Champions League T20 a big hit

The critics derisively used the term 'pyjama cricket' to write off the limited overs game when Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket made its appearance in the late 70s. We all know how the cricketing world embraced night cricket, white balls, black sight screens and coloured clothing ere long. For the next three decades, it was the most-talked about and followed format and money flowed into the game thanks to aggressive marketing.

Much the same can be said about Twenty20. It was dismissed as slam-bang cricket even as it spread its wings. But I think the time has come to take cricket's shortest and most popular avatar seriously. It is no more just hit and giggle cricket but has developed into a format that requires skill and is emerging as a keen contest between bat and ball besides being a battle of wits.

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That is the very essence of any form of cricket and it is clear now that T20 could evolve into something in which a methodical approach could well be all important.

These are the first thoughts that come to mind after the successful conclusion of the Champions League. The third edition of the competition was clearly a big hit going by events on the field. The Champions League has so far not evoked the kind of hype, the media involvement and the spectator frenzy that marks the IPL but the just concluded competition certainly enhanced the popularity of Twenty20.

There was much to admire about the tournament which exposed some myths about the most popular format of the game and it is clear that Twenty20
is no more just tailor made for batsmen.

Nothing symbolised this more than the match between Mumbai Indians and Trinidad & Tobago in which the latter almost defended a total of 98 before being beaten by the narrowest margin possible - by one wicket off the last ball of the game. Of course to balance the picture there were also the two high-scoring exciting encounters involving Royal Challengers Bangalore. The first against South Australian Redbacks was particularly pulsating with the match being won off the last ball with Arun Karthik hitting a six when nothing less would have clinched the game for his team.

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In two successive games the Bangalore side overhauled targets of 200 plus but by and large batsmen did not have things their own way. The bowlers frequently kept them on a leash and it is conceivable to believe that even Twenty20 could evolve into a scientific format requiring a lot of planning. Strategy and tactics are generally associated with Test cricket but these are slowly creeping into Twenty20 too. The fact that totals of 121, 123 and 139 were successfully defended clearly illustrates that the bowlers are slowly coming into their own.

When Twenty20 cricket first made its appearance everything appeared heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen. But over the years bowlers too have honed their skills and become more enterprising. If the batsmen are innovative the bowlers too are thinking out of the box. They have discovered ways and means to put a curb on the batsmen's run scoring abilities.

Spinners opening the bowling has become the norm and batsmen have to use their feet right from the start. Hat-tricks and four-wicket hauls are not exactly rare in Twenty20 and totals are getting smaller and smaller. And in the match between Royal Challengers and South Australian Redbacks Shaun Tait came up with a five-wicket haul. That was in the 19th over of the innings and it is clear that bowlers are no longer apprehensive of having to operate during the death overs.

The most telling example of this was seen in the Somerset-Warriors encounter during which skipper Alfonso Thomas sent down an exemplary penultimate over picking up two wickets, conceding only one run. The remaining three balls consisted of a leg bye and two dot balls. The match turned on its head, the hunter became the hunted and Somerset won a game they seemed to be clearly losing.

The tussle between bat and ball throughout the Champions League was engrossing and as everyone knows in Twenty20 there can be no clear favourites. The very nature of the format - fast and furious with little room for errors - means that it is the performance on the day that determines the result and pre-match predictions can frequently end up way off the mark. One single over can turn a match on its head and we had enough evidence of this during the tournament. A bowler concedes 20 runs and the batting side emerges on top. A bowler takes two wickets and its advantage to the fielding side.

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Despite fears to the contrary I have always believed that Test cricket and ODIs can co-exist with Twenty20. The connoisseur embraces any form of good,
entertaining cricket and I suppose it is okay to be a fan of the game's traditional format as also Fifty50 and Twenty20.

As Daniel Vettori put it succinctly at the end of the semifinal while hailing the knocks played by Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli ''it was not slogging, just good batsmanship.''

Let all three formats flourish!