India pulled off a spectacular win to maintain their #1 ICC Test team rankings. The match is by far one of the best test performances by India and will remain etched in my memory forever. I will rate this one very close to Kolkata 2001 because on both the occasions, coming into the match, India was trailing in the series and things never looked hunky dory. However, in this match the momentum shifted to India on the first day in contrast to Kolkata 2001 when nobody thought India could win until India won. But I would say that this one was a complete team effort and hence better than Kolkata 2001 on that front. While Bhajji, Dravid and VVS Laxman were the heroes of that epic, almost everyone contributed to this winning cause.
S.Africa thrashed India in Nagpur and everyone (including me) started to doubt if we are indeed the #1 team in Test cricket. Agreed that we did miss our key test match players in Dravid and Laxman but then are we dependent on them to win or save matches all the time? The answer, I am afraid, is yes. What difference can VVS make to the team was evident in the results of the two matches. You do not realise the importance of something until it is missing and that is exactly the case of VVS Laxman. He plays only Test matches which are as infrequent as me going to India (:() and hence he is not someone with whom any cricket fan would associate much importance. But he showed us that he is not the King of Eden for nothing.
Bhajji was off-color for quiet sometime now and just when critics were baying for his blood he put a really inspiring and match-winning effort. It was really good to see him take wickets and as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, if ever I have fallen in love with the art of spin bowling, it is because of Bhajji. Amit Mishra also bowled with a lot of purpose and guile and three wickets in second innings which include Kallis, Smith and De Villiers is not a joke by any means (I still wish Murali Karthik was playing, though). Ishant Sharma also did reasonably well given the kind of form he is in and it was good to see Dhoni praising him in post match conference. I mean these are the principles of effective team building. Everyone was praising Ishant when we was making Ponting hop in the crease but nobody would do that when the chips are down. This is what Dada was master at and this is the reason why Bhajji and Yuvi and Sehwag attribute their success to him. India definitely missed the services of Zaheer Khan in the second innings and the match may have finished earlier if he was there but it was not to be.
The batting clicked big time in this match. Before the match started, I was expecting centuries from Gambhir, Sehwag and Sachin for India to make a statement. Even though Gambhir failed, Laxman and Dhoni had a wonderful stand between them before Sachin and Sehwag (Guru/Chela) hit centuries, to take India to their highest total against SA. Well, the difference between Nagpur and Kolkata is again evident. In Nagpur during the first innings, Sehwag was batting with Badrinath when they had a decent stand. However in this essay, Sehwag was batting with Sachin. Definitely that helped both of them to prosper together and pushed India to a huge score. Another thing on display was the quality of Indian bench strength. The likes of Badri and Murali are not in the same league as any of the current players and this is a matter of concern. Some four weeks back, Harsha Bhogle wrote that the future of Indian batting looks promising but I doubt if that is the case. This was a good experience for both, Murali and Badrinath and they should look to learn from their mistakes if they want to don the mantle of Indian batting in the future.
If the fragility of Indian batting in the absence of Rahul Dravid and Vangipurrapu Venkata Sai Laxman (:)) was exposed in the Nagpur test, it was the complete failure of SA’s middle order which could be singled out as their reason for this defeat. As I can see, SA would be making more changes to their test squad than India at some stage (the likes of Prince and Duminy would find it hard to come back, I guess). If it was not for Dabur Amla’s centuries in each of the innings that he played, I wonder how would have things looked for SA.
Lastly something about India’s 12th man, the crowd@Eden Gardens. The atmosphere at Eden Gardens is simply unique and the way crowd erupted when Bhajji took two wickets of two consecutive deliveries on Day1 was an ample exhibition of the crowd’s presence and their say in the proceedings. It is always great to play matches at such venues and I wish India play more often at Eden and win even more often.
Finally, I would conclude that the way India came back when everything looked lost; only champions can do that. So uncork the bubbly and celebrate, India is the #1 Test Team as per ICC rankings.
S.Africa thrashed India in Nagpur and everyone (including me) started to doubt if we are indeed the #1 team in Test cricket. Agreed that we did miss our key test match players in Dravid and Laxman but then are we dependent on them to win or save matches all the time? The answer, I am afraid, is yes. What difference can VVS make to the team was evident in the results of the two matches. You do not realise the importance of something until it is missing and that is exactly the case of VVS Laxman. He plays only Test matches which are as infrequent as me going to India (:() and hence he is not someone with whom any cricket fan would associate much importance. But he showed us that he is not the King of Eden for nothing.
Bhajji was off-color for quiet sometime now and just when critics were baying for his blood he put a really inspiring and match-winning effort. It was really good to see him take wickets and as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, if ever I have fallen in love with the art of spin bowling, it is because of Bhajji. Amit Mishra also bowled with a lot of purpose and guile and three wickets in second innings which include Kallis, Smith and De Villiers is not a joke by any means (I still wish Murali Karthik was playing, though). Ishant Sharma also did reasonably well given the kind of form he is in and it was good to see Dhoni praising him in post match conference. I mean these are the principles of effective team building. Everyone was praising Ishant when we was making Ponting hop in the crease but nobody would do that when the chips are down. This is what Dada was master at and this is the reason why Bhajji and Yuvi and Sehwag attribute their success to him. India definitely missed the services of Zaheer Khan in the second innings and the match may have finished earlier if he was there but it was not to be.
The batting clicked big time in this match. Before the match started, I was expecting centuries from Gambhir, Sehwag and Sachin for India to make a statement. Even though Gambhir failed, Laxman and Dhoni had a wonderful stand between them before Sachin and Sehwag (Guru/Chela) hit centuries, to take India to their highest total against SA. Well, the difference between Nagpur and Kolkata is again evident. In Nagpur during the first innings, Sehwag was batting with Badrinath when they had a decent stand. However in this essay, Sehwag was batting with Sachin. Definitely that helped both of them to prosper together and pushed India to a huge score. Another thing on display was the quality of Indian bench strength. The likes of Badri and Murali are not in the same league as any of the current players and this is a matter of concern. Some four weeks back, Harsha Bhogle wrote that the future of Indian batting looks promising but I doubt if that is the case. This was a good experience for both, Murali and Badrinath and they should look to learn from their mistakes if they want to don the mantle of Indian batting in the future.
If the fragility of Indian batting in the absence of Rahul Dravid and Vangipurrapu Venkata Sai Laxman (:)) was exposed in the Nagpur test, it was the complete failure of SA’s middle order which could be singled out as their reason for this defeat. As I can see, SA would be making more changes to their test squad than India at some stage (the likes of Prince and Duminy would find it hard to come back, I guess). If it was not for Dabur Amla’s centuries in each of the innings that he played, I wonder how would have things looked for SA.
Lastly something about India’s 12th man, the crowd@Eden Gardens. The atmosphere at Eden Gardens is simply unique and the way crowd erupted when Bhajji took two wickets of two consecutive deliveries on Day1 was an ample exhibition of the crowd’s presence and their say in the proceedings. It is always great to play matches at such venues and I wish India play more often at Eden and win even more often.
Finally, I would conclude that the way India came back when everything looked lost; only champions can do that. So uncork the bubbly and celebrate, India is the #1 Test Team as per ICC rankings.
[Score card @http://tinyurl.com/ycmbbs4]
