খেলার গল্প কিম্বা জীবনের...

ফুটবলের বাজারে সত্যি কথাটা প্রথমেই স্বীকার করে নি। এখনও ফুটবলের চেয়ে ক্রিকেটটাই আমি বেশী পছন্দ করি। তা, ক্রিকেটে যে দেশটাকে আমি সমর্থন করি সেটা খুব মজার দল। হ্যাঁ যদিও পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে মজার দল এটা নয়। সেই জায়গাটা আমাদের প্রতিবেশী দেশটি নিয়ে বসে আছে। বছরে দুবার করে অধিনায়ক পরিবর্তন, খেলোয়াড়দের মধ্যে মারপিট, ফিক্সিং নিয়ে দোষারোপ কোন কিছুই সেখানে বাদ যায় না। আজকাল বাংলাদেশও মাঝে মধ্যেই বেশ ভালো খোরাক যোগায়। গত সপ্তাহের শাকিবের সাস্পেন্সানটা যেমন একটা।

কিন্তু তাই বলে ভারতকে গত ২৫ বছর ধরে সমর্থন করা মোটেই সহজ কাজ ছিল না। আমার জেতা ম্যাচ হেরেছি, কত ম্যাচে যে আমাদের বোলাররা প্রথমে দারুণ বল করেও শেষ দুটো বা তিনটে উইকেট ফেলতে গিয়ে হিমশিম খেয়েছে তার লেখাজোখা নেই। কালকেই তো চূড়ান্ত অসম্মানটা হয়েছে যখন জো রুট আর জিমি অ্যান্ডারসন মিলে টেস্ট ক্রিকেটের ১৩৭ বছরের ইতিহাসে দশম উইকেটের সর্বোচ্চ রানের পার্টনারশিপের রেকর্ড বানিয়েছে ভারতের বিরুদ্ধে।

আমাকে ২৮ বছর অপেক্ষা করতে হয়েছে, দেখতে হয়েছে পাঁচ-পাঁচটা বিশ্বকাপ যেখানে ওই ১০-১৫ দলের মধ্যেও বিশ্ব চ্যাম্পিয়ান হতে ব্যর্থ হয়েছে আমার দল। কিন্তু যখন শেষ অবধি জয় এসেছে ২০১১র বিশ্বকাপের সেই স্মরণীয় এপ্রিল রাত্তিরে নিজেকে মনে হয়েছে পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে খুশী মানুষ।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

ভারত ১২০ রান তাড়া করতে গিয়ে ওয়েস্ট ইন্ডিজে টেস্ট ম্যাচ, অলআউট হয়েছে ৬৬ রানে, সাউথ আফ্রিকার বাউন্সি পিচে ধরাশয়ী হয়েছে বার বার।

কিন্তু যখন সৌরভের ভারত সিরিজ জিতেছে পাকিস্তানের মাটিতে বা সেই অ্যাডিলেডের টেস্ট জয়, ইংল্যান্ডের সিরিজ জয়, টি-২০ বিশ্বকাপের ফাইনালে পাকিস্তানকে হারানো, প্রত্যেকটা দিন গেঁথে গেছে আমার মনে। সৌরভ, রাহুল, অনিল, শচীন, লক্ষণকে মনে হয়েছে নিজের ঘরের লোক। ওদের একটা অসামান্য ক্যাচ বা উইকেটকে মনে হয়ে নিজের কৃতিত্ব।

দল হেরে গেলে ঝগড়া করেছি অন্যদের সঙ্গে, রাগ করে খাইনি রাতে, স্বপ্ন দেখেছি ভারত জিতে গেছে, ঘুম ভেঙ্গে উঠে বসেছি। আবার জিতলে মিষ্টি খাইয়েছি অন্যদের, ধন্যবাদ জানিয়েছি আমার ইষ্টদেবতাকে। আর এই ভাবেই সাফল্য, ব্যর্থতা, উচ্ছাস, ক্রোধ এই সব মিলিয়েই সমর্থন করে চলেছি আমার টিম ইন্ডিয়াকে। ব্যস্ত হয়ে পড়েছি, সব খেলা দেখার সুযোগও পাইনা আজকাল, তাও এই দলটা আজও আমার বড় প্রিয়, আমার বড় কাছের।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আমার দেশের যে ফুটবল ক্লাবকে আমি সমর্থন করি তার এ বছর বয়স হবে ১২৫ বছর। এতো দিন ধরে থাকলে যা হয়, মোহনবাগান ক্লাবও অনেক ওঠানামার মধ্যে দিয়ে গেছে। ১৯১১ সালের সেই ইস্ট ইয়র্কশায়ারের বিরুদ্ধে আইএফে শিল্ড জয়ের গল্প ছড়িয়ে গেছে বাঙ্গালীর ঘরে ঘরে। তার পরে এসেছে আরো সাফল্য, ৩টে জাতীয় লিগ, ১৩টা ফেডারেশন কাপ, ২৯টা কলকাতা লিগ সঙ্গে আরো অসংখ্য শিল্ড, ট্রফি। কিন্তু এই দলটা গত চার বছর কোন ট্রফি জেতেনি। জেতা তো দূরের কথা, ট্রফি জেতার ধারেকাছেও আসেনি। সঙ্গে কর্মকর্তাদের নোংরামি, লোভ, খেলোয়াড়দের দিয়ে দলাদলি, কোন কিছুই বাদ যায়নি।

তাও আমি, শুধু আমি কেন লাখ লাখ মোহনবাগান সমর্থক দলটাকে মন-প্রাণ দিয়ে ভালোবাসি। প্রত্যেক বছর ফুটবল মরসুম শুরু হলেই স্বপ্ন দেখি এ বছর ট্রফি আসবে বাগানে। অফিস বা পাড়ার আড্ডায় মুখের মত জবাব দিতে পারব ইস্ট বেঙ্গলের সাপোর্টারদের।

ইউরোপিয়ান ক্লাবগুলোর মধ্যে আমার সবচেয়ে প্রিয় টিম তার নিজের দেশের সবচেয়ে সফল ক্লাব। তাদের ১৯ নম্বর লিগ খেতাব ভেঙ্গে দিয়েছিল লিভারপুলের ১৮টা লিগ জেতার রেকর্ড। ২০১২-১৩ মরশুমে তার জিতেছিল তাদের ২০ নম্বর লিগ। আর তার পরের বছরেই স্যার অ্যালেক্সের অবসরের পর ডেভিড মোয়েসের ভুল স্ট্র্যাটেজি, খেলোয়াড়দের ব্যর্থতা আর চোট-আঘাতের দৌলতে ১৩-১৪ মরসুমে ম্যানচেস্টার ইউনাইটেড লিগ শেষ করেছে সপ্তম স্থানে। প্রায় ২৫ বছর পর চ্যাম্পিয়ান্স লিগ তো দুরের কথা ইউরোপা কাপেও খেলবে না তারা।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আমি গত দশ বছরে ইউনাইটেডকে ৫ বার লিগ জিততে দেখেছি। দেখেছি কিভাবে স্যার অ্যালেক্স ফার্গুসন একদল সাধারণ খেলোয়াড়দের নিয়ে একটা অসাধারণ দল গড়ে তুলেছিলেন। কিভাবে বেকহ্যাম বা রোনাল্ডোর মত দলের সুপারস্টাররা চলে যাওয়ার কোন প্রভাব ফেলতে দেননি দলের খেলায়। কিভাবে ইউনাইটেড বার বার শেষ মুহূর্তে গোল করে হারা ম্যাচ জিতে ফিরেছে। সাত তো দূরের কথা, ‘টপ থ্রি’-র বাইরে শেষ করতেই দেখিনি কোনদিন। তাই গত বছরের ওই অভিশপ্ত মরসুম আমার কাছে দুঃস্বপ্নের মত। কিন্তু তাও সব ভুলে আবার অপেক্ষা করছি এই মরসুমের জন্য। স্বপ্ন দেখছি ডাচ কোচ লুই ভ্যান গালের হাত ধরে ইউনাইটেড আবার ফিরবে স্বমহিমায়।

ইপিএল থেকে এবার আসি আইপিএলের কথায়। যদিও আইপিএলকে আমি খুব একটা সিরিয়াসলি নিইনা, তবু এখানেও আমার একটা প্রিয় দল আছে। আর এই দলের গল্পটাই বোধ হয়ে সবচেয়ে মজার। কেকেআর মানে কলকাতা নাইট রাইডার আইপিলের সবচেয়ে চর্চিত দল। প্রথম তিন বছর কেকেআর যা খেলেছিল তাতে দলের নাম কেকেআর নয় কেকেহার মনে হচ্ছিল। ব্র্যান্ডন ম্যাকুলামের বিস্ফোরক ১৫৮ দিয়ে শুরু করলেও সাফল্য খুব তাড়াতাড়ি চলে গেছিল কেকেআরের ঘর থেকে। প্রথম বছর আট দলের মধ্যে ষষ্ঠ, তৃতীয় বছরও তাই। আর দ্বিতীয় বছরের কথা না বলাই ভালো। কেকেআর আইপিএল শেষ করেছিল টুর্নামেন্টের শেষ দল হিসেবে, সঙ্গে সৌরভের সঙ্গে কোচ বুকানানের সমস্যা, ফেক আইপিএল প্লেয়ার নামক ব্লগ লেখক নিয়ে বিতর্ক... এক এক সময়ে মনে হয়েছিল কলকাতার নাম নিয়ে এই ধাষ্টামোর চেয়ে টিমটা উঠে যাওয়াই হয়তো ভাল।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আর তারপর... খেলোয়াড় নিলামের জন্য সুনির্দিষ্ট প্ল্যান, সঠিক খেলোয়াড় চয়ন আর প্লেয়ারদের দায়বদ্ধতা। প্রথম তিন বছরের বাকিদের হাসির খোরাক কেকেআর শেষ তিনটে আইপিএলের দুটোতে চ্যাম্পিয়ান হয়েছে। এ বছরের ফাইনালের জয় জায়গা পেয়েছে রেকর্ডবইয়ের পাতায়। আজ নাইট রাইডার চেন্নাই সুপার কিংসদের সঙ্গে সঙ্গে আইপিএলের সবচেয়ে সফল দল। আর যতই মুখে বলি যে, আইপিএল সিরিয়াসলি নিইনা কিন্তু কলকাতার দল জিতলে ভালো তো লাগেই।

এতগুলো কথা কেন লিখলাম? কারণ আমি মনে করি যে জীবনের মত খেলাতেও উত্থান-পতন আছে। জীবনের মত খেলাও অনেক সময় অন্যায্য। জীবনের মত খেলাও সব সময় বলিউডের সিনেমার ছক মেনে চলে না। খেলাধুলোয় তাই ‘হ্যাপি এন্ডিং’-র সঙ্গে সঙ্গে ‘হার্টব্রেক’-এরও জায়গা আছে। এই ধরুন ভারত-পাকিস্তানের ক্রিকেট খেলার কথা। আমার তো সব সময় নিজেকে খুব ভাগ্যবান মনে হয়। আমি ১৯৯০ থেকে ক্রিকেট দেখছি। আমার সময়ে ভারত-পাকিস্তান ম্যাচের রেজাল্টে ভারতই হয়তো সামান্য এগিয়ে আছে। কিন্তু আমি যদি আমার চেয়ে বছর দশেক বড় ভারতীয়দের কথা ভাবি। তাদের দেখতে হয়েছে শারজায় মিয়াঁদাদের ম্যাচ জেতানো শেষ বলে মারা ছয়। শুধু ওই একটা ম্যাচ তো নয়, ওই সময়ে একের একের পর এক ম্যাচ হেরেছে লড়াই না করে, নিজেদের মনোবলকে দুমড়ে-মুচড়ে দিয়ে হেরে গেছে ভারত। আজ যখন বিরাট কোহলিরা হাসতে হাসতে হারিয়ে দেন তখন কি তাদের সেই পুরনো দিনগুলো মনে পড়ে। আবার আমি এটাও জানি হয়তো আজ নয়, কিন্তু পাঁচ-দশ বছর পরে আবার পাকিস্তানের সুদিন আসতেই পারে। তখন হয়তো আবার একের পর এক ক্রিকেট ম্যাচে পাকিস্তানের কাছে হারবে ভারত। ভারতের ফ্যান হিসেবে ভেতরে ভেতরে ক্ষত-বিক্ষত হব আমরা।

আর সেই জন্যেই ব্রাজিলের শেষ দুটো হার নিয়েও বেশী ভাবছি না আমি। হ্যাঁ, এই লেখাটা লেখার প্রধান কারণ হয়তো ব্রাজিলের গত সপ্তাহের ১-৭ হার কিন্তু আমিও জানি এটা ব্রাজিলিয়ান ফুটবলের শেষ নয়। আমার নিজের দেখা প্রথম তিনটে বিশ্বকাপের ফাইনালের একটা দল ছিল ব্রাজিল। তার মধ্যে ব্রাজিল কাপ জিতেছিল দু বার। রোনাল্ডো, রিভাল্ডো, রবার্টো কার্লোস, কাফু, রোনাল্ডিনহোর সেই ব্রাজিল ম্যাজিক দেখাতে পারতো। হয়তো সেই ম্যাজিক ৭০-৮০ দশকের ব্রাজিল দলগুলোর কাছে কিছুই নয়। কিন্তু তখনো বাকি দলগুলো ব্রাজিলকে ভয় পেত। তারা জানতো একজন রোনাল্ডো বা একজন রোনাল্ডিনহো হাসতে হাসতে তাদের দলের কাঁপন ধরিয়ে গোল করে দিয়ে চলে যাবে।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আজ ব্রাজিল হয়তো একটা মধ্যবিত্ত ফুটবল দল। আগের মত আজ আর ব্রাজিল যেকোন টুর্নামেন্ট ফেভারিট হিসেবে শুরু করে না। আজ ব্রাজিলের মাঝ মাঠে দৃষ্টিনন্দন ফুটবলের চেয়ে রক্ষণাত্মক ফুটবল খেলার লোক অনেক বেশী। কিন্তু আজও ব্রাজিলের একটা নেয়েমার আছে, যার চোট সেমিফাইনালে দলের মনোবলকে শেষ করে দিয়েছিল, বিক্ষিপ্ত করে দিয়েছিল। যে নেয়েমার চোট সারিয়ে ফিরে বিশ্বের শ্রেষ্ঠ খেলোয়াড় হওয়ার সম্ভবনা রাখে। আছে অস্কার, লুকাস মউরার বা কৌটিনহোর মত তরুণ খেলোয়াড় যাদের পেছনে ইউরোপের ক্লাবগুলো যেকোন মুহূর্তে কোটি কোটি টাকা ঢালতে প্রস্তুত থাকে। আর তাই জীবনের অভিজ্ঞতা দিয়ে বলতে পারি ব্রাজিলিয় দল আবার সাফল্য পাবে, আর এখানে সাফল্য মানে প্রদর্শনী ম্যাচ বা কোপা জেতা নয়, আমি বলছি বিশ্বকাপ জেতার কথা। হয়তো চার বছর পরেই বা হয়তো আমাদের অপেক্ষা করতে হবে আরও কিছু বছর।

কিন্তু ওই যে বললাম, আমি ২৮ বছর অপেক্ষা করেছি ক্রিকেট বিশ্বকাপের জন্য, মোহনবাগানের ট্রফির জন্য অপেক্ষা করছি গত চার বছর। ব্রাজিলের প্রত্যাবর্তনের জন্য কয়েকটা বছর অপেক্ষা করা আর এমনকি। আর যখন তারা ফিরবে... সেটার কথা ভেবে বাকিরা হয়তো এখন থেকেই ভয় পেতে শুরু করেছেন।

Twitter #IPL

A Tweet conversation of recent times!! May be the true reason of Son-In-law’s arrest!

@Gorunath (Not Son-In-Law, just an honorary member of the family; enthusiastic about the daughter hence visits bedroom occasionally)

Good Morning! Feeling like betting 2day!! #profit

@Appam_Chutiya (Dancer, Actor, Rudali, plays cricket occasionally)

Wow! Great Idea @Gorunath! M also in mood to leak few runs today! ;-) #signal

@Gorunath

@Appam_C, u leaking runs and @JR_Bachpan acting bad do not depend on you guys’ moods! #UniversalTruth #NotTalkingAboutCondoms

@SR_Bachpan (Actor, Politican, Farmer, Bread earner for the family)

Keep my son and Bahu out of it @Gorunath!! # Angry #MC #BC

@JR_Bachpan (Actor – My Father says so)

Hey Dad! Aamir and Shahrukh think @Gorunath is praising me! True?? B) #cool

@SR_Bachpan

Are You f%&^ing  BLIND?? #3Idiots #ShouldHaveUsedCondoms

@Gorunath

Enough crap! Let me reach my Point of Contact! @Point_Dara_Singh u around? #Betting

@Point_Dara_Singh (My Daddy Strongest)

Joy Sri Ram! M around!! Ready to bet!! #LookingForMyCellPhone

@RamuKaka (Realistic Film Maker, latest Cuisine show ‘RGV ka Shaag’)

@Point_Dara_singh, I want to make a movie on your life Buddy!! #TrueStoryMovie

@Point_Dara_Singh

Wow! Great! Should I play myself? #Easy #Can’tAct

@RamuKaka

Are u f%&^ing kidding me @Point_Dara_Singh! At best u can get a side role of a bookie!! #F%&^er #Can’tAct

@Gorunath

Let’s bet on @MS_Dhobi coming to bat before number seven! #TakeNoteDhobi

@MS_Dhobi (Model, Cricketer, Captain, Whistle Podu!!)

@Gorunath, I can’t bat so high up the order! In pressure to perform!! Recently married to @Suck-C

@Gorunath

Tell me some other option if you want to be in the team! #Retention

@MS_Dhobi

Bet on @SirJ having a Moustache in today’s match! #Lord #RESPECT

@Gorunath

Match is in next 1 hour!! #Mad #Dehati

@SirJ (Lord, cricket was born to played by me)

If I wish I can grow moustache and Beard on @Gorunath’s face in 1 minute!! #WannaTry

@Gorunath

Sorry Lord! Should not have doubts on you!! #Mistake #Doomed

@Indian_Police (Integral part of Hindi cinema, always come when it’s over)

@Gorunath, douted on @SirJ!!! You are under Arrest!! #BigFish

@Or-knob_Gnoshai (Journalist of the nation)

Mr. @Srini_Mama, nation wants to know is @Gorunath part of spot fixing. #AnswerOrNotWillAskThis100Times

@Srini_Mama (Prez. Of Cricket team and Owner of Board, or vice-versa… whatever)

I have done no wrong! Don’t know if @Gorunath is fixing! #DontAskQuestion

@Or-knob_Gnoshai

But Mr. @Srini_Mama, nation wants to know how you don’t know when you are following @Gorunath!! #AnswerOrNotWillAskThis100Times

@Srini_Mama

Do not hound me! I am leaving @Or-Knob_Gnoshai!! #Let’sRunNow

@Repeat_Shashtri (I sense something’s gonna give…)

@Srini_Mama went like a tracer bullet!! #Cliches

(Just for Fun... no intention to hurt anyone's sentiment. Any similarities to anyone living-dead-yet to born are completely UN-intentional.)

The KKR Story: Their Road map to IPL Triumph

In most of the action-revenge dramas which comes out of Bollywood, it is the most common theme to see the hero going through pain, heartbreak and as much distress as possible (parents getting killed, sister getting raped, friends betraying and so on) before coming as triumphed after an intense battle with the villain.

For last 5 years Kolkata Knight Riders was the team with mostly filmy mashala as two of its owners are Bollywood stars and despite not performing up to the mark there was no lack glamour, money and hype around this team. But this year the way they have turned the table and their transition from a loser and subject to infinite jokes in Facebook and real life to a deservingly champion team is nothing short of a film script!

 All the controversies and misfortune of previous seasons, from John Buchanan’s multiple captaincy theory to Fake IPL blogger to the decision of not picking Sourav Ganguly in 2011 auction the list of controversies is as big as the number of sixes scored by Chris Gayle, add to it the number of player unavailability and close last ball losses made KKR the weeping boys of first 3 IPL. Things started to change in 2011 but still some parts were missing. But in those 7 weeks of April-May 2012, along with the countless hours of training and planning before that KKR finally did what their captain Gautam Gambhir described as ‘Mission Accomplish’.

What I am trying to do here is to rewind some may be small but key milestones in their journey to 27^th May when sometime close to midnight, Manoj Tiwari’s two consecutive pull shots give them their maiden IPL trophy.

Match 10 - Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders 

Balaji’s Magic Spell

Knight Riders started their campaign with two losses and when they came to Bangalore to play Royal Challengers, they knew that they have to turn their fortunes pretty soon, otherwise another season would pass with them not seriously challenging for the title.

KKR, put into bat, started strongly and reached 125 for 1 in the 14th over. A score around 180 looked quite possible but a middle order collapse where 7 of their batsmen got out for single digit scores resulted them scoring just 40 runs in last 40 deliveries of the innings and end up scoring 165.

With the Chinnaswami batting condition and the RCB’s batting line up in mind, 165 was gettable but what follows was the first of many great team bowling performance by KKR, where every bowler played their part efficiently. Where Kallis gave KKR a great start by removing both the openers of RCB including the super dangerous Gayle and Shakib took care of the death overs, it was the middle overs of Laxmipati Balaji, which makes the difference. Balaji bowled 4 overs in a trot (6th, 8th, 10th and 12th) and took one wicket in each of his 4 overs to dent RCB’s chase. The one which took care of AB De Villiers was the special one; it was bowled with an in-swinging angle and got straightened after pitching to take the off stump of the talented South African.

The win showed the first signs of KKR’s class against teams with such big names.

Match 17 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab

 Knight’s New Weapon

When KKR bought Sunil Narine after intense bidding for $700,000, which was 14 times his base price, in the 2012 IPL auctions, most of the headlines had words like, surprize, unexpected and gamble. Narine impressed once and all in the 2011 Champions Trophy while playing for T&T including his spell against CSK where he spellbound players like Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni with his tricks. An off spinner with a high arm action and plenty of varities, Narine looked to be a smart purchase by Kolkata.

But come IPL, it turned out to be the buy of the season, when Narine ended the tournament with 24 wickets at an average of 13.50 and economy rate of 5.47. He was the second highest wicket taker and the player of the series.

Kolkata did not play Narine in their first match against Delhi. He played the second and the third match, both against Royals with moderate success to be dropped in the 4th match against the Royal Challengers. In the fifth match in home, KKR decided to play Narine against KXIP and in his comeback, Narine produced a wonderful display of spin bowling. Coming to bowl as early as third over to take the wicket of Adam Gilchrist, one of the greats of the game, and then taken care of the death overs by taking 3 wickets in 18th and 20th over, Narine was unplayble. 14 of his 24 deliveries were dot balls and his analysis 19 for 5 was as impressive as you can get in a T-20 match. 

Kolkata could not pull off the win by messing up their chase in last two overs, but the buzz about Sunil Narine’s mystery started to take momentum which was in show for almost all of the remaining matches of Kolkata.

Match 41 - Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders

 Challenge in Chennai

Chennai Super Kings are the most successful and consistent side in first five years of IPL. Not only they were the champions of last two years, they never finished the tournament without being in Top Four in the points table. Captained by MS Dhoni and consisting of players like Michel Hussey, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina and Ravi Ashwin, CSK is the team to beat in IPL.

KKR had a poor 2-5 win-loss ratio against them and never won a match in their fortress M. A. Chidambaram Stadium. But when the bowling unit restricted the Super Kings for 139, a required rate of just 7 runs per over looked manageable. KKR lost McCullum early but like many occasions in last two years, Gambhir and Kallis steadied the ship and added 70 runs in the second wicket with a run rate, at per of the require rate. But few overs later when Gambhir got out in the first ball of the 19th over KKR still required 16 of 11 balls. Things were getting tight when Yusuf Pathan was joined by Debabrata Das, an interesting little player who is playing in IPL since its very first edition without playing even a single first class match. He is a fearless heater who had only few innings of note in the previous IPL seasons. He started with converting a full toss on his pads to a four and KKR entered Ashwin’s last over requiring six for win.

Pathan cut the first ball to deep point for two, the second was a dot ball and when Pathan got out trying to slog sweep the third ball of the over, pressure came on KKR. And that’s when Das showed his metal by hitting the next delivery of Ashwin through the mid-wicket boundary to give KKR an important win. It not only strengthens their position in the points table, the win over the current champions also gave them lots of self-belief which they carried forward in the next games.

Das only faced 4 balls to get those 11 runs, but that thumping boundary was a real key moment in Knight Rider’s IPL journey. Gautam Gambhir, who by that time had shown significant glimpse of his captaincy skill, recognized the effort and was ready to give away his ‘Man-of-the-match’ award to Das.

Match 47 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Pune Warriors

Away match in Home ground

Sourav Ganguly may be one of the most controversial characters of world cricket but Kolkata is his land and for most of Kolkatans like me he can’t do any wrong. Hence, during the failure of first 3 seasons Kolkata was unhappy but never even thought that there could be a team from Kolkata without Sourav. Then came the IPL auction of 2011 and Sourav was not picked by any of the franchise, not even by Kolkata. As expected huge uproar was followed and conspiracy theories were put into place. But a big part of Kolkata became more heart broken as their beloved Dada was not any more part of Kolkata Knight Riders. At the beginning of 4th season, KKR experienced empty stands in their home matches in Eden gardens but slowly the public turned back towards the team and Home matches again become well attendant.

In the meantime Ganguly was also picked by Pune Warriors as their key bowler Ashish Nehra was injured and Sourav played the second half of IPL-4 with moderate success. Came IPL season 5 and Sourav was given the captaincy role as Yuvraj Singh was out recovering from his cancer treatment.

Warriors started strongly and even were at the top of the standings at one point thanks to win over big teams like CSK and DD but their form was on the decline and they came to Kolkata with 4 consecutive losses. 

No one knew how Kolkata would behave, are they going to root for their team or are they going to support their man. The opinions were divided and may be slightly tending towards the man. Specially with KKR in a strong position people may had more sympathy towards Pune in the match which was termed as ‘Dada vs Khan’, pointing towards KKR’s one of the owners Shah Rukh Khan.

But, as always Gambhir was completely away from all these hype and tension of the big match. He won the toss and started with a blistering pace to take KKR to 68 runs in the powerplays at a run rate above 11. He played another little gem to score 56 of 36 and took KKR to 113 in the 13th over. But his departure was again followed by mediocre batting by the middle order and they end their innings with 150 on the board, at least 20 short of what to be expected after that opening stand.

If KKR’s middle order batting failure was a regular thing another regular sight was to see Kolkata bowling attack performing considerably well to put a up a great show. Young Marchant De Lange came to the party and gave Knight Riders a great start by removing big guns like Michel Clarke and Robin Uthappa in his first two overs. And when Narine trapped Steven Smith, Pune’s most dangerous batsman in the 9th over, Pune was reeling at 55 for 5. 

In his home ground, Sourav came at number 7 and built a partnership with Angelo Mathews , who suddenly gave Pune a glimmer of hope with 3 consecutive sixes of Yusuf Pathan but the required rate was increasing and when Ganguly got caught at deep mid-wicket, trying to hit Rajat Bhatia for a six, Pune needed 23 of 14. And with Narine bowling the 19th over for just 4 runs, even Mathews could not get the 18 runs required in the last over and KKR won by 7 runs.

The fans who were supporting Pune in the beginning were found to shout at top of their voice for KKR after a good well-fought T-20 match. KKR again found his home among their most passionate of fans.

Match 65 - Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders 

Mesmerizing the Master

Going back to the film analogy, which I gave at the beginning of this article, for KKR supporters Mumbai Indians is that terrifying villain whom they hate the most. Not only KKR had a 1-7 IPL win-loss ratio before this year’s IPL, this is the team who gave KKR some of its most humiliating and heart breaking defeats. From their lowest score of 67 in the first IPL to the Rayadu’s last ball six in IPL-4, it was only the story of failure and despair. Even in the home match in the Eden Gardens MI won quite comfortably thanks to Rohit Sharma’s century.

When Knight Riders went to Mumbai to play the return leg, they knew a win is absolute necessary to keep their chance of finishing in top two alive. Finishing in top two was important as that would give them two chances in the knockouts to reach the final.

Put into bat, KKR started badly, RP Singh’s double strike made them tottering at 6 for 2, and at 96 for 6 in the 16th over, another familiar loss was well on cards. KKR recovered somewhat to add 40 runs in last 4 overs to reach 140 and had at least something for their bowlers to bowl at. But as it turned out, it was more than enough for KKR bowlers to restrict MI batsmen.

Gibbs scored a painstaking 13 of 24 balls to leave MI scoring only 26 runs in the powerplays. Tendulkar kept batting till the eleventh over and his battle against Narine was fascinating to see. But the last delivery of the 11th over was a vicious off break from Narine which hit Tendulkar on thigh and then crashed on to off stump. Once he was gone, KKR bowlers ran through the MI batting line up to bowl them out for 108. Narine finished with 15 for 4 and another Man-of-the-match award.

The Mumbai Indians were also humbled in their home ground and KKR started looking really dominating and a well-balanced unit at this point.

1st Qualifier - Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight Riders

The Four over Madness

72 group matches are completed and here are they, two most dangerous and consistent teams of IPL-5 met in the first qualifier for a place in the final. The venue was Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune where the pitch was slow, low and one of the most difficult ones to bat on. Despite the slow nature of the pitch Delhi continued to go with their strategy of Four-pace bowling attack with Yadav, Aaron, Pathan and Morne Morkel, who was IPL’s highest wicket taker. Like Delhi, KKR also go with their strength, the spin bowling attack consists of Narine, Abdulla and Shakib with Yusuf as another potential spin bowling option.

Gautam Gambhir won a very important toss and decided to bat first. KKR started briskly but lost the momentum in the middle overs to lose 3 wickets for 19 runs and at the end of 16th over KKR were 106 for 4, looking at a potential score close to 140. 

That’s when Laxmi Ratan Shukla Waled out of KKR dug out. Laxmi Shukla is another fringe player for KKR, he had experience of first class cricket for more than 12 years and once used to be considered as a potential India all-rounder, but he never got his proper chance and never fulfilled his aspirations. Shukla also played for KKR in all 5 seasons with limited opportunities and even considered moving to Pune Warriors before beginning of the season. KKR team management had different plans and convinced him not to leave.

Shukla joined Yusuf Pathan, who has a different career graph but had a relatively quiet, non-significant IPL and people did raise a question over his price tag of $2.1 million. But somehow both these all-rounders decided to play their most significant parts in IPL 5 at that night and what followed was madness when these two amassed 56 runs in last four overs. There was a method in their madness as they scored 9, 11, 15 and 21 runs in those 4 overs respectively and scored runs through clean hitting in the gaps or shots out of the ground than mistimed edges and stricky boundaries. KKR ended with respectable 162 for 4 in their 20 overs.

Daredevils had a strong batting line up with two explosive batsmen at the top in David Warner and Virendra Sehwag. They also had lots of class in the middle order in Mahela Jayawardene and Ross Taylor. But as many a times this season, all the KKR bowlers played their part and everyone ended with at least one wicket behind their name. 

Some of the Delhi’s strategy was baffling, specially sending Taylor at number seven after Rao and Negi lacks any sense. But the Knight Riders were not complaining. They have reached their maiden IPL final in the fifth attempt.

IPL Final - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings

Innings of a Life Time

So after 4 years of pain, embarrassment and heart break here are the Knight Riders, playing their most important match against the reigning champions Chennai Supper Kings in their home ground in Chennai. It can’t get bigger than this. 

But before that KKR had to deal with the massive blow of Balaji getting unfit for the final. Not Only Balaji was one of the meanest of KKR bowlers with an economy rate of 5.40, his absence would also mean that the team balance is disturbed and Kolkata needed to bring in Brett Lee by keeping one of their foreign players from last match out. Narine and Kallis are two players who were impossible to be dropped, so the choice was between McCullum and Shakib, either drop Shakib and play Das, by which KKR would lose one bowling option or drop McCullum to include Manvinder Bisla who played his last match 15 days ago. The recent strong showing of Shakib, especially with the ball, helped him to get the preference over McCullum and hence Bisla got a chance to play and keep wickets in KKR’s most important match of the season.

Super Kings had an indifferent IPL in 2012. In fact, compared to their high standards this season they performed pretty mediocre during the group stages and they only qualified for the play offs because some other teams, most notably Bangalore Royal Challengers threw their chance to qualify by losing their last matches. A devastating spell by Dale Steyn and some poor shot selection by RCB batsmen meant CSK held to its 4th position in the points table and qualified for the play offs.

And like any strong team, CSK got back to his best form in the knock outs, suddenly their batsmen started scoring runs and spinners started getting turns. They thrashed Mumbai and Delhi quite comfortably to reach their 4th final in IPL’s 5 year history. Everyone realized that KKR had a tough task in hand, facing the rampant Super Kings in their home of M.A. Chidambaram stadium. But KKR was silently confident, especially after their win in that venue during the group phase of the league.

MS Dhoni won the toss and while batting first CSK displayed an imposing batting display, only 4 batsmen were required. Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay gave them a good start before Suresh Raina, the most successful batsman in IPL history thumped 73 runs at a strike rate above 192. CSK ended their innings with 190 runs in board, much higher than the per score for big finals like this. KKR bowlers had an off day and none of them could put any control over CSK batsmen. Narine had his most expensive showing of the season and Brett Lee leaked 42 runs in his 4 overs.

KKR’s chase had poorest of starts when they lost their captain, most successful and only consistent batsman in the line-up, Gautam Gambhir in the last ball of the first over with just 3 runs on board. Bisla was joined by the great Jack Kallis and what followed was not in anyone’s wildest dream. With Kallis’ calm presence and solidity, Bisla found a new edge in his game and played a wonderfully free flowing innings and maintain the run rate close to 10, which was required. He scored 89 runs of 48 balls with 8 boundaries and 5 sixes. It was an awesome display of sensible stroke play which caught the entire CSK attack off guard. By the time Bisla got out he brought the equation to 52 runs required of 32 balls. Kallis showed his class to score a gritty 69 of 49. Although he got out with KKR needing 16 of 7 balls which was scored by some innovative and sensible hitting from two Bengal boys (may be from the different side of the border) Shakib Al Hasan and Manoj Tiwari. 

Tiwari later said that, he felt the fielding placement for him was wrong but he took full advantage of that to hit two consecutive fours of Dwayne Bravo though to square leg region. And with the second hit Kolkata Knight Rider’s story was complete. They achieved what they were playing for. They put a lot of sincere hard work and were ecstatic to get their reward. Their emotional story reaches a wonderful and happy ending, just like a successful Bollywood movie.

P.S.

 The above matches or those specific performances may be some of the key junctions in their journey to the triumph but to me this team’s journey started on 8th and 9th January 2011, in the IPL auction for season 4, when KKR management went with a specific plan. They wanted to get away from previous three years’ failure; they decided to have Gautam Gambhir to be their next captain and went all out for him. They did another major purchase in Yusuf Pathan within next 10 minutes and then throughout the next two days they did smart buys like Kallis, Lee, Shakib, Balaji, Tiwari, Morgan and Ryan Ten Doeschate. It showed the management had a proper plan and did a detailed analysis of their strength and weakness to decide on their requirement. 

To me, that was the day when the first seed of KKR’s 2012 IPL win was harvested.

[As always, a special note of thanks for my two most favorite websites:

i. www.cricinfo.com for providing all the stats, scorecard and photos.

ii. www.youtube.com for helping me reliving those great moments]

Dada...Please!!

The Latest IPL TAMASHA!!!

Well... well... well... IPL in its first week and already we have a bagful of controversies/gossips around the greatest show of BCCI!!

The latest in the lot is the following blog

http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com/

Well this is one of the Citi moment of success by the blogger as this blog becomes hugely popular!!

Apparently this is written by some fringe player based on Kolkata in the KKR team (They have a team of 43 players!!!) and giving all the inside stories about team strategy, player politics, commentators looking for bedding around with South African chicks etc.

The alternate view is that this is another marketing strategy by the KKR team management and SRK himself to keep KKR in news all the time!!

The writer has very good hold in English (One of the key reason to believe that this is not coming out from a local player!)... The humor is good, although sometimes it crosses the thin line of vulgarity!! But still a time pass read!!

The nicknames of the players given by him are all DLF maximum sixers!! Like,

Kaan Moolo: Agarkar
Prince Charles of Patiyala: Yuvraj
Mr. Batliwala: Vijay Malya
Lord Almighty: Sourav

I don't think this is done by any player neither I think this is a marketing strategy by SRK!! I mean com'n SRK is crazy enough to call himself bi sexual in his own blog or abuse the coach whom he is supporting!!

For me this is a very clever journalist in SAF making fun of the players!!

What do u guys think is up to you. Please do read the blog and let me know what's your take on this!!

That's it till now!!

The Knight

A good Win!!

He again Proved everyone wrong!! This time even me!!

for last one week, I was sad. I thought we have seen the end, but what an innings... a Captain's knock!!

Dadagiri Rocks!!!

You made me proud... once again!!

The IPL Overview

Oct 13, 2018: Awesome cricket, great atmosphere, lots of controversies, world-wide fan following, A few players brawl here and there…just a few things to describe the first half of this years IPL. The Diwalli break for IPL is here and the league will be resumed in another 2 week's time. Now it’s the perfect time to revisit this year's IPL super league.

The most romantic story of this year’s IPL is the growing up of the Kanpur kings as a team. A mostly unknown team, owned by one of the Milk barons of Kanpur, Ramu Bhaia, was playing in the IPL 3rd divisions just a couple of years back… and here is this team playing the IPL super league and after half of the season has passed they are now in the 2nd spot. Their captain, 38 year old Md. Kaif, in his last season, is leading from the front with the able support of the coach, Michael Vaughan.
Sourav Ganguly, The legendary Captain and coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, summed up Kanpur kings’ or K2’s effort, “ Kanpur is a big team from a small city. Ramu bhaia has invested his money and faith on the players and now he gets his reward. The team is determined, agile in the ground and gelled together well despite having players from 6 different countries including Norway. Lastly they have a great coach and captain who proves that he is still good enough to play T-20.”
Kaif was controversially dropped from Indian T-20 team for the world cup and tagged as only F-50 player.

Hyderabad Blues, the renamed version of Deccan Chargers this season, is currently on the top with 10 wins from 11 games. The young guns like S. Rajesh, Md. Iqbal, Sutirtha Sen are playing very well under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, the Indian T-20 captain. 19 year old Sutirtha is the Batsman of the tournament so far, scoring 634 runs with a strike rate of 289.76!! Which is 17 runs higher than last years best batsman Virat Kohli.

The best match of the tournament till now was when Kolkata Kite Flyers host Kolkata Knight Riders in their home ground in Salt Lake. Because of fierce rivalry of these two teams and team owners in last few years, this match is now being called the Kolkata Derby. This year’s match also maintains the reputation of being the closest match of the season when Arjun Tendulkar, the charismatic fast bowler of Knight Riders completes an unbelievable hat-trick in the last 3 balls of the innings. Amitabha Bachchan, the 75 year old team owner of the KKF had a small heart attack in the ground and Shahrukh Khan, KKR’s owner tried to pull his 20 years old son on his shoulder and has dislocated his shoulder in that process. Both of them are fine now.

Sutirtha and Arjun are respectively the best batsman and best bowler in IPL till now. Another player in the race for MVP is the teen-ager American off spinning all rounder Micheal Adamson. Micheal was in the news early in the season when he became the first American player to sign for an IPL team. Rajasthan Royals signed him for 150 crorer rupees, which is 15,000,000,000 USD (with the current exchange rate of 1 rupee= 10 USD). Micheal, who has an American father and a Sri lankan mother is tipped to become the first great American cricket player and expected to lead USA cricket team in future and helped them achieving great fits like qualifying for the T-20 world cup, which they missed by a whisker last time, when they were beaten by Brazil in the American zone play-offs.

The most controversial moment came when Tim Southy, Lucknow Nawbab’s overseas player was kicked on the shin by Shahid Afridi, the 28 year old (Officially) Pakistani recruit of Jalandhar Joshila. Afridi was suspended by BCCI for 8 matches. Jalandhar’s coach Harbhajan Singh came into his players support, saying,” It’s a one-off incident. Afridi is a very good guy. Very good at heart. When Lucknow will visit to play the return league I’ll ask Tim to visit Afridi's flat and those two can have dinner together.” Incidentally, in the very first version of IPL in 2008 Harbhajan was suspended for backslapping Sreeshanth, former Indian player and current Telegu superstar.
Another controversy came up when after the draw of WCL, World Champions league, Rahul Dravid, the Chief Cricketing Officer of Bangalore Royale Challengers came up with theory of conspiracy against ICC as both the top ranked teams of Australia and South Africa were in his groups alongside Kent, a relatively weaker opposition. “For two consecutive years, we got a very tough draw in WCL and I think some foul play is going on in ICC, but still our boys will fight hard and come up with good results.” This was Dravid’s reaction after the draw and well, he better bring good results as the team owner Vijay Mallya has the dubious record of sacking 7 CEO’s in the first 10 seasons of IPL. Although till now he hasn’t sacked a Chief Cricketing Officer as this term is coined this year only. Before that there were long search of CEO for the team by Mr. Mallya, who in the process offered the post to 8 different individuals, most notably Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mandira Bedi, but all of them rejected the offer.

Well, till now the 11th season of IPL is a greater success than the previous editions and we are looking forward to have a great second half and possibly a greater finish.