Thala at no. 9 and the lack of intent of CSK, hurts devout fans !!

IPL is great entertainment and keeps throwing newer stars !!  yesterday at Chepauk, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) ended their Chennai jinx in style, beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) there got the first time since the first IPL - by a whopping 50 runs, CSK's biggest defeat at home.  Thousands who had gathered went home with a remorse melancholy.

 

I have been watching Cricket for more than 50 years now – it is not simply IPL/ T20I, ODI, Test – but First division league matches, Buchi Babu trophy, Ranji, Duleep, Irani, Syed Mushtaq Ali, matches against visiting teams,  un-official tests, MJ Gopalan trophy, beach Cricket and some office matches including Blue Star. Cricket is not all about Sixers ! – there were times when an entire Series would have less than handful of Sixers hit.   I am not going to lament on a single loss of CSK – in Cricket such things happen.  CSK has won many titles, have lost many matches as well. Yet, the way the match was played by CSK, the meek surrender, going down without a fight and .. .. the crowds waiting for one thing !! hurt a Cricket Connoisseur.

 

Know the story of King Arthur  ?  According to legends, King Arthur was a king of Britain, a  beyond life  folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) as  Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established a vast empire.  

People believed that Aruthr was never defeated, never died !! -   sleeping somewhere remote, is a central motif connected to the Arthurian legends.  In the very famous poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson- "Morte d'Arthur" -  a third-person narrator tells the story of the dying King Arthur, after the final battle, where all but one of the Knights of the Round Table are killed. Arthur, mortally wounded, is borne by the last surviving knight, Sir Bedivere, to a ruined chapel near a lake.

Arthur tells Bedivere there will never be another place as great as Camelot. Arthur  says he is so badly wounded that he will not last till the morning, so he asks Bedivere to take his sword, Excalibur, throw it into the middle of the lake, and watch what happens. (Years before, Arthur had obtained the sword from a white silk-clad arm holding it out of a lake.) Bedivere doesn't want to leave Arthur alone, but he obeys.  

 

One stanza of Tennyson's Poem  would read  :  

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfils Himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

 

MSD is not a name, it is an emotion !! – MS Dhoni is a true legend. A phenomenal rise from a rural place, cemented himself and led India with fame in all formats and .. .. .. retired so suddenly with people – why now !   

In present IPL, couple days back  Afghan spinner Noor Ahmad Lakanwal, who  was not born when MSD made his ODI debut –was delighted as he beat Suryakumar Yadav and saw MSD effecting a lightning stumping.  Yesterday, Phil Salt understood how silly it is for within a fraction MSD made a fast handed stumping.  Salt had just lifted his toes, front foot was on the line as he missed a drive off a length ball angling way  on top of fifth stump. Dhoni didn't  move his knees, which is when his superpower is unleashed. The time between the ball being caught and swooshed onto the stumps  -  remarkable reflexes and Salt - who probably didn't lift his foot even a centimetre -  was out !!  Dhoni magic !!   

Yesterday CSK lost, RCB   ended their Chennai jinx in style, beating CKS,  first time since the first IPL - by a whopping 50 runs.  CSK's biggest defeat at home was not hurting but the intent was missing and CSK threw the towel much much before.  The contest was so dead that more than half of CSK's chase was all about finding out if and when MS Dhoni would bat. He eventually did so at No. 9, only for the second time in his career.  

We need teams to fight it out – one can lose by 50 or even 100 runs but not the way CSK did yesterday. MSD might have hit a couple of huge ones but no team can afford to have a wicket-keeper walking into bat at 9 and play out when the match is all over, and only the difference in loss  is being counted !!

 

Dhoni did not tease his fans by batting after Jadeja, Ashwin and everyone – he made them cry.  For once the blade coming down in an arc and sending the ball parabolic over the boundary long and high off Krunal Pandya – not once but twice was not relished.   

King MSD – you are remembered for your batting exploits, quick work behind the stumps, your Cricketing acumen, your astute leadership.  This is no Cinema  where fans wait for climax !!  If your presence is not meaningful for the time, may be Vansh Bedi plays, loss of CSK may not hurt as bad !!

 
A great fan of MSD and of Cricket
 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
29.3.2025