CSK: A team with the Australian attitude

Five years ago, a team wearing yellow won their nation a cricket World Cup for the third successive time which, incidentally, was the first ever occurrence in the history of cricket.

Five years later, as we stand now, there is another team- the players of which also wear yellow- which is just a win away from claiming a hat trick of IPL wins, the first of which was won 2010. It is needless to mention which two teams are referred to in this article. Everybody knows we are talking of Chennai Super Kings, who are seen following the footsteps of the original “men in yellow”- The Aussies.

The way the Super Kings have dominated the last two matches against the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Daredevils has made them clear favourites to win the IPL for the third time in a row. This same team was, at one point, at the mercy of the performances of the other teams in the league to make it to the play offs; now, they’re in with a bright chance to bring home the cup for a third time.

Chennai Super Kings have looked down and out in most of the matches over the last two seasons but, somehow, have managed to kiss the trophy at the end of it all. In this way, I feel the Super Kings have not merely been wearing yellow, but have also adopted the attitude of the mighty Aussies; something which can be seen as the primary reason for them dominating the IPL.

I have analysed the attributes which narrow the gap between CSK and the Australian cricket teams of the late 90s and the Ponting era. They are:

Consistently performing well:

Save the 1992 World Cup, in which the performance of Australian cricket team hit an all time low, they were one team whose performances were never below-par in any of the following World Cups. Similarly, the Super Kings has been one team which has been impressive through all five IPL seasons.

Winning from hopeless situations:

The Aussies are generally regarded as mentally tougher than the other teams in world cricket. They have proved their mettle, time and again. For example, if we look back at the 1999 World Cup, the Australians did very badly in the league stages and were in such a disastrous position at one point that they had to win all their three super sixes games to qualify for the semi-final; and that is precisely what they did. They rose from a very hopeless position in that tournament and eventually went on to win it. From then on, it was all Australia in terms of World Cup cricket.

In that sense, the Super Kings have never been inferior to the Aussies. Even though they struggled a lot in the initial stages of the last two editions of the IPL, they came back strong at the business-end to win the tournaments.

Cool players as captains:

The Australian team has been, most often, captained by players who were reasonably cool. This, subsequently, earned them success in World Cups even when they weren’t regarded as favourites.

In 1987, Australians capitalized on one mistake Mike Gatting( his sweep shot) when the English were cruising and went on to win the tournament. Only a team which is captained by a cool head such as Allan Border would have been able to do such a thing in a crunch match. Later on, Steve Waugh was to take advantage of another such mistake by Herschelle Gibbs.

No one can deny the fact that Dhoni’s cool head and impeccable composure has won the Super Kings a lot of matches; not just with the bat, but also in terms of his decisions as a captain.

Match winning knocks from crucial players:

What Gilchrist was to Australia at the top order, Murali Vijay is to Chennai. Although Vijay cannot be compared to the great Australian, one similarity has been the fact that however bad their forms might have been early one, they never failed to turn up in the crunch games. Gilchrist has a 100% success record when it comes to his centuries winning the match for his team.

Similarly, Vijay had been a real flop for the better part of this year’s IPL. But he peaked just at the right moment against the Delhi Daredevils and hence, taking his team to the finals. One might also remember his match-winning knock against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in last year’s finals. “Cometh the hour cometh the man”, is an adage which truly befits both of them.

High-class fielding:

Australians have always been the safest fielding side in world cricket. They’ve had some spectacular individuals like Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey and other miserly inner-ring fielders.

Chennai, too, have very high-class range of fielders like Suresh Raina, Subramanian Badrinath and Michael Hussey himself, who are very safe fielders and reliable catchers. Such fielders increase the confidence of the bowlers to keep testing the batsmen with different deliveries. That is one of the prime reasons for Australia’s success stories and the same can be said about CSK.

Aggressive batting line ups:

Both- the Australians of the recent past and the present CSK team- have been vested with attacking batsmen right from batting numbers one to eight who can take on any bowlers with attacking intent. No matter what the situation is, they always manage to attack the bowlers and put them on the back foot. Both teams have had counter-attacking batsmen which can build the pressure up on no time.

These are the some of the similarities between the dominant Australian teams of that era and the Chennai Super Kings. It is no wonder, then, that they are in the finals of the IPL yet again; and their Aussie attitude might just help them win it yet again.