THE TENNIS BALL SPIN KING
The noise when Chennai-reared Varun Chakravarthy takes the field for India in his home city on Thursday night could rival that of the arrival of the mercurial MSD.
The attached audio file is the sound of Mahendra Singh Dhoni walking into bat at Chepauk - the MS Chidambaram stadium - Chennai. The noise levels at Dhoni’s adopted home are insane, as if a God has descended to earth to save the people. And save them Dhoni often has, on this occasion for instance. This match against the Rajasthan Royals in 2019, was typical. Chennai Super Kings had idled to 147-5. There was one over to go.
I was sat with the Royals lead owner Manoj Badale. If we can keep them under 160 we’ll win, he said. Dhoni had other ideas. He took the nervy looking left arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat for 28. Six after six flew into the joyful, yellow-clad Chennai fans. They went mental. If you thought Dhoni’s theatrical entry was loud, you should have heard his triumphant exit. (Chennai won the match by the way, by eight runs, so Badale’s assessment was probably right.)
MS Dhoni clubs another six at Chennai.
The decibel levels will be off the scale again at Chennai on Thursday as another local hero arrives on stage. And this one is locally-produced too. Varun Chakravarthy, described as a leg-break and googly bowler, learnt the mysteries of his spin bowling in the streets and dusty paddocks of Chennai with a tennis ball. Lacking the strength to bowl fast he experimented with various back of the hand deliveries and the ‘carrom’ ball developed by first Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis and then Chennai’s Ravichandran Ashwin, and became well known in the informal matches on the maidans (communal grounds) of Chennai, but had made little progress in official club circles. He was still playing fourth division club cricket in Tamil Nadu.
