Page 141 - IPL1

I
n keeping with its extremely well-appointed cricket
stadium, it is apparent to any visitor to the area of Mohali and
Chandigarh that, with its well-mapped roads, a lot of thought
went into its planning. The same might be said about the Kings
XI Punjab team, which started poorly before embarking on
one of the most impressive sequences in the tournament and
eventually losing out to Chennai Super Kings in a disappointingly
one-sided semi-final in Mumbai. But an overall record of 10 wins
from 15 matches reflected the fact that the Punjabis, coached
by the highly respected Tom Moody, who brought with him
years of experience with county teams, Western Australia and
Sri Lanka, had got far more things right than they did wrong.
It was one of the delights of the tournament that the Kings XI’s
star player probably disappeared under the radar of most teams’
pre-competition homework. While much was known about the
likes of Yuvraj Singh, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene,
Simon Katich and Ramnaresh Sarwan, it’s fair to say that Marsh
was more of a cricketing B-lister. Just 24 when the tournament
began, the Western Australian was better known as the son of
the former Australian opening batsman Geoff Marsh, whose
style at the crease may not have fitted in with the breakneck
pace of Twenty20 cricket. Shaun, though, was different and by
the time Kings XI Punjab had departed the tournament, he had
scored 616 runs at a strike-rate of 139. To place that performance
in context, the next highest runscorer in the IPL was Gautam
Gambhir of the Delhi Daredevils with 534. But what was so
remarkable about Marsh’s efforts was his sheer consistency.
The occasionally random nature of Twenty20 cricket tends
to militate against prolonged periods of success, but Marsh’s
sequence of scores would have looked good in a Test series: 84
not out, 40, 39, 58, 74 not out, 2, 81, 60, 40, 115 and 23. His genius
was to defy the law of averages, hitting 59 fours and 26 sixes
along the way and finishing as the undisputed claimant to the
orange helmet, given to the tournament’s leading runscorer. No
one’s reputation rocketed as quickly during the seven-wicket
competition as Marsh’s.
But it would be misleading to label the Kings XI Punjab a one-
man team. Marsh’s compatriot James Hopes kicked off with a
feisty 71 against Chennai Super Kings and frequently helped
Marsh start an innings with more fireworks than the opposition
130
conquering Rajasthan Royals, the pair added a rollicking 133 in
bowlers were entirely comfortable with. Against the all-
13.4 overs for the first wicket en route to a team total of 221 for
three. The result? A rare defeat for Shane Warne’s men.
Sangakkara proved a shrewd signing too, as Moody will have
known during his time as Sri Lanka’s coach. An innings of 94 off
56 deliveries against Mumbai Indians inspired Kings XI to their
first win at the third attempt and arguably provided the self-
belief that allowed the side to notch up nine victories in 10. In
all Sangakkara – unusually managing to combine his customary
left-handed elegance with some ferocious boundary-hitting –
hit four half-centuries and finished with 320 runs at 35 and a
strike-rate of 161. As the side’s regular wicket-keeper and a paid-
up member of the brains trust, Sangakkara was one of the most
quietly efficient players of the tournament.
His Sri Lankan captain Jayawardene had a less spectacular
tournament, managing a top score of just 45 during the
comfortable win over Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad, but five
not-outs in 12 innings also hinted at an inner steel that spread
throughout the team as the tournament progressed. There were
walk-on parts too for the experienced Australian left-hander
Simon Katich, who crashed 75 in 52 deliveries during the win
over Delhi Daredevils in one of the two innings he played, and
the rumbustious Luke Pomersbach, another Western Australian
import – Moody’s influence again – who joined the franchise
late but had an immediate impact, hitting 151 runs before
being dismissed, including 79 not out off 50 balls in the away
win against Mumbai Indians, a result that brought to an end
Mumbai’s sequence of six straight victories.
But perhaps the greatest indication that Kings XI Punjab had
got their signings right was that their captain Yuvraj, famed as
the man who hit six sixes in an over off England’s Stuart Broad
during the World Twenty20 in South Africa in 2007, was able to
get away with what, by his own very high standards, was an
ordinary tournament. He finished with 299 runs at an average
of 23 and only rarely expressed himself in that inimitable style:
an innings of 49 off 16 balls in the final group game against
Rajasthan Royals left most observers wishing he had imposed
himself on attacks more regularly.