IPL 6: The love-hate conundrum

Through all the controversies – the drought in Maharashtra; the spending of obnoxious amounts of money on auctioning, after-parties and cheerleaders; the disastrous opening ceremony; Ravi Shastri’s overuse of the word ‘electric’, the IPL will always come up with some situations that will force even the most determined pessimist to break into a slight smile and make him say to himself, “Wow.” To a cricket ‘purist’ who enjoys Test matches, straight drives and in-swinging yorkers, the IPL may be a little bit of a pain in the wrong place at times, but always tends to redeem itself through a few moments of pure magic.

The sixth edition of the hugely successful IPL begins with the tie between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Delhi Daredevils. 20-year-old Unmukt Chand takes his guard with David Warner at the non-striker’s end. A determined Brett Lee charges in and bowls an absolute beauty, leaving the young Chand bewildered. A capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens celebrating the dismissal of one of their own, while laying murmured praise on a seasoned Aussie veteran, reinforces a pessimist’s already negative approach towards the IPL and forces a purist to consider changing channels.

The patience of the average purist wears thin as he watches the unwanted cheerleaders perform their monotonous dance and a Lays chips commercial involving Gautam Gambhir “joining a new team for Rs. 5″. A purist enjoys analysing every aspect of every delivery and almost loses his cool because the broadcast returns just as Brett Lee is halfway through his run-up to Mahela Jayawardene.

But what happens next goes to show how unique and beautiful the IPL can be. Jayawardene takes his guard, stands his ground defiantly as a determined Lee charges in, watches the ball pitch short, adjusts quickly and guides the ball over the slip cordon for a boundary. Truly, a lovely passage of play.

The gutsy selection of Jasprit Bumrah – a young lad with absolutely no experience – by the Mumbai Indians for their tie against Royal Challengers Bangalore impressed many critics. The young debutant is brought into the attack just as Virat Kohli is getting into his stride. The visibly nervous youngster begins his relatively short run-up, bowls a short and wide delivery with his unique bowling action and looks crestfallen as Kohli smashes the ball to the boundary. Immediately, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar jog up to Bumrah, offer him some encouragement, pat him on the back and jog back to their fielding positions.

Bumrah runs in and bowls a replica of his previous delivery. As the ball reaches the boundary for the second time, Ponting, Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh converge on the young debutant with friendly words of advice and encouragement. As a result, the youngster runs in for a third time and bowls an accurate delivery on the off-stump, resulting in the entire Mumbai side applauding him.

A confident looking Bumrah runs in for the fourth time with a spring in his step. Unfortunately, he gets his line and length wrong again and Kohli smashes it to the boundary yet again. His seniors once again jog up to him and advise him to keep it straight and simple. The youngster runs in for the fifth time, bowls a quick in-swinging delivery, raps Virat Kohli on the pads, turns towards the umpire while sounding a confident appeal and watches in satisfaction as the latter duly raises his finger. The debutant finishes with impressive figures of 4-0-32-3; it’s amazing what a little bit of encouragement from a couple of legends can do.

“Mumbai Indians discovery – JASPRIT BUMRAH!! Unusual action, and 2 wickets in first appearance already!! Aieegaa!”

- Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan), on Twitter.

Prior to the Mumbai innings, many speculated as to whether Tendulkar would open with former arch-rival Ponting. To the delight of cricket fans world over, the duo pad up and walk into the middle to tumultuous applause from the Bangalore crowd. It was the equivalent of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin joining forces; John McEnroe partnering Pete Sampras in a doubles match; a strike partnership between Zinadine Zidane and Thierry Henry.

“This is very very special Ponting & Tendulkar opening for @MumbaiindianIPL two of the games greats, who would have ever thought? #pepsiipl”

- Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket), on Twitter.

The legends begin with a conservative efficiency that has become synonymous with their respective careers over the years. After putting on seven runs in singles, Tendulkar receives a delivery down the leg-side from Jaydev Unadkat and puts it away in impeccable fashion. The entire cricketing fraternity holds it’s breath as the duo walk towards each other and bump fists on the Chinnaswamy pitch; a beautiful moment which brought a tear to many a cricket lovers’ eye.

The duo begin to grow in confidence as the overs roll by, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, and in a class of their own. A few overs into the partnership, Ponting marches down the track to Daniel Christian and smashes a pull-shot off the front foot into the band of cheerleaders. The resulting fist-bump between the two legends realizes many a purists’ dream and draws a smile from even the most determined pessimist. A couple of overs later, every cricket fan thinks to himself, “I was alive when Muttiah Muralitharan bowled to Sachin Tendulkar with Ricky Ponting at the non-striker’s end.” The dream partnership eventually ends with Tendulkar run-out, leaving the world thinking, “Ah. It had to end like this.”

The IPL, no matter how determined you are to hate it, will always stir up your emotions with such situations: young wicket-keeper Arun Karthick yelling, “Bowling, Murali sir!” every time Muralithitharan bowled a delivery; the consistent last-over finishes in almost every match; Rahul Dravid proving that even the shorter format of the game requires ‘The Wall’ with a stellar knock; Kieron Pollard’s monstrous catch in the deep to send MS Dhoni back to the pavilion and ensure a Mumbai victory over Chennai, etc.

It may take a while, but eventually pessimists and purists alike would accept the IPL for what it truly is: a carnival of glamour, glitz, jazz, controversy, entertainment, ‘Karbon Kamaal Catches’, ‘Yes Bank Maximums’ and of course, cricket.