** “Behind the easy ambience is a determined Team Hyderabad” --- Times of India.
Is it so?
May not really!
Had Gillie not recollected his knack, ‘Deccan Chargers’ would have been written off once again for being underachievers in the successive Indian Premier League to the last season. Gillie had ensured that his team would move more closer to inscribe their name on the glittering trophy, with an unleashing effort despite of balanced daredevils’ attack.
And all about chargers’ success this time round was not only this guy, but there were few awesome performances from Rohit, Ojha and more importantly RP and of course from Gibbs. The South African soil has inspired all but there is a ‘but’ factor, resisting me from completely supporting them for the finale tonight. For me its all strange, as I never felt this way when I had supported Team India, though they were extremely unpredictable.
As the IPL hurtles to a close, I try to convey the ‘but’ factor in the following lines. I have been shuttling between Challengers and Chargers since last night, as they both are going for one last clash tonight in the IPL’2009. And it is the TRUE clash too, a truth that no one can dare to forget, and that is the fatal format of the game itself. Twenty20 - the synonym of unpredictability, the format that killed off the long run of many other whirling knocks of cricket, not exactly it killed off, but to some extent without any ambiguity. Still, every format of this game has some thing that no one can point a finger at it.
Coming to the clash of two underperforming teams of last year’s league held on Indian soil, both teams have vital players of both Indian and Foreign whose attitude bridged the gap between their respective teams and the level of confidence that matters the most in the middle. But the basic difference between the two teams is not so basic, but is the most required ‘consistency’. As the challengers have been most consistent since they did come back from almost last spot of the table, of course knight riders never allowed them to be the last, while Chargers have not been as consistent as they have to be with the kind of players it possesses. But the instinct is the one that matters the most over and above the part time consistency. And today both teams will have to speak their talents with undoubted knocks, to play the next year’s leagues with shouldering the royal status of defending champions, and of course a sadistic pressure being accompanied.
It may not take more than a while to become the champion but it requires the vision and implementation of the same to be the one.
Having been a supporter of the Deccan Chargers I would love to see them lifting the trophy tonight… but having been a watcher of the league, I would not resist myself from clapping for Royal Challengers, if they win tonight.
My heart says that today is Chargers’, but my mind naps for Challengers’.
Let us see!