Eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013

The fourth edition of the CLT20 concluded last night with Mumbai Indians lifting the trophy for the 2^nd time. The brand of cricket exhibited throughout the tournament was good but, was not the breathtaking kind that you normally associate with the T20 format of the game. During the course of the 2 week tournament, there were some notable and at times astonishing performances that have been put into a package named as ‘Eight Exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013’.

Pravin Tambe

He has been a revelation would be an understatement. His age, his hunger for success and Youthful exuberance he adorns just makes him incredibly special and credit needs to be given to Dravid & co. for the faith they have shown on this 41 year old youngster. He showed you a glimmer of what he was capable of in the last IPL edition and went on to vindicate his selection by not only delivering the goods but, finishing as the golden wicket-taker in CLT20 2013, a fantastic feat that could well turn out to be invincible.

To have been the only bowler who didn’t concede a six right through the tournament just tells you the quality of his prowess and what he is made off as a leg spinner. His story is a sumptuous one to read and pretty emotional to hear as well. I salute you Bhaiya. You top the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013.

Rohit Sharma’s captaincy

I, for once believe that Rohit’s cricketing career has finally kick started. A career and potential which promised humongous things all these years might well live up to it finally. If his IPL stint as captain of Mumbai Indians was a special one, the achievement of leading Mumbai Indians to a season double and the manner in which he lead by example throughout CLT20 2013 surpassed his IPL captaincy heroics. His batting reached another level and his calm exterior as captain under pressure was heartening to see.

The 51(24) against Perth Scorchers announced his career resurgence as a matured batsman and in the context of the tournament just lifted Mumbai Indians’ morale to another level. And yesterday, the way he shuffled his bowlers and the belief he possessed when the Royals were running away with it at one stage was terrific to see. For me, this is probably a conspicuous factor of CLT20 2013 and is second in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013.

Mumbai Indians

The team which went into the tournament as outright favorites looked pretty dismal at the end of the first game against Rahul Dravid’s Royals and the washed out game against Otago Volts threatened to cut short Mumbai Indians’ season double ambitions. But, after surviving the scare of needing Otago Volts to lose to the Royals, Mumbai Indians came out of the blocks against Perth Scorchers with a clear game plan and team selection and breezed past the mandatory stipulation of needing to get 150 in 14.2 overs with 6 balls to spare. Dwayne Smith played an integral part in Mumbai Indians’ progress into the last 4 and his consistent run of form hardly looked like stopping.

Not to forget the brilliant death bowling of Nathan Coulter-Nile in the games against scorchers and the T&T and the incredible 3 wicket over on the night of the final by Harbhajan ensured Mumbai Indians completed a season double and the quote ‘ThisTimeForTendulkar’ was fulfilled. Because of the fashion in which Mumbai Indians brought their A-game to the fore when it was most needed, this probably has to be 3^rd in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013.

Rajasthan Royals

Dravid’s Rajasthan Royals continued to be considered as underdogs but, they did not let the tag deter their ambitions and the brand of cricket they wanted to play. The team comprising of raw talent in the form of Samson, who threatened to take the game away from Mumbai Indians at one stage in the final and the presence of old war-horses in Hodge and Tambe almost put the icing on the cake by dominating the first 10 overs of a massive chase of 203 on the night of the final. But then things fell apart and Rajasthan Royals capitulated rather miserably.

No matter what happened in the last 10 overs of CLT20 2013 final, Rajasthan Royals can be very proud of what they achieved throughout the tournament by completely dismantling all their group opponents and killing off the best IPL team thus far in the form of Chennai Super Kings in the 1^st semi-final. Dravid’s swan-song in his last competitive cricket match could have been better but then, he finished off second best to Tendulkar as has been the case all his career. Rajasthan Royals certainly deserve a 4^th spot in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013.

Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane continued to excel for Rajasthan Royals and ended the campaign as the leading run-scorer to go with the golden bat. Scoring 4 consecutive half-centuries as an unprecedented feat is no mean achievement and for a major part of their run chase in the final, Rahane seemed to help Royals achieve their first silverware in 5 years after the success in the first edition of IPL. In a format where most batsmen don’t mind slogging in order to make runs, the finesse and ease with which Rahane goes about his trade is eye-brow rising to say the least. As a holder of the golden bat and for the way he held Royals’ batting order together, Ajinkya Rahane finds himself in 5^th in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013.

Dwayne Smith

Going into CLT20 2013, if there was a chink in Mumbai Indians’ armor, it was their unstable Opening duo. Tendulkar hasn’t got going in the last couple of IPL seasons and hasn’t had a decent partner at the other end either. But, the injection of Dwayne Smith at the top of the Mumbai Indians’ batting order played a pivotal role in MI securing the title. Game after game, Dwayne Smith put his best foot forward and gave MI the stability it needed to set an ideal platform for the batsmen to come.

From his own perspective, this would probably be one of the highlights of his career. He was scintillating with his straight hitting and peppered the mid-wicket boundary with utmost disdain and precision. Dwayne Smith deserves no less than 6^th spot in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20.

Harbhajan’s 3-wicket over in the final of CLT20 2013

Talk about big match players and players who perform when the chips are down, Harbhajan yet again proved to be one. Rahane and Binny were looking at home and their task ahead wasn’t daunting as such. Prior to the over, there was a discussion involving Pollard, Rohit and Harbhajan on who should be bowling and from whatever I could make out, Bhajji was adamant in wanting to bowl that over.

The first ball of the over might not have gone according to plan but it did the job nonetheless. Rahane chipped a low full toss straight to the man in the deep mid-wicket boundary and brought MI back into the game. Prior to Binny’s dismissal, Bhajji disguised his ‘doosra’ beautifully and beat the bat on a couple of occasions and a false short looked imminent. The follow-up delivery was a doosra again and a missed heave from Binny across the line demolished his leg stump and Harbhajan’s decision of wanting to bowl the over was vindicated. Even though he bowled a poor delivery on the penultimate ball of his spell, Bhajji came back to pick a wicket on the final ball of his spell thanks to good glove work from Dinesh Karthick which got Kevon Cooper and tilted the game well in favor of Mumbai Indians.

In the context of the game and the tournament, without a shadow of doubt this 3-wicket over of Bhajji was sensational and slots his performance into 7^th in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20.

Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) and Otago Volts

T&T’s direct entry into the tournament was well deserved after having to go through the qualifying rounds in the previous two seasons of the CLT20. Absence of Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Kevon Cooper was expected to dent T&T’s chances of progressing further in the tournament. But, thanks to their ‘never say die’ attitude and astute leadership qualities of Ramdin, T&T gave a good account of themselves.

The outright victory over CSK in their last group game must have got them rejuvenated but, the game against MI was always going to be a formidable one. Their only potent threat in the bowling department was Sunil Narine who took 3-17 and dragged the game but a target of 154 was never enough and an opening stand of 90 runs meant Mumbai could afford to play out Narine. All and all, it was a good campaign as far as T&T were concerned.

Otago Volts’ previous stints in the CLT20 were huge debacles and they failed to get through to the group stages. This time under Mcculum, Otago Volts found a new lease of life and won all their 3 qualifying games including the thrashing of Sunrisers Hyderabad and slotted themselves in Group A along with Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Perth Scorchers and Highveld Lions. They won their respective games against Scorchers and Lions and the game against Mumbai Indians was washed out which left them with 10 points from 3 games and a win against Royals was necessary to write their own destiny.

But, a hard-fought bowling performance against Royals went in vain, which meant that they needed MI to lose to scorchers or win by a slender margin. But, MI took it upon themselves and did the needful to book the flight for the team from kiwi land. But, to go with all this, Jimmy Neesham’ exploits was a huge positive to come out of the tournament for the Volts. The all-rounder’ performances with the bat and the ball were one of the notable ones as far as this edition of CLT20 was concerned. Both T&T and Otago Volts for the distinctive accomplishments that they have been capable of find themselves in the last spot in the list of eight exquisite highlights of CLT20 2013.