Finally Chennai Suprer Kings lifts IT! Missed the first one by a single run!!

The Championship Victory due to brilliant captaincy, outstanding fielding, daring batting…..all came on the D-Day!!

Of the two teams, CSK was a more balanced team…more all round team not depending on only one or two, unlike Mumbai.. If Tendulkar did not play, MI would have been thrashed by a big margin. Tendu knew it and played the game with painkillers.. He could not have afforded not to play the game…

Sorry Mumbai ! One bad day at the office..unfortunately on the most important day.. Kudos to Sachin for taking the field with his disfunct hand still almost seeing them thru with Pollard taking everything apart! Mumbai deserves a standing ovation tooooo.. for the way they carried thru the tournament..

Key turning points – Putting down Raina twice.. and 110 coming from last 8 overs….. Pollard grabbed by Hayden…

SURESH RAINA – An individual with an amazing fighting spirit – all the time, whatever he does. He is always seen in the thick of it…. ironically very similar to Tendu… Raina, only player to score more than more than 450/500 in each of the IPLs… Mr. Consistent and Mr. Dependable… with ball and fielding too…

My learnings from the whole IPL hungama –

1. Believe in self

2. Work towards building the base (do not panic whatever be the target)

3. Once you build the base, you can really take risks and accelerate

4. There is no substitute for hardwork

5. Give everything you have, do not worry about the result

6. Above all, be humble and continue contributing your best as a team player irrespective of what you achieve in life!!

The greatest contribution of IPL (or ICL to start it all) to INDIAN Cricket has been to give opportunities to spot youngsters resulting in a fantastic bench strength in all areas…… Uthappah, Rohit, Ambatti, Murali, Tiwaris…..Ashwin, Djakati,…. Fast bowling has not really found new exponents thought!!

Thankfully IPL 2010 ends…..days ahead will be more productive for all! Ahahahaha

Hopefully IPL will be cleansed of all rubbish to keep it going….(many more areas need cleansing anyways – wherever politicians are, cleansing needs to be done; in most cases – telecom, mining…). and hopefully one day too soon, Indians would support other sports and sportsmen as much as they adore cricket! We need to replicate similar successes elsewhere too… Let us figure out, how!

Sreeni@iwsb.in