The MPL is five years old. The sixth season will be upon us this summer. As we endure Snowmageddon 2014 behind four walls, holding out hope for some required and much deserved warm weather, to summer, and the season ahead, let’s re-visit some of the moments from past season of MPL.
The following are some of the key moments or memories from MPL 1 or MPL 2009.
Birth of the MPL
Summer was just about done, and fall was around the corner. We were looking to get more cricket through the remaining few weeks of the season – our club was about 30 members strong at the time. The second season of the IPL had finished earlier in the year, and it seemed like a good idea to start our own league on similar lines.
After a few initial emails and discussions, a date was set. The first player auction was held behind closed doors, in the ‘Heck’ conference room, on 8th September 2009. The MPL was born.
In attendance were the three captains – Chirag, Ganesh and Priyank – and the MPL Commissioner, aka yours truly, running the auction. Mayank, Sachin and Narayanan representing the rest of the stakeholders, were the only one’s invited. We didn’t think anyone else would care to attend a lunch time cricket meeting this late in the season.
Each of the captains were selected pre-hand based on their expressed desires to lead a team at various times in the season prior – Priyank and Ganesh in particular had already locked horns in the ‘PG Wars’. Each captain had $100 to spend towards forming their teams. A cap on the maximum a captain could spend or bid on a player was set at $25. If more than one captain bid $25 for a player, a coin-toss determined who secured the services of the player.
Team name’s were arrived at after a discussion within each team, post players-auction. Chirag, Ganesh, and Priyank captained the ‘Juggernauts’, ‘Super Kings, and ‘Sledge Masters’ respectively; Matt gets credit for the Sledge Masters, being called as such.
Each of the three teams played the other twice, with the top-two teams making the final.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Adai?
Post the player’s auction, speculation was that the Sledge Masters were the weakest of the three teams. They, supposedly, lacked bowling depth.
This was the season in which Adai had joined our club. We knew him as a batsman who scored quickly, capable of the big hits, and a good fielder with a strong accurate arm from the deep. Adai was one of the Sledge Masters.
All speculation on who would help with the bowling for the Sledge Masters was Adai, the express fast bowler. Well fast-medium or there about. No one knew about Adai the bowler, apparently not even Ganesh through whom Adai joined the club.
Adai hadn’t bowled earlier in the season as he was nursing a troubled back. That ceased to be an issue once the MPL arrived, and Adai the bowler was revealed, and unleashed on unsuspecting opponents. The other two teams were befuddled, as Adai become a corner-stone to the Sledge Masters’ success in the inaugural MPL.
12 all-out
The inaugural edition of the MPL was played exclusively at the Mary Dennison Playground in Framingham, with the matches scheduled for September evenings. Based on the scheduled sunset time, matches ranged anywhere between 12 overs a side early in the round-robin stage, to seven overs a side as the tournament proceeded. Setting a target batting first wasn’t as straightforward, but it helped if you batted first and scored big – low-light conditions owing to the early sunset wasn’t a friend of teams chasing.
The Sledge Masters and Super Kings faced each-other for the second time in the tournament, the last of the round-robin matches. The match had the makings of an enticing contest, for they were two equally skilled teams. Having lost their previous match against the Super Kings, the expectation was that the Sledge Masters would want to avenge their loss.
However, these two teams had already qualified for the finals, which in turn probably played a role in what followed. The Sledge Masters, instead of playing towards leveling their series score with the Super Kings, and marching into the finals with confidence, opted to play on a much lighter and relaxed note. Complacency had set in.
The Sledge Masters won the toss and chose to bat. In a matter of minutes, their batting collapsed, and they were bundled-up – all out for 12. The Super Kings wrapped up the chase of 13 runs with ease. The chase lacked drama.
In a match that didn’t last long enough for the fading light to factor in, members of the two teams proceeded to play a casual game of pick-up cricket in the remaining light. This remains the lowest score of the MPL.
The Super Kings led the head-to-head score, 2-0 heading into the final. However, it was the Sledge Masters who were to have the last laugh – winning the inaugural MPL final in style.
The only T20 MPL final
Each of the three squads were only 10 players strong. Teams needed to field a minimum of six players per match; last-man batting was allowed. Rules pertaining to the maximum overs per bowler per match were fluid through the round-robin stages.
The Super Kings and Sledge Masters made it to the final backed by some strong individual performances. Onomitra in particular had a break-out season – tallying 85 runs through the final.
Cometh the final, the squad of the Jugger Nauts was dismantled – the team split-up between the two finalists. However, the members of the erstwhile Jugger Nauts representing the Super Kings or Sledge Masters in the final, were not eligible to receive certificates for making the final, or claim bragging right as the winners.
The final itself was scheduled for Sunday, October 4th 2009 – and was setup to be a T20 affair. A weekday evening match would have allowed for no more than a seven-overs a side contest, and we wanted the final of the first edition of the MPL to be substantial. Discounting those who couldn’t make the final – fall colors and such – the playing XI for each team was as follows:
SledgeMasters: Priyank (c), Sachin, Chirag, Adai, Ono (wk), Sandeep H, Narayanan, Matt, Sreeram, Sabhay, Jatinder
Super Kings: Ganesh (c), Sidhu (wk), Akshat, Mukesh, Anish, Johnny Basu, Raghuvir, Hariharan R, S Salvady, Ramesh, Ankit
The following was a short preview that I’d written for the match, and distributed over email:
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We’ve had a great Cricket season – playing in the NECA League, the Wednesday practice games, friendly matches against other local teams. But like always, all good things must come to an end. The premier event of the season will be the MPL final on Sunday, the 4th of October, which could also be the last game at our home ground for the 2009 season, unless grumpy winter stays away longer.
The ‘Sledge Masters’ have been out-sledged, out-gunned, demoralized, crushed, walloped and run-over by the ‘Super Kings’ in the group stages of the tournament. The Super Kings are waiting for a contest, a challenge – will the Sledge Masters turn up on Sunday and challenge the Super Kings in the MPL final, or will the Super Kings cake-walk to their rightful title of MPL Champions!
Common over to the Mary Dennison Ground on Sunday morning to enjoy this (non-) contest! The match is scheduled to start at 8:45 AM and will be 20-overs a side affair.
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We scored the match on paper – a sheet of paper we unfortunately don’t have anymore. The following though is a brief summary for the match, as written up by Ganesh I:
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Congratulations to Sledge Masters for an excellent run chase and winning the 2009 MPL Finals. This was an excellent come-back after a disappointing season performance against Super Kings.
Highlights:
- Field conditions were wet and soggy at the beginning of the game and improved slightly for the run chase.
- Sledge Masters won the toss and elected to field.
- After a shaky start, the Super Kings recovered and managed to score 83 in 20 overs for the loss of 9 wickets.
- Sledge Masters chased the target in 19 overs for the loss of 2 wickets.
- Priyank spearheaded the run chase for a match winning performance.
- Excellent supportive batting from Onomitra.
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The Sledge Masters won the final in style, on the back of a strong unbroken partnership between Priyank and Onomitra, with each walking away with the ‘Man of the Match’ and ‘Man of the Series’ awards, respectively.
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