Like most others on the cricket field, the cheerleaders have a job to do. And a difficult one at that as the CSK cheerleaders found out in the home team's bout against Kings XI Punjab here on Saturday.
Firstly, they were positioned right under the sun on a sultry afternoon. Next, they didn't have much to do initially as Kings XI began in dominant fashion. They only had to do the odd jig when desi hits were belted out between overs.
Their stock moves were hilariously discordant, but the crowd continued to cheer them wholeheartedly.
The cheers transformed into joyous roars when Dwayne Bravo, on the boundary line, grooved rhythmically to the tunes.
As the perfect icing on the cake, drummer Sivamani supplemented the song and dance routine.
The collision
Amid all the merriment, there was one moment that hushed up the audience. An attempted catch off a shot from Mandeep Singh produced disastrous results for Bravo and Faf du Plessis — converging respectively from long-off and long-on.
The pair thudded into the ground following the collision. Even as scores of worried faces zoomed in on the scene of action, the medical staff got to work.
In due course, Bravo and du Plessis were back on their feet and the crowd greeted them with jubilant claps and chants of ‘CSK…CSK'.
The argument
After the contest was over, one could see disappointed fans dissecting the concluding act of the match that featured a decision that didn't go down well with CSK.
Azhar Mahmood's delivery missed the leg stump by inches after Kulasekara shuffled across. While the batsmen squeezed in a bye, they (as well as the fans) were aggrieved that the ball wasn't declared wide.
du Plessis said later he thought it was a wide. “I was one of the guys jumping around wondering why it wasn't called a wide. But I don't know what the exact rule is.”
