Aiyo, what an IPL season!

Indian Premier League17 would probably make for a perfect example of an edition which evoked bewilderment among those who followed it closely Letrsquos start at the very end The final Sunrisers Hyderabadrsquos meek surrender to Kolkata Knight Riders made it an anticlimax of all anticlimaxes in Indiarsquos recent domestic cricket history Indeed it gave a poor name to the thrill factor in the shortest form of the gameIt was a complete waste of time for those who made it to the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai as well as those who had planned to be in front of their television sets throughout Sunday eveningSunrisers were expected to do what they have done best this seasonmdashcome up with a sizzling batting performance and put the opposition under pressure Instead they were outwitted by the KKR bowlers who in a way mandated a third IPL title triumphOnersquos heart had to go out to the Chennai fans A little over a week earlier the Super Kings exited the tournament through a heartbreaking loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Bangalore Their icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni couldnrsquot weave his magic and their dream of Dhoni playing the final in Chennai was shattered By the way the MSD puzzle continues be it in terms of his retirement or batting numberIn the final great balls sent back dangermen Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head but Sunrisers were just clueless over how to revive That skipper Pat Cummins was their topscorer 24 coming in at No 9 reflected a highly inefficient batting displayThe poor season Mumbai Indians endured was another downside to the annual T20 extravaganza The decision to make Hardik Pandya captain however good the intentions may have been with the future in mind proved counterproductive It was a PR disaster and the chief decisionmakers in this move would have been embarrassed Yes Pandya didnrsquot deserve to be booed like he was at the Wankhede Stadium and one could say that the trolling of Pandya on social media led to some poor behaviour from the stands Sanjay Manjrekarrsquos call for the fans to lsquobehaversquo will be remembered tooPandya naturally appeared weighed down by the pressure his effort to be cheerful in postmatch interactions with the commentators notwithstanding He just couldnrsquot inspire his team to a revival of fortunes and itrsquos no surprise that he ended up with a highest score of 46 He claimed 11 wickets in 14 gamesRohit Sharma too didnrsquot have the best of seasons Sure he got a hundred against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on April 14 but half the time in his 14match IPL17 he walked back to the pavilion with a lessthan20 score to his name And his sequence of scores from April 22 to May 6 was 6 8 4 11 and 4Pandya is a cause of concern when it comes to the forthcoming T20 World Cup and I suppose his will be more of mental battle to get back to form If he doesnrsquot come good with the bat India will not have a destroyer of bowling attacks And thatrsquos when the regret over not taking Rinku Singh will kick inMeanwhile whatever the contents of that much publicised footage of Sanjiv Goenkarsquos animated discussion with captain KL Rahul the Lucknow Super Giants owner could well regret discussing the game his side lost even before the halfway mark of the inningsAlthough the GoenkaRahul oneway conversation Rahul didnrsquot appear to be reacting verbally didnrsquot involve the full team which may have been a better way to handle it I was reminded of an incident which took place during Kerry Packerrsquos World Series Cricket The West Indies had played below potential and ability in a game Packer walked into their changing room and gave the men from the Caribbean in fast bowler Andy Robertsrsquos words a ldquotongue lashingrdquo Robertsrsquos fellow fast bowler Colin Croft said in the film Fire in Babylon that Packer threatened to send some of them back home if they played poorly again The West Indies hardly lost a game after thatGoenka is not the first big boss to be incensed by a shoddy show Which team owner smiles from ear to ear after a loss However therersquos a place to do it mdash certainly not at areas exposed to camerasSunil Gavaskar meanwhile surprised many by slamming the very channel that he was doing commentary for after they showed Virat Kohlirsquos rant over those questioning his strike rate over and over again Gavaskar also questioned why players were reacting to views when they often stress that they donrsquot listen to outside noiseTalking about noise Rohit Sharma made some noise about his conversations with KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar before the Mumbai Indians v KKR game at the Eden Gardens being heard on social media The India captain felt that his utterances with friends were revealed again despite a request to a cameraman but Star Sports denied that this was made public only his request for the audio not to be recorded was The official broadcasters have paid big bucks to record more than just onaction so they are well within their right to pan their cameras on high profile players At the same time cricketers are entitled to demand that their conversations be off limits This is not to say that Rohitrsquos conversation was recorded by the host broadcasters It wasnrsquotOn the field IPL17 will be remembered as the edition which produced far too many runs for the cricket to come close to being called an even contest Cricket enthusiasts probably deserve bettermiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper