Celebration of a Spectacular Month's Action
The months of August to October
seemed particularly arduous and bleak for a cricket purist. Right from the
culmination of the Eng-SA test series, the game was swamped in a needless
deluge of slam-bang T-20 tournaments, where cricketers who would never be considered
for test matches were suddenly touted as match winners. The world cup is an
acceptable format but the biannual format is a bit too much – to give it real
credibility, the powers that be should make it a 4 yearly event. What really
got my goat was the ridiculous Champions League. A needless, hare-brained concept, designed only to fill
coffers of the richer boards in the ICC. With a packed international test
schedule coming up for pretty much all countries , I was particularly bemused
to find many so-called esteemed pundits of the game standing on one leg, trying
desperately to diplomatically defend the tournament. You needn’t have been
Einstein to see that even they didn’t really believe in a jot of anything they
themselves said, but as long as their pockets were being suitable lined, the
greater good of the game could go to hell for all they cared. So, you have it
then, at the very start of the season, Australia and South Africa are missing
key personnel, while a lot of India’s T-20 stalwarts are looking battle-worn
and jaded.
That notwithstanding – what an
outstanding advert the month of November has been for the original and (if I
may say so) true format of the game. While the series between SL and NZ and the
WI and Bangladesh has seen some exceptional performances (even as I type this
out, the Kiwis have eked out a historic test victory in SL), the real eye
catching stuff has been happening down under in Oz and in the dust bowls of
India.
2 Tests down in each series...and
boy, have we seen some riveting cricket and performances for the ages. I can
hardly remember any single test batsman in better ball striking form than
Michael Clarke is at this point. Neither Tendulkar, nor Ponting , nor even Lara
at his sublime best has looked as invincible at the crease at Pup does
presently. The duration of this purple patch might last for another year or for
another test, but the sheer pleasure of watching the Aussie skipper stride to
the crease with his team three down for not a lot against the fiery duo of Steyn and Morkel is beyond description. If
Clarke’s performances are the epitome of batsmanship at its absolute zenith,
similar superlatives must be applied to the South African duo of Faf Du Plessis
and the seemingly evergreen ‘Man for All Seasons’ Jaques Kallis. Du Plessis’
astonishing rearguard action at Adelaide in his debut test begs to be reckoned
among the best fighting, back to the wall knocks in recent years. True, the
Aussie attack was a man down and perhaps lacked the necessary punch, yet the concentration
and discipline displayed by the youngster would surely have earned the approval
from the likes of Cowdrey , Boycott and Gavaskar. As for Kallis, what can one say.....hobbling
on one leg to come up with 2 half centuries of supreme class. Bards of yore
would be making ballads of this performance in their days.
Cook and KP : Keystones of the English Arch
What a perfect setting ,then, for
Perth.....2 teams , reeling like boxers in the 12th round , waiting
to land that final knockout punch. The Proteas having played their “get Out of
Jail” card twice in the first 2 tests will be looking to time that decisive
right hook to perfection. Oh! Yes....and its Ricky Ponting’s swansong.....last
innings heroics or failure, team rising up for the legend or distracted by the
enormity of the occasion...limitless
possibilities ! Enjoy!!!
On now to the intriguing
India-England series, tied at 1 apiece after the Mumbai turnaround. I wonder
what odds one would have got for the widely derided English team to pull off a
ten wicket victory after the Ahmedabad debacle. To be honest , the signs were
there in the 2nd innings. Cook has mastered these tracks and is
playing as serenely and confidently as any opposition batsman that I can
remember. The Indian batting , bar Pujara, hasn’t really seemed up to scratch
(if you discount the Sehwag cameo ....the kind of innings he can seemingly pull
off in the middle of a snowstorm) and England were always in with a shot with
Swann and Panesar in the house , if they could get their batting sorted. Cometh, then , the hour and cometh the man !!!
KP !! Could it get any more
romantic.....weeks after the sceptical ‘regintegration’ and days after the
horror show in Motera , which had Poms worldwide calling for his sacking,
Pietersen came up with an inning of rare counterattacking prowess and control,
the like likes of which I can only remember twice in India. Tendulkar’s 160 odd
on a Chennai turner where he repeatedly slog swept Warne’s ‘around the wicket’
fizzers to, and over the boundary and Adam Gilchrist’s whirlwind century at Mumbai
that single handedly swept the first test the Aussie way in 2001. True, the
quality of bowling KP faced was probably a tad inferior to that before either
Sachin or Gilly, but that should not it any way detract from the sheer brazen
skill and bravado on display. More than once I was reminded of Matthew Hayden’s
words in his autobiography about VVS Laxman’s strokeplay in the Kolkata miracle
of 2001 – “Kids , do not try this at home”.
India may still have that little
bit extra to edge out the series but they had better be warned....back in the
2005 Ashes (no matter that they were held in England), the Poms came back after
a drubbing at Lords just with a relentless intensity that caught the Aussies of
guard......back before the beginning of the series, 5-0 predictions had been
made...sound familiar ???
Not much more to write then...but
to be thankful to the glorious test matches cricket for having restored the faith....and
to sit back and enjoy Perth and Kolkata and Nagpur....if the start is any
indication, there is plenty of lip smacking fare on offer.
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