The Debut

No I am yet to be contacted by any of the franchisees.  So I haven't made my debut yet. I am talking about my first ever live match. Mumbai Indians vs Trinidad & Tobago at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. One is a club, another is a country. One doesn't have any Mumbaikars in the squad and the other has its home-boy in the opposition camp. One can play 5 foreign players (as opposed to the other teams' 4), the other doesn't have any at all except for all those Indian origins!

It was exciting to go for my first match but not much hype as no star player was playing. And my company was a cricket player, two sponsors of tomorrow and another debutant like me (who had just learnt what cricket was!) But we got excitement in a different way, getting to choose our seats in an empty stand right behind the White Mischief cheer girls! Ah we used the entire stand to get different views and angles. Of the game of course!

The match definitely wasn't of T20 standards. A few big hits here and there. But the guys couldn't provide even half as much entertainment as the girls could! By the end of the first innings, T&T just surrendered meekly and no one broke a sweat as much as we did dancing with the girls. Oh I haven't shook my body this much since college mass-group dance during cultural stage shows.

But MI tried their best to make a match out of it by consistently losing wickets. And we ended up in another of those down-to-the-wire finishes (as Ravi Shastri puts it!). But hard luck fell upon Ramdin who missed hitting the stumps from 2 feet distance allowing MI to sneak through a match they had determined to lose. The team played bad cricket and did injustice to all three words - "Mumbai", "Indians" and "Champions". With such cricket, they shouldn't progress to the next round. But we got a bit of an exciting match though our money's worth was already obtained thanks to our strategic positions.

In the end, a decent debut. Considering the fact that it was in Dravid's home ground with Sachin in the balcony, just like me!

Dravid's Swansong

Ajinkiya Rahane miscues another of his foolhardy shots and this time it lands on the fielder's palms. India lose their first wicket. Rahane walks off. Sofia Gardens stands. Not because Rahane, a future talent is walking off. Neither is Sachin Tendulkar scheduled to come in. It is because Rahul Dravid is coming in to play the last match of his 344 matches old ODI career.

The D-Day doesn't invoke any nerves on him. Dernbach tried pulling out of his delivery stride to try and make the occasion even more tense. But Dravid still had that serene look on his face. 

It was just another day at the crease for Dravid, evident in the way he played. The front-foot coming forward, the back-foot rocking back and then creating room by getting the front leg away a bit, the ball was cut for four. It was only timing and no power as the ball teased the fielders till the boundary. With Kohli, he did what he had been doing in that middle order for the past 15 years. Build a partnership with just ones and twos and allow your partner to accelerate by easing the pressure from your end. And after the half century, trying to adapt to the situation and getting a couple of boundaries. It was brilliant to see Dravid batting with Kohli. Both of them have similar class with those wrists being the strong point. Where Kohli lacks the feet movement, he makes up for it by his aggressiveness. And they complement each other just like Dravid used to do with Yuvraj before. 

When the ball beat the bat, spun and hit the stumps, Swann did not celebrate the 170-run partnership he had broken. Instead he ran over to congratulate Dravid. Swan himself had told how relieved he was after Dravid announced his retirement from ODI's saying he needn't have to bowl to the man who always looked in-form. The entire England team followed suit. It was a momentous occasion. Dravid had signed off in style.Walked back raising his bat not just to Cardiff but to the entire world. Sadly though he still ended up on the losing side.

It was also a day when I realized that the game of cricket can even bring tears to your eyes. I had tacitly gotten used to the Indian team without Dravid after 2007. Even the brief spell during the Champions Trophy didn't raise much hopes. But I feel thankful to the BCCI for having given a chance that allowed Dravid to announce his retirement. Else it would have gone unnoticed. While walking back to the pavillion the camera focused on his face. It showed that even The Wall has emotions!

Thank you Dravid for a selfless service to Indian cricket in the blue jersey.

P.S: Please read my first tribute to Rahul Dravid

My Picture of the Wall

One Down

When he goes out on the field today, he would have done on this tour almost everything that he had done during his entire 15-year career. A debut, a farewell, opening the batting, coming at one-down, a Lord’s century, carrying his bat,  three 6s in a row, keeping wickets and receiving the Man-of-the-series! Sadly though, one thing Rahul Dravid missed was to be on the winning side! But the Indian story might spoil this post on Dravid’s swansong!

Whoever wrote him off in his early days as a one-day player might not have imagined that he would go on to score 10,000 runs at an average of 40! If you start arguing about strike-rate, I’d say that’s a statistical tool that has come in only recently. In those days, Dravid’s strike-rate was enough to propel the team to a defend-able total (which these days might seem too less!).

It is easier to take Dravid’s case in ODI’s than to support him. Probably because you don’t understand Dravid through those numbers (though they are of appreciable magnitude). Neither are there those pages and pages of articles that people keep writing about Tendulkar. You understand this genius by watching him, his skill, his patience and his attitude.

When he leaves Cardiff today, India wouldn’t find it difficult to replace him because the IPL has given them many options. But ODI’s will miss that trademark on-drive that pierces the midwicket with a surgeon’s precision, where the bat comes down in one motion from second slip, where those legs move fluently back and across. After the ball reaches the boundary, he just wipes the sweat of the forehead with the thumb between the helmet’s grill. It was just another of those natural shots for him. Watching all these in color is not possible anymore. Luckily he hasn’t hung up his whites yet!

P.S: Please read my first tribute to Rahul Dravid

My Picture of the Wall

The First Ball

Ah what a time to start a blog on cricket. India’s just been peeled, torn, cut and squashed by the British. No. 1 in tests has become 3. The only T20 lost. ODI series gone! But then, being the most ardent of Indian supporters and seeing this team perform since the late nineties, I do not give up hope on such trivial issues. If you are an Indian fan, optimism should be your strength. And the reverse also works. If you show faith (or optimism) on Indian performance, you are branded a fan! Remember 2007WC, when once we all (read 1 billion people!!) believed Bermuda could beat Bangladesh?! Yes, that’s exactly what I am talking about!

Now the papers and the sites have screamed various causes for India’s performances. The word ‘fatigue’, echoed. The IPL, blamed. The selectors, censured. The BCCI criticized for all its hypocrisy. But whoever thought the BCCI would change must be the greatest optimist. I recently read somewhere, ‘Even after Srikanth Anirudha makes his debut, plays tests, scores runs, retires, joins BCCI and then heads the selection panel to give his child a chance, BCCI would remain the same!’ How true! If you ask me for the cause, I would say it was because the selectors completely ignored me and my talent because I didn’t play the IPL!

I say forget this tour. It doesn’t even have Sachin’s hundredth century. Only Dravid’s scored. And he would be the last person to disapprove even if this entire tour were termed unofficial by the (BCCI-controlled) ICC! Give India a break. But if you really want an improvement, ask BCCI to subscribe to Harsha Bhogle’s articles on Cricinfo and then implement the suggestions. For starters, they can even refer to this blog. How is this for a beginning – Rest all main team players for the upcoming home series against England and West Indies. Let them go home, love their wives, play with their children, take rest. (Hope they haven’t forgotten what these mean!) Play the emerging players. If they lose, you are already used to it. If they win, you have a fresh pool of talent! Whatever be the case, for the series Down Under, you have a team of fresh and fit players!

Anyway I am not BCCI and never will be. All I can do for my passion for the game is watch it, play it and then write it! And this blog helps me do the last part. Even Saurav!