Saturday’s pulsating climax at the Wankhede sent me hurtling back a quarter of a century in time to the tied Test at Chennai against Australia. In both matches, it finally boiled down to one ball, one run or one wicket to decide the outcome, leaving players physically and emotionally drained and spectators on the edge of their seats.
A tie is, of course, among the ‘rarest of rare’ occurrences in the game, but the drawn third Test in the recent series was no less riveting for that. India were bold to chase 243 on a pitch that was misbehaving quite a lot but the West Indies were no less admirable in clawing back to force a draw just when everything appeared lost.
Such matches not only remain permanently etched in the memory of fans, but also serve out life lessons, so to speak, to players and fans alike. Ravichandran Ashwin for one, though only three Tests old will have matured manifold times from this experience.
His maiden century was important in ensuring that India did not have to follow on. That the innings was built on overt aggression and derring-do left many people were surprised he looked so tentative in the second innings when only a few runs were needed to achieve victory. But such critics, I venture, misunderstand the psychological aspect of sport.
That sport is played first in the mind is a truism that manifests itself in almost every tough situation. How is it that on the same pitch on which Ashwin scored a century he could not get the one run needed for a win, they will ask. But it is the vicissitudes of match play dictate action to be taken, whatever the merit of the player.
It is no discredit to Ashwin, of course, that India did not win: The pressure of the situation would have daunted even the most experienced and accomplished. In fact, it is to his credit that India reached as far as they did. Had he been more adventurous, his team could well have lost the Test.
What Ashwin will remind himself of all his life is the hazards of predicting (so to speak) the outcome of a Test match after just one day’s play. He was overly critical of the Wankhede pitch after the first day when the West Indies batsmen made hay. In his own words, Ashwin felt ‘cheated’ by the placid nature of the track as the West Indies scored 590 in the first innings.
As it happened, Ashwin took five wickets in the first innings and nine in the match apart from scoring a hundred and almost winning the Test till his unfortunate run-out off the final delivery led to a draw. This was a fantastic all-round performance by any reckoning, and on which pitchforks him into the upper echelon of Test cricketers almost straightaway.
All said and done a fine win for M.S. Dhoni’s team even if the West Indies are no longer the force they once were with Ashwin deservingly the winner of the top accolades for the match and the series. But surely he is unlikely to forget the lesson handed out to him about the glorious uncertainties of cricket; and just as well that this has come so early in his career.
Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh appear to have hit a mid-life crisis, albeit for different reasons as the squad announced for the tour of Australia would suggest. It is a matter of regret for both, of course, that their Test careers have reached this pass. But I will caution the skeptics and naysayers that this is not a dead-end.
Both are highly talented cricketers with a few years — at least — at the international level still left in them.
The onus, however, is now on them to regain their places by fighting a stiff battle against younger players who have replaced them.
In a broader sense, what this suggests is that the future of Indian cricket burns bright.
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