IPL's lighter side, Week 4: From Ambati Rayudu emerging as Virat Kohli's sprint rival to Chris Gayle un-Corking his fury

Rayudu takes up Kohli’s challenge Last week Virat Kohli invited anyone with a spare 8.90 seconds to try and beat his time sprinting three runs. He doesn’t seem to have mentioned it again, perhaps being too busy perfecting a hundred different types of disgruntled frown as Royal Challengers Bangalore continue their poor season. However, there was at least one person who picked up the gauntlet of running pointlessly up and down the wicket on his own. After MS Dhoni flailed at a leg-side short delivery from Delhi Daredevils’ Trent Boult on Monday, it looked like the ball would run down to fine-leg. [caption id=“attachment_4459409” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] CSK’s Ambati Rayudu plays a shot against Mumbai Indians at Pune’s MCA Stadium in IPL 2018. AFP[/caption] As such Ambati Rayudu, keen to get on strike to continue his incredible season, scampered down the pitch only to watch in horror as wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant pounced on the ball and flicked it back towards the stumps like a dexterous though weary sea lion. Dhoni, cool as the breeze as ever, just leant on his bat as his teammate joined him in his crease. Rayudu was forced to do an about-turn and sprint back up to his end but sadly not before Boult had gathered the ball and thrown down the stumps. Two lengths of the wicket completed, no runs scored, but a very decent time of 5.63 second (approx). A worthy sprint challenger to Kohli emerges. Brothers in arms, fielders in harm’s way It’s about time Krunal Pandya got the chance to join his brother in India’s short-format sides. Hardik might put the bling in sibling but Krunal is a nonetheless an equally sparkling part of the Mumbai Indians side. His tight, nerveless bowling and heroic but calculated southpaw hitting, often with less brutality but more grey matter than Hardik, will surely soon see him complement Mumbai’s shade of blue with India’s. Despite their differences, the brothers did share one thing in common last week, namely an inability to hold on to their bits of willow. In their clash against RCB, both saw their blades squirting out of their hands and onto the turf some yards away. It’s all very well throwing the bat in the Indian Premier League (IPL), of course, but not to square leg on a regular basis. Hardik then did it again against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. Get a (new) grip, Pandyas! Alternatively they could pay a visit to Aslam Chaudhry, who in his Mumbai workshop has been making and fixing blades for decades and includes Chris Gayle, Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Smith among his customers. He is known as ‘Batman’, but regrettably it is not known if Krishnappa Gowtham has yet visited. Gayle uncorks his genius Further details have emerged of how Chris Gayle has got himself in such superb batting shape this year - he has taken up yoga. On a short break from the tournament in Kerala with his family, the Kings XI Punjab opener also indulged in local seafood and some ayurveda massage. A man who moves at his sort of speeds needs a rub down from time to time. He didn’t go into detail about the type of yoga he’s been practising but it’s fair to speculate he excelled at the ‘Downward (Bad) Dawg’. While Gayle may have found an inner calm, serenity certainly wasn’t what was in store for ex-England bowler Dominic Cork, who served up a few deliveries for the batsman to pummel during a feature for Sky Sports. The West Indian has upgraded from ‘World Boss’ to ‘Universe Boss’ in recent years, begging the question of whether a space big enough for him to lord over could ever be created. Though both hugely engaging characters, the clash of his and Cork’s egos may well have sparked a big bang to formulate just such an astrophysical entity. Malinga to sling his hook? National boards have a long history of wanting players to prove loyalty by turning their backs on the IPL. Kevin Pietersen was derided as a money-grubber for suggesting English players should be allowed to participate in the event. Sunil Narine was once dropped for a Test series because he wanted to play in the IPL final and Cricket West Indies (CWI) wanted him to attend a training camp. Team unity is a wonderful thing, but asking a player to miss the biggest domestic match in the world to do squat thrusts was a bit silly and self-defeating. Now it is the turn of Lasith Malinga, working as Mumbai’s bowling mentor after not being picked up by anyone in the auction, to get the summons. Looking to resurrect his international career, he has been told to return home and play in Sri Lankan domestic competitions. Malinga is refusing to go, perhaps rather irritated by the fact that when he performed well in T20s back home earlier this year he was still subsequently overlooked by the selectors (during hardly the most illustrious time in Sri Lankan bowling history). The situation adds a new layer to the perennial club versus country debate. It’s one thing for players to choose their franchise over their national side. If a mentor now does so, we really will be in unchartered territory. Parlour games With four fifties in the current IPL, Suryakumar Yadav has been one of the key reasons Mumbai are still clinging on to their play-off hopes. On Sunday, he was given the accolade of being attributed his own nickname when Murali Kartik on commentary dubbed him the ‘Tattooed Tonker’, foregoing other options such as the ‘Inked Exterminator’ or ‘Pigmented Pummeller’. It’s not clear if it will catch on – and it was also pointed out that this moniker could be applied to half the players in the tournament – but, as Kartik isn’t known for his generosity to batsmen, the Mumbai star should welcome it with open arms. Jadeja pushes on It’s been a fairly muted IPL for Ravindra Jadeja. He’s been more folk star than rockstar, and even his usually superb fielding hasn’t quite been up to scratch. Against KKR he dropped two chances at mid-off on consecutive balls, causing Dhoni to look aghast at these uncharacteristic butter fingers. Perhaps there was just something in the Eden Gardens air. Earlier in the day, exciting young prospect Shubman Gill had done even worse (though he later redeemed himself superbly), dropping MS early in his innings, the cricketing equivalent of being one move away from checkmate against Viswanathan Anand and throwing all your pieces in the bin. On Saturday, however, Jadeja was back in form, claiming three for 18 as Chennai cruised to victory against RCB. Who knows what sparked the change in form, but with his pushgate nemesis Jimmy Anderson all over social media because of his new peroxide blonde hair cut, maybe Jadeja just wanted to remind people he can still pull strings when it matters as well. Kohli “not that bad” says AB Kohli, AB de Villiers and Yuzvendra Chahal appeared on All India Bakchod this week, chatting about all and sundry before being joined by a fourth teammate, Brendon McCullum, to play FIFA and, intriguingly, movie charades. Kohli was, not surprisingly, good at the game, making good use of the extravagant array of arm gestures so often seen on the pitch. During their conversation with the hosts, the modest de Villiers batted away questions about the famous meme claiming he had done everything from winning the high jump gold at the Olympics at the age of six to inventing the wheel (or something similar). He then explained how he was forced to defend Kohli’s honour to his national teammates during India and South Africa’s bad-tempered series earlier this year. “I told them he’s not that bad,” said AB. “He’s just competitive.” Lovely stuff.