 IPL will be remembered for the triumph of the underdogs
2nd Jun 2008 23:01 IST
Agencies
But amid all this, the players made sure that attention never wavered from the cricket.
Stunning hundreds were scored and the 39-year-old Sanath Jayasuriya, who hit 36 sixes in 14 innings, showed just why age has got nothing to do with a player's success in the shortest format of the game.
On the downside, some of Indian cricket's biggest names, who were sold for record amounts, failed to live up to the expectations.
Tendulkar, the icon player and the captain of Mumbai Indians, sat out of almost half the tournament because of a nagging groin injury and failed to make any major impact with the bat once he came back.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, icon of Chennai team and bought for a whopping Rs six crore, was not exactly a failure but did not come up with anything dazzling either to justify his price.
Yuvraj Singh, although in good touch, could not produce the kind of fireworks that Brendon McCullum gave the tournament at the start.
Dravid was left to shoulder the entire burden of Bangalore's batting as everyone around him failed, but managed moderate success before admitting that perhaps he could have done better had he been 21.
Sourav Ganguly, Kolkata's icon, though came good with both bat and ball but his team was undone by the elements in a couple of matches.
All in all, the IPL turned out to be a 44-day roller coaster ride for the fans who enjoyed the game's new avatar but more importantly it became an unprecedented success for the BCCI, which is still counting the millions that have not stopped raining as yet. |
