The Indian Premier League once again brought thrill and excitement around the world. This being the fourth edition saw the coming of two new teams, The Kochi Tuskers Kerala and the Pune Warriors India. In addition the format used in the first three seasons had changed which just added that extra bit of spice to the tournament. This was set to be an amazing season.
As usual the tournament started off with an exciting start with the opening ceremony setting the scene. Then the first match of the tournament started with the champions Chennai Super Kings taking on the very improved Kolkata Knight Riders. The match was tight but the Super Kings came on top.
After a few games the table was looking a bit strange with the two new boys sitting on top. Kochi that had already beaten KKR and Mumbai were looking strong whilst the Warriors were 2 wins out of two. Bigger teams such as Mumbai and Bangalore sat further down near the bottom; in fact all of last season’s qualifiers had a shaky start.
A big surprise was the Kolkata Knight Riders who although had a much better team, was cruising at this point and leapfrogged ahead of both Kochi and Pune. The inclusion of Brett Lee, Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan bolstered the team line up. They had already created some big upsets and were still to do some more. At this point they were in the top four for sure.
After a few weeks the table started to look more normal as the big teams such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata were happily sitting at the top. The Pune Warriors India after their first two wins went on a very long winless streak. They weren’t the only team not performing up to the standards though. Both the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore had not fired yet and were slowly dropping down the table. Even with the likes of Dravid, Watson and Taylor the Royals could not put together a strong enough team.
The half way through the tournament the fate of some of the teams was decided. Mumbai looked well placed to easily qualify for the last four. As Bangalore’s chances were slipping away Chris Gayle returned from the West Indies and came in some style. Two back to back hundreds from the master, saw Bangalore right back in it and their chances of qualification came back to life.
For RCB it was Gayle and for King XI Punjab Shaun Marsh was keeping their hopes alive. What they required was at least four wins from their remaining 5 games to have any chance of qualifying.
At the other end Kolkata continued to progress as they had done all throughout the tournament and Chennai’s tournament came to life, but, Mumbai on the other hand came against the King XI and faced a 74 runs defeat. This was the start of a three match winless run. Down at the bottom teams such as Pune and Delhi had to say goodbye. And Deccans too were at the end of their rope. Rajasthan had to win pretty much all of their remaining fixtures as did Kochi to Qualify.
The King XI and the Royal Challengers however looked very much capable of qualification with Punjab having won their last 5. Kohli, the stand in captain for Dan Vetorri, had led his men right to the top of the table. His team was one win away from certain qualification.
Finally, Chennai and Bangalore had got what was needed to qualify for the last four. It was left for the Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and the Kings XI Punjab to battle it out for the remaining two positions. Punjab had to win against Deccan to even have a chance of qualification.
The game started in a strange way with Deccan getting off to a shaky start, but then a great partnership between the two openers got them to a much over par score of 198-2. The Punjab despite a well made fifty by skipper Adam Gilchrist fell 82 runs short of their target. Punjab was out.
The next two matches were to decide who plays who in the last four. Bangalore vs Chennai and then Mumbai vs Kolkata. In Chennai it was a very strange surface, not much for either bowler or batsmen. Chennai despite a marvellous 70* from captain MS Dhoni made a very under par score of 128-8. This was comfortably chased by the Challengers with 8 Wickets in hand and two overs to spare.
In Mumbai, Kolkata batted first making an outstanding 175-5 with a fifty from Jacques Kallis, and two quick thirty plus scores from Yusuf Pathan and Manoj Tiwary. The match was in Kolkata’s favour. Mumbai batted strangely with Harbhajan Singh coming in at number three and always maintained the required run rate. But later on they fell dramatically behind. The required 20 runs from the last over. Kolkata had this in the bag. Or did they! Gautam Gambhir gave the ball to Lakshmipathy Balaji who has been very expensive. He was hit for four 4s and then for a six on the last ball of the game. It was all over for the Knight Riders.
Ironically the four teams playing on the last day in the league stage, were to play each other in the knock out stage. Firstly in Chennai the two IPL giants CSK and the RCB came face to face once again. This match was comfortably won by the Super Kings who once would reach the final. In Mumbai the KKR took on Mumbai Indians for a place against the RCB in the second qualifier.
The game started poorly for Kolkata as they were 24-4 after 6 overs. Then an extraordinary 70* by Ryan Ten Doeschate followed by some big hitting by Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al-Hassan, brought them to 147-7. This was easily chased by the Men in Blue as they progressed to play against the RCB in Chennai.
The boys from Bangalore were immense getting to 185-4 in their twenty overs with Chris Gayle getting a well deserved 89. This was way too much to ask for as the Royal Challengers walked away with a 43 run win, Daniel Vetorri being the pick of the bowlers.
THE FINAL
This was the third match in a row that Chennai had played Bangalore in and was by far the biggest. Chennai, who had been at this stage twice before, and the RCB, coming for the second time, were both determined to win. Chennai got a marvellous score of 205-5 with Murali Vijay getting 96 and Mike Hussey getting yet another fifty. This looked terribly easy. After a poor start the Royal Challengers Bangalore got back on track with a quick 32 from Virat Kohli and a 42* from Saurabh Tiwary. Despite a 21 runs effort by Zaheer Khan at the end the Bangalore boys fell 58 runs short of the Chennai Super Kings score.
Dhoni had done it once again and had led his side to a great victory. What a captain! He has won the IPL twice now, Champions League once, the T20 world cup and the ICC World Cup. There is no doubt that he is one of the best players with the best club in the Modern era.