Never was so much owed by so many to so few

These words of Churchill describes perfectly how much of India's victory,enormous though it was depended on the two openers. Sehwag of course went there and as he said after the match enjoyed it but Gambhir was part of the partnership on which the Indian team built its attack.

There have been many instances when a lone ranger stands amongst the ruins like Laxman at Sydney on the tour of Australia in 2000.But when we think of great indian wins there have been two of record breaking levels. In 1976, at Port of spain Gavaskar and Viswanath both scored centuries and in Kolkata in 2001, Dravid played a stellar role with Laxman.And in 1976 there was that longish 85 from Mohinder Amarnath and in 2001 there was Harbhajan and his wonderful bowling.

This time at Galle Indian bowling demonstrated a good team work with Harbhajan in the lead role and Sharma and Kumble and even Zaheer havingtheir moments but except Gambhir nobody even looked to be playing in the same match as Sehwag.

This series is now wide open.India has won without its famous batsmen scoring big.There is that stirring example from 1981 when a hopelessly out of form vishwanath walking in after India had lost two quick wickets batted as if from memory and scored a century in the first innings.Gavaskar and Chauhan batted well in the second innings and with a fine bowling performnace from Kapil, india managed to bowl out Australia for 83.And India never lost a test in which Vishwanath scored a century.

Some of our legends can irrespective of their form bring forth a sublime innings and put India in the right frame for the final battle against Australia with most of India's alltime best team still in action.

The Heir apparent

This is no pretender. His bat answers the critics and the doubting Thomases.He was looked at by many to succeed Ganguly.Things did not turn that way but there is no reason that Virender Sehwag who has been as crucial to India's test match wins this century just like Anil Kumble was in the last decade of the previous century should not be Kumble's successor.The great troika of Tendulkar,Ganguly and Dravid will no doubt resurrect themselves but for some time now it is clear that Sehwag and Laxman need reinforcements.
Reinforcements or not Sehwag has become to Indian cricket what gavaskar was in the seventies and eighties.He carries the Indian batting on his shoulders.His one day form should not mislead us. He is right up there with Gavaskar and Tendulkar in the pantheon of test batsmen, averages notwithstanding. I hope dravid in the next two or three years proves me wrong by breaking into the league.
The market value of MSD will take a beating no doubt as Sehwag is a twenty overs specialist too and India should develop Parthiv patel in the A B De Villiers mode as a specialist test wicket keeper who can open and bat lower down.However in ODIs Sehwag would remain sporadically successful as the game does not challenge as much as the other two versions.A career with Dehi and India in whites and Delhi Dare Devils in coloured clothes will suit him just fine. ,

Chetan Bhagat's three Mistakes

Chetan Bhagat gets his plot for The Three Mistakes of my Life from an e mail he receives from an Ahmedabad businessman who is trying to commit suicide even as he is typing out his suicide note to the author. This is the author’s third novel and like his previous novels stays close to E M Forster’s basic prescription for a novel : “ Yes-Oh dear yes-the novel tells a story.” The story told by The three Mistakes is a first person narration by Govind, the sender of the e mail that brought the author from Singapore to Ahmedabad to find out the reason for his attempted suicide.

The novel is a record of events that occurred in little over two years as math tutor Govind and his two friends, the local pol cricketer Ish and Omi ,the son of the temple priest go about setting their business. There are three historical strands around which the story is woven: emerging of Indian cricket in the 21st century, the Gujarat earthquake of 2001 and the post Godhra riots of 2002. While the storyline develops in a manner that would keep the reader riveted, the treatment of what is the central point of the narrative is shallow and simplistic.

The Gujarat riot is used as the finale. The novel has a character Bittu Mama, Omi’s uncle who is trying to find his feet as an up and coming politician of the ruling party in Gujarat. There is Parekhji, the Mercedes using patron of the socio cultural initiative to address the Hindu angst and the Kar seva in Ayodhya and the returning sewaks are central to the narrative. Still the characters at the centre of it all are too detached to notice what they are getting into. And when they are faced with making a choice the main reason is that the boy will play cricket for the country.

It is therefore to cricket that we must pay a closer attention as the book presents it as an alternative religion as it were. Unlike academic writings on cricket, this book deals with it through a sub plot of an avid cricket fan who once played for his municipal school and is a local hero amongst the children and has discovered a gifted child Ali who can hit sixes at will. To build upon this, the narrative takes us through several matches quite closely. However it is quite evident that not only Govind but also Chetan Bhagat is not quite a cricket buff. While Govind has a business built around the sport, Bhagat builds a novel around it .But both of them get the facts of the Eden Gardens Test match horribly mixed up. Harbhajan’s hat trick was in the first innings and not the second and apparently Bhagat has not heard of S S Das who opened with Ramesh. Editing and research could have been better.

The book ends like other of Bhagat’s books with a contrived happy ending and there is a love story thrown in for good measure. Both cricket and communal riot get only a superficial treatment in the book. Where Bhagat excels is in portrayal of the lower middle class Ahmedabad “Pol” which comes alive in the pages of the book. This for Bhagat, the writer is forward movement as both the IIT and the call centre were mere back drops in his previous novels. Here the pol is a real community going about its routine humdrum existence while at the same time having numerous plots and sub plots building up.

The three mistakes by the author then are his not following cricket,simplyfying communal strife and not building on the alternate cultural force in a convincing manner as at the end even govind wasn't convinced.

CB Series in perspective

India has done well in the CB Series 2007-08. This column was not so optimistic when last visiting this topic. Therefore dressed in sack clothes and smeared in ashes and tongue firmly in cheek we would like to remind the Indian team about the aftermath of the CB Series victory for the winner of last year ever since.
England won the series 2-0 and almost as dramatically. They struggled in the initial part but qualified over New Zealand for the finals. Their victory was some kind of solace after a five nil Ashes drubbing. Since then, England has had a mediocre World Cup, lost to the West Indies and India at home and New Zealand away. Their one and only victory was in the away series in Sri Lanka late last year.
Therefore while we must celebrate a well achieved victory, we must not get carried away.

Rengineering Race

In an article "Wake up and smell the prejudice "published on cricinfo website, soumya Bhattacharjee writes that"In the wake of Monkeygate, Indians must confront the ugly fact that they are racist - unconsciously or otherwise". It transpires that the writer happened to be dark complexioned and is carrying the hurt from childhood when others referred to him as moila.
It is true that in India colour prejudice works but so does prejudice against the bald , they are called takla, which is hardly a complimentary or an endearing term. And there are many other groups. In Bihar the bus conductors refer to women as sawari if they are traditionally dressed and lady if they are slightly urbane looking.
It is therefore surprising the writer take Indian unconscious reaction as racist. they are anythingbut racist.they may have called the West Indies players kaloo but they also called the English players Gora.Now which of the two response is racist? If we go by what the writer wants us to believe Gora is complimentary. I think both are neutral words and mean no more than what they signify.In our country where every one with legal literacy has a PIL ready, the advertisement for fairness cream is not taken to court.It fulfils a need.If in a team which has players of different race, caste , colour and religion without realising their difference, it means we are race neutral.This is what angers the politically correct brigade.Why do Indians not recognise race and go paranoid about race relations? If they have no race talk them into believing. Those making monkey faces in baroda were creating nuisance against a player who they thought was arrogant.It must be viewed in the light of public show of hate that we experience often and what Arun shourie called our national pastime, "abuse".

Absent Thee Felicity Awhile

The one off twenty 20 may be a one off low key performance or it may be a sign of the malaise of blow hot blow cold performance of the indian team. Dhoni in his arrogance said they would be treating this as practice.This in a situation when most of the glory these players have been basking in are in this form of the game.

A well Fought Draw

The draw was mde possible by a very composed knock played by Sehwag. Australia have won the series.If only....A good series nevertheless.there are two exciting testseries coming up this year. If India builds on the positives from this series we can have a making of a successful challenger for Australia.

An Old Fashioned Test Shaping Up

The Adelaide test is shaping up the old fashioned way. Runs are being accumulated by the tail after the team's best batsman did well and the wicket is slowing down and Australia will have to play good cricket over the next few days to stop australia from winning their second consecutive win at Adelaide. Everyone has not scored.Why was Karthik not selected for the test. I hope Sehwag rediscovers his batting form and take over from Kumble whenever he quits.making Dhoni a captain will queer the pitch for the ever improving patel and Karthik.

A Vindication

This blog's faith in the Indian team proved prophetic. The end result have confirmed that we were on stronger wicket on account of Sehwag and the medium pacers and their ability to swing.It is great when a result like this happens. Adelaide will be around soon. The entire media is speculating.It will hopefully be a closely fought contest. The last time India played at Adelaide, they won. As Anil kumble said at the presentation, india fancied their chances at Sydney and Adelaide.With a fine tuned team at Adelaide ,India must aim to draw the series and win the home series come october.

That Second test Match in Perth

India is on course to achieve a creditable victory at WACA. We have been optimistic about India's chances here from some time and the columns below would bear us out.However without repeating any well worn cliche, we would like to keep ours fingers crossed regarding the outcome of the match.

In 1977, WACA had hosted the second test.The first had been played at Brisbane and inspite of some good bowling performances and a century from gavaskar, India had lost. Perth marked the comeback of chetan Chauhan, who had last played in 1972-73 against Tony lewis's England team. he made a good 88 and gavaskar scored another hundred and india set Australia 338 runs to win and they did it by a narrow margin of two wickets. Though Australia was weakened by the Packer exodus the bowling still was formidable with Thomson, Gannon, Dymock and wayne Clarke. the overs had eight balls and on the final day India under bedi could have slowed down bowling rate but did not. Also, even at the bouncy Perth India chose to play three spinners rather than both Ghavri and Madan Lal. Madan lal had taken a five for at Brisbane and playing both of them together would probably have changed the series results. But changing from decent spin to mediocre medium pace was still not a thought to be countenanced.

In 1977, it would have been considered a sacrilege if Ishant Sharma was picked ahead of Harbhajan Singh.More about this later.We must enjoy this weekend irrespective of the result. the Australians will try to force a win. India has a chance to level the series and wait for Australia in india later this year.

Why Dhoni is No Gilchrisht

The evidence is there presenting to all of us.Facing similar situation while Gilchrist attacked, Dhoni is defending.A combination of attack and defence will take him to the league of Marsh ,Knott and Boucher. He will have to be more fluent and authoritative to be in the A league with Sangakkara and Gilchrist.Dhoni should aim to become a competent number six with Pathan on seven and Piyush Chawla on eight.That would be a decent mlower middle order for the days after Ganguly and Tendulkar. Hopefully Laxman will be around till a few more batsmen are groomed.

The March has been halted

For the time being at least, Australia has to fight hard to win their seventeenth test on the trot. their sequence at 16 last time was broken by India at Kolkata.This time round australia narrowly reached 16 at Sydney.The chances of stopping them again is available to the Indians.They go into the third day with nine wickets remaining and a healthy lead of 170 runs, and the match looks to be heading for an interesting finish. even if australia are chasing upwards of 450 runs they will try to get them. This will therefore turn out to be a cracker of a match.

Australia on the march

Australia has reached tea with five wickets still left.how often have teams loked forward to wrapping up the opposition only to run into a rampaging Gilchrisht. India will remember Mumbai 2001 while England would still be nursing last year's wounds when Symonds had also joined the party.The catch dropped by Tendulkar may prove costly.

A correction

try www.waca.com.au/events/events-audiostream.asp

Live Audio

For those bored listening to the commentary which though ball by ball is from the AIR studios here is an option.Try www.waca.com.au/events/events-audiostream.asp

You were warned

It is lunch at WACA. What a match so far. In these columns we have been insisting that the Indian medium pacers can be competitive here if only because the Freemantle Doctor allows some swinging possibilities.Sehwag is back where he belongs. The batting form may not be very great but 57 for the first wicket where everybody was talking as if Tait and Lee would wrap up the innings quickly. not only did they not wrap up but a fine if abruptly ended rendition of "The Wall" saw to it that india will fight to the finish. As of now at WACA Australia is trying to play catch up.An interesting match is on at the WACA.

At WACA will Australia come to earth

Apparently, MCG had a subcontinental pitch and India lost the match in four days. I have a gut feeling that at WACA, India will knock Australia inside four days and equal the series in the last test.The reasons are several. For one Australia have given their all and still manged an early lead owing to some questionable decisions. Secondly, for various reasons india will want to do well at Perth. Thirdly, at Perth Brad Hogg or Michael clarke will hardly be a major force. And the team will be reinforced in the form of its only test match specialist in Sehwag. I cannot think of another batsman with more than fifty matches in either form with a performance differential of this magnitude. Barring Lee's speed there is little to choose between the medium paced attack of the two teams. India should be able to get around australia in Perth.

Things Looking Up at SCG

Its tea time at the SCG. India is fighting back. It appears that Australia by batting at the speed that they did have left a window of opportunity for India. Another 100/0 session and the match will be on.A total of 650 will set the match well.

Two Test matches in the Southern Hemisphere

The two boxing day test matches ended in less than four days. While India capitulated without much fight and look in some trouble in Sydney as well, what the West Indian victory underlines is that in a few years the West Indies could be a decent performing unit.What startles me is that the slide started with both ambrose and walls playing alongside Lara and Chanderpaul. Let us hpe this is not a false dawn like the first test against England in 2000. West Indies presence in international arena gives us so many nations actually playing top flight cricket. Remove them and we will be left with no representative team from South America besides the number of countries actually playing test matches would get reduced to two in Europe( England and Wales), one in Africa, two in Oceania and four in South Asia. To stop cricket from becomuing a South Asian sport the West Indies cricket has to be in fine fettle. Here is all the best wishes for 2008 and the New Year Test.