SRK’s Calcutta wins but Buddha’s loses
Watched by an amused Priyanka, Shah Rukh Khan does a celebratory jig at the Eden. Rahul Gandhi is engrossed in the match. Picture by Gautam Bose.
Calcutta, April 20: Tonight was solely on the spur of a song four words long. Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re… korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re….
Sourav Ganguly’s Knight Riders had very little going for them for the better part of their riposte to the Deccan Chargers’ modest 110.
They were floundering, in fact, at five down for 89. Seventeen overs had gone. Dada had perished along with the better part of his batting cast. They seemed to have taken their mascot Hoog-Lee’s catch-line too much to heart — “I play Cinderella cricket, I find it hard to get to the ball.”
Run a ball and the tail already exposed. Ki hobe?
Eden had fallen silent. And the lights went out. Darkness over gathered gloom.
Then, quite suddenly, the song broke, like a lusty dare to foreboding. Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re… korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re… korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re… korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re….
Shah Rukh Khan, feisty boss of the Knight Riders, was leading it, leaning perilously on the rails of his balcony; leaning, swinging, singing, firing his shaken side anew.
He wasn’t giving up, he got Eden singing again. It rang and rose and became a whirling crescendo till they almost forgot the embarrassing lapse in lighting. And when it was switched back on, few readily noticed, they were swung on Shah Rukh.
By the time play resumed, he had sung enough to put his side on song.
A few frenzied singles, a couple of fortunate fours and then an effortless lift to long-on by David Hussey. The King all but fell off the balcony to greet his victorious men. His box was an ecstatic storm, Eden was a tizzy caught in its ripples.
The game itself never rose to expectations, but it had its little moments. What a sight it made, Adam Gilchrist in full-throated appeal against Ricky Pointing, aghast at being given out leg before. Remember Christiano Ronaldo getting Michael Rooney thrown out of that crucial World Cup match on a dubious foul claim? And then they went on to play happily ever after for Manchester United. Gilchrist and Ponting were in reverse display of such rivalry today but the phenomenon is the same — this is the arrival of international club cricket, a la the European football leagues. Watch out for more tantalising inter-personals as the IPL unfolds. These are new loyalties, not to country but to club and commerce.
There was an edict in this morning’s papers that nothing that can be “used as a missile” would be permitted entry into Eden. That edict had an unlikely guarantor — curator Kalyan Mitra. He’d made, for full moon night a full moon pitch, a lunatic fringe transplanted midfield. It broke, Andrew Symonds reckoned, after two overs and withered in a great hurry, T20 velocity.
Tonight had all the potential of being a tall-scoring, sixer-thick night. Brendon McCullum, Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting on one side, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Scott Styris on the other. But Mitra’s groundwork was almost perfectly anti-projectile — no missiles into Eden remember, Mitra had been diabolically diligent.
Ravi Shastri called Mitra’s pitch “impossible”. Losing skipper V.V.S. Laxman called it a “sham” and a “shame”. It was probably only victory that kept Sourav Ganguly from adding his own; what he’d have had to say is best left to the imagination.
Mitra should thank his stars the Knight Riders won, else a hundred thousand knives would have been out for him tonight.
The curator should thank the gritty David Hussey, the second Hussey to be named Man of the Match in four IPL fixtures so far. He should probably prostrate himself before Shah Rukh Khan.
More people should, in fact, feel indebted to the Knight Riders’ boss. The CAB for a start. Had it not been for the undying effervescence of Shah Rukh Khan, frustration and annoyance could have boiled off the packed stands this steamy night. Eden, for a few minutes during the sudden darkness, seemed on the brink of making unfortunate history off the field yet again.
The crowd had come wanting to see a high-scoring match — 200-plus had been done in the inaugural game at Bangalore and again, last night, at Mohali. That didn’t happen with the Deccan Chargers managing just a few more than a hundred. Disappointment one.
Then, disappointment redoubled: The home team wasn’t faring well, and play had had to be stopped because one of the towers suddenly blinked and went blank. There had been no scoreboards to start with. It had been hot all afternoon. So hot the poor pearly white cheerleaders were bursting like tomatoes under the sun, their pom-poms limp, their motions drained by too much sweating. The evening was, at best, a muggy-sweaty evening. The stands were rife with an ominous on-the-edge sense.
A trigger, and Eden could have become another tragic spectacle. Perhaps that sense got to Shah Rukh Khan. There wasn’t much for him to sing for when he decided to break into song. But looking back, that’s what did it tonight -- kept Eden regaled and inspired its team to a victory that puts the Knight Riders well on top of the IPL table. And the King’s men made Korbo,jeetbo, lorbo re…ring true tonight. They can afford to sing on.
AuthorTopic: SHAME ON CAB (Read 1537 times)
December 31, 2006, 08:24:22 AM