Eventually, all of their trials and tribulations come to fruition and they qualify for the finals at the Olympics. This is where the movie deviates from the feel-good formula. After so many tribulations, one would expect a happy ?ending where the team that has surmounted great odds finally stands atop the podium, tears rolling down their cheeks, their? Olympic dreams having coming true. But there is a twist to the story.

On the day of the finals, as they chase the world speed record, their bobsled topples. Determined to finish the ra?ce, they carry their bobsled and walk across the finish line as the faint applause from the crowd slowly reaches a crescendo.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore didn’t have to wade through such seemingly insurmountable obstacles but their IPL 2016 was very similar to the movie plot. Everyone expected a happy ending after they came back from almost being knocked out of the tournament. On more than one occasion, the?ir batsmen had to step in and sandpaper the bowlers who were adrift for much of the season. In Ab de Villiers and Virat Kohli, they had two modern day greats who complemented each other beautifully to set up a magnificent run that led up to the finals. Chris Gayle’s star looked like it’s on the wane and age isn’t on his side. His frequent run ins with sexism and women reporters is something that will eventually hurt his image as well as the team’s at some point. While he played a crucial knock in the finals, he didn’t stick it out to take his team over the finish line.

David Warner, Hyderabad’s one-man army again set the tone for the visitors and Ben Cutting chopped and sliced the attack towards the end and give the home team 209 to chase. Chasing 209 in a finals needs something extraordinary. And while the RCB’s bowling unit came together in bits and pieces, they fell short in the all important final.
Bangalore’s cup of woes began even before a ball was bowled ??in the tournament. Mitchell Starc and Samuel Badree were ruled out with injuries. This meant an over-dependence on the big 3 �Kohli, Abd and ??Gayle, with Gayle not in the best of form. Playing in RCB colours for the first time, Shane Watson didn’t set the tournament ablaze with his all-round abilities and the middle order looked brittle.

Virat Kohli, who has been walking on water ever since the t20 World Cup began, had to see his record breaking efforts come to naught. He went from zero centuries to 4 cen?turies in the IPL and along with ABD was the co-architect of the epochal record breaking 229 run stand in the game against the Gujarat Lions. His near messianic run of form hasn’t been rewarded with any silverware that does justice to his efforts.

In the first qualifier against the Lions, RCB were gasping for air at 29/5 chasing 159 before Ab de Villiers resurrected the side’s fortunes from the dead to script a comeback of near epic proportions. By then, the momentum was on their side, but the beginning of their campaign wasn’t as ominous. They lost 5 of their first 7 matches and could afford to lose just one of their remaining matches if they were to have any chance of making it to the play-offs. Chris Jordan was parac??huted into the side halfway through the season to bolster the bowling unit but he didn’t live up to his billing, finishing the tournament with an economy rate of 9.21.

The troika of Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers was expected to sugar coat the team’s bowling woes and plunder oppositions at will. Even with Gayle’s dipping fortunes and form, de Villiers and ?Kohli stepped up and carried the team along with them. Towards the latter half of the tournament, the team marshaled all of their abilities and gave their fans a fresh l?ease of hope and optimism.

Few sides in the IPL can boast of a top order like the one RCB can boast of. While their bowlers gave them more sleepless nights than they would have liked, their batsmen raked up a slew of records. In th?e finals, the odds were stacked against the Sunrisers. They went from fast to furious in their las??t 3 overs and gave Bangalore at least 30 runs more to chase than they would have liked.

The difference between the Sun Risers Hyderabad and the Royal Challengers Bangalore on the big day was the bowling. It was only a matter of time before the the Royal Challengers batsmen would be given a mess that would prove tough to clean. In the last 3 overs of their innings, the Sunrisers amassed 52 runs. Contrast that with the d?eath bowling of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman who gave away 28 runs in the last 3 overs and had Bangalore in?? a choke hold.

The Challengers began their chase in the perfect fashion. Gayle rose to the occasion when it mattered the most and half way through the innings, it seemed like the trophy that had eluded them all these years would finally come within their grasp. Gayle went in the 11th over when he misjudged an off cutter from Ben Cutting and the ball landed safely in the hands of Bipul Sharma. The good thing about the RCB line-up i??s that the stadium goes quiet only for sometime after Gayle or Kohli get out as the next man in, Ab de Villiers, is magician extraordinaire. The wheels slowly began to come off in the 13th over when Kohli stepped outside to Barinder Sran only to get an inside edge and see the ball clip off stump. Sadly,de Villiers didn’t pull anything from his bag of tricks, played a needless shot and was caught by Moses Henriques.

At the end of the 15th over, RCB needed 51 runs off 5 overs with Shane Watson and KL Rahul at the crease. The odds were still in their favour to cross the finish line. In the 16th over, Rahul slogged and missed the ball completely and the ball crashed into the stumps. Shane Watson, looking for redemption after his terrible performance with the ball, skied a delivery off Mutafizur and Henriques made no mistake at extra cover. The door to victory, which was wide open just a couple of overs ago, suddenly seemed to be closing very fast.
It was left to the inexperienced Stuart Binny and Sachin Baby to see the team through. Binny struck a couple of lustful blows but the run rate, like the trophy, seemed to be running away from them. With 30 required off 12 ball?s, Stuart Binny took on the arm of Deepak Hooda and was run out in his quest to get on strike. Mustafizur Rahman’s cutters and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar’s yorkers were beautifully executed in the death overs. In the last over, Chris Jordan and Sachin Baby had to get 18 runs. Chris Jordan was run out in the 3rd ball. 15 to get off 3. The next two deliveries went for a single and a double respectively. A bounda??ry of the last ball was as good as it would get as the home team fell short of a maiden title by 8 runs.

No one likes an optimist or willingly admits that they are one. Optimists are creatures who look at world starry eyed, seemingly oblivious to the misery around them. On the contrary, no one likes a pessimist either. They spread gloom and doom quicker than a passing cloud. The Royal Challengers journey to the final was a short essay in optimism. The pessimists who had written them off when they were one match away from a premature exit slowly began to change the tune they?? were singing. They managed to get the pessimists on their side and that is no small victory.

The final wa?s a battle between the tournament’s most consistent bow?ling unit against the tournament’s most devastating batting unit. Come next season, RCB will have to re-look at its bowling unit and beef up its middle order.

Playing in front of their home gr??ound, the stage seemed set for Bangalore to lift the trophy. A bus had been booked to? take the team on a victory parade the next day. The stadium would erupt, crackers would burst through the night and the roads would be blocked for the team’s victory parade and no one would complain about the ensuing traffic jam.

And just like the bobsledders in Cool Runnings, the team toppled ??when they were inches from the finish line.

March 27th was Easter Sunday and Virat Kohli, who has been crucified for his brashness, cockiness, his actress ex-girlfriend among many other things, rose again. It wasn’t the first time that he had risen to the occasion, nor the first time he had taken his team across the finish line with a calm head. It’s funny how Indian cricket’s angry young man? is counted upon to steer the team to victory with a calm head. The innings he played on Sunday for some reason elicited m??ore than the usual responses. From Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin Tendulkar, three of the finest proponents of the modern game, praise was effusive and unrestrained.

How did Virat Kohli go from being a talented brash young kid who spat and cussed like a?? sailor and seemed to count on rage as his only fuel to being ano?inted the next messiah of Indian cricket?

A few days ago, after he again took India to a victory against Pakistan, he bow??ed down to one of his heroes and the country’s most celebrated icons in the stands, Sachin Tendulkar. It was Tendul?kar about whom he said “he has carried a nation on his shoulders, now it’s time we carry him on ours�after the team won the 2011 World Cup after 28 years. Now, he is finally being deemed worthy of being his successor.

Kohli’s Easter Sunday knock reminded me of two hot summer days ?in April 18 years ago when a young Sachin Tendulkar, already an icon, added another chapter to his already growing legend. Over two incredible nights, a curly haired Tendulkar sent the Australian attack on a leather hunt that is recounted even to this day. It was one man against the mighty Aussies whose bowling line-up included the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Michael Kasprowicz and Tom Moody. Those two innings were dubbed Desert Storm as they were played in Sharjah and one of the matches was even interrupted by a dust storm.

Nearly 18 years later, it was more or less the same thing. Hot summer night. A full house. And one man who stood betwe?en Australia and a place in the semi-finals.

The wicket in Mohali wasn’t a belter and the ground isn’t the smallest. Bumrah’s first over yielded four boundaries. Poof. One of Dhoni’s most bankable bowlers was already nursing his wounds. Ashwin’s first ov??er yielded 22 runs, two sixes and wide that resulted in a boundary. The Aussies had thundered their way to 53/0 in four overs.

Australia looked like they were poised to breach the 200 mark. Ashish Nehra accounted for Khawaja, only to bring in the destructive David Warner. After a horrendous first over, Ashwin bowled a delivery that t?urned away and Warner totally missed as he came down the track. Some semblance of sanity was rest??ored to the innings. Australia’s gallop was reduced to a jog.

Yuvraj Singh is never far from the news. If he doesn’t make it, someone else will make it for him. His father, Yograj Singh, known to draw attention to hi??mself by?? making outlandish statements had warned MS Dhoni about not giving his son enough opportunities with the ball and shuffling him down the order. Maybe MS Dhoni heard him, maybe he didn’t. Whatever maybe the case, Yuvraj Singh got his first over in the World Cup. In the very first ball of the over, he bowled one that bounced a bit and had Steven Smith try to play at it. Dhoni caught it and was up in a flash. Steven Smith was ruled out. In a living room somewhere, Yuvraj Singh’s father was having the last laugh.

Aaron Finch had settled down a??nd looked to play a big one when he mistimed a shot and Shikhar Dhawan at midwicket made no mistake. 200 looked more unlikely by the minut?e.

The destructive Glen Maxwell went for some 20 balls without a boundary. That was until he smashed Jadeja for a boundary and a six off consecutive deliveries in the 16th over. In the ve?ry next over, he misread a slower delivery by Bumrah and saw his bails clipped. It was left to Shane Watson and James Faulkner to give Australia a total worthy of defending. The penultimate over by Bumrah gave 9 runs, courtesy a boundary from the first ball. The Aussies were 145 in the 19th over.?? A good last over would have made the total seem gettable.

Hardik Pandya accounted for Faulkner with the first ball of the over. That was the only high point in that over. Watson got a thick edge and the ball flew past Dhoni for four. He ran a single off the next delivery to bring Neville on strike. He struck the first delivery he faced for four over short fine leg. The ??over had already yielded nine runs for the Aussies. The final delivery of the innings was pulverized for a six. The over had produced 15 runs and the Australian innings came to a halt at 160.

India’s openers have flattered to ?deceive the entire tournament and chasing 161 in a quarter-final meant someone had to play an innings less ordinary if India were to have any chance of overhauling the total. Much to the chagrin of the crowd, the openers flattered to deceive yet again. Shikhar Dhawan struck a boundary in the second ball off the innings. The first over yielded seven runs. Rohit Sharma took a few deliveries to get off the mark. In the third over, Dhawan smashed a six over deep square leg and got the crowd back on its feet. He would perish in the next over attempting to hook a short pitched delivery and finding Khawaja at short fine leg. Virat Kohli came to join Rohit Sharma at the crease.

Kohli began his innings by striking two boundaries off Josh Hazlewood. In current form, Virat Kohli looks like he is batting in a realm of his own, just like Tendulkar did in the 90s. Increasingly, the chances of victory revolve around how well he plays, just like with Tendulkar in the 90s. In the limited?? over formats, no other player can stake a claim to Kohli’s level of consistency. MS Dhoni’s days as a finisher par excellence are dwindling while Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina don’t have consistency as their middle name. Kohli is the glue that holds the openers and the middle order together and more often than not, ??the glue that holds the innings together itself.

In the sixth over, Rohit Sharma came down the track, mistimed his shot and missed the ball completely. Shane Watson let out a war cry. The openers tryst with consistency wa??s yet? to come to pass.

Suresh Raina’s short stay at the crease yielded a boundary but little else in terms of contribution. Watson bowled a short one, the delivery Raina is yet to master and it got his glove on the way to the keeper. India were three down f??or 45 and staring down the barrel.

In came Yuvraj Singh, playing in front of his home crowd. In what is most likely his final T20 World Cup, the undisputed star of India’s first ever T20 World Cup triumph is now some distance away from his former self. In fleeting moments, he travels back in time and pulls out vintage shots and his fielding quality hasn’t dipped a bit. This is a Yuvraj Singh looking to taste glory one last time before the last rays o??f sunlight fade away into dusk.

Yuvraj edged a delivery that went for a boundary. He then set off for a single in the next ball and began hobbling. On a day when India needed every ounce of ammunition they could muster, their T20 warhorse was limping?? from one end to the other. The passage of play was surreal. At one ?end was Kohli who is sculpting his body, mind and soul to scale new heights and at the other end was Yuvraj who was wincing in pain after every move. Two’s became singles and Kohli, not known to hide his emotions, didn’t let his frustration at the situation get to him.

At the end of 11 overs, India still required 93 off 54 with one man on the field wounded. Kohli upped the ante with a massive six off Maxwell. India would need many more such missiles from Kohli?. Yuvraj Singh struck a clean six off Zampa and it looked like the only scoring option for him as the running in between the wickets was drying up. It isn’t often that you wish for someone on your side to get out. But sadly, that was what many people were feeling when Yuvraj Singh was on strike. In another lifetime, Yuvraj Singh could plunder attacks at will with a class only a few could match. That seems like light years ago. Yuvraj Singh’s painful stay at the crease came to an end when he was caught off a superb effort by Shane Watson. It looked to be Shane Watson’s night. MS Dhoni walked into a situation he had been in many times. Kohli finally found a pair of able legs that could keep up with him.

The ensuing passage of play wasn’t  just a test of ability, it was a test of fitness levels. On Easter Sunday, Dhoni and Kohli ran like hares (pun intended). In current form, Kohli is in the same league as Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers. But Gayle and de Villiers brutalize attacks and pummel the bowling. During the IPL, the home crowd? for the Royal Challengers Bangalore cheer for Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers more than they do for Kohli. Like a surgeon who dissects his patient meticulously, Kohli is meticulous in his dissection of bowlers. Dhoni was content to watch from the other end as his successor took the Aussie attack to the sword.

Af?ter the 16th over, India required 39 off 18 deliveries. In that single over, Kohli struck two boundaries, one of th?em a beautiful square drive and a six over long-off. The over yielded 19 runs. 20 required off 12.

As Jasprit Bumrah showed in the match against Bangladesh, penultimate overs are the ones that stand between victory and defeat. Anything can happen in the final over. There are too many nerves an??d the margin for error is minimal. The penultimate over offers the chance to pull back a situation from the brink. In the second ball of the over, Kohli opened the face of his bat to strike a boundary through point. The shot was almost zen like, almost as if he was one with his bat. Kohli struck three more boundaries in that over, each shot stamping his authority even more and ?hammering another nail in the coffin of the Aussies.

James Faulkner was given the duty to complete the formalities and D??honi struck a boundary over long on. It first look??ed like a six, an eerie replay of how he finished off the World Cup final in 2011.

In 1998, a 25 year old Tendulkar laid siege to the hearts of Indians when he single-handedly took on the Australians. Steve Waugh would go on to say that they lost to one? man, not to India. Steven Smith said more or less the same thing on Kohli’s herculean effort. Statistically, Virat Kohli is catching up with Sachin Tendulkar. While Tendulkar danced to a tune of his own, Kohli is standing on the shoulders of giants and looks to outdo them.

For an entire generation that grew up ??with Tendulkar and equated meaning in their lives to his exploits on the field and mourned when he bid adieu to the game, never thought that his equal existed. Now they are being forced to reconsider.

18 years back, I was a 13 year old jumping in the living room watching Tendulkar decimate the Australians in his version of Desert Storm. On Easter Sunday, I sat rooted to my seat, scarcely able to believe what was unfolding in ?front of me. The excitement was the same that I felt all those years ago. Whether Kohli will scale the heights that Tendulkar scaled in his storied career and will he be as revered and put up on a pedestal like some God is yet to be seen. They are poles apart in terms of personalities; one was a child prodigy an entire generation grew up with and someone middle class India could identify with; no tattoos, no cussing, no attitude, no dalliances with actresses.  The othe??r is the face of an India that isn’t afraid to quit their jobs and stick it up to their bosses.

When Sachin Tendulkar retired, it was thought the likes of him would never grace cricket again. A??nd ??whether you believe in the resurrection or not, if you watched Virat Kohli single handedly going up against the Australians and emerging the victor, it was like the resurrection of another innings played by another God.

It looks like the land of a million Gods has foun??d place for ano??ther one.

In the past few weeks, two of New Zealand’s icons confronted their own mortality. One crossed over f?rom player to retiree and another crossed over, sadly, from mortality to immortality.

Martin Crowe left the world on March 3rd, 2016.

Brendon McCullum left the?? game of cricket poorer with his retirement on F??ebruary 22nd, 2016.

The living constantly build edifices to confront their own mortality �books, photographs, trust funds and plaque??s to name a few. Cricketers build edifices with the memories they leave behind.

When Martin Crowe led his team of underdogs in World Cup �2, I was all?? of 7. Too young to understand the nuances of the game, I only knew New Zealand were on a winning streak. I woke up one bleary eyed morning and my mother told me New Zealand had lost, the sight of their grey jerseys is still vividly entrenched in my memory. Then they lost to Pakistan. Once. Then twice. And the team left the field in tears, their joyride having come to an end.

Some 16 years la??ter, when I began to follow the game and write about it, I began to connect some of the dots.

Martin Crowe and Bre??nd??on McCullum helped me do that.

In the last few years, Brendon M?cCullum pissed me off a ?couple of times.

April?? 2008: It’s the inaugural match of the IPL and it’s being played between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (my city) and the Kolkata Night Riders??. Bangalore is captained by one of my heroes and role models, Rahul Dravid. McCullum set the tone for the Indian Premier League by smashing an unbeaten 158 runs off 73 balls to hand Bangalore a crushing defeat on their home ground.

March 2015: It’s the World Cup final and everyone other than the Aussies are rooting for a New Zealand side that showed the world what ‘spirit of cricket?�meant. Mitchell S??tarc comes thundering down and Brendon McCullum gives him the charge in the very first over. Brendon McCullum gets bowled. New Zealand crash and burn to hand the foul-mouthed Aussies their 5th World Cup victory.

Baz reminded? me of a biker who has a soft corner for puppies. While mental disintegration became the buzz word for cricketers after the Aussies marketed it like it were some elixir for victory, McCullum was content disintegrating bowlers figures without resorting to verbal battles. With his broad shoulders and tattoo studio arms, he showed the world that cricket can bring joy to the viewer when played in the right spirit. In his final Test mat?ch, he smashed the fastest Test century to give his fans an abiding memory to live with.

Remember Grant Elliot putting his arms around Dale Steyn after the heartbreaking semi-final in?? the World Cup? To me, that was the enduring image of the tournament. Contrast that to Brad Haddin giving players an earful in the finals. His reason? The New Zealanders were too nice for his liking. We live in angry times when a presi??dential hopeful spews venom and leads the polls for his party. Angry is in, cool, and this is being reflected in cricket. But McCullum’s men showed that victory and defeat can be lifted by grace, a virtue that many young cricketers need to look up in the dictionary before they can get to comprehending its meaning.

Martin Crowe’s second innings as a writer influenced me more than his first as player and captain. By the time he began to pen his thoughts on life and cricket to share with the world, my interest in cricket writing too had taken huge leaps. Had his team lifted the cup, it would have no doubt been dedicated to him. His numerous pieces on cricket expanded my own repertoire. In some of his columns, he wrestled his own personal demons and what the game meant to him. In his piece The greatest time of our lives he wrote “My precarious life ahead may not afford me the luxury of many more games to watch and enjoy. So this is likely to be it. The last, maybe, and I can happily live with that.�/p>

He may have been running out of time, but he didn’t run out of words to tug at our heart strings and? make us sob like little boys.

Martin Crowe didn’t live to see his ??side win the World Cup but he ?gave us enough memories to last a life time.

Al?l goodbyes aren’t unequivocal. Some are hard, s?ome cold and some indifferent.

Baz and Marty said two very different goodbyes. The memories they left behind are rich, their lives an inspira?tion to future generations.

Th??at t??hey filled our days with a joy that is hard to describe makes saying goodbye that much harder.