First of all, apologies for the long and sucky title. Not that I
always come up with some catchy and innovative titles; but today,
definitely not.
What happened today at the MCG was quite stinging. So stinging to the point of getting me to blog about it!
Something like this was bound to happen at some point in the match and even though I was totally ready for it; I couldn’t really accept what I was seeing. Look at the scoreboard; Australia won by 122 runs. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO! That’s a huge margin; but wait, India were not THAT bad in this match. Which is where the problem for your average Indian cricket fan starts. If this had happened on the boxing day test of 1999; all our heads would have been high; “we gave them a fight” “we looked into their eye” “we fought our way”.
(Un)fortunately, an Australian tour in 2003 changed all that. A bunch of boys went under the captaincy of an enigmatic leader and silenced the cricketing world. A drawn series against the indomitable Aussies. This changed the average Indian fan’s expectations dynamically. It changed so much that a 1-2 loss in 2007-08 was a disappointment, but it was taken because of the SCG fiasco.
Why did the average Indian fan expect India to win in Australia after the series I want to forget about?
1. (s)he is crazy like that
2. India had some nice bowling talent coming into the frame with Zaheer Khan fast emerging as one of the best in the world.
3. Formidable batting unit
4. Inexperienced Aussie bowling
5. Waning Aussie batting
To be entirely honest, when Clarke won the toss and failed to put India in; I was sure this was either an Indian victory or a draw. I was sure this was the time to shed the “poor starters” tag. Lo and behold; we get a perfect test match for 3 days. No clear winner in sight. One team goes on top; the opponent then pulls the rug violently from under their feet and goes on top.. and this goes on… A great advertisement for test cricket for 3 beautiful days. And then the rug is pulled from under the feet of the average Indian cricket fan; what a fall! One session was all that was needed to let go of all the hard work; to give up all the fight. I will never understand them!
I am not going to go into the details of when happened what, where the match turned or anything of that sort. This is a rant; not a report.
In order to not sound entirely negative, there were a few positives to take in:
1. SRT was at his fluent best in both innings; augers well for the series.
2. Zaheer Khan in menacing form; looks a lot fitter.. Lean and mean if you want it to sound cool.
3. Ishanth Sharma: pacy and fluent.
4. Umesh Yadav: easily the find of the series; raw pace and good lines.
Negatives, apart from the usual I mean:
1. Rahul Dravid’s laboured 68 was not a good sight at all. Add to that a dropped sitter, you start fretting about the best ever hope you have.
2. Laxman needs to find his feet real quick, though he has never been good at the MCG; his away form is starting to creep in some concerns
3. Gambhir; may start feeling the heat if he does not contribute at SCG.
With talks of Harris making a comeback at SCG; it’s a big blow even before India travel to Sydney! There was so much hype about Shaun Tait before the 2008 Perth test; but he got hammered to all parts of the WACA; is this the same India though?
Despite the setback; the average Indian fan continues to hope. Because (s)he is crazy like that!
What happened today at the MCG was quite stinging. So stinging to the point of getting me to blog about it!
Something like this was bound to happen at some point in the match and even though I was totally ready for it; I couldn’t really accept what I was seeing. Look at the scoreboard; Australia won by 122 runs. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO! That’s a huge margin; but wait, India were not THAT bad in this match. Which is where the problem for your average Indian cricket fan starts. If this had happened on the boxing day test of 1999; all our heads would have been high; “we gave them a fight” “we looked into their eye” “we fought our way”.
(Un)fortunately, an Australian tour in 2003 changed all that. A bunch of boys went under the captaincy of an enigmatic leader and silenced the cricketing world. A drawn series against the indomitable Aussies. This changed the average Indian fan’s expectations dynamically. It changed so much that a 1-2 loss in 2007-08 was a disappointment, but it was taken because of the SCG fiasco.
Why did the average Indian fan expect India to win in Australia after the series I want to forget about?
1. (s)he is crazy like that
2. India had some nice bowling talent coming into the frame with Zaheer Khan fast emerging as one of the best in the world.
3. Formidable batting unit
4. Inexperienced Aussie bowling
5. Waning Aussie batting
To be entirely honest, when Clarke won the toss and failed to put India in; I was sure this was either an Indian victory or a draw. I was sure this was the time to shed the “poor starters” tag. Lo and behold; we get a perfect test match for 3 days. No clear winner in sight. One team goes on top; the opponent then pulls the rug violently from under their feet and goes on top.. and this goes on… A great advertisement for test cricket for 3 beautiful days. And then the rug is pulled from under the feet of the average Indian cricket fan; what a fall! One session was all that was needed to let go of all the hard work; to give up all the fight. I will never understand them!
I am not going to go into the details of when happened what, where the match turned or anything of that sort. This is a rant; not a report.
In order to not sound entirely negative, there were a few positives to take in:
1. SRT was at his fluent best in both innings; augers well for the series.
2. Zaheer Khan in menacing form; looks a lot fitter.. Lean and mean if you want it to sound cool.
3. Ishanth Sharma: pacy and fluent.
4. Umesh Yadav: easily the find of the series; raw pace and good lines.
Negatives, apart from the usual I mean:
1. Rahul Dravid’s laboured 68 was not a good sight at all. Add to that a dropped sitter, you start fretting about the best ever hope you have.
2. Laxman needs to find his feet real quick, though he has never been good at the MCG; his away form is starting to creep in some concerns
3. Gambhir; may start feeling the heat if he does not contribute at SCG.
With talks of Harris making a comeback at SCG; it’s a big blow even before India travel to Sydney! There was so much hype about Shaun Tait before the 2008 Perth test; but he got hammered to all parts of the WACA; is this the same India though?
Despite the setback; the average Indian fan continues to hope. Because (s)he is crazy like that!
