A few days ago, one found oneself on the flight to Jaipur with Team Chennai. As the players trooped in fashionably late, the aircraft came alive with excitement and anticipation.Within no time, the kids lined up with their pen-papers and smiles; slowly, the older ones too shook off their shyness for their little moment of joy or stupidity. The crew also suddenly seemed to be friendlier and busier.
The players too looked chirpy and cheerful despite their first defeat the previous night. They spoke animatedly and ribbed each other like old mates. There was a general bonhomie that you normally see in happy and successful groups.
Pretty soon, however, as silence regained control, an indescribable feeling mounted on this writer. One looked around to unravel it but it insisted on staying beyond reach. Later, as we soared into the skies and cozied down, the answer presented itself.
One by one, the players dozed off; the earlier look in their eyes then became abundantly clear: it was fatigue. The Indian Premier League, with its daily dose of matches and constant criss-crossing from one venue to another, was always going to be tedious.
"One by one, the players dozed off;
the earlier look in their eyes then became
abundantly clear: it was fatigue."
But nobody realised it would be so gruelling. After all, it was only supposed to be a Twenty20 game that would be over in three hours. "I don't know where I am going and where I am coming from," quipped MS Dhoni, flashing a tired smile.
His team went on to lose the next two matches too. It might be partly because they lost three of their high-performing foreign stars; but it might also be because of the exhaustion.
Team Chennai's sudden dip, however, proves one thing: in a whirlwind tournament, the early birds don't always get the worm. Indeed, the tougher battles are almost always fought at the halfway stage while the tricky ones are still lurking in the end.
The bottomline, in an event like this, is momentum. You have to somehow corner it and ensure that it doesn't slip out of the grasp. Both, Chennai and Kolkata Knight Riders (who started off with an astonishing win) have allowed that to happen.
