The Summer of 2016

9 years. That is how old the IPL is now. Over these nine seasons we’ve had six different champions, the last one of them crowned a couple of nights back at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. I am an ardent supporter of Rahul Dravid, so naturally, the tournament for me comes to an end the day the team he’s associated with finishes its journey. This year, it was the so near yet so far Delhi Daredevils. But being a cricket lover nonetheless, I do follow the tournament despite the results it throws up. And every year, a different emotion engulfs me as I see one captain lifting the cup. Rajasthan Royals’ fairy tale in the inaugural season, Dhoni’s CSK setting the benchmark year after year & Gambhir’s Knight Riders deservedly winning the 2012 edition were some of the iconic moments for me. This year added another team to that list.

Since inception, Sunrisers seemed a side too reliant on their big hitting Aussie import with a can do bowling line up and a pretty weak middle order. You wanted them to win but at the same time didn’t want the team you were supporting to lose to them. They never seemed to get the balance right it appeared, which is so critical in a tournament like this with a seven to four break up of Indian & foreign cricketers.

For me, Sunrisers were always a side who could do well on select occasions – when Warner would score big enough to cover for the rest, when the bowlers would somehow have a field day. But you never expected them to carry the momentum forward for long. Even when they did, you never really were convinced of their consistency to go all the way. On paper, they seemed no match to some of the other big teams, pretty much like Rajasthan Royals. You never expected a Naman Ojha to be as good as a MS Dhoni, or a Shikhar Dhawan to be as prolific & consistent as Raina, or a Karn Sharma to be as miserly as Sunil Narine. You never expected them to do well for long enough. And that is where, the 2016 edition of the IPL was so special.

As expected, whenever David Warner did well, the team did well. Their bowling line up seemed to be pretty good with the experienced Nehra - Bhuvaneshwar duo and the new kid on the block from our neighbours – Mustafizur Rahman. So much so that someone like Trent Boult found it hard to get a place in the starting XI. The middle order seemed weak still, and you sensed that it would come back to haunt them sooner than later. But that is where sport, like life in general, throws up surprises. It gives you chances and you have to be ready enough to take them. This time around, the SRH players were.

They started well in the group stage, you appreciated it, but weren’t quite sure if that would go for all the 14 games. They looked good enough to qualify. That is when you began to take them seriously but still were a little sceptical. They eventually managed to get in the top 4. Fine. Good enough. “But do they have it in them to go further still?” you pondered. Yes they did. A couple of matches later, here they were, on a flight from Delhi to Bengaluru to play their maiden IPL final.

They were up against a team on rampage – a team which made the near impossible happen – winning four in a row to qualify and that too in the top 2. They were led from the front by their captain, pretty much like it was with Hyderabad. Sure it seemed an even match. The two best captains battling it out in the final, but you felt it was slightly tilted in favour of RCB, given the form they were in and also that they were playing in their own backyard. But as sport would have it. RCB witnessed a stellar run, a run which went marginally out of fuel at the last hurdle to see them finish the second best. You felt for Virat Kohli. But you couldn’t take anything away from David Warner.

The way he has matured over the last few years, keeping a cool head and letting his bat do the talking, add to that the manner in which he led an underdog side has been brilliant. Leading from the front, literally. And the other ten members did manage to grasp their chances from time to time to make the picture complete. Shikhar Dhawan looked good in the latter half, Yuvraj Singh got crucial runs, at times reminiscent of his earlier days, Moises Henriques contributed with the bat & ball and you have to take your hats off to their bowling army – Nehra, Bhuvi, Sran, Mustafizur. I hold Bhuvneshwar in high regard and was at times disappointed when he was left out of the Indian team for a faster bowler. His bowling did the talking for him. See a video of his yorkers, you’ll get to know. Ashish Nehra, a man plagued by injuries all his career, was as effective as he could possibly be and that showed, in not just Nehra the bowler but also Nehra the guide. And out of nowhere, a little known Australian all rounder smashed a 15 ball 39 & broke the dangerous opening partnership – and that too in the final. Ben Cutting became Hyderabad’s favourite that Sunday night.

Overall, watching them do well really made me happy as a fan of the game. And I feel everyone who loves the support would agree, though to varying extent. Seeing SRH win the tournament and lifting the cup was really inspiring, a re-instatement in the belief of hard work and commitment paying, no matter what is stacked up against you. And sport is nothing if it can’t inspire you. Why else do you see supporters of football clubs be so vocal of their support? Because their team’s success & failure is in a way, their success & failure. If a sport doesn’t get you really involved into something, you haven’t really experienced the term “sport”. See the last two balls of the final again, the tears in Sachin Baby’s eyes will tell you what I’m talking about. A young guy, standing at the non striker’s end, knowing he did all he could but ALAS that was not enough.

And amongst all this, a team regarded by no one as “champion material” before the tournament began, beat the odds and emerged victorious. I wasn’t a part of the team in any manner. Nor was I an SRH loyalist. But their win made me really happy. A reassuring happiness was what it was. The result will fade from our memories in a few days and we will move on. But whenever I will need some inspiration and belief, I will look back at the campaign these men in orange charted out in the summer of 2016. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad – thank you. 

You made a cricket lover really happy.