The asking rate was touching 12 in a low-scoring game and almost every Dhoni fan was praying for Thala. For the sake of the tournament, he needed to get the job done. The aura and the cult were yet again to be questioned if he failed. CSK, needless to say, needed it badly.
Yes, Rishabh Pant missed a trick by not bowling Bishnoi. He was the best bowler on view but did not finish his quota. But at one level, this match was not about Pant or Bishnoi. It was all about Dhoni. There were 22 players playing out there, but there was one hero. Everyone else was the supporting cast—there to make up the numbers. The sea of yellow did not want Pant to win. They wanted the cricket gods to give it, one final time, to their hero. For that, if Pant had to make a mistake on home ground, so be it.
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Dhoni, for his fans, did not disappoint. Yes, some of his shots were streaky and on a different day could indeed have gone to hand. Not so today. It was destined. He had to walk out victorious and give the IPL that much-needed injection. The stage was set, and he rode the wave. This could well be the last time MSD won CSK a game while chasing. But then, that’s why the legion in yellow comes to the ground every time he plays—in hope and in optimism. They just want to consume him, and the win is a bonus. No one in Lucknow would be unhappy, for at the end of the day, it was Dhoni who won. The IPL’s biggest brand has yet again shown why the tournament is what it is—the Indian Possible League, as Sanjog Gupta says.
Suffice to say, the roar was deafening. Not every day does the crowd get what they badly crave. Sport isn’t reel, it is real. For today, the climax was cinematic. The cult hero walked out a winner—and with him, the IPL. Well done, MSD. None of us have seen the future, and we don’t need to. Let’s soak in the present and consume MSD for that final hit off Shardul. The clock turned back, and with it, all of us went down memory lane. The charm of the IPL, you see.