Thursday, April 06, 2006

For the record, Indeed !

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye One and All, Especially YOU, Bartman, O ye of little faith!

Indian Cricket is alive. Indian Cricket is alive and well, praise be halleleujah, ever since our Australian Angel St. Chappeli got rid of that spawn of Satan Sourav, praise be sweet Jesus, Glory Be, put your hands together and REJOICE.

For the record, we just broke a world record. 15 continuous wins chasing a total. What's the big deal about that you might ask. I'll tell you. Firstly, they broke a record set by the West Indies between 1984-85 and 1986-87. Most of the lads in the team had just been born. That's how big a deal it is. That's 15 straight innings that our lads have held it together. When you realise that our top order is as fragile as, let us say, my bank balance, it IS a whole big deal.

What makes all this so special is the fact that it's the young guns who made it possible. Freddie & Co came to India and during the tests figured out a way to stop Sri Sehwag from firing. Keep it short, get it to rise at his throat and lo and behold, the Butcher of Najjafgarh is now the Bacha of Najjafgarh. I can so imagine quick bowlers around the world rubbing their hands in glee waiting to test this theory out. This has so dented his confidence that Sri Sehwag is hopping around like a cat on a hot tin roof, getting dismissed this time by a bowler called Blackwell, who at best, is a trundler. Captain Courageous and his trusty sidekick Private Pathan have more than staunched worries up the order, its when they get out, bringing our other batting superstar Kaif-gaaru to the wicket that we realise we're in the middle of a batting collapse.

It's past this that the team has really shown its testicular fortitude by digging in and making sure we win. 15 times now. Yuvraj, in my opinion, the next best left-hander in the world after Brian Lara has been a revelation. Since the first ODI against Pakistan he has walked to the wicket and scored fast, scored elegantly and most importantly, stuck around till the very end on most occasions. Suresh Raina comes in next, immensely talented and quite easily the next superstar. I imagine all the advertising agencies who have just about started counting their crores post a Dhoni sign-up are adding on a couple of more zeroes to their contracts. I shan't even waste time talking about Dhoni's place in this middle order. He not only marches to a different tune, I suspect he marches to his own drummer and on his very own parade ground as well. His flat-bat-swatted six at the Goa ODI is the most incredible shot I have ever seen and I know I've seen a lot of incredible shots. I can't wait to see him bat in Australia against the Aussie quicks. God knows where those mis-hits will land.

That done, this post cannot be complete without a mention of Captain Courageous. Whether it's keeping wickets or walking out to open the innings against Akhtar in a test match in Pakistan as the Blink Blink Bong wouldn't, he's led from the front and has always been THE team man. Bartman smirked at me since the Skip was resting himself for the next 2 ODI's, I told Bart the Skip was being his selfless self again. Taking one for the tream. How else will Sehwag remain in the team eh? You can't possibly drop the Stand-In Skipper, can you?

Three more matches. I just hope the Indian Thunk-Tank (read Kiran More and his band of merry-men) for once realise the magnitude of having to play three matches, lose them all and still win the series. The best chance to give all the youngsters in the team a go. For all 3 games. Imagine what that will do to their confidence. No RD, No Kaif, No Pathan, No Harbhajan .... Yes Robin Uthapa, Yes Venugopal Rao, Yes Munaaf Patel, Yes VRV Singh. Will be such a blast!

That said, Ciao my lovelies. More later.

The Riggster

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like I said, Riggs, it takes 4 games against a despirited, second-rung English side for the likes of you to forget the grand shennanigans of the Captain and his boys just prior to the ODI series. 100 all out, for instance. Let's see how long this lasts,eh?

10:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Emotions now riding a crest
Riggah awaits display best
Methinks Indian fans be fickle
The players more so,talent a trickle
Will wait and watch like the rest.

11:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man that wasnt a blat batted six that was the cricketers version of the Vishnu Chakra - play that fram by frame and i swear you will see a full circle inscribed by da bat :)
Are these boys scripting Endulkar? I don't know but for sure they are showing India Inc that there be other idols too

6:55 AM  

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