Sunrisers Hyderabad Final Winning Moment Celebration 2016 - Victory Against RCB
- 8 years ago
IPL 2016: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s moment in the sun, win first title .
NOT LONG ago in a land not too far from the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a hotly-contested mega T20 final entered the last over with the favourites needing 19 runs to win the title. On Sunday in Bangalore, the favourites on this occasion needed 18. Chris Gayle had played a minor role in getting his team to that juncture that night in Kolkata. At Chinnaswamy, he had played a monumental role. Eoin Morgan was on the field that balmy April evening with no control over proceedings. Morgan sat on the sidelines in Bangalore with well, no control over proceedings. A nervous Ben Stokes had the ball in hand at the Eden Gardens. It was a nerveless Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who was on the hot-seat at the Chinnaswamy.
After a spectacular start from Warner and Shikhar Dhawan, the Sunrisers had slipped and lost momentum. They no longer looked on par for a 200+ total, especially when a well-set Yuvraj Singh-who turned back the clock to play a couple of cover-drives laced with that characteristic relish and flourish-was dismissed by Jordan. In walked Cutting. A ‘cutting’ is what you call a half-cup of tea in Mumbai, which is had when you don’t feel like having an entire cuppa. But there were no half-measures with Cutting in Bangalore. He simply kept clearing his left-leg and smashing the ball out of the ground-once literally of a high full-toss from Shane Watson, which was one of three he connected in the 20th over. His 15-ball 39 not only gave Hyderabad the boost they required it also ensured that 52 runs were scored in the last three overs taking the total to 208 for 7 and making RCB’s task a lot tougher than they had imagined. And yes, Cutting had entertained.
Cutting makes the difference For the umpteenth time in the evening, that pendulum-shift was engineered by Ben Cutting. “You’re pretty much there for the entertainment aren’t you?” is what Cutting had said in an interview a couple of years ago when asked about his batting contributions in the shortest format. Big, tall and muscular, the Queensland pacer has always turned heads with his nip off the wicket in Australian domestic cricket, and has been on the fringes of national selection for years now. But he’s never quite delivered that one big performance that will get tongues wagging on the big stage. This was his biggest stage yet-yes he has played for his country on a handful occasions but this was the IPL final. And somehow every time it was time for him to take centre-stage on Sunday night, his team needed him to bail them out of a pickle.
A target of 209 in a way seemed fair for RCB. If any team could even come close it had to be them. And as always it was a case of let’s see what Gayle does, and then start talking about the rest. As it turned out, the big Jamaican decided that it was time to show why he is the Universe Boss, and for 40 minutes or so, he held court and the world watched in awe. For the first time this season, not many wanted Kohli on strike. It looked like even he wasn’t too keen on coming in the way of the Gayle show. Like is the case when Gayle generally goes about his carnage, the white ball kept flying into the various corners of Chinnaswamy-even though the first six came off a thick edge-and there was little the Sunrisers could do about it. Yes, they got their lengths wrong often. But what do you do when your opponent is as unforgiving as Gayle. He hit eight sixes in all, and it looked like RCB were well on their way before Cutting came in the way.
Post Gayle’s dismissal, Kohli decided enough was enough and looked keen on showing up Mustafizur in particular, hitting him for a six and a four to bring up his 18th half-century in 26 T20 innings this year. But as he attempted a wild hoick, for once the ball didn’t bounce over the stumps but took the bails on its way to stop Kohli in his tracks, and yet again leave him to be contended with coming second best.
NOT LONG ago in a land not too far from the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a hotly-contested mega T20 final entered the last over with the favourites needing 19 runs to win the title. On Sunday in Bangalore, the favourites on this occasion needed 18. Chris Gayle had played a minor role in getting his team to that juncture that night in Kolkata. At Chinnaswamy, he had played a monumental role. Eoin Morgan was on the field that balmy April evening with no control over proceedings. Morgan sat on the sidelines in Bangalore with well, no control over proceedings. A nervous Ben Stokes had the ball in hand at the Eden Gardens. It was a nerveless Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who was on the hot-seat at the Chinnaswamy.
After a spectacular start from Warner and Shikhar Dhawan, the Sunrisers had slipped and lost momentum. They no longer looked on par for a 200+ total, especially when a well-set Yuvraj Singh-who turned back the clock to play a couple of cover-drives laced with that characteristic relish and flourish-was dismissed by Jordan. In walked Cutting. A ‘cutting’ is what you call a half-cup of tea in Mumbai, which is had when you don’t feel like having an entire cuppa. But there were no half-measures with Cutting in Bangalore. He simply kept clearing his left-leg and smashing the ball out of the ground-once literally of a high full-toss from Shane Watson, which was one of three he connected in the 20th over. His 15-ball 39 not only gave Hyderabad the boost they required it also ensured that 52 runs were scored in the last three overs taking the total to 208 for 7 and making RCB’s task a lot tougher than they had imagined. And yes, Cutting had entertained.
Cutting makes the difference For the umpteenth time in the evening, that pendulum-shift was engineered by Ben Cutting. “You’re pretty much there for the entertainment aren’t you?” is what Cutting had said in an interview a couple of years ago when asked about his batting contributions in the shortest format. Big, tall and muscular, the Queensland pacer has always turned heads with his nip off the wicket in Australian domestic cricket, and has been on the fringes of national selection for years now. But he’s never quite delivered that one big performance that will get tongues wagging on the big stage. This was his biggest stage yet-yes he has played for his country on a handful occasions but this was the IPL final. And somehow every time it was time for him to take centre-stage on Sunday night, his team needed him to bail them out of a pickle.
A target of 209 in a way seemed fair for RCB. If any team could even come close it had to be them. And as always it was a case of let’s see what Gayle does, and then start talking about the rest. As it turned out, the big Jamaican decided that it was time to show why he is the Universe Boss, and for 40 minutes or so, he held court and the world watched in awe. For the first time this season, not many wanted Kohli on strike. It looked like even he wasn’t too keen on coming in the way of the Gayle show. Like is the case when Gayle generally goes about his carnage, the white ball kept flying into the various corners of Chinnaswamy-even though the first six came off a thick edge-and there was little the Sunrisers could do about it. Yes, they got their lengths wrong often. But what do you do when your opponent is as unforgiving as Gayle. He hit eight sixes in all, and it looked like RCB were well on their way before Cutting came in the way.
Post Gayle’s dismissal, Kohli decided enough was enough and looked keen on showing up Mustafizur in particular, hitting him for a six and a four to bring up his 18th half-century in 26 T20 innings this year. But as he attempted a wild hoick, for once the ball didn’t bounce over the stumps but took the bails on its way to stop Kohli in his tracks, and yet again leave him to be contended with coming second best.