God and The Great Escape!
When I was younger I watched Charles Bronson and associates (a veritable Hollywood's Who's Who - Steve McQueen, James Garner, ol' Dicky Attenborough, James Coburn etc), all prisoners of war, dig themselves a nice ol' tunnel and escape from Za Jhuhmans. This film 'The Great Escape' came out in 1963 and is said to be a Hollywood Classic War Film.
So much for Hollywood.
43 years hence I watched the same theme played out on a slightly wet and damp cricket ground in the Carib. The St. Lucia test was absorbing, considering that from the very first over of the game, it was team India all the way.
Viru Sehwag, sporting a Yul Bryner hair-don't, took the game away from the Windians within the first few minutes of the Test. A post-lunch 99 only got better after his obvious hearty meal and he went for a 190 ball 180. My main man, the Skipper, the one and only, his Gritty Wall-liness Dravid-ji hung about to score a super-duper 140 odd, his innings cut short by a shot hes's liable to play again only after he retires from test cricket, to a ball that will only be bowled again, after he passes on to the great mid-wicket in the sky. Sarwan, who bowled the said beauty, was last seen sending the video clip of the dismissal to the 'World's Funniest videos'. If two big hundreds were not enough, Kaif decided to get into the act and post his first test hundred, the first of many, one hopes. He is a player who knows his limitations and plays well within himself and it was good to see him get a long bat. The Windian Bashing continued for a bit and India piled up a big almost 600 run total.
The Windian batting commenced and soon did nothing but to emphasise how straight the Indians bowled, Ganga-Lara-Sarwan-Chanderpaul all falling leg-before and the other batsmen all getting small starts and falling to the new Indian Spin Twins, Kumble and Viru Sehwag. Before we knew it, the Windians were batting again and Gayle, edged a little beauty from Pathan to Dhoni behind the stumps. The Windians on the mat and entered God (Refer title of post). Lara came in at One drop and was almost as quickly on his way back, his inner edge from Pathan missing the stumps by the proverbial whisker. The Windians then went on to end the day with no more heart attacks and then, sneakily, hired assorted voodo daddies and rain gods to ensure no play happened on Day4.
Day 5 began with much excitement, Kumble getting rid Ganga with a wrong 'un and Patel compounding Sarwan's misery. Chanders and God then decided to drop anchor and did so, for a good part of the day. India's close in catching left much to be desired, the lads need to learn to dive forwards, not sideways when pickin up catches on spinners, Lara and Chanders both survived, and helped the Windians to another draw. God scored his 32nd Test hundred, which was certainly not one of his best but it helped save the Test and thats what matters.
All in all, a good game, even an hour on Day 4 would have helped the Indians win this one. One cannot find fault in an Indian team playing an away test, piling up 600 runs in double quick time and then almost bowling out the opposition twice in under two and half days. Just hope our run of luck changes for the final test which I'm sure will be a rocker.
Riggy
So much for Hollywood.
43 years hence I watched the same theme played out on a slightly wet and damp cricket ground in the Carib. The St. Lucia test was absorbing, considering that from the very first over of the game, it was team India all the way.
Viru Sehwag, sporting a Yul Bryner hair-don't, took the game away from the Windians within the first few minutes of the Test. A post-lunch 99 only got better after his obvious hearty meal and he went for a 190 ball 180. My main man, the Skipper, the one and only, his Gritty Wall-liness Dravid-ji hung about to score a super-duper 140 odd, his innings cut short by a shot hes's liable to play again only after he retires from test cricket, to a ball that will only be bowled again, after he passes on to the great mid-wicket in the sky. Sarwan, who bowled the said beauty, was last seen sending the video clip of the dismissal to the 'World's Funniest videos'. If two big hundreds were not enough, Kaif decided to get into the act and post his first test hundred, the first of many, one hopes. He is a player who knows his limitations and plays well within himself and it was good to see him get a long bat. The Windian Bashing continued for a bit and India piled up a big almost 600 run total.
The Windian batting commenced and soon did nothing but to emphasise how straight the Indians bowled, Ganga-Lara-Sarwan-Chanderpaul all falling leg-before and the other batsmen all getting small starts and falling to the new Indian Spin Twins, Kumble and Viru Sehwag. Before we knew it, the Windians were batting again and Gayle, edged a little beauty from Pathan to Dhoni behind the stumps. The Windians on the mat and entered God (Refer title of post). Lara came in at One drop and was almost as quickly on his way back, his inner edge from Pathan missing the stumps by the proverbial whisker. The Windians then went on to end the day with no more heart attacks and then, sneakily, hired assorted voodo daddies and rain gods to ensure no play happened on Day4.
Day 5 began with much excitement, Kumble getting rid Ganga with a wrong 'un and Patel compounding Sarwan's misery. Chanders and God then decided to drop anchor and did so, for a good part of the day. India's close in catching left much to be desired, the lads need to learn to dive forwards, not sideways when pickin up catches on spinners, Lara and Chanders both survived, and helped the Windians to another draw. God scored his 32nd Test hundred, which was certainly not one of his best but it helped save the Test and thats what matters.
All in all, a good game, even an hour on Day 4 would have helped the Indians win this one. One cannot find fault in an Indian team playing an away test, piling up 600 runs in double quick time and then almost bowling out the opposition twice in under two and half days. Just hope our run of luck changes for the final test which I'm sure will be a rocker.
Riggy
posted by Sweta Jagirdar at 1:44 PM
4 Comments:
Due to some odd theory, teams end up playing four tests and six one days. Small correction, there are two more tests left in the series and yes I hope for Indians to be lucky.
There is an amazing statistic about Lara scoring some ungodly 73% of his runs in winning scenarios. In Tendulkar's case, it exactly the reverse though no factual data supports it entirely.
And, thank you for your comments.
Duh that'll teach me not to update blogs when I'm half asleep!
Into the "Coolah". Wotta flick that was.
I am not kidding you, how can the sun be beating down on Day 3 so much so it was making them dizzy and clear skies on Day 5 but Day 4 goes without a ball being bowled? Dang our luck man.
Do you recall the debut test of Franklyn Rose where he took six wickets of Indians when all we had to get was 120 odd runs. I think Laxman was the only one who got double figures.
Our luck in WI seems to be dreadful which bring us to the point will it be the same during WC' 07?
Funny yu shud talk abt that Test, Hipps.
I recall watching it and seeing Dodda Ganesh (remember him) bowl an absolute snorter to Sherwun Campbell and get him caught behind. I knew at that moment that we would NEVER win that test, no matter how little we had to chase.
I wagered against an Indian win. A pal told me he would shave his head completely if we couldn't get to 120. We were 4 down for 30 something when I called him and reminded him of a forthcoming barber's appointment.
Lets see what the rest of this series holds.
Post a Comment
<< Home