The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was once averse to the idea of a cricket league. But with the passage of time, the Board’s initiative in the form of the Indian Premier League (IPL) substantially and thoroughly changed the face of the game of cricket and, for that matter, the fate of cricketers.
Truly thrilling, sensational and memorable contests of several seasons of the IPL cannot fade into oblivion, with cricket- lovers continuing to have the same nail-biting experience at the very thought of the sensational matches. The IPL established its own different identity by virtue of having a treasure of massive thrilling innings, be it Brendon McCullum’s or Chris Gayle’s brutal and devastating innings that scripted the victory with a huge sixer at the very last ball of the match.
Who can forget Brendon McCullum’s blasting innings at Chinnaswamy stadium of Bengaluru in the first IPL in which he scored 158 runs due to which KKR handed down massive defeat to RCB on their home soil. Also, who can forget Chris Gayle’s 175 run innings off 66 balls when playing for RCB he made a century off just 30 balls against Pune Warriors. Gayle had hit 13 fours and 17 sixers in this innings.
In IPL 2011, in a match between KKR and Mumbai Indians, it seemed at one point of time that the former would win the match because the situation was that the latter needed 21 runs in the last over for the victory. But what happened was that New Zealand’s James Franklin showed fireworks and hit four fours off as many balls of Laxmipati Balaji and managed to take a single, which was followed by Ambati Rayudu hitting a sixer off the last ball in what reminded the audience of Javed Miandad style. And this scripted Mumbai Indians’ victory.
In an IPL match which was played in Dharamshala in 2010, Mahendra Singh Dhoni pulled a victory in what turned out to be a thrilling match against Kings XI Punjab. Dhoni’s team needed 16 runs at last and he achieved the target in the first balls of Irfan Pathan. Dhoni remained not out making 54 runs off 29 balls. Dhoni did a much better job in 2016 IPL match against Kings XI again. Dhoni was in Pune’s team due to the ban on CSK.
In an IPL match of 2018, KKR lost to CSK despite making more than 200 runs. CSK needed 17 runs to win the match in the last over. Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja hit one sixer each in the last over of Vinay Kumar and reached the target easily. In the first innings of this match, Andre Russell’s stormy batting presented the real spectacle. Playing at number seven, Russell played cracking innings and made 88 runs off 36 balls including 11 sixers. But, unfortunately, his onslaught could fetch victory for his team.
There is no dearth of matches which have been thrilling and sensational like these. Let’s hope for countless such exhilarating, animating, exciting and thrilling matches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
