A fascinating fortnight of cricket came to an end last night, but the UAE leg of the Indian Premier League created memories that will long live in the mind of the fans.
The 20 matches that were played here, were an unprecedented success, with 19 of them attracting full-house crowds.
The remaining fixture, a weekday affair in Sharjah, was 85 per cent full. And, while the fans will fondly remember the IPL experience, what clearly stood out was the quality of cricket that was played between the eight teams.
The two leading contenders, Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings, started the tournament against each other in Abu Dhabi, a fixture that set the tone for the subsequent matches.
Super Kings were brilliant in posting 205, which would have remained the highest score of the tournament if not for a sensational innings of 95 in 43 balls from Glenn Maxwell, before Punjab cruised to a massive win with more than an over to spare.
In the next match, Rajasthan Royal posted a superb score of 191 in Sharjah, only to see Maxwell smash 89 in 45 balls and break their hearts.
Maxwell went on to make 95 against Hyderabad in another big win, and the Australian has been the biggest star of the tournament so far.
His batting is more method than madness, and it has been an exhibition from him to date. Maxwell has got a bewildering array of shots around all corners of the wicket, and can effectively mix the orthodox with the unbelievable.
However, by winning their last two matches without Maxwell firing, Punjab has proved there is more to them than just the classy Aussie.
Chennai bounced back brilliantly from that opening loss to Punjab by winning their remaining four matches, and while their bowlers have been pretty effective, the key to their success has been the form of their openers Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum.
Both Smith and McCullum are second and third behind Maxwell in runs scored, and have complemented each other extremely well.
The West Indian was the star performer of the second week, and in two matches, scored half centuries on pitches where every other batsman seemed to be struggling.
Spinners were expected to make a big impression, given the past record in the UAE, but apart from Kolkata Knight Riders’ Sunil Narine, who has the Purple Cap with nine wickets, the five bowlers who are just one wicket behind him, are all pace bowlers.
In fact, there are just three spinners in the top-11 (Yujvendra Chahal of Bangalore and Praveen Tambe of Rajasthan).
While Narine was always expected to be among the wickets, the two young Indian bowlers – Mohit Sharma of Chennai and Bhuvneshwar Kumar of Hyderabad – were the pick of the bowlers.
Sharma’s variation in pace and Bhuvneshwar’s ability to swing the ball helped them deliver telling blows on the opposition.
Not only were they able to take wickets, but they also managed to remain miserly in giving runs away.
The pitches at all three venues – Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai – also have to be praised for their part in serving up a bevy of fine fixtures in UAE.
A few of them were a tad on the slower side, but in general, they helped both the batsmen and the bowlers and facilitated great cricket.
