So the Test series is over. The third Test ended in a draw, and the series is drawn at 1-1.
I... don't know what to feel about this, really. For most of today, I was practically fuming. 340 in a day - the fifth day, no less - was difficult but surely gettable - but hey, what do I know. I'm worse than an armchair critic - I've almost never played the game, right? They have their reasons, whatever they are. I'm sure there'll be a lot of talk about the pitch, the bowling, the batting approach, all that pseudo-intellectual analytical bilge that will eventually drown out a simple truth: neither team really tried winning this thing on the last day.
I think my main heartbreak of today was the moment I rushed home from college, eager to check India's progress. Gambhir and Dravid were fermenting at the crease, which probably meant that Sehwag had left early. I checked what he'd scored: 11 off 40 balls.
Eleven. Off forty balls.
The disappointment was a physical thing; a lump in my throat. These guys had come out to play for a draw, and nothing else. The disappointment grew into frustration with every maiden played, every ball that was padded away or left or idly observed like the delivery was some remote scientific phenomenon. I raged and I cursed, and finally burned myself out. I'm just... disappointed. This was a fabulous series - I haven't had this much fun watching Test cricket since our Australian tour of '07-'08 - and this wasn't the ending it deserved. Not at all.
Sometimes, it's easy to fall into the notion that this Indian team is progressive, aggressive, super-modern. We haven't lost a series in a long time, we've staged some of the most memorable comebacks in recent history, we've got an awe-inspiring line-up with seniors who can apparently do no wrong. But this tendency to fall back when things get tight? That's not keeping with our super-aggressive image, but it's the truth. This team only bites back when it's been kicked to the ground, spit upon, and told that it's crap. Venom spews from otherwise sedate eyes; there's a manic intensity where there was once complacent indifference. But when we are going good, when we are at an advantage and there remains only those final few steps to cement our supremacy? We falter. We think, ah well. Y'know, we gotta be safe and ensure that we at least secure a draw. We think, a series draw is good. We're happy with it. NO.
This is the first time we haven't lost a Test series in SA, right? But we haven't won any either, and that's the whole frickin point. After a position of strength - they're 130/6, on the fourth day, one batsman injured and the other - not even a specialist - out of form, and we've got some bowling mojo going for us, what do we do? Fall back, and let them get away with it. I remember the same happening against NZ when we toured them, almost two years ago now. The third test was supposed to be ours. It had 'India' written all over it. Sure, there was supposed to be rain on the fifth day, but NZ were already 8 wickets down with half a session to go on the fourth day, so no problem, right? Except we fooled around, bowled rubbish, dropped catches, and allowed them to survive. No play was possible on the fifth day and the match ended in a draw. We won the series 1-0 anyway and there was much hot air about our first series win down there in decades, but what's the point, because we could've so easily won it 2-0?
We talk about a unified, super-modern team, but with this team? Same song, different verse.
Dhoni. Just to paraphrase your delightful little statement on crowds at Test matches: "we are the performers in the circus, but you need the circus to be full." We are not fools to sit in a circus where all that the performers do is juggle a single ball because it's too risky otherwise. This is exactly the kind of pointless bullshit that drives people away from Tests. It's not so much the low scoring rate as it is the lack of intent from India, and to a lesser extent, from South Africa. It's made me ask existential-esque questions.
Why am I here? Why am I watching this? What's the point? Do I really care that Sachin is the first person to score a run at the precise moment the sun's rays are at an angle of 34.98 degrees with far end of Table Mountain, thus creating a new record in the process? You can stuff those runs and inflated averages somewhere else, because they are worth jack-squat.
I don't care about history. I love this team, and I not only want it to win, but have come to expect it to win, or at least try.
Unfortunately, the team itself doesn't seem to think the same way.
Showing posts with label Sehwag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sehwag. Show all posts
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Yikes.
340 to win.
Kallis has pretty much ensured himself a man-of-the-series award, I think - a double-century in the first Test, and centuries in both innings in this one. Just to be safe, though, he threw in a 'batting through the pain of an injury' to woo the more sentimental folks on the jury. He's got me on that one.
NOW.
The hell, India? You had them at 130/6!! What happened? I didn't watch the match because I've been travelling all day and only caught some of the cricinfo commentary on my mobile, but really? After all this talk about how the wicket's tough to play on and that it's only getting tougher, Morkel and Boucher and Steyn, hell even Tsotsobe for a bit there, run havoc like it's the last five overs of a T20? I'm confused here. Was it the bowling, the batting, or the usual pre-match exaggerations (in which the players, the media, and the viewers are all complicit).
Anyway, 340 to get. Logically speaking, only two results are possible here: a South African win (the HORROR!) or a draw (what a friggin anti-climax that would be to an otherwise riveting series).
But this Indian team doesn't like to follow logic on the best of days, which can both be a good thing, or a bad thing.
In the end, as always, it all boils down to Sehwag. Whatcha gonna do, Viru?
"See ball, hit ball."
Aaaah. Excellent. :D
Kallis has pretty much ensured himself a man-of-the-series award, I think - a double-century in the first Test, and centuries in both innings in this one. Just to be safe, though, he threw in a 'batting through the pain of an injury' to woo the more sentimental folks on the jury. He's got me on that one.
NOW.
The hell, India? You had them at 130/6!! What happened? I didn't watch the match because I've been travelling all day and only caught some of the cricinfo commentary on my mobile, but really? After all this talk about how the wicket's tough to play on and that it's only getting tougher, Morkel and Boucher and Steyn, hell even Tsotsobe for a bit there, run havoc like it's the last five overs of a T20? I'm confused here. Was it the bowling, the batting, or the usual pre-match exaggerations (in which the players, the media, and the viewers are all complicit).
Anyway, 340 to get. Logically speaking, only two results are possible here: a South African win (the HORROR!) or a draw (what a friggin anti-climax that would be to an otherwise riveting series).
But this Indian team doesn't like to follow logic on the best of days, which can both be a good thing, or a bad thing.
In the end, as always, it all boils down to Sehwag. Whatcha gonna do, Viru?
"See ball, hit ball."
Aaaah. Excellent. :D
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Why?
So, in today's match, Dhoni has created a seismic ripple in the fabric of space-time and rubbished all predictive science by winning the toss. In the team sheet, he presents exactly the same team that gave their names to be listed next to Virender Sehwag as he won the last match he played against Sri Lanka, except Yuvraj comes in for Kohli.
A wise person once told me: questions are hell of a lot more meaningful than their answers, so don't stop asking them.
a.k.a: put up a bunch of meaningless rhetoric to make yourself look clever.
Therefore, I will ask:
Why is Ravichandran Ashwin still left out of the team? Why is Ravindra Jadeja being considered a specialist bowler when he's clearly a. not a specialist bowler and b. not a good all-rounder? Why are they dragging around Ashwin without giving a single match to him? Why, is Ashwin Just That Good a twelfth man? Is there a secret art to drinks and glove/pad carrying that he's mastered? Why didn't he suck up to Dhoni enough in the IPL this year? (never fear, Ashwin, the CL is coming up next month; plenty of opportunities)
Why is Rohit Sharma playing? (this question will one day drive to spend the rest of my life in a padded room, I know it)
Has Yuvraj Singh recovered from dengue that quickly? (guess he got the mild version. good for him.)
Why is it that people now compare Randiv to Trevor Chappell?
a. Quite clearly, Randiv's delivery was illegal. Chappell's 'delivery' at the time, was perfectly legal.
b. The New Zealand batsman did the Full Histrionic Flounce, complete with throwing his bat at the ground in disgust. Sehwag just responded with a, "yeeeaah, whatever, it happens," before somebody in the dressing room showed him a video replay and hissed something in his ear.
c. Chappell did it (quite pathetically) to safeguard what was already a very-likely win (he was bowling to the tail, and they needed six off the last ball just to tie! Talk about having no faith in your own bowler). Randiv did it in a completely hopeless cause, and what appears to be a bit of petty playground spite ("waah, if I shall not have my win, he shall not have his century! So there!")
Why is everybody playing this up to be a Big Issue? Why is the Spirit of Cricket being brought in here? There is no Spirit of Cricket. The cake is a lie. Cricket isn't dead, and it isn't a spirit. It's a sport (or so we'd like to believe). A mean, competitive sport. Not one where you have to sit around and talk about life-long psychological scarring just because a dude got a couple of reprimands.
But okay. Let's say it is a big issue. Why wasn't the Almighty Match Referee not involved immediately? Isn't it his job to Safeguard the Spirit of Cricket? (*cue thunder and trumpet music*) Oh, right, because the umpires didn't report to him. What a joke.
Also, along the same lines, why was Dilshan, the player, the senior player with several years of experience in international cricket, given a lesser punishment than poor put-upon psychologically-scarred Randiv for inciting him to bowl the no-ball?
Clearly, the SLC PR dept was intercepted by desperate appeals from the team management. ("but we neeed him! Take Randiv away, it doesn't matter, but we neeeed Dilshan for the next game.")
Also, finally:
Why does Danny Morrison bear a scary resemblance to the dude who's running against Julia Gillard in the Aussie elections right now?
A wise person once told me: questions are hell of a lot more meaningful than their answers, so don't stop asking them.
a.k.a: put up a bunch of meaningless rhetoric to make yourself look clever.
Therefore, I will ask:
Why is Ravichandran Ashwin still left out of the team? Why is Ravindra Jadeja being considered a specialist bowler when he's clearly a. not a specialist bowler and b. not a good all-rounder? Why are they dragging around Ashwin without giving a single match to him? Why, is Ashwin Just That Good a twelfth man? Is there a secret art to drinks and glove/pad carrying that he's mastered? Why didn't he suck up to Dhoni enough in the IPL this year? (never fear, Ashwin, the CL is coming up next month; plenty of opportunities)
Why is Rohit Sharma playing? (this question will one day drive to spend the rest of my life in a padded room, I know it)
Has Yuvraj Singh recovered from dengue that quickly? (guess he got the mild version. good for him.)
Why is it that people now compare Randiv to Trevor Chappell?
a. Quite clearly, Randiv's delivery was illegal. Chappell's 'delivery' at the time, was perfectly legal.
b. The New Zealand batsman did the Full Histrionic Flounce, complete with throwing his bat at the ground in disgust. Sehwag just responded with a, "yeeeaah, whatever, it happens," before somebody in the dressing room showed him a video replay and hissed something in his ear.
c. Chappell did it (quite pathetically) to safeguard what was already a very-likely win (he was bowling to the tail, and they needed six off the last ball just to tie! Talk about having no faith in your own bowler). Randiv did it in a completely hopeless cause, and what appears to be a bit of petty playground spite ("waah, if I shall not have my win, he shall not have his century! So there!")
Why is everybody playing this up to be a Big Issue? Why is the Spirit of Cricket being brought in here? There is no Spirit of Cricket. The cake is a lie. Cricket isn't dead, and it isn't a spirit. It's a sport (or so we'd like to believe). A mean, competitive sport. Not one where you have to sit around and talk about life-long psychological scarring just because a dude got a couple of reprimands.
But okay. Let's say it is a big issue. Why wasn't the Almighty Match Referee not involved immediately? Isn't it his job to Safeguard the Spirit of Cricket? (*cue thunder and trumpet music*) Oh, right, because the umpires didn't report to him. What a joke.
Also, along the same lines, why was Dilshan, the player, the senior player with several years of experience in international cricket, given a lesser punishment than poor put-upon psychologically-scarred Randiv for inciting him to bowl the no-ball?
Clearly, the SLC PR dept was intercepted by desperate appeals from the team management. ("but we neeed him! Take Randiv away, it doesn't matter, but we neeeed Dilshan for the next game.")
Also, finally:
Why does Danny Morrison bear a scary resemblance to the dude who's running against Julia Gillard in the Aussie elections right now?
Monday, December 7, 2009
Floundering in hyperbole
... not to mention crashing through stacks of meaningless rhetoric, tangling up in a bunch of sticky metaphors, eventually to fall into a roiling adjective soup, breathless descriptions cloying on my skin and rolling onto my laptop in great lumps... pretty much the kind of situation I find myself in when Virender Sehwag decides to play yet another of those innings.
It is usually prudent to give oneself sometime to regain lost breath, lest one starts giving into that sticky tangle of hilarious exaggeration (the Neandrathal comparsion's my favourite. Somewhere, Charles Darwin is rolling over in his grave... again). There's something about watching Viru Sehwag (and I don't think it an exaggeration when I say that it was indeed a Divine Intervention that the only full day of Test cricket I managed to catch all year was day 2 of the Mumbai Test) play that provokes intense emotion out of you. He nonchalantly spanks all and sundry on his way to 100, 200, 300... and you think, here's an epiphany. Even with the commentators regurgigating their usual staple of "No footwork, it's all exquisite hand-eye co-ordination" you think, you are obligated to say something about this. Because Sehwag sure ain't. It is brilliant, it is brutal, it's a million Thesauri meshed together into a savage beast of Biblical proportions as you search for -- and fail at finding -- words to fit in everything you wanted to say about Sehwag's innings. You are only more intent on celebrating this "simple, yet brilliant" mind when he comes out later with things like "I see ball, I hit ball."
He still says that, now with a smug matter-of-factness, probably amused at how people are fascinated by that statement of his. He probably still means it, but I'd like to believe that a lot of care, a lot of careful thought and construction go into each of his big innings. But even the cynic in me is defeated when he goes, "I was hitting only the bad balls, but in the dressing room they were telling me I was hitting some good balls too", or something to that effect.
In short, Virender Sehwag = all that's awesome about the Indian team right now. When he fires, he really fires; when he fails, it's not in half-measures, either.
And what can I say about Murali Vijay, other than he was really unfortunate to miss out on a well-deserved maiden ton? He looked delightfully assured and competent at the crease, and not for a moment was Gambhir missed. I loved how he kept the tempo up in the beginning as Viru settled at the other end. He is just so much awesome right now I can't even.
And Dhoni got his second century of the series. Wow. When it rains, it pours, huh?
And what a difference the return of Zaheer Khan has made to the team. Even though he didn't really start pulling his weight until toward the end of the series, just his presence, I believe, could rejuvenate our suddenly-floundering pace attack. It might be the most important plus point EVAH.
The Sri Lankans stuck around, and, uh, that's about it, really. There've been renewed murmurings about the presence/absence of the Umpire Decision Review System (or what the hell ever it's called), with Sanga going as far as to say that a couple of bad decisions cost them as much as 500 runs and possibly a victory or two.
Maybe, but the argument is moot when strong protestations against the newfangled thing are sounding with the backing of rock-hard evidence from the Aus v Windies series going on right now.
Either way, it's like stirring an old pile of stale shit, so.
The other big thing going right now is India's supposed ascension to the top of the ICC Test rankings with the 2-0 win against Sri Lanka. Lot of congratulations and chest-beating going on, tempered, of course, by some well-founded cynicism from other quarters of the cricketing fraternity. I agree, India haven't won enough overseas, the no 1 position is very fluid right now and can change hands frequently, India definitely is not the all-conquering champion side that West Indies or Australia once were. Check, check, check. But for now? That little rankings table reads like the way every Indian cricket fan has always dreamt it would read, for the first time ever. It's a nice moment, and the team and its supporters deserve to savour it while it lasts (except, of course, oh noes! The largely-accepted-for-the-past-eight-years ranking system is suddenly all WRONG because INDIA is no 1! Isn't that all kinds of unnatural? I mean, it's okay when the table shows Aus or SA at the top, cos that's how it'a meant to be, but India? Nah. And, oh, the Evil IPL is Evil. Just in case you'd forgotten.)
It kind of reminds me of my travails with Hindi in high school. I used to hate the language, and I believe the feeling was mutual. I scraped through the subject, until I came to my tenth Boards - the last time I'd be writing an exam for that subject. I was a jingling pile of nerves the day of the exam, and, despite being the most pathetic Hindi conversationist even this side of the Vindhyas, and getting my tenses mixed up practically every other paragraph, I passed with the highest distinction in the exam. "Pratham Shreni" says the certificate, still, and my mind still boggles at the sight. And how did I do so well? Pure dumb luck in that a lot of the questions I'd memorised the answers to made their appearance in the question paper, the fact that I was taking a less advanced Hindi course, and a little bit of innate ingenuity on my part at the time of writing the paper. I was surprised, more than a little pleased at seeing the high ranking, but I also knew exactly how much work I needed to actually put into my Hindi. Certainly I could blame the system for assigning qualifications to people who don't exactly deserve them, for the way the language is taught in schools with more emphasis on memorisation and rote than on conversation and free reading, but that's the way things are. Hindi and I have a much better relationship now - I hope - and perhaps one day I'll be deserving of the distinction I was awarded all those years back.
So, at the end of it all, what am I trying to say, you ask?
I have no idea.
Addendum: Only two Tests in the next 6 months??
Ridiculous. Can't wait for the South Africa tour -- in a year's time from now, I think -- already.
It is usually prudent to give oneself sometime to regain lost breath, lest one starts giving into that sticky tangle of hilarious exaggeration (the Neandrathal comparsion's my favourite. Somewhere, Charles Darwin is rolling over in his grave... again). There's something about watching Viru Sehwag (and I don't think it an exaggeration when I say that it was indeed a Divine Intervention that the only full day of Test cricket I managed to catch all year was day 2 of the Mumbai Test) play that provokes intense emotion out of you. He nonchalantly spanks all and sundry on his way to 100, 200, 300... and you think, here's an epiphany. Even with the commentators regurgigating their usual staple of "No footwork, it's all exquisite hand-eye co-ordination" you think, you are obligated to say something about this. Because Sehwag sure ain't. It is brilliant, it is brutal, it's a million Thesauri meshed together into a savage beast of Biblical proportions as you search for -- and fail at finding -- words to fit in everything you wanted to say about Sehwag's innings. You are only more intent on celebrating this "simple, yet brilliant" mind when he comes out later with things like "I see ball, I hit ball."
He still says that, now with a smug matter-of-factness, probably amused at how people are fascinated by that statement of his. He probably still means it, but I'd like to believe that a lot of care, a lot of careful thought and construction go into each of his big innings. But even the cynic in me is defeated when he goes, "I was hitting only the bad balls, but in the dressing room they were telling me I was hitting some good balls too", or something to that effect.
In short, Virender Sehwag = all that's awesome about the Indian team right now. When he fires, he really fires; when he fails, it's not in half-measures, either.
And what can I say about Murali Vijay, other than he was really unfortunate to miss out on a well-deserved maiden ton? He looked delightfully assured and competent at the crease, and not for a moment was Gambhir missed. I loved how he kept the tempo up in the beginning as Viru settled at the other end. He is just so much awesome right now I can't even.
And Dhoni got his second century of the series. Wow. When it rains, it pours, huh?
And what a difference the return of Zaheer Khan has made to the team. Even though he didn't really start pulling his weight until toward the end of the series, just his presence, I believe, could rejuvenate our suddenly-floundering pace attack. It might be the most important plus point EVAH.
The Sri Lankans stuck around, and, uh, that's about it, really. There've been renewed murmurings about the presence/absence of the Umpire Decision Review System (or what the hell ever it's called), with Sanga going as far as to say that a couple of bad decisions cost them as much as 500 runs and possibly a victory or two.
Maybe, but the argument is moot when strong protestations against the newfangled thing are sounding with the backing of rock-hard evidence from the Aus v Windies series going on right now.
Either way, it's like stirring an old pile of stale shit, so.
The other big thing going right now is India's supposed ascension to the top of the ICC Test rankings with the 2-0 win against Sri Lanka. Lot of congratulations and chest-beating going on, tempered, of course, by some well-founded cynicism from other quarters of the cricketing fraternity. I agree, India haven't won enough overseas, the no 1 position is very fluid right now and can change hands frequently, India definitely is not the all-conquering champion side that West Indies or Australia once were. Check, check, check. But for now? That little rankings table reads like the way every Indian cricket fan has always dreamt it would read, for the first time ever. It's a nice moment, and the team and its supporters deserve to savour it while it lasts (except, of course, oh noes! The largely-accepted-for-the-past-eight-years ranking system is suddenly all WRONG because INDIA is no 1! Isn't that all kinds of unnatural? I mean, it's okay when the table shows Aus or SA at the top, cos that's how it'a meant to be, but India? Nah. And, oh, the Evil IPL is Evil. Just in case you'd forgotten.)
It kind of reminds me of my travails with Hindi in high school. I used to hate the language, and I believe the feeling was mutual. I scraped through the subject, until I came to my tenth Boards - the last time I'd be writing an exam for that subject. I was a jingling pile of nerves the day of the exam, and, despite being the most pathetic Hindi conversationist even this side of the Vindhyas, and getting my tenses mixed up practically every other paragraph, I passed with the highest distinction in the exam. "Pratham Shreni" says the certificate, still, and my mind still boggles at the sight. And how did I do so well? Pure dumb luck in that a lot of the questions I'd memorised the answers to made their appearance in the question paper, the fact that I was taking a less advanced Hindi course, and a little bit of innate ingenuity on my part at the time of writing the paper. I was surprised, more than a little pleased at seeing the high ranking, but I also knew exactly how much work I needed to actually put into my Hindi. Certainly I could blame the system for assigning qualifications to people who don't exactly deserve them, for the way the language is taught in schools with more emphasis on memorisation and rote than on conversation and free reading, but that's the way things are. Hindi and I have a much better relationship now - I hope - and perhaps one day I'll be deserving of the distinction I was awarded all those years back.
So, at the end of it all, what am I trying to say, you ask?
I have no idea.
Addendum: Only two Tests in the next 6 months??
Ridiculous. Can't wait for the South Africa tour -- in a year's time from now, I think -- already.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
This is TRAGEDY.
Uhm.
No, it's not New Zealand recovering from a delicious 23/3 to post 351/4 at almost 4 an over at the end of the day.
It's not Jesse Ryder scoring another century.
It's not Mr. Twenty20 (although that might be a slightly unfair nickname) Ross Taylor smashing 151 golden runs.
It's not the Indian bowlers and fielders unable to push on after smashing the New Zealand top-order like a coconut at the stone feet of the Supreme Diety for Early Wickets.
No.
It's Dhoni, injured, being unable to play this game.
This is what I call supremely tragic.
What made it all the more painful was how unexpected it was. Nobody outside the team management had any inkling at all that Dhoni had injured his back. Nosir. Not in the slightest.
So, this morning, I woke at 3, right? Annoyed my fellow hostelites, but assured them I was only going to study (which was partly true, anyway) and flipped open my laptop, coffee brewing on the table. At 3:30, I accessed cricinfo, which informed me brightly: "Dhoni out, NZ elect to bat."
WHAT.
I went on to discover that Dhoni was indeed out of the Test match with a bad back (and he even had to have an MRI taken, good lord) and that Sehwag was captaining in his place, and that his wicketkeeping slot was to be usurped, ahem, I mean, taken care of until his return by Dinesh Kaarthick (whom I still dislike, by the way.)
I gazed at the screen numbly, mouth slightly gaping, sipping every now and then from a mug full of the most tasteless coffee I'd ever had, going down like liquid ashes down my throat. Watched the commentary as Zaks and Ishi made a bright start, prying out McIntosh, How and Guptill in quick succession, and yet I couldn't find it in myself to celebrate. One reason was, of course, the shock, and number two, the real New Zealand batting order started only from number 5 (which is quite a clever ploy actually. Have the opposition preening over getting the 'top order' out quickly while the real batsmen make merry).
Jesse Ryder joined Ross Taylor, after which a succession of big black FOURs started coming up on screen, with no sight of an OUT, so I finally snapped out of my daze and shut my laptop down and got back on with my life.
I'm actually rather ashamed that my attachment to one player can throw me off an entire game, but that's the honest truth. I don't feel like I want to follow this match anymore. It's terrible of me, and really, I don't deserve to call myself a cricket fangirl.
Anyhow, great stuff from the NZers - a wonderful comeback after they'd been written off completely by all and sundry. All those over-the-top articles and speculation about how obvious it is that India is going to steamroller X, Y or Z team makes me queasy because it almost always results in something like this. Still, four days to go, you know? Let's see what happens.
Until then: Dhoni, rest up, get better, COME BACK.
No, it's not New Zealand recovering from a delicious 23/3 to post 351/4 at almost 4 an over at the end of the day.
It's not Jesse Ryder scoring another century.
It's not Mr. Twenty20 (although that might be a slightly unfair nickname) Ross Taylor smashing 151 golden runs.
It's not the Indian bowlers and fielders unable to push on after smashing the New Zealand top-order like a coconut at the stone feet of the Supreme Diety for Early Wickets.
No.
It's Dhoni, injured, being unable to play this game.
This is what I call supremely tragic.
What made it all the more painful was how unexpected it was. Nobody outside the team management had any inkling at all that Dhoni had injured his back. Nosir. Not in the slightest.
So, this morning, I woke at 3, right? Annoyed my fellow hostelites, but assured them I was only going to study (which was partly true, anyway) and flipped open my laptop, coffee brewing on the table. At 3:30, I accessed cricinfo, which informed me brightly: "Dhoni out, NZ elect to bat."
WHAT.
I went on to discover that Dhoni was indeed out of the Test match with a bad back (and he even had to have an MRI taken, good lord) and that Sehwag was captaining in his place, and that his wicketkeeping slot was to be usurped, ahem, I mean, taken care of until his return by Dinesh Kaarthick (whom I still dislike, by the way.)
I gazed at the screen numbly, mouth slightly gaping, sipping every now and then from a mug full of the most tasteless coffee I'd ever had, going down like liquid ashes down my throat. Watched the commentary as Zaks and Ishi made a bright start, prying out McIntosh, How and Guptill in quick succession, and yet I couldn't find it in myself to celebrate. One reason was, of course, the shock, and number two, the real New Zealand batting order started only from number 5 (which is quite a clever ploy actually. Have the opposition preening over getting the 'top order' out quickly while the real batsmen make merry).
Jesse Ryder joined Ross Taylor, after which a succession of big black FOURs started coming up on screen, with no sight of an OUT, so I finally snapped out of my daze and shut my laptop down and got back on with my life.
I'm actually rather ashamed that my attachment to one player can throw me off an entire game, but that's the honest truth. I don't feel like I want to follow this match anymore. It's terrible of me, and really, I don't deserve to call myself a cricket fangirl.
Anyhow, great stuff from the NZers - a wonderful comeback after they'd been written off completely by all and sundry. All those over-the-top articles and speculation about how obvious it is that India is going to steamroller X, Y or Z team makes me queasy because it almost always results in something like this. Still, four days to go, you know? Let's see what happens.
Until then: Dhoni, rest up, get better, COME BACK.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Sweetest form of carnage
Dear Men in Blue,
Congratulations on the series win. Also? This time might actually be one of the few times I've thoroughly enjoyed being proved wrong. Although the Men in White might prove to be a different proposition, so. you know.
And, God help me, I'm getting used to the new colour.
Yours in confused congratulation,
M.
Dear Peter McGlashan,
Forget the Pathans and the Husseys and the McCullums, you and your sister are the coolest pair of siblings in international cricket. 'Nuff said.
Yours in enthusiasm,
M.
Dear Indian bowlers,
Please to be getting your backs into it. At least, you know, in the Tests - where you know, batting's not always going to be around to save the day.
And also, Ishant? Please to be watching where you land that front foot of yours.
Munaf? The pitch is 22 yards. Not 25.
Yours in some concern,
M.
Dear Dhoni,
You know that thing aside from captaincy and batting that you are pencilled into the team for? Yeah, that one. The one that's been steadily deteriorating over the past six months.
Please to be regaining the pretty skills with the gloves. The team can't afford you not to.
Yours in rare admonishment,
M.
Dear Daniel Vettori,
You may be the coolest New Zealander I know (and I know a surprising number of New Zealanders), but the Indian batsmen are now riding a whole new different level of Cool. It might be a whole new world of Cool. A different parallel universe of Cool. An astral plane of...
Now I forgot what I really wanted to say.
Yours in supposed sympathy,
M.
Dear Sehwag,
Please to be continuing with your awesomeness. Anything else I can say only cheapens the joy of watching you tear the opposition attack to pieces, chew them, spit them on the sidewalk and then grind them into the cement with steel-tipped boots for good measure.
Yours in speechless awe,
M.
Dear VirunGauti,
You are not an opening pair anymore, you are a phenomenon. Please to be occuring more often.
Yours in exhilarating anticipation,
M.
Dear Mithali Raj,
To have scored 75* in a team total of 137/7 in a World Cup game - which the team went on to win by 35 runs, by the way - makes you about seven and a half different kinds of awesome. Please to be continuing lifting the India Women's batting.
Yours in deep appreciation,
M.
Dear Person who's managed to read this far,
Thank you for bearing with this drivel.
Yours in deep, deep gratitude,
M.
Here's to an ODI whitewash and a Test series win in Downer Under!
Congratulations on the series win. Also? This time might actually be one of the few times I've thoroughly enjoyed being proved wrong. Although the Men in White might prove to be a different proposition, so. you know.
And, God help me, I'm getting used to the new colour.
Yours in confused congratulation,
M.
Dear Peter McGlashan,
Forget the Pathans and the Husseys and the McCullums, you and your sister are the coolest pair of siblings in international cricket. 'Nuff said.
Yours in enthusiasm,
M.
Dear Indian bowlers,
Please to be getting your backs into it. At least, you know, in the Tests - where you know, batting's not always going to be around to save the day.
And also, Ishant? Please to be watching where you land that front foot of yours.
Munaf? The pitch is 22 yards. Not 25.
Yours in some concern,
M.
Dear Dhoni,
You know that thing aside from captaincy and batting that you are pencilled into the team for? Yeah, that one. The one that's been steadily deteriorating over the past six months.
Please to be regaining the pretty skills with the gloves. The team can't afford you not to.
Yours in rare admonishment,
M.
Dear Daniel Vettori,
You may be the coolest New Zealander I know (and I know a surprising number of New Zealanders), but the Indian batsmen are now riding a whole new different level of Cool. It might be a whole new world of Cool. A different parallel universe of Cool. An astral plane of...
Now I forgot what I really wanted to say.
Yours in supposed sympathy,
M.
Dear Sehwag,
Please to be continuing with your awesomeness. Anything else I can say only cheapens the joy of watching you tear the opposition attack to pieces, chew them, spit them on the sidewalk and then grind them into the cement with steel-tipped boots for good measure.
Yours in speechless awe,
M.
Dear VirunGauti,
You are not an opening pair anymore, you are a phenomenon. Please to be occuring more often.
Yours in exhilarating anticipation,
M.
Dear Mithali Raj,
To have scored 75* in a team total of 137/7 in a World Cup game - which the team went on to win by 35 runs, by the way - makes you about seven and a half different kinds of awesome. Please to be continuing lifting the India Women's batting.
Yours in deep appreciation,
M.
Dear Person who's managed to read this far,
Thank you for bearing with this drivel.
Yours in deep, deep gratitude,
M.
Here's to an ODI whitewash and a Test series win in Downer Under!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
So. Much. Joy.
The buzz, the adrenaline, the expletives, the jumping, the screaming, the restless pacing, the constant assessment of match situations, the rapidfire math going on in the head... people, I just realised how much I missed all of it today. Online commentary and surreptiously checking out mobile phone updates in the middle of class... can't compare. Only thing better is going to the stadium. Of course, it helped that we won today.
And how!
So Dhoni won the toss (yet again - this is getting funny, poor Mahela looked so helplessly frustrated and MS so adorably bemused), elected to bat and I had to laugh at Dhoni's line about checking for superglue on the bails, considering they hardly seemed to move in the previous match. That's right, MS. Keep smiling like a kid in a candy store, you beautiful boy.
The first half hour was Weirdness. Kulasekara bowled a tight opening over and then Dilhara Fernando, (coming off an injury layoff I think, replacing Thilan Thushara) sent down his obligatory no-balls. I might've whooped and laughed at that point, but I think I was too distracted by his ear-stud (mm). Free hit was hit out of the ground by Tendulkar - most unexpected, I nearly fell out of my chair. Didn't score much after that, though - last ball of the over Fernando extracted revenge, and Sachin was out lbw... or was he? Ball was full, hit him low on the pads as he tried and failed to work it to the onside, but surely it looked like it was going down leg? Too much doubt to give? Hawkeye later showed that it was indeed missing leg stump, and by some way too, so this is the third time in as many matches that Tendulkar has been wrongly adjudged lbw early on. Unlucky much? Not really. Incompetence from the umpires? Perhaps.
Gambhir came over and began to bat in this pseudo-aggresive way, trying too much too soon. As it was, he was dropped on 0, and was lbw off a no-ball, and my friend watching the match elsewhere in the city was texting "has something crawled into Gambhir's head and crapped there?" and I was inclined to agree. Finally, just as he looked to be settling down, Gauti was run-out in the most unfortunate manner - a delivery hit straight back by Sehwag brushed Fernando's fingers and crashed into the stumps at the non-striker's end before Gambhir, who was backing up too far, could get back in time. 24/2, and I was huffing. Yuvraj walked in, scratched round a bit - some thick edges falling short of slip - but soon settled in.
Cue for chaos.
The cricketing excellence of the whirlwind 221 run partnership likely has been and will be well-documented by souls better at the stuff than me, so I'm going to talk about the pure joy that partnership caused me. I haven't jumped on a sofa since I was eight, and ten years later, I found myself doing the same, cackling in joyous disbelief as Sehwag and Yuvraj picked up boundaries at will. Maybe it's because I haven't watched live cricket in a long time. Maybe this much awesomeness in one go after such a long lay-off was too much to take. I don't know. But it was a brilliant feeling.
The bowling powerplay (overs 12-16) fetched 40+ runs, and Dhoni surprised me by taking the batting powerplay immediately. The five overs fetched more than 50 runs, though, and it was that period where India really damaged Sri Lanka. It was a good move in retrospect, and served the basic principle behind a batting powerplay - make the most out of two settled batsmen having the time of their lives in the middle, rather than take it late with too much pressure and the fall of wickets. Yuvi and Viru were helped tremendously by bouts of wayward and Wholly Crappy Bowling from the Sri Lankans, of course. Farveez Maharoof started his spell well enough, but later on seemed determined to keep bowling a horrible leg-stump line, which the two batsmen - especially Yuvi - made the most of. Strike rates and bowling economies bloated to unseemly figures, and when all the powerplays were done with at the end of 21 overs, the scoreboard read 167/2, and I proceeded to pick up my dislocated jaw from the floor. None of the SL bowlers seemed determined in bowling to a field, and stuff predictably went downhill for them.
Yuvraj, amazingly, reached his century before Viru - not that Sehwag was too far behind. After the powerplays, the run-rate lessened and the two batsmen went into consolidation mode - that is, if scoring at 7.5 an over instead of 10 an over can be called that. When Yuvraj finally cut Murali to point - fetching him his world-record-equalling 502nd wicket in the process - the partnership had 221 runs in 160-odd balls. Sri Lankan fielding sucked, too - Sehwag was dropped thrice (late into his innings, mind) - by Maharoof, Fernando and Jayasuriya. Gambhir was dropped. Run-out chances were muffed. Just chaos.
Also Mendis later picked up a wicket - that of Raina - but went for more than 7 an over. Has the "Mendis code been cracked" finally? Hard to say without seeing him being played in a Test scenario, but was he walloped today! He bowled a lot of rubbish deliveries as well - come on, buck up, Mendis! But it was beautiful to see how disdainfully Yuvi handled his biggest nemesis - gone from bunny to freakin' Godzilla!
After Sehwag was run-out and Raina was stumped, Yusuf Pathan joined Dhoni in the middle. Dhoni seemed extra-sedate - even played out a freakin' maiden in the 40th - and that disappointed me a bit. Don't get me wrong - I've always been a strong supporter of the 'new' Dhoni, the Dhoni that stabilises the innings, guides the team through middle overs and so on and so forth, but sometimes I yearn to see the Dhoni of old, at least in situations like this. Just to remind everybody that the Dhoni who could tear apart bowling attacks with his trademark helicopter shots, the Dhoni who could hit near-perfect yorkers for six is not buried so deep that he can't show every now and again and thrill like he used to. Luckily, however, we've now got in Yusuf Pathan a man who can come in at seven and biff a few and do the job that used to be pre-captaincy Dhoni's, like he did yesterday, dominating a quickfire 85 run partnership with his captain, scoring a 33-ball 50 in the process. India finished at 363/5, way, way ahead of the previous best totals at the Premadasa.
Obviously if Sri Lanka were to make a fist of things, they had the perfect two men opening - Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillekeratne Dilshan, both of them in good form. Happily for the Indians, however, Jayasuriya was bowled for a golden duck by Praveen Kumar in the second over by a ball that swung in a bit. Forget happy, they were ecstatic. Understandably so. Sangakkara joined Dilshan, and the latter decided to take a leaf out of the Indians' books and began to counterattack. He played some super-shots before becoming too ambitious and was clean-bowled by an accurate Zaheer Khan, leaving SL 51/2. The till-now out-of-form Jayawardene joined Kumara Sangakkara, and started the only session of play that even hinted at threatening the Indians. The bowling powerplay (overs 11-15) fetched close to 40 runs with both Mahela and Kumara playing some scintillating shots. However the runs that came in that Powerplay had more 'good shots' involved rather than 'bad balls'. After 15, SL was 95/2, a very similar position to India at the same stage. So the difference had to be then. India had to bowl better than the Lankans did at the same stage. Mahela decided to ape Dhoni by taking the batting Powerplay (go trendsetter Dhoni! \o/) immediately, but those 5 overs fetched only 26 runs as Praveen and Zaks did an excellent job. Plus, Jayawardene's wicket was taken then, and with him gone, all chances of Lanka running India close were too. Kandamby looked good only to fall to Sehwag. Pragyan Ohja, despite an expensive start, did not lose heart or confidence and finally ended up with 4-38 at the end of his spell - excellent. Sangakkara tried valiantly with an 83, but there wasn't a single moment where it looked like the bright smile was going to disappear from Dhoni's face. Eventually SL was bowled out for 216, and India won by a whopping 147 runs, sealing the series win in the process.
I'm not one for pseudo-psychoanalyses made based on what we see of the players on TV, but even I couldn't deny that there was something infectious about the camaraderie that the players shared on the field. The perennial grin on Sehwag's face, in particular, was contagious and had me grinning like a maniac, with an inexplicably overwhelming love for humanity and everything concerned with it. I love the togetherness of this team, how it is so obvious that they like and support each other, without having to say it in cliche-ridden press conferences.
Uh... sorry for the uber-long ramble, but I enjoyed this game so much, I really did. I probably won't be able to watch another live match after this series gets over for another couple of months at least, so I'm extra glad that the boys made it extra-special so it stays an evergreen memory (because, obviously, the world revolves around me :p ).
Plus, Balaji can bowl in the next couple of one-dayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dances*
And how!
So Dhoni won the toss (yet again - this is getting funny, poor Mahela looked so helplessly frustrated and MS so adorably bemused), elected to bat and I had to laugh at Dhoni's line about checking for superglue on the bails, considering they hardly seemed to move in the previous match. That's right, MS. Keep smiling like a kid in a candy store, you beautiful boy.
The first half hour was Weirdness. Kulasekara bowled a tight opening over and then Dilhara Fernando, (coming off an injury layoff I think, replacing Thilan Thushara) sent down his obligatory no-balls. I might've whooped and laughed at that point, but I think I was too distracted by his ear-stud (mm). Free hit was hit out of the ground by Tendulkar - most unexpected, I nearly fell out of my chair. Didn't score much after that, though - last ball of the over Fernando extracted revenge, and Sachin was out lbw... or was he? Ball was full, hit him low on the pads as he tried and failed to work it to the onside, but surely it looked like it was going down leg? Too much doubt to give? Hawkeye later showed that it was indeed missing leg stump, and by some way too, so this is the third time in as many matches that Tendulkar has been wrongly adjudged lbw early on. Unlucky much? Not really. Incompetence from the umpires? Perhaps.
Gambhir came over and began to bat in this pseudo-aggresive way, trying too much too soon. As it was, he was dropped on 0, and was lbw off a no-ball, and my friend watching the match elsewhere in the city was texting "has something crawled into Gambhir's head and crapped there?" and I was inclined to agree. Finally, just as he looked to be settling down, Gauti was run-out in the most unfortunate manner - a delivery hit straight back by Sehwag brushed Fernando's fingers and crashed into the stumps at the non-striker's end before Gambhir, who was backing up too far, could get back in time. 24/2, and I was huffing. Yuvraj walked in, scratched round a bit - some thick edges falling short of slip - but soon settled in.
Cue for chaos.
The cricketing excellence of the whirlwind 221 run partnership likely has been and will be well-documented by souls better at the stuff than me, so I'm going to talk about the pure joy that partnership caused me. I haven't jumped on a sofa since I was eight, and ten years later, I found myself doing the same, cackling in joyous disbelief as Sehwag and Yuvraj picked up boundaries at will. Maybe it's because I haven't watched live cricket in a long time. Maybe this much awesomeness in one go after such a long lay-off was too much to take. I don't know. But it was a brilliant feeling.
The bowling powerplay (overs 12-16) fetched 40+ runs, and Dhoni surprised me by taking the batting powerplay immediately. The five overs fetched more than 50 runs, though, and it was that period where India really damaged Sri Lanka. It was a good move in retrospect, and served the basic principle behind a batting powerplay - make the most out of two settled batsmen having the time of their lives in the middle, rather than take it late with too much pressure and the fall of wickets. Yuvi and Viru were helped tremendously by bouts of wayward and Wholly Crappy Bowling from the Sri Lankans, of course. Farveez Maharoof started his spell well enough, but later on seemed determined to keep bowling a horrible leg-stump line, which the two batsmen - especially Yuvi - made the most of. Strike rates and bowling economies bloated to unseemly figures, and when all the powerplays were done with at the end of 21 overs, the scoreboard read 167/2, and I proceeded to pick up my dislocated jaw from the floor. None of the SL bowlers seemed determined in bowling to a field, and stuff predictably went downhill for them.
Yuvraj, amazingly, reached his century before Viru - not that Sehwag was too far behind. After the powerplays, the run-rate lessened and the two batsmen went into consolidation mode - that is, if scoring at 7.5 an over instead of 10 an over can be called that. When Yuvraj finally cut Murali to point - fetching him his world-record-equalling 502nd wicket in the process - the partnership had 221 runs in 160-odd balls. Sri Lankan fielding sucked, too - Sehwag was dropped thrice (late into his innings, mind) - by Maharoof, Fernando and Jayasuriya. Gambhir was dropped. Run-out chances were muffed. Just chaos.
Also Mendis later picked up a wicket - that of Raina - but went for more than 7 an over. Has the "Mendis code been cracked" finally? Hard to say without seeing him being played in a Test scenario, but was he walloped today! He bowled a lot of rubbish deliveries as well - come on, buck up, Mendis! But it was beautiful to see how disdainfully Yuvi handled his biggest nemesis - gone from bunny to freakin' Godzilla!
After Sehwag was run-out and Raina was stumped, Yusuf Pathan joined Dhoni in the middle. Dhoni seemed extra-sedate - even played out a freakin' maiden in the 40th - and that disappointed me a bit. Don't get me wrong - I've always been a strong supporter of the 'new' Dhoni, the Dhoni that stabilises the innings, guides the team through middle overs and so on and so forth, but sometimes I yearn to see the Dhoni of old, at least in situations like this. Just to remind everybody that the Dhoni who could tear apart bowling attacks with his trademark helicopter shots, the Dhoni who could hit near-perfect yorkers for six is not buried so deep that he can't show every now and again and thrill like he used to. Luckily, however, we've now got in Yusuf Pathan a man who can come in at seven and biff a few and do the job that used to be pre-captaincy Dhoni's, like he did yesterday, dominating a quickfire 85 run partnership with his captain, scoring a 33-ball 50 in the process. India finished at 363/5, way, way ahead of the previous best totals at the Premadasa.
Obviously if Sri Lanka were to make a fist of things, they had the perfect two men opening - Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillekeratne Dilshan, both of them in good form. Happily for the Indians, however, Jayasuriya was bowled for a golden duck by Praveen Kumar in the second over by a ball that swung in a bit. Forget happy, they were ecstatic. Understandably so. Sangakkara joined Dilshan, and the latter decided to take a leaf out of the Indians' books and began to counterattack. He played some super-shots before becoming too ambitious and was clean-bowled by an accurate Zaheer Khan, leaving SL 51/2. The till-now out-of-form Jayawardene joined Kumara Sangakkara, and started the only session of play that even hinted at threatening the Indians. The bowling powerplay (overs 11-15) fetched close to 40 runs with both Mahela and Kumara playing some scintillating shots. However the runs that came in that Powerplay had more 'good shots' involved rather than 'bad balls'. After 15, SL was 95/2, a very similar position to India at the same stage. So the difference had to be then. India had to bowl better than the Lankans did at the same stage. Mahela decided to ape Dhoni by taking the batting Powerplay (go trendsetter Dhoni! \o/) immediately, but those 5 overs fetched only 26 runs as Praveen and Zaks did an excellent job. Plus, Jayawardene's wicket was taken then, and with him gone, all chances of Lanka running India close were too. Kandamby looked good only to fall to Sehwag. Pragyan Ohja, despite an expensive start, did not lose heart or confidence and finally ended up with 4-38 at the end of his spell - excellent. Sangakkara tried valiantly with an 83, but there wasn't a single moment where it looked like the bright smile was going to disappear from Dhoni's face. Eventually SL was bowled out for 216, and India won by a whopping 147 runs, sealing the series win in the process.
I'm not one for pseudo-psychoanalyses made based on what we see of the players on TV, but even I couldn't deny that there was something infectious about the camaraderie that the players shared on the field. The perennial grin on Sehwag's face, in particular, was contagious and had me grinning like a maniac, with an inexplicably overwhelming love for humanity and everything concerned with it. I love the togetherness of this team, how it is so obvious that they like and support each other, without having to say it in cliche-ridden press conferences.
Uh... sorry for the uber-long ramble, but I enjoyed this game so much, I really did. I probably won't be able to watch another live match after this series gets over for another couple of months at least, so I'm extra glad that the boys made it extra-special so it stays an evergreen memory (because, obviously, the world revolves around me :p ).
Plus, Balaji can bowl in the next couple of one-dayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dances*
Monday, December 15, 2008
Chennai, miracles, and the Team That Can Do Anything
HOKAY. I'm so full of adrenaline I can hear it sloshing around inside. With an Internal Exam of Doom scheduled for tomorrow I thought I'd do this tomorrow night but this can't wait, it can't.
India win, people! By 6 wickets! Tendulkar, 103*! Yuvraj, 85*! Gambhir, 66! Lord Viru, Man of the match! I can barely believe it!
Geez, Gary wasn't kidding when he said he believed that THIS Indian team can do anything.
Abso-freakin-lutely brilliant.
Chennai - and India - deserved no better.
Poor England, though - to lose this comprehensively after dominating vast tracts of the match... tough luck, KP.
And Andrew Strauss... not many times do you score back to back centuries and have your team lose the Test. My heart goes out for him. Briefly.
Dhoni, though? 4 out of 4! Unbelievable stuff.
We did good on the first day, had crappy days 2 and 3, but really, it was Viru who set the chase up. His blitzkreig in the beginning set the pace, got everybody's tails up. And this time, FINALLY, we get a bunch of batsmen who follow up and finish the chase - rather spectacularly.
Dravid ought to retire next Test.
A great Test match, overall. Nice to have some of the awesomeness at last.
India win, people! By 6 wickets! Tendulkar, 103*! Yuvraj, 85*! Gambhir, 66! Lord Viru, Man of the match! I can barely believe it!
Geez, Gary wasn't kidding when he said he believed that THIS Indian team can do anything.
Abso-freakin-lutely brilliant.
Chennai - and India - deserved no better.
Poor England, though - to lose this comprehensively after dominating vast tracts of the match... tough luck, KP.
And Andrew Strauss... not many times do you score back to back centuries and have your team lose the Test. My heart goes out for him. Briefly.
Dhoni, though? 4 out of 4! Unbelievable stuff.
We did good on the first day, had crappy days 2 and 3, but really, it was Viru who set the chase up. His blitzkreig in the beginning set the pace, got everybody's tails up. And this time, FINALLY, we get a bunch of batsmen who follow up and finish the chase - rather spectacularly.
Dravid ought to retire next Test.
A great Test match, overall. Nice to have some of the awesomeness at last.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Of the Unexpected and Hope (and sixes)
Lord Viru hath spoken.
India have a chance of winning this.
131/1 at the end of day 4, Gauti and Rahul at the crease, 256 runs more to get. A much happier position that what I had envisioned.
Why? Because Virender Sehwag came out, saw and freaking conquered for 83 highly entertaining runs in a high-octane 117 run partnership with his favourite partner, nonchalantly spanking all and sundry (so okay, maybe he didn't have quite as much success with Flintoff) to all ends of the park, sparking remarks about whether he wanted to finish the game that session itself. Some really good things last, fantastic things don't - so this innings finished 17 runs of a century, trapped in front by Swann. But who cares about centuries? Sehwag did exactly what he was supposed to and wanted to do - blaze a path for the others to follow. Let's just hope they do.
India in a position where they could possibly push for a win. Who'd've thunk it.
I briefly balked at seeing Dravid at number three, but I'm going to keep aside all reservations and hope that he comes good, and retires after this series on a high.
I would say more, but I'm swamped, and will possibly more eloquent on Tuesday.
India have a chance of winning this.
131/1 at the end of day 4, Gauti and Rahul at the crease, 256 runs more to get. A much happier position that what I had envisioned.
Why? Because Virender Sehwag came out, saw and freaking conquered for 83 highly entertaining runs in a high-octane 117 run partnership with his favourite partner, nonchalantly spanking all and sundry (so okay, maybe he didn't have quite as much success with Flintoff) to all ends of the park, sparking remarks about whether he wanted to finish the game that session itself. Some really good things last, fantastic things don't - so this innings finished 17 runs of a century, trapped in front by Swann. But who cares about centuries? Sehwag did exactly what he was supposed to and wanted to do - blaze a path for the others to follow. Let's just hope they do.
India in a position where they could possibly push for a win. Who'd've thunk it.
I briefly balked at seeing Dravid at number three, but I'm going to keep aside all reservations and hope that he comes good, and retires after this series on a high.
I would say more, but I'm swamped, and will possibly more eloquent on Tuesday.
Newsflash of Epic Doom
Nah, England haven't won. Yet.
India need 387 runs to win. In just about 4 sessions. Or more reasonably England need 10 wickets to win. In just about 4 sessions.
We await Lord Viru's Pronouncement of India's Situation in the Match (that is, if he scores 2 or a 200. Former, we try for a draw ((operative word being 'try')) or we go full blast for a win and more than likely get it).
Also? We're fielding only 10 batsmen (Rahul Dravid? What Rahul Dravid?) so check, check. check. Hm. Yeah. Advantage England.
Geez, I hate 2 match Test series.
India need 387 runs to win. In just about 4 sessions. Or more reasonably England need 10 wickets to win. In just about 4 sessions.
We await Lord Viru's Pronouncement of India's Situation in the Match (that is, if he scores 2 or a 200. Former, we try for a draw ((operative word being 'try')) or we go full blast for a win and more than likely get it).
Also? We're fielding only 10 batsmen (Rahul Dravid? What Rahul Dravid?) so check, check. check. Hm. Yeah. Advantage England.
Geez, I hate 2 match Test series.
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