Ageless Wonders

By winning the Indian Premier League title for the third time with a bunch of 30-plus stars, Chennai Super Kings have defied conventional wisdom.

- Vimal Kumar

AN INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE (IPL) title is all about being unfazed during high-pressure encounters. The team which successfully holds its nerves during the critical hour often emerges triumphant. Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) seventh IPL final and third title win has once again underlined a fact which the world is probably aware of—that there is no captain who understands the nuances of Twenty20 cricket better than Mahendra Singh Dhoni. It is not just mere coincidence that CSK is the only side which has made it to the last four (or play-offs) every time they have participated.

“Regardless of his yet another IPL trophy, I have always been an unabashed Dhoni admirer. He is incomparable among Indian captains and not just IPL captains. Look at how he handles an inconsistent Suresh Raina, who in my view is an ordinary player, but Dhoni believes that he is a world class match winner. And Raina delivers more often than not, doesn’t he? Every time Raina succeeds I see it as Dhoni’s victory,” says former India player and ex-Afghanistan cricket coach Manoj Prabhakar.

Of course, much has been made about how Dhoni defied conventional wisdom of T20 where you need fresh legs and agile players all the time. Seven of the 11 cricketers who played in the final at the Wankhede were 30-year-olds. And, the 29-year-old Ravindra Jadeja too can be bracketed in that group. Furthermore, if you look at the main group the average age goes up (34.5) with Dhoni (36), Ambati Rayudu (32), Suresh Raina (31), Dwayne Bravo (34), Shane Watson (37) and Harbhajan Singh (37). They were underestimated since the auction in January but head coach Stephen Fleming rightly defended the so-called ‘Dad Army’ by insisting that they were 35-36, not 55-56.