It wasn’t dramatic at all even as Shivam Mavi and Lockie Ferguson with their 39 run partnership for the ninth wicket did try t bring some perspective into the game which was dead by the 16th over of the Kolkata Knight Riders innings who were chasing 193 for a victory. The fact that Kolkata lost its first eight wickets in a span of just 34 runs and 35 balls was reason enough to call this one of the greatest collapses n the history of the IPL finals.
Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur and Josh Hazlewood were the heroes for Chennai with the ball who help create the collapse and then take it to its final destination as well, just before Mavi and Ferguson struck that partnership which was a saving grace for the Knight Riders.
The final was a tale of impressive comebacks as both Chennai and Kolkata had stories of their own to support, but in the end, Chennai turned out to be too heavy for the KKR to lift over.
While Chennai had finished seventh last season and for the first time ever outside the Playoffs and thus making it to the Playoffs, then the final and then winning it was like poetic justice, for Knight Riders too, it would have been historic if they would have won the league after from having just two wins in seven games at the end of the first half due to the pandemic in the India-leg.
This game though was much more than just contexts and collapse and the heroes and the villains of it would be discussed for one final time this IPL in Hits and Flops.
The great man was saving the best for the last it seems as he made his 100th IPL game more memorable by becoming the Man of the Match in a title-winning cause. Faf du Plessis was offered a chance very early in the innings when he was batting in single digits in the third over of the Chennai innings when Dinesh Karthik couldn’t latch on to a tough chance behind the wickets off the bowling of Shakib Al Hasan.
But that chance was more than enough for Protea to go on and play one of the finest innings in the IPL finals. He hit seven fours and three sixes in his knock of 86 which came in just 59 balls. He was also instrumental in anchoring the entire innings as he held on to one end after Ruturaj Gaikwad fell early.
Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali, who came after Gaikwad did most of the hitting as du Plessis bid his time playing graceful shots and yet keeping the strike rate a buzz. At one stage, Faf was even threatening to take the Orange Cp away from Gaikwad who escaped by only two runs as the former was caught off the last ball of the innings trying to muscle his way to a boundary.
The find of the UAE leg, Venkatesh Iyer was on a roll today as well. After being dropped at nought by MS Dhoni behind the wickets, Iyer showed glimpses of how dangerous he can be as he reached his fifty in just 30 balls with the help of five fours and three huge sixes.
He did not let Ravindra Jadeja settle one bit into his rhythm as he targetted the left-hander from the very beginning of his spell. His 91 run stand with fellow opener Shubman Gill was a ray of hope fr the Knight Riders and gave them a great stage to launch from and go for the chase, only that they crumpled was beyond his control.
The 26-year old’s problem of getting bogged down after hitting a fifty continued in this game too as he was once again nabbed just after completing his fifty. His was the wicket that started the great Knight Riders collapse.
The man with the Golden arm might be the apt description for Shardul Thakur of IPL 2021 as he got his captain a wicket whenever he was thrown a ball to. In this game too the tradition continued as he got rid of dangerous Venkatesh Iyer and tipped off the collapse that was loading.
In fact, in one over, Thakur took two wickets and actually started the collapse as he also got Nitish Rana caught at mid-off for a golden duck. It was only his second over. In the third over he got yer another crucial wicket in the form of injured Raul Tripathi, who could not run and therefore tried to hit Shardul all around the park, but managing as far as holing out to Moeen Ali at mid-wicket.
Although his last over was a bit expensive and spoiled his figures as the Palghar express ended up with 3-38 from his four overs in the final. In the entire season, the right-arm medium pacer took 21 wickets and was joint third-highest wicket-taker and thus booked a place in the Indian main squad, getting promoted from reserves.
Before this game, the most expensive that Lockie Ferguson had been in this IPL was going for 33 runs in his four overs once. But in this game, he turned out to be the run leaking machine, going for 56 runs without taking even a single wicket. Ferguson was one of those who were believed to be the top performers for the Knight Riders in the final given his track record of 13 wickets from the last seven games that he played in this UAE leg.
But today he was totally off his mark as his slower balls were being read quite easily and his yorkers were mostly aimed at heels instead of toes and were thus getting glanced and flicked for four past the fine leg by du Plessis, Uthappa and Moeen alike. In his last over, the Kiwi bowled went for 19 runs.
If there was one man who was as clueless as a cuckoo after the toss, it was the KKR skipper Eoin morgan. Even after winning the toss and electing to field first, he was out of ideas and went through a set plan which failed eventually. Bowling Iyer just one over even as he went for just five runs was a mistake as he could have very well compensated for one of Ferguson’s overs who was going for too many runs.
Similarly, not coming to bat when the stage was all set for him at 92-1 and sending someone like Nitish Rana ahead of him, who has had a history of playing rash shots was yet another tactical mistake. The biggest of all mistakes though has been his form which has been missing for eternity now. Today also he got out for only four off eight balls courtesy of a great catch by Deepak Chahar.
And Morgan getting out so cheaply even in such a tense situation was probably the best way, to sum up a horrendous day for Knight Riders overall.