Biryani, my friends tell me is usually prepared on slow fire, but Sunrisers Hyderabad painfully discovered on Sunday that its goose could be cooked in a jiffy as well. The Indian Premier League final at the MA Chidamabaram Stadium was an anti-climax for the side that had caught the eye with its blazing batting in the league phase.
The Kolkata Knight Riders seam and swing bowlers delivered the ball on brilliant lines and lengths on a track that offered them assistance. It caused a procession of batters to come and leave in an unholy hurry. It was the kind of night on which the champion side called upon its most successful bowler Varun Chakravarthy to deliver only half his quota of overs.
Many fans had left the MA Chidambaram Stadium early with disappointment as their primary in accomplice. And a lot more of those watching from their homes reached out for their respective remotes to look for alternative entertainment. But the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad had to go through the painful process till the very end, enduring the emotions that choked them.
Of course, a terrible night does not wash away a season’s terrific work but as practitioners of mindfulness the Sunrisers Hyderabad players had plenty of agony to deal with and yet not reveal. On the contrary, they had to try and put up a show of believing that a low total could be defended, perhaps while being secretly pleased that Kolkata Knight Riders finished the chase in quick time.
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Unlike in wrestling, throwing in the towel is not an option in cricket but Sunrisers Hyderabad possibly would have taken it gladly if it were available on Sunday. Instead, its players had to bite the bullet, hide their emotions when facing defeat while waiting for the unfolding nightmare to end as soon as possible. These memories will stick for a long while.
Just before I moved from playing competitive sport to the world of sports journalism, all of India’s sports lovers were hurt by the 1-7 defeat of the men’s hockey team at the hands of Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games final in New Delhi. It is a memory that rises to the surface every now and then, though more than half a century has passed since that fateful day.
The 1996 World Cup semifinal at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata is another such collection of freeze frames that refuses to acquire sepia tones. The slide of the Indian batting line-up matched the deterioration of the track. A rather irate section of the crowd forced the ICC Match Referee Clive Lloyd to abandon the match and award it to Sri Lanka.
Graphic images of a tearful Vinod Kambli walking back to the dressing room come back just as quickly as Sunrisers Hyderabad’s capitulation. As do visuals from India being bowled out for a miserable 54 by Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan in the Coca-Cola Champions Trophy final in Sharjah in the year 2000.
Sport is replete with such stories, but it also offers instances of amazing turnarounds, not the least being India’s victory in the Prudential Cup final at Lord’s in 1983. Of course, the beauty of sport is such that tales of athletes and teams pushing back from tight corners to script unbelievable conquests, but Sunday night there was no such drama as Kolkata Knight Riders drove to victory relentlessly.
After the early loss of Sunil Naraine to a skyed catch, the left-handed Venkatesh Iyer negated the swing by taking guard outside the batting crease. Rahmanullah Gurbaz joined him in putting paid to any aspirations that Sunrisers Hyderabad may have nursed of making a fight of it with the lowest total in the history of IPL finals dating back to 2008.
Mumbai Indians had won two IPL finals by 1-run margins. The more memorable of such instances was when it defended 129 against Rising Pune Supergiant in Hyderabad in 2017. But Sunrisers Hyderabad did not have the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga to manage it on Sunday night in Chepauk.
All that the Sunrisers Hyderabad players could do was reconcile to fate, go through the motions and wait for the winning runs to be scored. The idea of grinning and bearing is easier said than done and you could sense that Pat Cummins and his team masked their emotions until they returned to the safety of their dressing room at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
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