AHMEDABAD: Navaneeth Krishnan is an assistant to a chartered accountant from Ooty, Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. The farthest he has travelled in the Northern direction in his life until Friday was Bengaluru, which is around 270 kms from Nilgiris. For a family man, Navaneeth hasn’t had the need to leave the state all through his adult life. Yet, here he was in front of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday afternoon donning the Chennai Super Kings jersey for the 2023 IPL final.
He was holding a banner with MS Dhoni’s picture. It read ‘CSK might win or lose, I know it’s just a cricket match. I am only here to feel the lion No. 7 roaring on the ground’. For him, the scorching sun didn’t matter, nor did the fact that he had bunked his office for four days and had switched off the phone to avoid his boss’ calls. “If you make a mistake at work, you’ll probably get scolded, but that doesn’t matter. It’s okay to receive some if it is to watch MS Dhoni. I don’t mind,” laughs Navaneeth.
He is not alone. There is a fan who had travelled from Varanasi in the hopes of getting a ticket, another from Odisha, Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, and so on. They all didn’t have tickets when they left their respective cities. Some had managed to pay extra and get tickets in the black, some couldn’t as they continued the search in desperation to see Dhoni play. On the eve of the summit clash between CSK and Gujarat Titans, one thing was clear — it’s not going to be an all-blue crowd with 1 lakh people cheering for the home team. At the very least, expect a 50 per cent yellow in the stands.
On the field, it is going to be a contest between the most consistent franchise in the league — 10 finals in the 14 seasons they have played — and the franchise that wants to emulate what CSK has achieved. Both captain Hardik Pandya and coach Ashish Nehra have explicitly said several times that they want to create an environment like that of CSK in Gujarat Titans where the individuals who come in could feel at home and do their best.
And they have succeeded in doing so. Several players, including David Miller, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, and Mohit Sharma have talked about it in detail about the kind of environment and role clarity they have which has helped them thrive under the Titans' management. Then there are the stars themselves — Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed (who was scouted by Titans assistant coach Ashish Kapoor) and none other than Shubman Gill — who have shone the brightest. Gill has a realistic chance of breaking Virat Kohli’s record 973-run season, Rashid (27 wickets), Shami (28) and Noor (14) have carried the team with the ball.
On the other hand, CSK is a team that has had no luck with injuries this year. Dhoni has been playing with bad knees, Deepak Chahar missed a few games, Ben Stokes, Susanna Magala, Mooen Ali (unwell), and the list keeps going. In fact, at some level, it became a blessing in disguise as they found a new death bowler in Matheesha Pathirana, who originally might not have found a place in the playing XI. Now, it is a set template for Dhoni. Use the rest of the bowlers according to the situation and bring in Pathirana after the 12th over to rattle the opponents. The 20-year-old slinger can clock 150 kpm and has a scathing yorker as well.
In the batting department, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway have done the heavy lifting, complimented by Shivam Dube in middle overs and Dhoni in the death. Is this an even match-up between Gujarat and Chennai, probably not. Purely on paper and skill sets, Titans have a much more balanced squad that bats deep. But cricket isn’t played on paper. And with someone like Dhoni on the field as captain, it’s like a chess match. Every tactical move, and every decision counts. Hardik knows it better than most, having watched Dhoni closely over the years. Sunday evening is going to be a spectacle both on and off the field, but in the end, only one will have the last laugh. Will it be the mentor Dhoni or the protege Hardik?
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