MUMBAI: All season long, they had dogged each other’s steps. At the end of the league stage, there was little to separate the two teams as SunRisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings finished with 18 points from 14 matches, the former only topping the table by a slightly better run rate. There was seemingly little to separate them when they met in the Qualifier I last Tuesday.
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But when it all came down to the final, the Super Kings blew the split wide open. With Shane Watson taking on the reigns, they cantered to an eight-wicket win in the final of the 11th Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday evening. Hyderabad had scored 178-6 in their 20 overs, Chennai replied with 181-2 from 18.3 overs.
With that, Chennai were crowned the IPL champions for the third time, following on their back-to-back title wins in 2010 and 2011. They are now tied with Mumbai for the most number of titles.
Chennai had returned to the IPL fold after a two-year hiatus. If they weren’t coming back from a two-year-ban for spot-fixing, one could have called it a fairytale comeback. Their season could well have been a Kollywood script.
It wasn’t smooth sailing for Chennai on their comeback. Despite Mahendra Singh Dhoni returning as their captain, they posted harried, nervous and narrow wins in their first two matches. They lost their home ground as IPL matches were moved out of Chennai due to security concerns. But once back in form, Chennai never stopped looking like genuine title contenders. “Our fans have waited a long time for this moment,” Dhoni had said on the eve of the final.And on Sunday, when all eyes were focused on a teen sensation named Rashid Khan, it was the experienced duo of Watson and Yusuf Pathan who turned back the clock and stole the show. While Pathan’s defiant, timely, unbeaten 45 (25 balls) gave Hyderabad something to bowl at, Watson shred the best bowling attack of the tournament to pieces. Hyderabad had been the only team to claim 100 or more wickets this season, but Chennai, and Watson, in particular, treated them with scant respect.
The hefty Aussie sent the ball all around the park. Siddarth Kaul had been Hyderabad’s second-highest wicket taker of the season, but in one over, Watson, with the help of three sixes and two fours, knocked 27 runs off him. The Australian scored his second century of the season, finishing with an exciting 117 off 57 balls (11x4, 8x6). His 117-run partnership with Suresh Raina (32), off 9.3 overs, shattered Hyderabad’s spirit.
“The franchise bought well, and from there we could keep a core set of skills. Other teams chopped and changed, but we stuck along,” Stephen Fleming, the Chennai coach said. “Experience got some stick after the auction, but we preferred that style. Our formula was ‘experience’ this year. We looked at age, but also at professionalism, and people like Watson are great at that. Our fielding levels do drop, but we take that into consideration”
It was Ambati Rayudu though, who hit the winning runs. As soon as he drove for four through the covers, the Men in Yellow, who were lining up by the boundary, swamped the field. Belatedly, Dhoni followed and joined in the celebration. Once again, he had out-thought all his rivals.
Mayhem in Mumbai
Express breaks down how Shane Watson went about while notching up his century in the final
0 to 5.1 ovs: 8 (16)
Very slow, kind of steady
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sandeep Sharma were getting the ball to move both ways. With stiff legs making life even more difficult for the Australian, he decided to negotiate the threat up front.
5.3 to 11.3: 47 (21)
Breaking the shackles
With quite a few sighters under his belt, the time was ripe for Watson to hunt for a release shot. It came in the form of a juicy length offering from Sandeep in his swinging arc, and the ball soared way over deep square leg. Rashid Khan was negotiated with without incident, and singles kept trickling in in the company of Suresh Raina, with the ocassional blow beyond the ropes keeping his scoring rate from meandering south.
11.5 to 14.0: 42 (11)
Beast mode On
With the pain in his legs spiking courtesy the running Raina was making him do, Watson decided to back himself to do what he does best: stand and deliver. It all began with a big mow off Carlos Brathwaite for a four. Then, with Sandeep back on, he decided to unleash hell. Twenty seven runs were blasted off the pacer with only the sheer force of his forearms and shoulders. The game had literally been turned on its head.
16.0 to 18.0: 20 (9)
Autopilot till a win
With the pressure on CSK having been negotiated with and his eyes sighting the ball like a hawk, all Watson had to do was hang in. Freebies courtesy a deflated morale and fielding errors saw him still biff a few around while guiding CSK to their third title.
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Brief scores: SunRisers Hyderabad 178/6 in 20 ovs (Williamson 47, Yusuf 45 n.o) lost to Chennai Super Kings 181/2 in 18.3 ovs (Watson 117 n.o, Raina 32).