Move over Gaylestorm, Lynn-sanity has hit the Indian Premier League.
But no, Chris Lynn isn’t some hot new exciting youngster Kolkata Knight Riders have unearthed from nowhere. In fact, he’s been around for a while now. He played for the Deccan Chargers way back in 2012. He was picked up by Kolkata in the 2014 auction for just Rs 1.3 crore and has only played four games in three seasons till then. He’s been waiting away. Biding his time. Before Friday.
But Gujarat Lions shouldn’t have been caught unaware. This is the day and age of video. It doesn’t take much to look up a player’s form. And if Gujarat had, they would have seen the storm coming.
A storm is coming
In the Big Bash down in Australia this season, Lynn was...well, for lack of a better world, spectacular. He even overshadowed Brendon McCullum, his teammate at the Brisbane Heat. The 26-year-old Queenslander hit 26 sixes in the entire tournament, seven more than second-placed McCullum. His overall strike rate of 177.58 was stratospheric. He hit 17 fours and 26 sixes in the five innings he played, basically a big shot every four balls.
The Lions should have known that. They didn’t. They fed him in the areas he loves. And Lynn struck.
If you see Lynn’s innings again, the one thing you’ll marvel at is how clean and uncomplicated his shots were. Nothing like Dinesh Karthik moving all over the crease to manoeuvre. No Steve Smith style fidgeting. He stood and delivered. Each and every six was due to a still head and a clean swing of the bat. Nothing else, nothing more. Clean, powerful hitting.
By the time, Lynn had raced to a 19-ball fifty, the joint second-fastest for KKR, he had already smashed five sixes and four boundaries. The score was 96/0 after seven overs. The match was done and dusted.
Gambhir and Lynn decided to have a spot of fun thereafter. It was one of those days where everything was going their way. Boundaries were being pierced, the big hits were all carrying over the fence. The one chance that Lynn offered right at the end, was shelved by McCullum.
Lynn finished the match with an eye-boggling strike rate of 226. But while we’re admiring his insanity, it was Gambhir who quietly (if you consider a 48-ball 76 with 12 boundaries as “quiet”!) notched up another half-century, his 32nd in IPL history.
Gautam Gambhir – Mr Consistent
If you look at the top five batsman in the list of most fifties in the history of the tournament, one thing that’ll strike you is the number of sixes in Gambhir’s column.
David Warner, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, the other members of the list have all hit more than a 100 sixes – in Sharma and Raina’s case, over 150. Gambhir has only hit 51 sixes in nine seasons. That’s less than six sixes in a tournament.
The Kolkata Knight Riders skipper doesn’t hit too many sixes. Maybe that’s why he’s never considered a big basher, like the others on that list.
But you know what? It doesn’t matter.
Lynn’s insanity might have been wasted if Gambhir wasn’t at the other end. Because there are few batsmen in the IPL who can pierce gaps as well as Gambhir does. Gujarat Lions witnessed vintage Gambhir. Flashing cover drives, inside-out lofts, the whole nine yards. A captain’s knock to set the tone for the rest of the tournament.
And because of those two, much like in 2008 when McCullum shocked the world with that 158, Kolkata Knight Riders have sent a message. They’ve got the bowlers, everyone knew that. But now, they’ve just told the world that, despite Andre Russell’s absence, they’ve still got plenty of firepower within their ranks.
Chasing down 183 should not be this easy. KKR reduced it to a canter. They weren’t even stretched. And that’s going to be a cause of worry for the seven other IPL franchises.