It was a fantastic evening that had retro written all over. In many ways, it was like action replay but one had to be there to truly witness it.
The setting was the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad and the scene was not unfamiliar as also the gladiators. Mithun Chakravarthy, the original Disco Dancer of India’s Hindi cinema or Bollywood, was not amused. The Bengal Tiger hiccupped before it roared. But when it did roar, it appears it had all come a little too late.
The ICL is seeing one of its closest tournaments given that the points separating the teams have been minimal. Yesterday the Chennai Superstars felt like they were experiencing a déjà vu against the Lahore Badshahs. And they were not wrong. They had indeed met in the league stage just a day before in what turned out to be a dress rehearsal for the final. The Badshahs won the contest over the first champions of the ICL tournament.
The other semi final would also be decided by two teams who faced off against each other only a couple of days ago. The defending champions, Hyderabad Heroes, were up against Bengal Tigers whom they had tamed two days ago. The Tigers needed to pull out their claws and their coach, Daryll Cullinan, and captain, Craig McMillan, were well aware of the fact. For the Heroes, Chris Harris was running a well oiled unit and the relaxed manner in which they took the field had all but predicted the winner.
The Tigers faltered early, losing three wickets and not even twenty runs on board. Mithun, who has ‘bought’ the Bengal Tigers turned up in suitable gear and like a lion, watched on grumpy and growling silently and yet majestically about the manner in which his team was approaching this game. His was not a face to be looked at if oen happened to be in the team for the Tigers. But just when the Heroes thought it would be a repeat of an easy outing, Lance “Zulu” Klusener had other ideas. He took the attack to the Heroes who were certainly not expecting it. Joining him was an unlikely belligerent partner, Rohan Gavaskar, in perhaps his finest cricketing knock yet.
Klusener was ruthless, merciless and reminiscent of the days when he batted without fear and compunction for South Africa and often singlehandedly winning it for his team. His shot making certainly brought back memories of the affable but effective left hander in South African colours. Here, he was doing a sterling job for the Tigers and brought them back on track.
How telling was that partnership and the knock was visible in the manner in which the Hyderbad Heroes struggled to get off the blocks and were pulled back by the loss of wickets every time they took a couple of steps forward. Had it not been for Stuart Binny’s belligerent acceleration after the fifteenth over, Heroes would have found themselves run out of overs after taking things a little too easily. That it got so tight to demand six runs off a six ball over should not have been a great demand in the final over. But it did until the Heroes finally managed to once again put it past the Tigers, who have now shown a jinx-like habit of halting their tournament chase at the semi final stage yet again.
Now it will be a familiar showdown and one wonders, if there is another retro on the cards in two days’ time.
