowhere in the frame I Sharma run out 1 (1b 0×4 0×6) SR: 100.00

The Knight Riders comfortably lost to the Royals in the super over, indicating just how badly Kolkata choked or succumbed to pressure, especially Ganguly! Another game was the 45th match between the Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals (again!). Chasing a below par total of 146, the Indians were 142/7 heading into the final over, requiring just 4 runs off 6 balls for victory. Simple wouldn’t you say? Think again! Here was how it went: Cricinfo Commentary

4 needed off 6. Dhawal to face. Munaf to bowl. The extras have made a monumental difference here 19.1 Patel to Kulkarni, no run, beaten, swings way after pitching, tries to nudge it down to third man, misses, dot ball 4 off 5…. 19.2 Patel to Kulkarni, OUT, yorker on middle, trapped in front, tries to dig it out in the leg side, is rapped on the pads and the umpire raises his finger, struck on the back foot and was plumb, would have hit middle and leg DS Kulkarni lbw b Patel 1 (4b 0×4 0×6) SR: 25.00 What drama. . 4 needed off 4 now. Munaf has pulled things back. Will this go to the super over? Thank god they are not cutting to the advertisements. Chetanya Nanda comes in. Munaf gets ready. Mumbai are eight down. A run-a-ball needed. 19.3 Patel to Nanda, OUT, run out, Mumbai are committing suicide here, full toss outside off, tries to swing it away, gets a leading edge towards mid-off, tries to run through to complete a single, Yusuf Pathan at mid-off collects and throws down the stumps at the non-striker’s end to find Nanda well short C Nanda run out 0 (1b 0×4 0×6) SR: 0.00 Just one more wicket to go. Malinga comes in. Harbhajan on strike, Mumbai have the right man on strike 4 off 3…. 19.4 Patel to Harbhajan Singh, 1 run, fullish on middle, pushed towards cover for a single, Rajasthan wouldn’t mind that 3 off 2…….Tension, Tension, Tension 19.5 Patel to Malinga, OUT, run out, full on middle, squeezes it to cover and sets off for a single, he lobs a throw back to the bowler who throws down the stumps to seal a thriller!! SL Malinga run out 0 (1b 0×4 0×6) SR: 0.00

Mumbai heavily cracked under pressure and it was thanks to some superb death bowling from Munaf Patel. Really, Mumbai beat themselves, with poor shots and suicidal run-outs. The final game of note was the 48th match between the Deccan Chargers and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Chasing 161 for victory, Deccan were at 140/4 heading into the last over, requiring a massive 21 runs from 6 balls. Surely, that is too much to deny Kolkata their second win? Enter Rohit Sharma… Cricinfo Commentary

21 needed off the last over. Kolkata have the clear advantage here. Mashrafe to bowl

Deccan's Hero throughout the IPL Season 2! Will this be enough to earn Rohit a spot in India's Twenty20 starting line-up?

19.1 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, (no ball) FOUR, Rohit’s taken four of those, full toss on middle, pulled away to the deep square-leg boundary, called a no-ball by the leg umpire as there are only three fielders in the ring, what a slip up, drama right at the death. McCullum isn’t happy, but if there were just three inside the circle, the call is a right one. The Kolkata captain is disputing the decision, and continues arguing with the umpire, but the decision’s been made. It’s a no-ball, that’s final. An extra ball conceded. How costly will it prove? 19.1 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, 1 leg bye, misses out, full just a fraction outside off, moves across to paddle it fine, is it on the pads, just a run 19.2 Mashrafe Mortaza to Venugopal Rao, 1 run, a scare there, full and wide, made room to cream that through the covers, got a thick outside edge that landed on the bounce to third man, just a single 14 off 4 19.3 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, SIX, meaty, juicy full toss on middle, the worst ball you can bowl under the circumstances, heaved away over midwicket for a massive six, what a timely blow, 8 off 3 now, 115 metres that, one of the biggest of the tournament 8 needed off 3. Doable, what a slip-up. The ball’s lost, and they’re getting a replacement. Nice, hard thump that. All’s sorted. Here it comes. Rohit’s ready to face. 19.4 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, 1 wide, wide, Mashrafe, what the hell are you doing? Hurls it well wide of the offstump, Rohit lets it go wisely and the umpire frees his arms 7 off 3 19.4 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, 2 runs, full and wide, swatted down to long-on, scampers back for the second, Rao runs well to finish the run 5 off 2 19.5 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, FOUR, four, four, four, Mashrafe has spoilt it for Kolkata, full and wide, makes room and carts it wide of a diving cover to beat long-off to the boundary 1 needed off the last ball. Scores level. Can Kolkata salvage a super over here? Here it comes. Hold your seats. A short cover, a short fine 19.6 Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, SIX, it’s all over, short on middle, pulls it away well over the fine-leg boundary to seal a thrilling victory, can Kolkata ever win?

Click here to watch the video coverage of this over. To be honest, Kolkata ‘threw the game away!’ Mashrafe Mortaza bowled really poorly with full tosses and wide balls and lost it for the Knight Riders. The balls he bowled were just asking to be hit and Rohit Sharma took full advantage of it. Credit too has to go to Rohit in hitting the balls for fours and sixes, not everyone can hit bad balls to the boundary. It takes skill and Rohit certainly had it. The way Mortaza cracked under pressure was really uncharacteristic of how he bowls when he’s playing for Bangladesh. The final odd aspect of this tournament was the extent at which the 1st (Delhi Daredevils) and 4th (Chennai Super Kings) were outplayed by the 4th (Deccan Chargers) and 3rd (Bangalore Royal Challengers) teams respectively. In the 1st Semi Final, Delhi were 0/2 after just the first over. Delhi managed a respectable 156 in the end but it was not an overly convincing display of batting from a side that were heavily favoured to win the tournament. It got worst for Delhi, with Gilchrist taking 21 runs off the ever reliable Dirk Nannes. The shoulders of the Delhi Daredevils dropped and their attitude never really changed. They threw the towel in after just a few overs with a typical Gilchrist onslaught. Deccan eventually reached their target with 14 balls to spare. The losses that Delhi suffered prior to the semi final foreshadowed this a result. In the 2nd Semi Final, Chennai were similar to Delhi in that they were comprehensively outplayed by a lower ranked side. Chennai struggled to 146 off their allotted overs. The top 5 batsmen all got starts (scoring 20+ runs) but none failed to capitalise. Nothing changed during the 2nd innings as Bangalore eased their way to the target with 11 balls to spare. Bar Muralitharan, none of the other bowlers looked very threatening or looked like taking the game away from Bangalore. Chennai’s lost to Kolkata after scoring 180 + runs in the first innings was probably the catalyst that brought upon this result. Two of the worst teams in last year’s Indian Premier League will be playing each other in the final. Deccan, the worst team in last year’s tournament ended up the eventual winners in the Indian Premier League final.

“THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD”

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