Of dropped cups, goal-keeper-like catches and Karbonn Kamaal (again!)
The Banner that reminded me of Mumbai:
It is 8 pm local. Sachin Tendulkar has won the toss and is walking out to bat against Punjab at Mohali. A couple of boys have a banner in their hand, that says, “Tendulkar, we have bunked our college to see you bat”
College? At 8 pm? College under floodlights I wonder.
Had it been in Mumbai, I would have known. The guys would have probably left home at 3 to get there at 5 and got in by 8 after three hours in the line. Traffic snarls and long stadium queues are as commonplace as controversies in IPL.
Rayadu does a Laxman:
I write this in the fourth over of the game. And no, I am not given to hyperboles unlike Shane Warne and his ‘Pathan’s-was-the-best-knock-I-have-seen’. Yet, there cannot be too much doubt that Ambati Rayadu’s flick off Irfan Pathan to the boundary, is probably one of the best strokes I have seen; quite close to some of those that VVS Laxman has played over his career.
Little wonder then, Rayadu belongs to Hyderabad as well.
There had been one earlier that Kieron Pollard had exhibited; a controlled flick over the long-on fence for six. Even Tendulkar, whilst trying to clutch at straws as he struggled to hide Pollard’s lack of runs, made a mention of that stroke. To me, Rayadu’s was a better one.
Probably I just have a fetish with the flings flicks.
The Barthez of the game:
No, for a change, it wasn’t Ambati Rayadu. I mean, not only Rayadu. Love Ablish shared the honour. That is not a grammatically poor sentence. Love’s his name.
Kieron Pollard was the batsman and smacked Brett Lee to wide long-on; a shot that looked to be going to the boundary like, as the commentators typically describe, a tracer-bullet.
Ablish ran from long-on towards the ball, and much like a goal-keeper would, dived full length, was air-bound, and went for the catch. If life was to freeze at that moment, it would have looked like this… (see the adjoining picture!)
Love Ablish dived like this, but failed to catch it!
But goal-keepers are not meant to catch the ball, but parry it over the post. Unlike in the picture. Exactly what Ablish does.
No ‘Love’ lost between the bowler and Ablish. I know, clichéd.
The Karbonn Kamaal moment of the match:
I had to get this out. Wouldn’t have slept too well otherwise. And at the expense of providing some free publicity to Karbonn.
Shikhar Dhawan is the first to depart. Bowled by Pathan. Rayadu follows. Bowled again. Then Tiwary. Stumped. Tendulkar. Bowled.
So, when Rajagopal Sathish was finally – FINALLY – caught by Kumar Sangakkara, one would have expected an ear-drum explosion of a Karbonn Kamaal Katch. Fortunately, it was more sedate.
Why? It was Russel Arnold and Ian Bishop. LS was being missed.
Oh and yes. The first DLF Maximum also came only in the 15th over of the game. No commissions for the commentators today.
Tiwary ‘drops the Cup’, but Billy does not think so:
It was a repeat of the 1999 World Cup game between Australia and South Africa. Herschelle Gibbs had caught and dropped a sitter in the same fraction of the second and Steve Waugh had uttered the immortal words.
Nothing of that sort happened at Mohali though. Jayawardene smacked the ball, Tiwary caught it, and despite not really wanting to celebrate it, seemed to have dropped it after doing a few roll-overs.
Thankfully, Jayawardene is far too nice a guy to taunt the fielder. Not that, he was ever in a position to mutter those words either; his team was out of the competition, and then, the third umpire, Billy Bowden declared him out.
by Suneer Chowdhary
(The writer is a cricket rambler and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com. He will continue doing so for us whenever he gets that 25th hour of the day)
Related posts:
- Doug Bollinger catches a Hussey-like catch!
- Saurabh Tiwary catches, then drops but Jayawardene declared out!
- David Hussey takes a stunning catch for Kolkata!
- Delhi wins toss, will field first
- The Barthez behind the stumps for Mumbai Indians
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