By Sunil Gavaskar
The Chennai Super Kings did them selves a huge favour by winning the first qualifier. In doing so they gave themselves three crucial days of rest before they defend their crown against the winners of the match between the Royal Challengers and the Mumbai Indians. In the heat and humidity of the summer it is essential to have a team with well rested bodies than a team which has players who will be a bit sore after the previous day’s efforts.
Yes, the T20 format is a quickfire one but as someone hugely experienced like Jacques Kallis has stated that it is far easier on the body than the other formats. After all it is only a 20 overs match so even the running between the wickets or fielding will not be as tiring as say a 50 overs game.
As for the bowling it is a maximum of 4 overs and that too split in two or three spells, so while the pressure to perform and deliver is intense it is more so in the temperamental sense than the physical one.
The Chennai Super Kings have been in the knockouts of the tournament on all three occasions so far and have experienced both winning and losing so they will know what it entails and what pitfalls to avoid. They are also pretty much the same team over the years so not only do they know each other well and understand what their strengths and weaknesses are there is also an understanding of the reaction to pressure situations that confront a player.
The reason why the players react positively to a pressure point is simply because they have a skipper who is not going to fly off the handle if they fail. Not only that but the skipper himself has walked out to combat a tense moment and has triumphed more often than not and that makes the Super Kings believe nothing is impossible. When a skipper leads by example then the others can follow blindly knowing they are not being asked to do anything that the skipper himself won’t do.
If there is any team that has been rewarded for showing faith in its players it is the Chennai Super Kings with the Mumbai Indians not too far behind. The players retained by the Super Kings have all delivered at crunch time and it is here that the sagacity of those that made the retention call that needs to be appreciated. In doing so they halved the budget to get the other 20 odd players in their squad but how well the team has responded to the faith and confidence shown in them.
The Mumbai Indians too have had good results from their retained players with Lasith Malinga once again getting the Purple Cap for the most wickets in the tournament. Harbhajan has come to the party with some daring batting and though Tendulkar has played a supporting role, his influence on the team has been vast. The only disappointment is Kieron Pollard who hasn’t quite hit the big ones but has been outstanding in the field.
It will be a sea of yellow at the MA Chidambaram stadium and it will take something really special to have another colour flying in the breeze on Saturday.