Bangalore, May 30: When the dust settled at the end of the auction on February 6, few would have given Sunrisers Hyderabad a more than 50% chance of going all the way in the Indian Premier League 2016. But as the Hyderabad think-tank has so wonderfully illustrated, it’s not the names that make a team. It is the team that makes the names.
Sentimentality, many thought, played a big part in Hyderabad’s acquisition of Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra, the ageing warhorses. At Rs 7 crore and Rs 5.5 crore respectively, they were the franchise’s most expensive buys. Yuvraj missed the first seven games through injury and only finished with 236 runs from ten hits, but made crucial, attractive runs in two of the three playoff games, including Sunday (May 29) night’s final against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Talk about big-match temperament. Nehra played in less than half the games and finished with nine wickets from eight matches before an injury ended his interest, but he was the hub around which the pace-orientated bowling attack revolved. Talk about leadership and mentoring.As much as Yuvraj and Nehra, though, Hyderabad made several other smart but inexpensive buys – Mustafizur Rahman a steal at Rs 1.4 crore (what were the other franchises doing?), Barinder Sran at Rs 1.2 crore, and Ben Cutting at a ridiculous Rs 50 lakh. Only Deepak Hooda at Rs 4.2 crore from a base price of Rs 10 lakh was a luxury, but no one ever gets it totally right, correct?
By the time the IPL bandwagon moved to a close, Hooda apart, the rest had all more than justified their price tags, modest or otherwise. It took a while for David Warner, and the think-tank of Tom Moody (coach) and VVS Laxman (mentor) to button down on the ideal playing XI, but once they did, Hyderabad were quite the force even if they had to win three knockout games in five nights to clinch their maiden IPL crown.
When a team goes all the way in a 50-day, 60-game tournament, it is not any one single factor that is the determining, decisive one. It can never be. With Hyderabad, there were numerous driving forces – Warner’s brilliance with the bat and calmness in leadership, and his excellent understanding at the top of the tree with Shikhar Dhawan.
The all-round pyrotechnics of Cutting and, to a lesser extent, Moises Henriques. The crucial runs at crucial times from Yuvraj Singh. A wonderfully versatile pace attack led admirably by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur, and with enough depth to keep Trent Boult on the bench for all but one of the 17 matches. And a very small but very committed and passionate coaching/mentorship staff of three – Moody, Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan legend.
Too many other franchises have had too many big names in their coaching/support staff. That is no guarantee for success; if anything, it can prove counter-productive, because it is inevitable that at least one or two of those marquee backroom staff might feel his role is being undermined, and that feeling of negativity can quickly seep through the ranks.
More by design than accident, Hyderabad hit upon the right balance and the right personnel; the compact three-man core spoke the same language, spoke in the same voice and spoke with authority without being overbearing. Murali might have sometimes played the joker, but there was good friend Laxman to keep him in check. And Moody was understated and behind the scenes, allowing Warner to run the show in the manner in which he deemed fit.
It helped, too, that the men who didn’t get too many games – Kane Williamson and Eoin Morgan, both international captains, in particular – understood why they had to play second fiddle. Team balance and the restriction on overseas players in the XI meant between them, New Zealand’s captain across formats and England’s limited-overs skipper played just 13 matches. If it was a bitter pill to swallow, they swallowed it without a complaint. Winning always magnifies these things, but Hyderabad played like a team – one for all, all for one.
When they lost matches, they handled defeats with quiet grace and dignity. When they won games of cricket, they embraced victory with humility and gratitude. They were both ambassadors and artists, a unit driven by ambition and belief, passion and self-confidence, a unit that performed without taking pressure or without losing composure, an outfit that knew not what it was to panic but to look adversity in the eye and not blink.
As Ben lent the cutting edge towards the climactic stages, Hyderabad was a team rejuvenated. The unheralded Australian, the player of the final, featured only in four of Hyderabad’s last five games, missing the final league encounter at the Eden against Kolkata Knight Riders through heatstroke. In those four games, he made a massive impact – 65 runs at a strike-rate of 191.17, 39 not out in 15 balls in the final, to go with five vital wickets at an economy of 7.16, the important sticks of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul in the title clash. Value for money, as they say.
