Just “Beat It” is the theme as CSK rock like Michael Jackson in IPL finale

To top the occasion, MS Dhoni expresses intent to be around for CSK fans in IPL 2024.

Just “Beat It” is the theme as CSK rock like Michael Jackson in IPL finale

IPL 2023 Champions Chennai Super Kings (Image Credits: iplt20.com)

When Late Michael Jackson belted out the song “Beat It,” an all-time chartbuster from the album “Thriller” in 1982, it raged, it rocked. You had to jive, you had to tap your feet, you had to purse your lips: “Beat It.” In the 80s, music from MJ grew, almost became like a cult.

On Monday night, or Tuesday morning, the “Beat It” theme played out in Ahmedabad. Maybe Michael Jackson was watching from above, as Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi stadium plus CSK fans the world over rocked and Chennai guys shed tears of joy. Why? “Beat It.” Like MJ sang the famous lines with emotions that only he could produce, Team Chennai Super Kings turned in an adrenaline-felted performance in the IPL 2023 final. A fifth IPL trophy now in the cupboard by beating Gujarat Titans via the Duckworth Lewis Method was defining.

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To say that the pressure was high would be akin to saying you can fly in an aircraft as a passenger at 38,000 feet above sea level, approx 11km height from the ground, minus cabin pressure being controlled and temperature being maintained at cool 24 degrees Celsius. It was near impossible to measure the pressure of the fans inside the Narendra Modi stadium, packed to the rafters. This was one match for which they had been waiting since Sunday afternoon.

Rains first killed Super Sunday as CSK were taking on the 2022 title winners Gujarat Titans. Damn, for a dry state and a dry city, metaphorically and figuratively, rains were a rarity. That it washed the dusty city and that it made everyone emotional was certain. When a team is playing on its home ground, there is a huge plus factor. No, not when the rival team happens to be CSK, led by a man who makes you cry each time.

He is like that old Bollywood classic from an altogether different era where emotions meant you walked out of the cinema hall with hankies wet in salt water. You will not find that in today’s generation, which is addicted to Netflix for sure!

Then again, after Gujarat Titans, well served by Sai Sudarshan and old man Wriddhiman Saha piled on 214 on the board, it looked curtains for CSK. Ah, that damn cliche, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. Well, cliche turned cricket on its head, — upside down, inside out — as CSK, marshalled by the one and only MS Dhoni pulled off a heist under DL method.

MS Dhoni lifts up Ravindra Jadeja (Image Credits: iplt20.com)
MS Dhoni lifts up ‘Rockstar’ Ravindra Jadeja post final win (Image Credits: iplt20.com)

A good boss is always appreciative. He will not scold you. A good boss will always motivate you, make you perform at optimum. Social media was littered with stuff on rifts between Dhoni and Sir Ravindra Jadeja. Then again, given the emotional nature of CSK as a team, if there are differences between the captain and some marquee players, nothing wrong. For, late on Monday night, it galvanised the CSK team, as Jadeja, a man whose method in madness and passion in pursuit, ensured CSK won the trophy with a last-ball heart-stopping shot.

Did we hear the IPL is just a club tournament? Did we hear the IPL is all about betting and fixing and how results are known well in advance? Rubbish that. For, the men who shone on Monday night leading into Tuesday morning and played the “Beat It” song in their heads and hearts were Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ajinkya Rahane. Rayudu made it emotional, as this was his last match. Rayudu did get a raw deal from Team India and the BCCI, but his linkage and lineage with CSK has been part of history.

To be sure, chasing over 214 was just not on the cards for most fans. Even if you had been the most ardent fan of Michael Jackson and sang “Beat It.” it was tough for CSK. Hear the lines:

“Just beat it (beat it), beat it (beat it)
No one wants to be defeated
Showin’ how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right
Just beat it (beat it)
Just beat it (beat it)
Just beat it (beat it)
Just beat it (beat it, uh).”

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MS Dhoni wishes to come back in 2024

Left to right: Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja (Image Credits: iplt20.com)
Left to right: Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja (Image Credits: iplt20.com)

How can one not write these words sung by Michael Jackson, a man who romanced Grammy Awards in the eighties, even though, in death, his legacy had been shaken and stirred. MJ was not clean, said the world. His personal life was in shambles, but, then, maybe, his troubled childhood never gets mentioned that often. Music fans remember him for his music and stage showmanship, which had a unique template.

When MJ was at his peak in 1982, CSK’s own MS Dhoni was a year old. Jeez, at 41 plus and pushing 42, people want him to retire from the IPL. Someone like Kapil Dev has hinted that Dhoni has done enough. Try saying that to the CSK fans, they will kill you. The God of Cricket for CSK as a physical and emotional entity, Dhoni will always be the legend.

If proof was needed that despite swollen knees, perhaps iced for hours away from the field and then strapped up or in a brace as support, Dhoni can still fire. One dismissal, just that one dismissal on Monday night, stood out. It was that master class, bails being flashed like the Ahmedabad skies lightning as he dismissed Shubman Gill. That dismissal broke the internet, it showed that behind the stumps, when Dhoni is doing the glove work, he is still as agile as a hangman who has tested the ropes many times. It was curtains for heart-throb Gill, with Sara Ali Khan in attendance!

You could well say Gill’s exit made no difference. It did, for Dhoni had shown he was not going to give up that easily. He puts his heart and soul in, he makes an effort. So what if he did not score runs in the IPL 2023, so what if he looked a trifle slow in hand-eye coordination and rotor movement with the bat? He made up for it with great presence of mind behind the stumps and fired up his superstar team members. Mind you, Jadeja and Rahane are active icons in their own right.

Dhoni was selfless, as always, in the end. He passed the trophy around and then spoke. Emotions? Well, if his words did not resonate, then you have to be a stone. Dhoni does not corner glory, he lets the boys/ men do it, like in 2011 when Sachin Tendulkar was kissing the trophy after the World Cup win in Mumbai. Dhoni embraced Jadeja, lifted him off the ground. Dhoni spoke on his personnel, notably Rayudu, for whom this was a great farewell.

What’s in store in 2024? Indicators are MS Dhoni will continue. Just “Beat It!”

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