Streets Won't Forget : IPL Edition

Circa May 2014, Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai needed to chase 190 in 14.3 overs to qualify for playoffs on a better net run rate over Rajasthan. With the scores tied at 14.3, MI needed a boundary to improve their net run rate to the third decimal place and take that little advantage over RR. Faulkner bowls the 14.4th ball, a supposed yorker that gets turned into a full toss, and a man named Aditya Tare connects with that ball sweetly, striking it for a six on the leg side. Wankhede erupts with elation, and Mr. Tare celebrates like he just won the football World Cup in the 90th minute.

Streets Won't Forget is one of those fancy sporting terms coined by social media, meaning "the things that you cannot forget and are underrated." This blog is in appreciation of those. This may include some players, extraordinary knocks, incidents, anecdotes, etc.

Unmukt Chand 0(1) b Brett Lee- DD vs KKR Match 1 IPL 2013

(via ESPN CricInfo)

Unmukt Chand captained the Indian U-19 team to a World Cup victory in August 2012 and was signed by the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL 2013 auction. Enormous pressure on young shoulders to prove himself and stamp his name. But Brett Lee had other ideas. It just took one full-length swinging ball by Brett Lee to clean bowled Unmukt Chand's confidence and then his cricketing career in India.

(via Hindustan)

After that, it just went all downhill in a whisker; he got dropped by the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL, and the same happened with the Delhi Ranji Team. And everything flew away in a blink of an eye.

To resurrect his career, he changed his nationality to American, and he now plays in various franchise leagues around the globe, but Brett Lee's got blood on his hands.jk.

The Legend of Paul Valthaty 

(via ESPN CricInfo)

Several batsmen rose to prominence for a single season and then faded away, but the legend of Paul Valthaty lives on in our hearts. A power hitter top-order batsman, the kind that everyone thrives on nowadays. Scoring 463 runs in 14 games in the IPL is not everyone's cup of tea, but Paul did it with Kings XI Punjab, proving himself to be one of the "one-season wonders." His 120 off 63 balls against the mighty Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2011 remains the most memorable inning of his utterly magical season.

When his spells stopped working, he went out of form, then just went off the periphery of the Indian cricket scene. His last competitive match was in April 2013.

Chris Lynn defying physics 

Considered to be one of the best catches in IPL history, if not the best, Chris Lynn's catch of AB De Villiers astonished all the physics scholars of our time. IPL 2014: RCB vs KKR, RCB needs 6 runs out of 3 to win.ABD hit the ball high in the air, and Chris, who was at long-on (maybe), while running backward for a straightforward catch at the boundary, slipped. His dedication and determination to catch that ball made him jump while sitting like he had some springs in his limbs and catch the ball mid-air, leaving everyone in shock. A catch that is akin to a "freak of nature".

To date, many sports scientists have examined his catch. I hope the one who figures out how he did that gets a Nobel Prize.

Fad of Back of the Hand Ball

There was a time in cricket when the yorker was not the most efficient ball to bowl at death overs, but some random "back of the hand" was the fad at that time. The brand ambassadors of the "back of the hand" ball were none other than Mohit Sharma, the one-time leading medium pace bowler for CSK, and the left-handed Aussie medium pacer with whose name I started this blog, James Faulkner. That ball was just like any other slower ball, but if you miss it, you get punished. Nothing special, just another trend in cricket.

Refreshing the memories from the "good ol' days" of the IPL, the biggest franchise T20 league in the world, are various other moments and players of the tournament that are legends. I will do another part of the "Street Won't Forget—IPL Edition" blog, tingling that fun cricketing memory bone of yours.