All good things come to an end

25 May, 2009 | Abbas Ali Baig

Among all the innumerable tricks that Lalit Modi has recently pulled out in the conduct of IPL 2, the way the final match panned out must surely take the cake. All ingredients for a tough contest were present, the atmosphere was truly electric, and the players, after an eventful first over, settled down to produce some memorable cricket. True the wicket was sluggish and there were not too many big hits, but even a low scoring match could become exciting if the teams are relatively equally matched and lady luck does not overly favour one team at the expense of the other. 143 was already below par for the course but at one time even this total seemed unlikely to be achieved by Hyderabad. Fortunately their resilience came to the rescue, with Gibbs’s purposefulness taking centre stage. Bangalore, sitting pretty half way through their innings came a cropper with the fall of two wickets in successive balls and the innings simply folded up after that. Some of the moments of the match were Kumble castling Gilchrist very early on and then returning to polish off the innings, generally excellent catching though Dravid dropped a sitter, the admirable way both captains led their sides, the control and coolness R P Singh employed in the final couple of overs and the unbridled joy that the winning captain, normally an epitome of decorum, displayed once the last ball had been bowled and victory achieved.

Some of the moments that linger from the six week IPL 2 journey: Rohit Sharma’s blistering 24 in one critical over, Gilchrist’s 17 ball 50, R P Singh defending 4 runs in the last over of a match, wickets falling in several first overs and immediately after strategic breaks, some bizarre run outs, the sad non-performance of some iconic players (some not even making the cut at all), and team Deccan’s spontaneous celebrations after winning the trophy. Excellent event, beautifully organized but alas all good things come to an end: so adieu IPL 2 and thanks for providing six weeks of unmitigated pleasure and entertainment. Some changes, some improvements are called for and there is little doubt that these will be duly addressed.