Sam Curran: CSK’s consolation in a painful season

Sam Curran saw Trent Boult’s slowest goalkeeper in the final coming from a distance. He moved forward and neatly put the ball away from the fine leg fielder to reach his first half century of the season. After more than an hour of long-faced gazing, there was finally an occasion for the Chennai Super Kings dugout to erupt in sustained applause. And they did.

Imran Tahir walked over to his hitting partner, put an arm around his shoulder, and had a few words to say to him. Curran then turned to his squad and showed great restraint as he raised his bat in recognition.

CSK came to Sharjah looking for a spark to salvage what was left of a forgettable season, but ended up getting riddled by a battering ram from a bowling attack, led by Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah.

Curran’s 52 of 47 balls was instrumental in helping his team evade two ignominious possibilities: breaking the record for the lowest IPL total ever (RCB’s 49 vs. KKR) and the lowest total this season (84 / KKR’s 8 vs. RCB), both of which seemed likely from the flimsy 30-for-6 position after Dhoni’s departure. Curran’s effort wasn’t enough to clinch the two points for CSK, but it was a symbolic performance of what he has meant to the team in a pain-filled season.

Finding young feet in a dressing room that swears by experience, operates muscle memory, and keeps conversation to a minimum shouldn’t be easy. It can be a strange combination of a bundle of nervous energy and the collective wisdom and calm of years of experience and success. The night before the 2018 grand finale, CSK’s comeback season, Lungi Ngidi, 22, found it rather unsettling how relaxed the locker room felt, almost as if no one was taking the clash over him seriously. Title.

But Curran, even at 22, entered the room full of big, crafty personalities with reputations for being a smart and confident cricketer. “His heart may be running 100 miles / hour underneath, but on the outside he looks very confident, very comfortable and very confident,” Surrey Academy principal Gareth Townsend tells Cricbuzz.

It’s been over nine years since the 13-year-old Curran joined the Surrey academy as a feisty little boy with a strong competitive streak. But from very early on, Curran has also been able to combine his gaming skills with an amazing display of temperament, so much so that “you often forget how old he is,” Townsend jokes.

This spoken temperament was put to the test in Curran and CSK’s first outing of the season. He had arrived in the UAE just one day before the game, and hadn’t even met all of the team members when he came out to bat, ahead of Dhoni, in a chase against the Mumbai Indians, which was down to 29 off. 17. IM’s hopes of making a late squeeze were dashed by the southpaw as he managed his face off against Krunal Pandya’s left arm twist, nonchalantly hitting him for a six-four on that change. In the win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, he gave a very good account of himself as an impromptu starter chasing the missing intention, though the play didn’t work out in later games.

With the ball, he has been effective on both ends: on PowerPlay and on death. Curran made up for the absence of the vantage point that comes with being a tall walker and the ability to hit the deck hard, with a carousel of variety, from cross closures and cutters to precise wide yorkers. His tally of 173 runs and 10 wickets in 11 games so far isn’t momentous, but in the context of a hugely disappointing season, he stands out as a positive positive.

“Well, he’s doing everything right, isn’t he? He’s taken every opportunity and his performances show a lot of character. Today was exceptional. Look, it has been very good for us in what has been a disappointing season. What we are doing now “” We have to get as many positives as we can, and Sam is one, “CSK head coach Stephen Fleming said at the post-game press conference.

CSK is now only a poor result from bringing an unceremonious finish to an era filled with success and unmatched consistency. What it could also do is close the door on many of the team’s trusted seniors, who fell short in the final stage of the three-year cycle. When it’s time for a complete rebuild, Curran could be a good starting point.