Hit Wicket!

My father had asked me to drop the idea of watching matches that went late into the night, his primary concern being my attendance to school the next day. I predictably discarded the advice and reckoned I’d rather bunk school the next day if need be, than miss the Men who shouldered a billion hopes, in action. I’m sure you would’ve been told by your grandparents and parents alike that heeding their advice will often, if not always, fetch the best results. Alas, I had to accept that reality later.

In fact, I even had the zeal to send SMSes to my friends in the middle of the night, making them leap out of their stupor and get glued to their TV screens. I had to shoulder the blame for doing that, though!

Well, in hindsight, my deeds might seem inane, but I’m sure you’d agree that our heroes were the ‘hot favourites’ of the tournament, until they ran into an inspired group of pink-clad dudes, who pragmatically relished thwarting us. Looking at the itinerary of the Super Eight matches, you shouldn’t be blamed if you assumed India would beat the Windies and the English and most probably, even South Africa, and stroll into the last four with utmost ease. Even I had resigned myself to that theory. So had 9 Indian news channels and countless ‘experts’. I watched the game versus the West Indies, in an extremely disinterested manner, doing so just to ‘stand by the team’. But when we were 60-odd for 3 at the halfway mark, I knew trouble was brewing (that was when my mobile phone was most active). Fine…we lost, thanks to a comprehensive all round performance from an extraordinarily talented, underrated all rounder.

Thus, we found ourselves in yet another do-or-die situation in a major ICC tournament. I know that was the case in the previous edition of the tournament as well, and frankly, I didn’t expect them to get past that bridge either. The irony of the situation was remarkable. We had to beat the same two teams we had beaten in the previous edition of the tournament, back-to-back to push for a semifinal berth. The co-incidence didn’t help the team either. The Great Indian Media, which had indulged in many eye-brow raising acrobatics throughout the tournament, latched onto this wondrous phenomenon to rope in their astute ‘panelists’ to say, “Well, they beat them last time…there’s no reason why they can’t do it again. In fact, I’d be surprised if they don’t do it again.” The pressure was going to get to them anyway, as it did on countless paramount occasions in the past, in the 2007 50-over World Cup for example (I never imagined 5 years ago that I’d ever have to elucidate about a cricket World Cup, even in a passing reference!)

I, for one, believed we could hammer England even on a bad day. The ambiguity only lay on the result of the South African game. MSD tried way too many things in a must win game. Adhering to old clichés might very well have been the right way to have gone about the job. His ‘fearless’ moves might have come off in the last World Cup but at some point or the other, the cricketing brain is to be valued as well. Giving RP Singh only 3 overs even after he went for just 13 runs and scalped 2 wickets, dropping in-form Pragyan Ojha for the crunch game…and the decision that sealed the fate of the game, sending Ravindra Jadeja in at number four, were sadly decisions that transcended the realm of comprehension and sense. I am not ashamed to admit that I didn’t bother staying up for the dead rubber versus South Africa. I was certain we would lose it anyway. A glimmer of hope was provided by the deeds of Ravindra Jadeja’s fingers, but our batting chose to be consistently inconsistent, even in a worthless game.

Press Conferences after an annihilating defeat of this magnitude, particularly with the Indian Cricket Team as the unfortunate victim, are near-impossible to handle. The vitriolic ‘questions’ (you might assume I’m gratifying the media) would have given MSD a lot more trouble than even Mendis’ googlies. Poor Gary Kirsten however, succumbed, turning his vehicle at such a rapid velocity and with such radical torque that it stimulated snarls from viewers across the world. And…his word became the favourite of sports shows on ALL news channels (I watched all of them…and I assure you it did spark off quite some reaction). ‘F-A-T-I-G-U-E’ and the IPL were the latest excuses for the Great Indian Debacle number Umpteen. Mr. Kirsten, was however conveniently or inconveniently forgetting that almost ALL the players of the world, save for the Australians (who’d been knocked out in the first round…if you remember that) and the Pakistanis, had participated in the IPL with no such qualms at all. Some teams didn’t hide their praise for the billion dollar event, when they stated it was the best possible practice for the ICC World T20. If the astute southpaw was alluding to the amount of cricket India had been playing over the last 12-15 months, then he is probably oblivious of the fact that 3 other test playing, quality cricket nations had played more cricket than India in that time period. However, the remark from Kirsten flummoxes me. He has built up a reputation over the last few months as a no-nonsense coach and as one who spoke the gospel truth. But this view of his did seem inept even for a few former Indian players (Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly included).

As for those in the media who thought the Dhoni-Sehwag ‘rift’ (which was fictitious in the first place) was the reason for India’s non show, let’s not forget that Shoaib Akthar smashed Mohammad Asif’s thigh with a wooden cricket bat before the ICC World T20 2007 and Pakistan very nearly went on to lift the trophy!