Qualifier 2 ended the other side of the draw.
At the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, the Rajasthan Royals were out. Kolkata Knight Riders had come from the loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1 with a point to make. They did not let the Rajasthan spinners settle. Sunil Narine held the middle overs, flat and hard to read. Andre Russell finished it with the bat. KKR won.
A top-two side that had lost Qualifier 1 had won the next one. The league had not been a fluke.
The table was done. Ten franchises, two left.
The 2024 IPL final. Kolkata Knight Riders, after a third title, against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
---
JASHN-E-IPL
In Mumbai, the Star Sports studio was a different ground.
The desk was lit magenta, gold, and blue. The screen behind it showed Siddanth Deva and Shreyas Iyer walking toward the IPL trophy. Dhol under the studio track.
Jashn-e-IPL. The Hindi special, the night before the final.
Jatin Sapru stood in the middle with a microphone. Navy suit. An orange pocket square.
"Namaskar! Swagat hai aap sabhi ka, Hindustan ke sabse bade tyohar ke sabse aakhri padaav par!" (Welcome, everyone, to the final stop of India's biggest festival.)
He walked the floor.
"Seventy-three matches are done. Tomorrow, in Ahmedabad, Kolkata Knight Riders against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Ye koi aam muqabla nahi hai, dosto. Ye badle ki aag hai, aur shreshtata ki jung hai!" (This is no ordinary contest, friends. This is the fire of revenge, and the battle for the title.)
He turned to the desk.
"To read this match, the panel. Aakash Chopra. The Sultan of Swing, Irfan Pathan. And the Turbanator, Harbhajan Singh."
Aakash Chopra, maroon blazer, hands together. Irfan Pathan, grey suit, the lean of a bowler who still watches the seam. Harbhajan Singh, yellow turban, black jacket, back in the chair.
"Aakash bhai," Jatin said. "Kolkata beat Rajasthan in Chennai. Tomorrow they meet the same SRH that had them in Qualifier 1. How does Shreyas Iyer set his side for the rematch?"
"Jatin, cricket mein kehte hain na, ke jo dar gaya, samjho mar gaya," Aakash said. (Jatin, in cricket they say, the one who fears is the one who perishes.) "KKR have the batting. Narine's spin, hard to pick. Russell's hitting. Tomorrow they are not only playing a side. They are playing a captain who has already taken a chase off them. SRH are coming at the stumps. KKR have to play the ball."
"Siddanth Deva ka khauf ek sachai hai, Jatin," Irfan said. (The fear of Siddanth Deva is a reality, Jatin.) "Look at Qualifier 1. Shreyas Iyer is a sharp captain. The fields were right. He brought Mitchell Starc on at the right time. Deva still took the chase away from them."
"Let us look at that chase," Jatin said.
The screen changed. Deva at the non-striker's end, on his bat, watching Heinrich Klaasen hit Varun Chakaravarthy for six.
"Bhajji pa," Jatin said. "When Deva walked out after those early wickets, we thought he would block and build. What he did with the middle order. How do you bowl to that?"
Harbhajan shook his head.
"Kamaal ka pradarshan tha woh, Jatin. Ekdum bemisaal." (It was some innings, Jatin. You do not see it often.) "As a bowler you want the pressure. Four down early, you bring the field in, you bowl at the stumps, you wait for the new batter to block."
He pointed at the screen.
"Lekin Siddanth Deva ne T20 cricket ke saare niyam tod diye!" (But Siddanth Deva broke the usual T20 order.) "He held one end. He told Klaasen and Phillips to swing as if it was the last over. They did not play for the wicket. Varun Chakaravarthy did not know whether to bowl the googly for the wicket or the flatter ball to stop the boundary. The lengths were gone."
"Shreyas had his spinners bowling well," Aakash said. "Deva took the wicket out of the over for his middle order. He kept the chase at his end. To bat through that and finish 74 not out, you have to be the one who does not give it away."
"Bhajji pa, Aakash bhai," Jatin said, against the desk. "Look at this franchise. The way Siddanth Deva is captaining this year is not the way he used to."
The screen showed five IPL trophies, and the bowlers next to them. Dale Steyn. Trent Boult. Rashid Khan. Yuzvendra Chahal. Kuldeep Yadav. Ishant Sharma. Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
"Agar aap SRH ka itihaas dekhein," Harbhajan said. (If you look at the history of SRH.) "Five titles. And each time the bowling won it. Deva built attacks. The best quicks, the spinners you could not pick, and they defended 140 and 150 as if the game was the last over."
"That was the captain," Irfan said. "Two quicks and a leg-spinner, and the chase died. This year it changed."
"Impact Sub rule ne sab kuch badal diya, Irfan," Aakash said. (The Impact Player rule changed the game, Irfan.) "Deva reads a rule before the rest of the table. Twelve men. An extra batter in the chase. Defending 140 was no longer a total you could bowl at."
He marked it with his hand.
"The par score went from 160 to 220. So he left the old plan. He bought Travis Head. He backed Abhishek Sharma. He brought in Heinrich Klaasen and Glenn Phillips."
"Jo kal tak apni bowling se darrate the, aaj woh apni batting se rulate hain," Harbhajan said, hand on the desk. (The side that used to close games with the ball now takes them with the bat.) "They were the side that defended. This year they are the side that bats first in the powerplay and does not look back."
"The batting chart," Jatin said.
The Orange Cap list came up.
At the top, Virat Kohli.
"Sabse pehle, King Kohli ke liye ek zordaar taali honi chahiye," Jatin said, and the panel came with him. (First, a hand for King Kohli.) "The season he has had for RCB. The cover drive. The fitness. Week after week, top of the list."
"To score like that, and still play the shots the old way, in a T20," Irfan said.
"Look under him," Aakash said. "Two, three, and four."
2. Travis Head (SRH)
3. David Warner (SRH)
4. Abhishek Sharma (SRH)
"Ye koi batting order nahi hai, Jatin, ye powerplay ka plan hai," Harbhajan said. (This is not only a batting order, Jatin. This is a powerplay plan.) "Three from the same side. Head, Warner, Abhishek. In the powerplay this year, no length has held."
"They set the over," Irfan said. "You run in for the first over and Warner and Head are there. Full, they hit through the line. Short, they pull it. The fielding restrictions do not help you."
"And here is the captain," Aakash said. "T20 does not come off every night. We saw it against Rajasthan on the turning pitch. We saw it against KKR in Qualifier 1. Three down in the powerplay."
He looked at the camera.
"Baaqi teams kya karti hain? Woh ek aur hitter ko impact sub banakar bhej deti hain." (What do the other sides do? They send another hitter in as the Impact Player.) "Deva sends for Williamson."
The screen split. Kane Williamson, pads on, in the dugout.
"That is the best use of the Impact Player rule in this tournament," Irfan said. "Other sides bring a batter to swing. Deva brings the orthodox batter when the top order has gone. Deva and Williamson bat together. They shut the noise out, they rotate, and they build the innings without a gift."
"Woh kehte hain na, ke unke paas toofan bhi hai aur thehraav bhi," Jatin said. (As they say, they have the storm and the pause.) "If the top order comes off, you are chasing 250. If it does not, Deva and Williamson will take you to 180 and give the bowlers a total. There is a plan for both pitches."
"To see the season, four moments," Jatin said. The lights came down. "Roll it."
The screen came on.
The Wankhede.
Red soil. Deva on strike. Jasprit Bumrah.
"Irfan bhai, hum is over ko kabhi nahi bhool sakte," Jatin said. (Irfan bhai, we do not forget this over.)
Six sixes in the first over. The fifty in nine balls. Then the double hundred, helmet off, a finger to his lips. The Mumbai noise gone.
"That was not an innings you file and move on from," Irfan said. "The ground was on Hardik. It was on Deva. He took the ground out of the game. Two hundred in a T20. That score does not belong on the card."
The picture changed. A ball in the air over extra cover. Glenn Phillips off the rope, parallel to the ground, one hand, then the turf.
"Ye dekhiye! Hawa mein udta hua catch!" Harbhajan said. (Look at that catch.) "That is the fielding Deva wants. You do not play for this side if you will not go for it. They save runs in the field every night."
Then Gujarat. Heinrich Klaasen to Rashid Khan. Five sixes in a row, back foot, over mid-wicket.
"Aakash bhai, how do you bowl to that?"
"Aap bas prarthna kar sakte hain, Jatin," Aakash said. (You can only hope, Jatin.) "He hits spin off the back foot. He waits. The ball goes. A good spinner looks ordinary for an over."
Last, Chepauk. The death against Chennai. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arjun Tendulkar, yorkers at the base, with no length to finish on.
"Look at the discipline," Irfan said. "Bhuvi has bowled that ball for years. Arjun bowling it under that pressure is a bowler who has been trusted with the over."
The lights went purple. The dhol dropped out.
The screen cleared.
Arjun Tendulkar, in orange, the Purple Cap on his head.
Under the picture, in gold:
27 WICKETS.
The people behind the glass applauded.
"Arjun Tendulkar," Jatin said. "The Purple Cap. Twenty-seven wickets. He walks into the final with it. Irfan bhai, left-arm to left-arm. Break the spell down."
Irfan stood and went to the screen. A telestrator. Arjun's action on a loop.
"He is not taking these twenty-seven because batters are slogging him at the death," Irfan said. "He is taking them at the top, against the openers, with the new ball."
"Iska action dekhiye," he said, a line down the body. (Look at the action.) "High. Smooth. He is not forcing it. He hits the crease in rhythm. The wicket is at release."
He stopped the picture as the ball left the hand.
"The seam is up. A tall left-armer's angle takes the ball across the right-hander. Arjun has the other one. The inswinger, late, dipping. He pitches it on a driving length. The batter plays through the covers. The seam is up, so it comes back into the pads after the shot has started. Gap between bat and pad. Then the stumps."
"And he has bowled it when the game asked," Aakash said. "Two wickets in Qualifier 1. The KKR powerplay never got away. He is not only in the side. He is taking the new ball."
"A fast bowler does not take twenty-seven on his own," Jatin said. "The man at mid-off. The captain."
Harbhajan sat up.
"Jatin, ye sabse badi baat hai." (Jatin, this is the point.) "I have played under captains. A young bowler is tight. He does not want the bad ball that goes for four. If the captain takes him off after one, the over is gone from him for the season."
He nodded at the screen. Deva and Arjun.
"Look at how Deva uses him. He does not give him a stock field. The field is for the late inswinger."
Irfan sat back down.
"When that ball is on, and the batter gets a thick inside edge, where does it go?" Irfan said. "Short mid-on. Or deep square leg. Deva puts men there. He asks the batter to play the shot. Arjun bowls the ball."
"Woh usse ek champion ki tarah treat karta hai," Aakash said. (He treats him like a bowler who belongs.) "He tells him, run in and bowl your ball, the catchers are placed for the mistake. When a captain does that, the bowler runs in taller. Deva sets the field. Arjun bowls the over that wins the powerplay."
"Twenty-seven wickets," Jatin said. "Before we close. Who lifts it tomorrow in Ahmedabad?"
"Aakash bhai?"
"T20 cricket bahut unpredictable hai, Jatin. Lekin is chase mein Deva card se aage hai." (T20 is hard to call, Jatin. In a chase, Deva is ahead of the card.) "KKR will fight. SRH have the batting and a plan for the day it does not come off. I am with Sunrisers Hyderabad. A Sixth title."
"Irfan bhai?"
Irfan tapped his chin. "I will go the other way. Shreyas will have learned from Qualifier 1. Narine, and Varun Chakaravarthy. If they get Travis Head and Deva early, they can win it. I am with Kolkata Knight Riders."
"Bhajji pa?"
Harbhajan laughed. "Irfan bhai, aap kuch bhi keh lijiye, lekin Deva ke samne sab fail hain!" (Irfan, say what you like. In front of Deva, the plan does not hold.) "The batting takes games. The bowling, Arjun with the wickets and Bhuvi holding the rate, is a full side. Sunrisers Hyderabad will lift it."
The lights came up. The music with them.
"The talk is done," Jatin said, into the camera. "The fields are set. Tomorrow the Narendra Modi Stadium opens. Do Shreyas Iyer and Kolkata Knight Riders take a third title? Or does Siddanth Deva take Sunrisers Hyderabad to another one? Join us for the final of the Tata IPL 2024. Shubh ratri, aur kal milte hain maidan mein!" (Good night, and see you tomorrow at the ground.)
The logo came up. The picture went out.
---
In Mumbai the studio was still loud. In Gujarat, at 2:00 in the morning, the ground was not.
Ahmedabad had gone quiet. The air over the Sabarmati was heavy.
The Narendra Modi Stadium sat on the bank with no one in it. Tomorrow, 130,000. Tonight, the seats.
Blue and orange, row after row, up into the dark. The glass of the boxes, empty.
The outfield was cut. At ground level it smelled of grass and wet red clay.
In the middle, the groundsmen were on the pitch.
A roller went up and down the twenty-two yards. An older man in a faded polo, slow, both ways. The iron packed the soil. Hard. True. A bounce you could trust for a final.
Near the popping crease, two men on their knees. White paint under the work lights. Brushes on the bowling crease and the return creases. Lines straight, for the umpires and for the bowlers who would hit that mark.
A clack from above the roof.
The head groundsman had called the box. The light test.
The LED banks came on, one bank and then the next. Night became the light they play under. Shadows of the men and the roller lay across the pitch.
He stood at the rope with a clipboard, against the glare. The surface, rolled and baked. The popping crease, white. The outfield, fast enough to take the ball to the rope.
He nodded. He raised his hand.
The lights went down in order. The ground went back to the night.
The roller came off the grass. The brushes and the paint went into the tunnel. The footsteps went with them.
The Narendra Modi Stadium was empty.
The crease was drying. The red soil sat under the dark. In a few hours the sun would be up, the gates would open, and 130,000 people would come in.
Then the Hyderabad and the Kolkata side would walk out of the tunnels.
The talk was over. The ground was ready.