Rathi’s second fine was a surprise

LSG’s Digvesh Rathi does his notebook celebration after dismissing Mumbai Indians’ Naman Dhir in Lucknow on April 4. Pic/AFP

At the end of another week, the four franchises that have yet to stamp their names on the beautiful IPL trophy are in the top six on the points table. In the bottom four are five times champions each, Chennai and Mumbai, which is how they finished last season too. Unless they improve their performances and turn things around dramatically, they could well once again end up propping the others above them. Both teams have suffered from a lack of good starts with both bat and ball but it's the lack of runs in the Powerplay and losing wickets in those six overs which is the uncomfortable truth they have to fathom.

MI and CSK's struggles

Both teams have shown a stubbornness to change the batting order that is not producing runs for them. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has made a name for himself with heaps of runs as an opener, had before his unfortunate injury, dropped himself to bat at the fall of the first wicket. Now, why would a skipper do that unless he is out of form and the other openers are batting superbly and are in much better form than he is in. That is not the case and so invariably when he went into bat the Chennai team had lost a wicket in the Powerplay and he had to be a bit watchful and in the process a lot of dot balls would be the result.

Similarly, the Mumbai team's reluctance to send Tilak Varma at No. 3 despite his stellar record for India at that number is baffling indeed. However good an overseas batter may be, it is not easy for him to immediately come to terms with the Indian pitches, which is all the more reason for an Indian who has thrived at that number should be sent there and not dropped down the order. There's still more than half the tournament to be played, so there's plenty of matches to be won and climb up the ladder. There was a time when Mumbai fans weren't too worried if their team started slowly because they knew that they would come back strongly in the second half. However, the last couple of years have shown that the bounceability is no longer the same. T20 cricket demands quick thinking and super fast decision making and that is yet to be seen from both Chennai and Mumbai.

The Lucknow team's Digvesh Rathi has been fined a couple of times and lost two demerit points for the celebrations of taking a wicket with the notebook celebration. The first time he did that was when he got the wicket of his Delhi teammate Priyansh Arya. He was rightly fined then because he ran right up to the batter who was leaving back for the dug out and did the notebook celebration standing bang next to him. That was not only invading the batter's space but also giving him a send off which is why he lost 25 per cent of his match fees. However, the next time he did that he was nowhere near the batter and so it was a surprise that he was fined then. He wasn't in the batter's space or face and so shouldn't have been fined. Last month, when Syed Abid Ali passed away there were several who sent the highlights of him taking four England wickets on the first day of the 1971 Manchester Test match. After taking each wicket Abid just turned on his heels and walked back to his mark to bowl the next ball. There were no overt celebrations, just a matter of fact acceptance that a lot still had to be done. The comparison with modern bowlers was inevitable and while the TV then was more black and white, the fact was that there was no coverage of any football league on any channel in India.

Now of course, there's coverage of the various football leagues all over the world and the cricketers are copying the celebration style of their favourite footballers. Only the Caribbean cricketers bring their own unique celebrations and that's what the Indians should also look to do.

At times laughable

Celebrating a wicket when it is a top batter or if the bowler has bowled a real beauty of a delivery is understandable, but if the bowler has been clobbered for couple of sixes and fours in the earlier few deliveries and then celebrates getting a wicket in a tournament where batters are always taking risks is laughable.
Yes, cricket can do with something different and unique but the celebration also needs a context. Will we see some unique fresh ones before the tournament ends?

Professional Management Group