Cricket Movie ‘83’: A Nostalgic Trip Back To The Moments Of Glory!

The movie aptly titled ‘83’ is really worth reliving Team India’s glorious World Cup victory at Lord’s in 1983 defeating the mighty West Indies, thus stopping the latter’s hat-trick moments after victories in 1975 and 1979; and in fact, the West Indies team is yet to win their third World Cup since then. I missed watching the movie on the big screen as moviegoing has been effectively stopped since the last two years, particularly for the elderly people like me. I grabbed the opportunity as soon as the great cricket movie was premiered on television yesterday. The movie too has suffered due to the pandemic: first it was slated for release in 2019 which, unfortunately, was postponed due to post-production reasons and after that the COVID-19 recurring bans and restrictions never allowed to make the movie reach millions of cricket fans. Finally, though it could be released in December 2021 its shows were again affected by the Omicron wave. Therefore, as it were, the movie could not recover its huge budget so far and technically was not a success at the box office.

 

During the time, June 9-25^th1983, we were living in the beautiful hilly town of Diphu in Assam and television sets, not even to mention telecasts, were totally absent. As avid cricket players and fans I along with my younger brother and occasionally my father always used to tune in to the radio commentaries whenever India played, since the early seventies. We used to stay awake late night and huddled around the radio set as and when the overseas Test matches demanded. I remember staying awake almost the whole night with my brother relishing one of the greatest Indian Test victories against the West Indies in 1976 as India managed to successfully chase the target of 405 runs batting last.

 

The ICC World Cup-1983 was another huge event not to be missed at any cost for us despite India’s laughable performances in the 1975 and 1979 and the general feeling that India had no chance at all in 1983 too. Such emotions were played in the movie beyond a measure, obviously to boost up the spirit of nationalism. However, this kind of cricket nationalism is okay as cricket is indeed a unifying force irrespective of caste, religion and languages in a diverse country like India and in light of the divisiveness of the present days. So, we were eagerly following the radio commentaries and expected India perform under Kapil Dev like the diehard optimists we were and always are.

 

The early Indian victory against the West Indies in the double round-robin Group-B matches really set us up and we never believed that Indian victories were flukes. That defeat for West Indies was their first ever in the World Cups. We sensed that this Team India, known as Kapil’s Devils, was indeed capable of winning and so it proved. Despite the huge losses against West Indies and Australia subsequently India again regrouped to annihilate Australia and made a historic entry into the Semi-finals winning against Zimbabwe with that record-breaking innings of 175 not out by Kapil Dev that put India back after being reduced to 17/5. And then the Semi-final victory against England in their own land to enter the Final. Therefore, the fluke-theory was never there for us, and I’d say again that this theory has been a bit overemphasized in the movie.

 

The Real Moment!

The hilly town naturally went to sleep early and the matches played in England and Wales were on till late hours (that time one-day matches were of 60 overs each) we continued to huddle around the radio set, playing it at a low volume to not risk waking up our parents. On the monumental day of the 25^th June 1983, we were indeed disappointed when Team India was bundled out for 183, but still believed the team could come back as wont to our optimism. As the West Indies chased the target during the night, we kept on with the radio commentary in our usual way and celebrated the fall of every wicket between us brothers. When the final moment of victory came, we exchanged wild-spirited high fives giving out suppressed battle cries. And then, we went to bed quietly. There were no celebrations at that period the way we witness nowadays.

 

The Reel Moment!

The task of playing the living legend Kapil Dev who is still the first cricketer of the world having more than 400 wickets while scoring more than 5000 runs in Test cricket and the Wisden Cricketer of the Century (2002) was not at all an easy one for Ranveer Singh. A terrific actor who is known for his roles of Peshwa Bajirao (2015) and Alauddin Khilji (2018) among many others has done a lot of labor to follow Kapil Dev’s batting/bowling style, his mannerisms and even the way he talks, and finally has delivered a memorable performance which is lapped up by the legend himself. All other members of Team India-83 have also done very well, picking up the details about the real cricketers.

 

The Reel Team!

This speaks volumes for the kind of research and training done by the director Kabir Khan, known for his critically-acclaimed blockbuster movie ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ (2015), in making of ‘83’, choosing the characters with some physical resemblance and then building on those. Particularly Jiva who played K Srikanth capturing all the nuances and the humor stands out as a highlight. Not only for Team India, but also the choices for the international cricketers, namely of West Indies, with suitable actors. He also recreated the Lord’s environs with immaculate authenticity and mastery looking for details all the time. No doubt, the budget of such a movie would really shoot up.

 

The Real Team!

‘83’ is indeed an achievement for Kabir Khan in all possible respects. He can be pardoned for his filmy fictional dramas/melodramas, background songs and the ‘nationalism’ spirit we already mentioned, because all such elements are needed to make an authentic bio-pic click as a film too, particularly among the modern generation of today. The movie has also been lauded by all the real cricketers involved including another living legend Sunil Gavaskar and the celebrities from almost all fields of activity. The movie opens with a condolence note to Yashpal Sharma, one of the star performers of the team, who expired last year and is the first one to go from the Team-1983. We miss him too and love the inherent niceties of his character played so ably by Jatin Sarna. And more importantly, it’s not a hero-centric film like the Bollywood customs with every character coming out on its own and thus keeping the team spirit that is so typical of Kapil Dev.  In all, a hearty thumbs up for the entire team of ‘83’. 

How Is Batter Better Than Batsman Or Batswoman?

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given its approval for officially using the word ‘batter’ to describe a ‘batsman’ or ‘batswoman’ in all forms of cricket and commentaries or writings with effect from the ICC Men’s Cricket T20 World Cup-2021. The ICC has said that the word ‘batter’ has in fact been used since the last about four years, mostly in commentaries and also by some cricketers themselves, and this shift of usage is noted by the supreme cricket body. The Council further said that the word is ‘gender neutral’ and it makes cricket a more inclusive game. A large majority of the people concerned with the most popular game of the world have welcomed this change with some describing it as a ‘common-sense change’. They further argue that nobody describes a ‘bowler’ as ‘bowlsman’ or ‘bowlswoman’ or a ‘fielder’ as ‘fieldsman’ or ‘fieldswoman’. However, the word ‘fieldsman’ has been in usage since the old times and even sometimes now. This writer is not aware if ‘fieldswoman’ has also been used in women’s cricket which is not a recent phenomenon, but is being played, although in a limited way, since the 18^th century in England and later in Australia.

 

In normal English usage the word ‘batter’ means ‘hitting hard someone or something again and again’, and the word is also used in cooking and beating a person, mostly in unfortunate cases of ‘wife battering’. In England, where the English language originated and became a world language, the usage of ‘a batter person’ is someone being ‘regularly hit and badly hurt by a member of the family or his or her partner’ who could be a child or a woman. Of course, the batter can now be included to describe someone who keeps on hitting the cricket ball; but the word can never rid itself of its ‘negative’ implications, particularly in the context of us growing up with and playing cricket which has always been and even now described to us as ‘gentlemen’s game’. Can a ‘batter’ be a gentleman or a gentlewoman?

 

Another argument of the ICC and its supporters is that of making the game of cricket more ‘inclusive’. Who says cricket is not inclusive? Since ages people have been listening to radio commentaries or watching live telecasts with full families including, more prominently, women members; in the stadiums the cameras love picking up cheering women fans; and in the childhood days most of us always allowed the girls to participate in the game. Further, the ICC itself distinguishes its competitions or World Cups as ‘men’s’ or as ‘women’s’, and pray how are they going to make it as inclusive as making teams with both men and women players like co-education schools and colleges or like tennis mixed singles or doubles. We have also mentioned above that women’s cricket also began more than two hundred years ago.

 

Then, the argument of making cricket ‘gender neutral’: our point of ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ cricket teams is still valid here. How is it ‘gender bias’ if we call the men cricketers as ‘batsmen’ in men’s cricket and women cricketers as ‘batswomen’ in women’s cricket? Of course, some commentators may find it ‘tongue battering’ to keep on pronouncing the adjective ‘batswoman’ again and again in matches played by women. The basic gender difference in the game comes naturally with men endowed with more physical strength and stamina, and women burdened with their own kind of issues which make men’s cricket much more popular than women’s, and here, the ICC or any other men or women cannot do anything about it. The most physically taxing games are of football, cricket and hockey and therefore in these games men’s teams are more popular for fans unlike in games like tennis, table tennis, badminton and athletics or gymnastics. With feminist commitments in his writings always, this writer does not find the term ‘batswoman’ derogatory for women in any context.

 

I’d get always infuriated when someone describes Bradman or Garfield Sobers or Tony Greig or Allan Border or Sunil Gavaskar or Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara as ‘one of the greatest batters in history of cricket’; even now I get infuriated when some commentators or players themselves describe Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Joe Root, Sanath Jayasurya, David Warner, Steve Smith and many others as ‘batters’. Well, in this liberal age we can have our choices in usage of words too. Cricket fans will go on using either ‘batsman’ or ‘batter’ eternally, in spite of the ‘approval’. And personally speaking, I’ll always go on using ‘batsman’ for men’s cricket and ‘batswomen’ for women’s cricket in my writings on the this magnificent game of cricket.

Highs and Lows of Cricket and a Commercial Break!

After some terrific cricket and some horrific related incidents during the first three months of 2018 it’s time now for a commercial break. Well, not exactly though for millions of avid fans! They have been patiently waiting for this most commercially viable form of cricket since the last season. Come April-May for over a decade now,  and nobody can stop these fans for going gaga over this movie-styled entertainers of the sport.

Right, we are talking about the 11^th Season of the Indian Premiere League-2018 T20 Cricket tournament starting from 7^th April till the end of next month. Many fans would be excited this time for the return of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) with the former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni back as captain of CSK and Ajinkya Rahane replacing the tainted Steve Smith as captain of RR while New Zealand captain Kane Williamson replaced the tainted David Warner as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Shikhar Dhawan was earlier tipped for the position. Pune Rising Supergiants and Gujarat Lions that played for last two years after the two-year suspension of CSK and RR over a cricketing scandal could not qualify this time.

The buying of selling of internationally famed cricketers, euphemistically called auction, saw most of the regular players retained adding some exciting new ones. England cricketer Ben Stokes became the costliest overseas player while Indian pacer Jaydev Unadkat the costliest domestic one—both these players are bought by RR. Some known faces remained unsold including Lasith Malinga, Martin Guptil, Hashim Amla, Ishant Sharma and many others. Destroyer Chris Gayle somehow found a place in Kings XI Punjab in the third and last round of auction. Old warhorse Yuvraj Singh also found a place in this team which is being led this time by a new captain Ravichandran Ashwin. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) discarded Gautam Gambhir who is being lapped up by Delhi Daredevils (DD) as captain. The sensation of the T20 Tri-Series Final against Bangladesh in Colombo on 18^th March, 2018, Dinesh Karthik whose 8-ball 29 won India the Nidahas Trophy, becomes the captain of KKR which would definitely cheer a lot of Kolkata fans.  India captain Virat Kohli continues to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) while Rohit Sharma is also retained as captain of Mumbai Indians (MI). The inaugural match between MI and CSK will be played in Mumbai on 7^th April and Kolkata will see its first match on 8^th April between KKR and RCB. The other venues will be Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mohali assigned as hometowns to the different teams.  The Schedule:

This commercial break in terms of the IPL-2018 can be viewed as a much needed relief after the scandalous developments in international cricket recently. While the India Vs South Africa cricket series in South Africa was a high point in competitive spirited cricket the Test duel between the hosts and Australia cricket reached the lowest.

Although India under Virat Kohli lost the 3-Test series against South Africa 2-1 during January, 2018 the cricket was highly competitive with constant ups and downs. India nearly won the series with some superlative bowling performances, and many Indian fans believed that with some more batting application India would have seen the final result in its favour. South Africa won the closely fought first and second Tests while India won the final Test convincingly. And then, the Indians were unstoppable annihilating South Africa both in the one-day and the T20 series. Australia played the Test Series against South Africa during March, 2018 winning the first one and losing the second one. The series was looking up at that point of time despite the ugly off-field confrontation of David Warner with South African keeper Quinton de Kock during the first Test in Durban.

The ball-tampering incident happened on March 24, 2018 on the third day of the third Test being played in Cape Town involving Cameron Bancroft, and then skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner—both being in the know as well as in the leadership. The deliberate and cold blooded tactic shocked the whole world, both cricketing and non-cricketing, with absolute words of condemnation coming from one and all irrespective of the highest or the lowest positions of authority. Cricket Australia was swift in its action, and the implicated players accepted the punishment with lots of public tears, but with no appealing intentions. As per the latest information Cricket Australia wants to put all the lids on this most scandalous happening which is possible because as mentioned the players are not going to appeal against the punishment handed out. Of course, a lot of questions involving this shameful episode would remain unanswered forever.

Meanwhile Afghanistan cricket team qualified for the ICC World Cup-2019 against all odds and beating Ireland in its final outing. The other qualifier is the West Indies, surprisingly.

Cricket T20: Now India Go 1-0 Up Against Australia, The Bumrah Connection!

After winning the last and the most thrilling one day international match in Sydney (January 23) against Australia by six wickets thus avoiding the humiliating whitewash losing the ODI Series 4-1 India today have crushed the hosts in the first of the 3-match T20 Cricket Series in Adelaide by 37 runs taking 1-0 lead. Put into bat Indian top order fired all cylinders again with Virat Kohli stealing the show with a scintillating 90 not out. Rohit Sharma made an explosive opening putting the Aussie bowlers to the axe and then Virat took over with the ODI discard Suresh Raina scoring at will. Raina struggled to find his rhythm and slowly settled into his favorite strokes. However, he wisely left most of the scoring to the unstoppable Virat. In the last over skipper Dhoni too showed his long lost magic hitting up 11 runs in three balls. India set a daunting target of 189 in 20 overs and Indian spectators waited with crossed fingers for the Indian bowlers to perform. And the Bumrah connection worked again with Ashwin and Jadeja contributing to restrict Australia to 151 all out.

It was indeed refreshing to see old warhorses like Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh back in the field. Nehra did show some of his old swing magic while Yuvraj did not have a chance to bat or bowl much. The beginning of the Indian attack was scary as usual with the Aussies hitting them all around and the new pick Pandya bowling five wides in an over of six. But soon as if inspired by the latest find pacer Bumrah the bowlers pitched in with Australian wickets falling at regular intervals.

This magnificent victory emphasizes the fact that in this tour of Australia the Indian top order has delivered consistently and that with some application from the bowlers and the middle or lower order batsmen India could have easily won the ODI series. Problem is Team India is full with consistent non-performers including the captain Dhoni himself who has a tendency to promote himself in the batting order once the top order has fired and then ‘helping’ the team to lose the momentum totally hiking a good required rate to unassailable ones. How do you justify the loss in the 4^thODI in Canberra (January 20) after Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan with their sparkling centuries and a most rollicking partnership made winning a mere formality?  Then Dhoni came and got out opening the gates for India losing 8 wickets for 46 runs. This is in line with the old Indian style of ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’. What could have been a historic victory chasing the highest ever target against Australia in Australia was cut short brutally. Of course, this milestone was achieved in Sydney thanks to Bumrah who prevented the hosts from racing to a 350+ total and India riding on Rohit Sharma (99) and a maiden century by Manish Pandey chased the highest total (330) with 2 balls to spare. The captain, though sluggish as usual, could not prevent the victory again.  And Canberra should have given India one more victory.

In the first three ODIs India could have won at least one match if their middle or lower order contributed extra 20-30 runs and the bowlers showed some discipline. We talked about the ‘similarity’ factor in our last post and this inspired the hosts so much that they too invited India to bat first in the third one day international in Melbourne (January 17). This ‘similarity of defeat’ syndrome made the selection system haphazard as if by lottery with players joining the team out of nowhere. Why Jadeja was preferred ahead of Ashwin from the third ODI onwards only Dhoni or Ravi Shastri knows. Maybe our all-floundering all-rounders still rule the roost. Stuart Binny who looks the genuine all-rounder at the moment was never allowed to settle down in the team. It was indeed a lucky draw that Manish Pandey was selected for the last ODI and he taught the victory-starved team how to win matches. It is also significant this ODI Series yielded the highest ever runs scored in one day series history and that Rohit Sharma was chosen the Player of the Series—an honor that normally goes to the winning team.  

Anyway, our captain Dhoni asks us to be positive always and so let us be positive. At the present ratings India should pocket the T20 Series against Australia. Now, the T20 fever is on with the India-Sri Lanka T20, ICC World T20 championship, Asia Cup that this year is to be played in T20 format and of course the cricket movies of IPL just following each other. However, the bonanza should not take the focus away from non-performers in Team India.

IPL Verdict By Supreme Court: Finally N Srinivasan Given Out Caught!

Nine months after forcing BCCI President N Srinivasan to resign the Supreme Court of India has virtually demolished the big-money-powered cricket clout of India in a landmark judgment delivered today on the IPL Spot Fixing Scandal and Conflict of Interest case. The court said that Srinivasan created the conflict of interest himself by bringing in an amendment to the constitution as BCCI Chief. The court struck down this controversial 6.2.4 clause that allows BCCI officials to own IPL teams and have commercial interests. Scrapping of this rule means that Srinivasan cannot contest the BCCI elections which the court ordered to be held within next six weeks. Supreme Court gives Srini one option though—you can fight election if you give up your IPL team Chennai Super Kings. This is not one of the easiest options to make use of because of obvious ‘cricket’ lobbies, players, business and revenues. Furthermore, the court constituted a three-member panel of judges to decide the fate of Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals along with implicated team or franchise officials as per the Mudgal Committee report and recommend changes in the BCCI constitution. The IPL, Season 8, supposed to come up in April this year is now under a cloud and there is no clarity for the IPL auctions that are to start shortly. The panel will give its report in six months.

The historic judgment effectively finishes off the cricket monopoly enjoyed by the BCCI for so long. The court holds that the Indian cricket Board functions are public functions and like all public functions by any organization BCCI is also open for judicial review. The BCCI can longer be the executor and the judge too. It can no longer punish or benefit anybody within the Board. BCCI did not adhere to prescribed procedure too while conducting probe in IPL spot fixing scandal. One must also give full credit to Cricket Association of Bihar for bringing the Conflict of Interest syndrome first time into litigation and the Mudgal Committee for its commitment to clean up Indian Cricket.

All escape routes for the most powerful cricket administrator cum beneficiary of Indian cricket seem to be closed now. He is finally right royally adjudged out ‘caught’ by ‘conflict of interest’ by none other than the apex court of the country. What the International Cricket Council (ICC) does to N Srinivasan next would be his immediate concern. As expected, many cricket ‘experts’ and ‘lovers’ are already crying hoarse for the sake of the IPL in the spirit of the game, India’s prestige and interests of innocent cricketers. But, the IPL must severe its dirty underbelly and stick only to cricket if it wants to continue as a tournament. And, hope is all there. Hail the Supreme Court for this. Hail the Operation Clean-Up Indian Cricket. Jai Ho!

IPL-5 Mega-Show: Co-owner Shahrukh Khan Banned! RCB Player Arrested!

The murky affairs of the Indian Premiere League-Season Five (IPL-5) Cricket T20 continue abated. Today the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) held a managing committee meeting in Mumbai and unanimously adopted the proposal of banning Bollywood megastar and Co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) IPL franchise, Shahrukh Khan (SRK or King Khan), for five years from entering the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai where the movie-star allegedly misbehaved with MCA officials and security personnel. The meeting was chaired by the president of MCA, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is also a cabinet minister in the Government of India. 

The MCA maintained that theirs is an independent body and is empowered to take binding decisions on matters directly relating to them. But as the apex body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is also empowered to take the final decision in this matter and the expected tussle within the cricket bodies is awaited with tremendous anticipation. Apart from being an IPL co-owner Shahrukh Khan  contributes a lot to the IPL glamor and business and therefore the BCCI is most likely to find the going very tough indeed. 

The King Khan controversy has attained a hilarious political angle with Mamata Bannerji, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, coming out strongly in support of SRK and demanding 'MCA must withdraw the ban'. The ebullient and unpredictable lady must have found a regional angle in that issue since SRK happens to own Kolkata (Knight Riders), the capital from where she operates, and that the superstar has been a familiar cheering presence in the famous Eden Gardens there since the birth of IPL in 2008. Shahrukh Khan who hit back yesterday on the Wankhede brawl was yet to react to the latest development. 

Meantime Luke Pomersbach, an Australian playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), was arrested last night in a Delhi five-star hotel for molesting an American woman of Indian origin and for injuring her fiance. Reports say that Pomersbach invited himself to a party in the lady's hotel room and later misbehaved with her. When her fiance tried to intervene Pomersbach attacked him violently and he had to be admitted into a hospital. While RCB regretted the incident and expelled the player from the team the IPL authorities dissociated themselves from the incident calling it a case of individuals and that there were no official IPL parties for the franchises and players. As per latest reports Luke Pomersbach got an interim bail and cried out his innocence. 

Apart from Mamata's 'regionalism' more political reactions are surfacing against the mess in IPL. Former cricketer and opposition Member of Parliament, Kirti Azad, had threatened to sit on a  fast in a Delhi stadium from May 20, 2012 if the police failed to act against the IPL. 

That the IPL-5 has come to score high on the 'cricket' aspect ultimately proves to be an aberration. Essentially, as we have maintained since its inception, it is an intoxicating cocktail of dirty money, greed, immorality, glamor, liquor and women. BCCI or IPL authorities cannot dissociate themselves from any ugly happening because only they have provided the murky environment. Players from all around the globe come to participate just for the money and fun. With the matters as of now the IPL degeneration looks set to deteriorate further in near future. 

Long live cricket! 

Cricket Getting The Better Of IPL-5!

Whatever it is, finally it’s genuine cricket that interests genuine cricket lovers. Let the cheerleaders of all hues and colors with dress or the lack of it dance on! Let the non-cricketing crowd gesticulate to their hearts content just to see themselves in those huge screens on the field! Let the glam-slam-bang lady commentators be a little too careless about their costumes! Let the noise as deafening as it can get! Let the ‘strategic’ breaks break the rhythm! From the comfort of your homes you can just mute it all and enjoy some cricket if any!

Hot and humid conditions at the start of the Indian summer are making the pitches a lot slower with the ball doing things. Therefore, despite all those debilitating restrictions on the bowlers run-making in this IPL-5 is getting very difficult, desperate at times. This version of the IPL has earned the distinction of having the largest number of low-scoring thrillers. With mere targets of just above 100 runs the chases have not been easy at all and most teams are failing to achieve taking the match to the last over or the very last ball. That’s cricket speaking—loud and clear.

And, you can see absolutely clearly who have all been performing well. They are all the correct and copybook cricket Test players like you name it. Rahul Dravid—who was dropped from the Indian one-day team on numerous occasions and was almost forced to retire from Test cricket—has been playing tremendous cricket with his younger teammates not able to capitalize on most of the times for Rajasthan Royals. Sachin Tendulkar, Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullam, AB de Villiers, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag who became the first ever IPL player to score five consecutive half centuries, Ajikya Rahane, Saurav Ganguly to some extent as he has been losing steam of late and so on. You can point out maybe only one glorious exception in the form of Francois du Plessis who have made a dream IPL debut and still going strong. About the most successful bowlers you can find out yourselves.

This afternoon in Mumbai we watched a tremendous match of incredible cricket between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). CSK made a very good total of 173 runs and chasing a target of 174 runs in 20 overs MI gave us all a real cricketing treat. Sachin Tendulkar, like the living cricketing legend that he is, excelled in his home ground with precise, power-packed and genuine cricketing shots all around the ground given able support by Rohit Sharma who is immensely elegant once settled in his rare batting form. The pair almost ensured victory with a century partnership when Tendulkar at 74 off 44 balls (11 fours and 1 six) fell to an incredible catch by de Plessis in the 16^thover. Though the asking rate was still around 10 an over MI had 8 wickets left to notch up victory. But it was not to be.

Wickets kept on falling with some inspired bowling by Ravindra Jadeja. Finally at 158/7 MI needed 16 runs off the last over and most of MI supporters gave up hope at this stage. Next three balls—two runs and one wicket. 14 runs needed off the last three balls. Dwayne Smith playing first time for MI scored a six in the fourth ball, still 8 needed off two. Next ball—four! A classic situation of 4 runs needed off the very last ball. And, it was a screaming four and win! Smith was rightfully declared the player of the match. Australian pacer Hilfenhaus was at the receiving end with CSK and Team India skipper looking helpless. We heard, for the first time this IPL season, a chorus of huge cheers from our neighborhood. Those cheers were not that of mere MI supporters, but for some great cricket. Scorecard:

Cheers for just cricket!