SACHIN 10DULKAR - A New IPL star!!

           Little Master - is getting ready for the final battle awaited anxiously since 45 days of IPL. No wonder , its quite eager to see the Chennai team lead by MSD, who is on the verge of becoming the most successful Indian captain after Sourav (Only statistically - both) and Mumbai lead by "Tendlya" whom we are seeing him play since we were kids. This is definately the "Clash of Titans". Whoever wins will be the first Indian IPL Captain to win the IPL trophy.

           IPL is the form of cricket which has mixed the glamour and surprises with  T-20 games. In surprises we saw how our RCB reached the bottom 7 in IPL-1 follwed by DC in rankings and the same teams ranking were upside down and both fought the  final of IPL-2. The way Ross Taylor became the favorite throughout karnataka by the time IPL2 ended, all we knew that he was only a Kiwi. That's it, he went on to become the falvour of RCB. Another surprise to spring out this year was how Yuvraj batted in IPL3, everybody knew why he did that before the newspapers wrote about it. Today half of Punjab has lost the trust on this guy, a typical spoilt brat. Not to forget how the old timers who resisted to be a part of Indian T20 team, citing their bodies can't compete with the youngsters contributed immensly for thier teams in all the versions of IPL. The major 3 and our Jumbo Anil are still looked up as benchmark by the youngsters even in T20, a game where they should have looked at like of Yuvaraj, Harbhajan (we still remember how he badmouthed on T Suman after taking his wicket  in a IPL3 league match). Is'nt Still there is a lot to learn from these bigges, apart from cricket?

          According to me, the most amazing part of IPL 3 is Sachin Tendulkar. His team was an average performing (and costliest) team in the first two editions.

With Sachin and Jayasuriya coming to open any team will definately have shivers. But this never happened, sachin was not at his best and jayasuriya was not as his usual apart from one or two matches. With Sachin, this team had become like Indian Cricket team in late 90s and early 2000s, where once this guy is back to pavilion everybody will fall in line to be back. Every team with sachin has its own advantages and disadvantages. We cant balme anybody for this, its all about psychology. Whole of India understands this psychology effect :)

         A team with Sachin Tendulkar is called one trick pony in west. Nobody expected this team to give a good performance this year, but  as surprise again, it did. And Sachin was leading from the front. Even when he dint contribute much, the rest rose to the occasion and delivered. A team what Sachin had dreamed of had been built and it was performing consistantly. He dint enjoy this kind of freedom for captaining India, probably because the stakes being too high to bat alone for the team and to again lead the rest 10 guys. Now he is more mature and firing all the cylinders. If you have noticed its been almost a year he is firing great guns, he is only scoring, scoring and scoring in all the forms of cricket - tests, ODI (as usual MSD is lucky this year too in appraisal) and IPL. Exaclyt a year and half ago, everybody wrote and went on commenting on the idiot box - "Sachin, its time up. You are getting old, retire now". Some even wrote obituaries about his carrier ending in a low. And later, it was a BANG! He is coming at his best in international cricket when he is becoming older. The runs of the past 12 months is infront of you. I am sure you have seen those matches.

       Lets be honest. When IPL 3 was about to start none of us expected his run marathon would continue here  too. As IPL started he continued his run marathon. Like an icing on cake, his team as a unit is performing consistantly and not falling like the cycles in cycle stand (source of these bold letters: Navjot Singh Sidhu). The way Sachin has filled the confidence in his team on and off the field, it is visible in their body language, this kind of change in a team can only be instilled and imparted on the minds only by the captain, which Sachin has done as a leader. (Our team was like them last year-courtesy Anil Kumble). When this team confronted us in Blore they displayed it in our home ground and again repeated the same with us in semis. In both the matches sachin's contribution by bat was less and more it was as a leader. Honestly I wanted our guys to qualify to semis, but somewhere in me I wanted Sachin's team to win, coz they deserved it. I always belive the honours should always go to those who perform consistantly, our guys were not consistant as a team in this edition of IPL. Now the opponents for MI in finals are the Chennai who are also not consistant in this edition, apart from Suresh Raina. The way they have entered the Semis was purely gifted by certain players in their last league match against KIV Punjab. We saw how Irfan left two catches and one run out chance of MSD. 

           My choice is Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians as the winner for IPL3 trophy. But all the editions have given a kind of contrasting results in finals. In IPL1 Chennai was the most consistant and well disciplined team, but the heroics of RR at end matches seized the cup from them. In IPL 2 RCB was all well throughout the tournament, but DC put whole karnataka in shock at the last two overs, which we had thought we will win easily. This year MI has done really good, and............ Lets see the finals. But still it will be nice if MI win the finals, because Sachin desevers this trophy,

        In the whole year of tireless cricket and superb performances in this age, and competing with the whole younger lot and with the international players as well, definately Sachin has become the star of Indian Premier League too.


Your's
Raju Hiremath

Please Note: I am not a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar, but I am of Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. This blog is because of his work he has done on field all these years and still he contributes well tirelessly, without complaining. Lets appretiate the Little master with whom we have grown up seeing him.