Malinga moments were pure magic

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Nothing brought out better the Janus-faced nature of cricket than a few early Malinga moments in the Champions League T20.
It seemed the ups and downs of life were encapsulated in the Sri Lankan’s first two games with fortunes favouring him not so much with his trademark toe-crushers as in his altogether more surprising area of batting.
That he came out a winner in both games is a tribute to his fighting spirit.

The cruel yorker was successful against Murali Vijay but no more. The match was in the balance when he came out to bat and his runs at the strike rate of 205.55 settled the issue in favour of the IPL runners-up of 2011 who beat the IPL 2011 and CL 2010 champions.
It was his show of gusto that helped change the verdict. He dared to try and he won the day.
Ironically, they needed his newfound match-winning batting ability once more on another crazy night when T20 thrills took centre stage. It can’t get any better than any one of three results possible even after the last ball is bowled and a stroke is played.
The fielding, the slightly wayward throw, a desperate wicket-keeper’s lob unable to stop the winning run being stolen. Such cricket is really not for the faint hearted.
In the clash of the IPL’s top two, there were cruel lessons for the champions who also had their unbeaten run ended.
But these are early days yet in the Champions League and not all the hopes of defending the title are lost for Dhoni, the skipper whose magic touch somehow seems to have deserted him across the board, from Tests to inter-club T20 cricket.
The pressing need for the Team India skipper to take a break after his exertions in England and the Caribbean was probably made clear when he missed stumping Malinga with the grand thrasher stranded hopelessly down the track.
The three-format all-rounder with the triple responsibility of batsman-keeper-captain must find the modern game far more demanding than it was for others of his ilk who led in more laidback times.
The fact Dhoni presses on is symbolic of his fitness. Maybe, a tough life as a teenager and young adult had something to do with it, or the country air, or simply good genes.
And yet he risks a lot if he goes on like this with a maniacal sense of commitment on the field. The simplest alternative would be to allow him to abandon the gauntlets throughout the ODI return series against England next month. The only other captain who was so doughty was probably Kapil Dev who would have played 131 Test matches in a row if he had not been dropped for one Test after he had played a seemingly casual stroke against England in 1984-85.
Kapil was a model of supreme athletic fitness. He rarely missed an ODI either but then even his era was a far more relaxed one than the present with its three formats. However, the current position of Team India is such it’s no more Dhoni’s personal issue. He has to look at the workload of all his players, most of all the bowlers.
His contribution in team management has to be far more pro-active through the season than it has been known to be.
Being one of those strong characters who mostly has his way in the selection committee meetings, he has to put up his hand now for failures rather than pointing fingers at the different departments as has been his wont when addressing the problem of dip in team performance.
The bonanza duo of the IPL-Champions League is far too valuable for anyone to wish to miss matches.
The problem is it brings to the fore the old debate of club versus country. Right now Dhoni’s job is to look at Team India priorities even while his fitness levels allow him to have a dart at one of the game’s top prizes with CLT20 handing out $6 million with the winner’ getting a $2.5 million cheque.