Not long ago, like the summer of 2019, we heard the roars of the lions galore! The blood-smeared biceps femoris of Shane Watson, on the yellow flannels, that won millions of hearts despite finishing second in that finale of the much famed Indian Premier League, season 12, still sends the chills down our spines! The utter disdain with which he treated one of the best exponents of yorkers of our times, Lasith Malinga as if he was playing in his backyard, is still fresh in our memories.
How then did the Lions stop reigning supreme in the jungle? Even a season before that, the ‘Dad’s army’, Chennai Super Kings, won the title and the wily ‘OLD’ fox, Shane Watson, as usual, played out of his skin to score a century, putting all his experience to play.
Cometh the hour of reckoning, the test, in the UAE and CSK was found wanting. The once Champion side, almost every season, looked like fish out of the water, or should we say, like a child in a topless bar. Such was the drastic fall of a team that cemented its birth in the IPL playoffs, year after year!
What had changed? We hear tales from masters of the game, that CSK is a family. CSK knows how to value its players, give them the respect they deserve and we aren't surprised either. After all, they are lead by a 'LEADER' and not just a captain - Mahendra Singh Dhoni. A name that often struck terror to the opponents, just like how the roar of the lion would strike to a common man in the jungle!
But things did change. The exuberance of youth failed to blend well with the silver in the locks of many of the stalwarts in the side. The Currans, the Gaikwads amongst many others did ample justice to their places in the squad. But the ‘DADS’ ceased to deliver. Something that isn’t of familiarity when it comes to CSK. Or should we say ‘Came’. It wasn’t that in the dreaded 2020 edition, the big ‘uns weren’t up to the task. It was just that, CSK looked like an older version of a Mercedes as against a swanky, swashbuckling 2021 edition. They almost looked like a mainframe system as opposed to an iMac!
Yesterday, It was a contest that was worth its weight in Gold. Or so we believed. The lion was dismissed for a second-ball duck and there was, we bet, pin-drop silence in every household. Even if they were supporting Delhi Capitals. This time, CSK looked rusty, to the extent where fans of the franchise and particularly MS Dhoni, would have felt the heat themselves.
But then again, we say, Cricket is a great leveller. It humbles you. It makes you bite dust. But with the bat of an eye-lid, it can convert dust to gold! With that at the back of our minds, we look forward to a drastic turnaround. Something that has never happened in the world of sport. But we can just wish for that to happen. They say ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’ but we can’t wait, but just wish for that turnaround. And when that happens, the roar of the lions would sound like the sweetest song!
