It is indeed creditable on the part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to successfully conclude the Pepsi IPL-6 on Sunday amid allegations of spot and match fixing, betting and the reported involvement of players and franchise official in unethical practices.
Despite the call for the resignation, the Board’s head N. Srinivasan stone-walled all such efforts by hiding behind the ‘I did no wrong’ theory.
This IPL season, that began on April 2, witnessed many ups and downs, splendid performances and utterly dismal shows. It saw a new champion emerge and a legend bowout of IPL gracefully.
The most poignant moment of the entire tournament could be the two greatest players of the contemporary era, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting, applauding Mumbai Indians (MI) being crowned the champion from the sidelines. It was indeed a touching scene when MI captain Rohit Sharma invited Ponting and Harbhajan Singh persuaded Tendulkar to receive the trophy from the BCCI chief.
Two West Indians and a retired Aussie proved to be the icing on the cake. Chris Gayle of Royal Challengers Bangalore produced a masterly unbeaten 175 off 66 balls which erased the previous best of 158 not out by Brendon McCullum of KKR.
The other West Indian, Dwayne Bravo of Chennai Super Kings, was in the limelight by emerging the purple cap winner with a haul of 32 wickets, including the four he picked up in the final.
Michael Hussey of CSK won the orange cap, with the highest score of 733 runs. CSK lost the third final by 23 runs despite the presence of two outstanding individuals in its rank. Ironically, CSK, which was in the news for all the wrong reasons, took away the Fair Play Trophy for its better on-field behaviour.
KKR’s Yusuf Pathan became the first player in history of this tournament to be declared out obstructing the field. Gayle struck the most sixes in the tournament (51) and highest number of boundaries came off the bat of Michael Hussey (81). Best bowling figures were by James Faulkner of Rajasthan Royals (five for 16 and five for 20), both achieved against new franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Gayle struck the fastest century in 30 balls and the second fastest was by David Miller of Kings XI Punjab in 38 balls. Dale Steyn of SRH bowled 211 dot balls, the highest in the meet and the fastest ball was delivered by Shaun Tait of RR at 153.43 kmph. It was remarkable indeed to note that Sunrisers Hyderabad made it to the knock-out phase in the very first IPL stint.