Balaji still serves with a smile

After three years of battling the odds, the paceman returns with a two-wicket burst in Chennai’s thrilling win.

First let’s get the customary details out of the way. The Indian Premier League witnessed its first real nail-biter. The 15 required off the last over had come down to one off one. Subramaniam Badrinath chipped Shoaib Malik over mid-wicket, Shikhar Dhawan chased down the skier. Despite a desperate dive though, he only got his fingertips to it.

As a result, Chennai Super Kings registered a four-wicket win and halted a run of three straight defeats. Earlier, Gautam Gambhir, despite several attempts to get himself run out through the innings, finished up with 80 off 49 deliveries, taking his team to 187 for five and moving to the top of the run-scoring charts. The entire match, though, seemed to revolve around one man. After more than two years out of the spotlight, Lakshmipathy Balaji and his infectious smile were back on the cricket field. In a tournament where even the average is marketed as the extraordinary — commentators screaming their lungs out for every single edged to third-man, for example — Balaji’s story needs no hard-selling.

Battling demons

The hero of India’s tour to Pakistan in 2003, he played his last international game in 2005. He went under the surgeon’s knife twice; the second time, a metal plate was inserted in the small of his back.

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Since then, he has battled the frailty of his body and the demons in his mind, never sure when the right time was to run in hard again, always afraid of another breakdown. Even when the Super Kings picked him, few — including those close to the man himself — gave him a chance to play this season.

Understandably, he has changed. There are a few uncertain hops at the top of his mark. And while he never was a bowler who charged in to the crease, his run-up seems even more controlled now. The distinctive whirl of limbs is missing from the final stride, as is the pronounced hop; the action is more open-chested, the delivery more round-arm.

He started off with a short, wide one that Gambhir cut to deep point for a single. Next ball, loud appeal for leg-before — arms spread wide, face distorted in desperation. Then came a couple of slow leg-cutters, Dhawan slashing the second of those to the boundary. His first over back had gone for eight, his first spell a very respectable 2-0-11-0.

He picked a wicket each in his next two overs — Gambhir slicing one to point off the last ball of the 18th and Shoaib Malik holing out to long-off off the first ball of the 20th — to finish with 2-35 off his four.

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These weren’t the best figures in this tournament by miles, but for the man who won over Pakistan with his smile and a couple of sixes, these were the first tentative steps towards the addictive madness of international cricket.