President Rajapaksa’s magnanimous gesture

When Mumbai Indians entered the final of the Indian Premier League, the chances of captain Sachin Tendulkar playing was remote because he had suffered injuries to two of his fingers and his holding the bat was going to be difficult.

It was then that Sri Lanka’s sports loving President Mahinda Rajapaksa moved in to help the little master play in the all-important final against the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.

The President invited Tendulkar to visit Sri Lanka and obtain help from the healing hands of Dr. Eliyantha White, who had earlier put right Gautam Gambhir and Asish Nehra.

Tendulkar who is a cricketing god in India and whom the spectators would have been disappointed had he missed the final, took wing with his wife Anjali had a quick consultation with Dr. White who had a look at the injuries and advised him what to do.

Sigh of relief

The spectators who packed the Stadium heaved a sigh of relief when it was known that Tendulkar would play. With his two fingers strapped to ease the pain, Tendulkar took the field and when it came to him batting, he did not show any discomfort as he began to play his signature strokes all round the wicket.

He made a fighting 48, but sadly the other batsmen let him down by not making runs and in the end his excellent innings was to no avail as the Mumbai Indians who were expected to win the final succumbed to Chennai Super Kings.

Tendulkar expressed his grateful thanks to President Rajapaksa and Dr. Eliyantha White, if not for whom he would have missed the final and it was a contended Tendulkar who took the field.

Chennai Super Kings led cleverly by Mahendra Singh Dhoni emerged worthy winners of the Third Edition of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tourney defeating Mumbai Indians led by Sachin Tendulkar by 22 runs.

Picturesque stadium

The final was played at the picturesque DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai and was watched by a near sixty thousand crowd who lapped up every moment of the final which was electrifying to the last ball.

The wicket looked ideal for this style of slap-bang cricket. This style of game asks the batsmen to forget all, what the game is about - TECHNIQUE - and go for shots that are not in the book.

The bowlers are forced to bowl negative, so as to stem the flow of runs. The only aspect that improves and one must be at his brilliant best is FIELDING . Other than for improving the fielding, batting and bowling styles become insignificant.

Attempting to hit the leather out of every delivery is what is expected of the batsmen. Runs off every delivery is what matters and how they come by singles, twos, fours or sixes is what counts.

Big hitting

Spectators flock to see the big hitting. It is the fours and sixes that keep the spectators howling for more. Wickets and however brilliant a catch taken is of no interest to them.

In limited over cricket, the best thing to do when the toss is won is to bat first. The side batting first will then not be under pressure. The batsmen will be able to swing freely.

Sides batting second have to face the pressure, in that they have to maintain a certain run rate every over. If a maiden over is bowled, then there is extra pressure on the batsmen to double the run rate in the next over.

And in pushing for runs, batsmen have to take risks and this could lead to their downfall, because they have to obtain the runs that were lost in conceding a maiden over.

When Dhoni called correctly he had no hesitation in batting and when they ran up 168 for 5, it was going to be a big task for the Mumbai Indians. It was the lusty hitting by left hander Suresh Raina who made 57 not out that helped them to that formidable score.

Good fortune

It is said that fortune favours the brave and Raina had the good fortune of being dropped at 13 and 23. He grabbed these chances with glee as he began to lash out at the Mumbai bowlers and made them pay for the poor catching of the fielders. Raina won the ‘Player of the match’ award for his gallant knock.

When the Mumbai Indians began their quest for victory, it was only the little master who obliged making a stubborn 48.It was of no avail because the rest of the batting failed to oblige and they finally fell 22 runs short of what would have been a memorable victory.

What was sad and shocking was that soon as the final, Lalith Modi the IPL boss was suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India who owns the IPL alleging corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering.

Modi removed

Modi was also removed from his post of vice-president of the BCCI and as chairman of the T20 champions league a separate club bash which is organised jointly by Australia, South Africa and India.

The BCCI has given Modi 15 days to answer the allegations and then the BCCI would conduct a probe to be completed in six months. However to Modi’s credit it must be said that he did wonders to see to the fantastic success that the IPL is enjoying.

However Modi is not going to throw in the towel without putting up a good fight. He has promised to expose all others who are involved and the coming days would reveal interesting happenings.

Malsiri passes away

It was sad to hear of the passing away of Malsiri Kurukulasuriya, a former elegant and big scoring right hand batsman from Trinity College who lit up inter-school cricket in the late 1950s.

Kurukulasuriya while a schoolboy played for the Sinhalese Sports Club with success before taking wing to Canada where he continued his innings scoring a lot of runs.

After his playing days were over and when he came back to Sri Lanka he contributed some incisive and interesting articles on cricket to the ‘Daily News’ which was enjoyed by all readers.

He will be missed.