The Disappointment of Defeat

The IPL – 2009 has now come to an end, a bitter end for a Royal Challengers Bangalore fan. Having come so close to Victory in the Final and also to lifting the Trophy , but yet not able to cross the finish line ahead of the Deccan Chargers is a HUGE Disappointment. But having said that, it is certainly better than finishing at the bottom of the table.

Although I could guess the result of the match even before it could end and wanted to change channels as I usually do during such occasions unable to watch the team I support  lose, I did not want to give up on the team so easily. Not after the team having shown such a fighting spirit to reach the finals after they were almost written off by everyone – both cricketing experts and fans included. And certainly not after after watching the team score a thumping victory over the Chennai Super Kings in the semi-finals yesterday.

But there wasn’t anymore turn-around in the match, no more miracles that could have changed the fortunes for the Royal Challengers. All the turn-arounds had already happened and the miracles had already worked their magic in favour of the Deccan Chargers.

As I sit back and reflect over the match and try to figure out what went wrong with the Royal Challengers team, the first thing that comes to my mind is Andrew Symonds being dropped by Rahul Dravid. As I can recall, Symonds later went onto whack at least one sixer and also scored a boundary which amounts up to 10 runs. And the challengers were short by 8 runs from victory. Another incident is the over bowled by Praveen Kumar in which he was taken for over 19 runs including the extras that he gave away in the same over. Either of the two incidents if otherwise, and the match could have had an altogether different result.

Another decisive factor was lack of partnership’s for the whole of the Royal Challengers innings. Unlike Herschelle Gibbs for the Deccan Chargers who stood steadfast and held the Chargers innings together, none of the Royal Challengers batsmen survived till the end to see the team through. The lack of partnerships meant that batsmen fell at key moments giving the Chargers the psychological and decisive edge as and when they needed. The fall of Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli of successive balls and also Mark Boucher shortly after was the probably the killer blow to the Royal Challengers innings.

I  usually follow the post-match shows  and also the various match-analysis shows aired on news channels [both Regional and English] without fail whenever the team I am rooting for wins, whichever sport it maybe – Cricket, Football, Grand Prix or any other for that matter. It makes me feel good hearing both the hosts and the guests of the show showering praises on the team and also on the match winner. But tonight, there’s no enthusiasm to watch such shows. The match was supposed to be followed by a Spectacular closing Ceremony and also the Presentation Ceremony. No enthusiasm to watch those ceremonies either. There’s no joy in watching such ceremonies when you end being on the losing side.

I expected this night to end with a lot of noise,  listening to the fire-crackers going off far away from my home; trying to flip through channel after channel trying to decide which is the best one to watch which would describe the Royal Challengers victory best, trying very hard to sleep but not able to with lots of happy memories going through my mind and my heart jumping with joy and also smiling within myself not able to control the happiness of victory of MY team. But it was not to be, not this time. That moment has to wait for a later time, for a another day and maybe for a BIGGER moment of JOY.

At the end of it all, all that can be said [with some disappointment, being a Royal Challengers fan] is “The Better Team Won.”