Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Another helping of curried Kangaroo please!
One good thing about being back in Asia is that I get to watch the cricket matches again. And watching a series of American games where the ball is incidental to the violence on the field, it does come as a welcome breather. So, I watched the India-Australia test both in Dubai and in Bombay.
And what a fantastic game it was. India rarely wins against Australia, but when they do, boy do they do it in style. The Calcutta test in 2001 I'd rank as the best test I have ever watched. This one was pretty incredible too. Who would have thought a team that gave away 556 runs in the first innings and were at 81 for 4 would actually turn the game around to beat the world champions, and that too at home. And the perfect answer to the critics who dismissed India's chances in the series somewhere between bad and terrible.
The common factor between the Calcutta and Adelaide tests? Rahul Dravid and V.V.S.Laxman. Rahul Dravid is one of the 4 best batsmen India has produced, in my opinion. However, he gets a raw deal since he always plays in the shadow of far more flamboyant players (Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman etc). In some ways, he has been treated in the same vein as Ravi Shastri was in the latter part of his career. But what a way to answer his critics. Two double centuries in some 4 tests.
Well, lets hope that the Indians can increase or at least hold on to the lead in this series. For the moment though, the first two tests have been moral victory enough. I am just glad I got to watch a great game, and in Bombay at that.
And what a fantastic game it was. India rarely wins against Australia, but when they do, boy do they do it in style. The Calcutta test in 2001 I'd rank as the best test I have ever watched. This one was pretty incredible too. Who would have thought a team that gave away 556 runs in the first innings and were at 81 for 4 would actually turn the game around to beat the world champions, and that too at home. And the perfect answer to the critics who dismissed India's chances in the series somewhere between bad and terrible.
The common factor between the Calcutta and Adelaide tests? Rahul Dravid and V.V.S.Laxman. Rahul Dravid is one of the 4 best batsmen India has produced, in my opinion. However, he gets a raw deal since he always plays in the shadow of far more flamboyant players (Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman etc). In some ways, he has been treated in the same vein as Ravi Shastri was in the latter part of his career. But what a way to answer his critics. Two double centuries in some 4 tests.
Well, lets hope that the Indians can increase or at least hold on to the lead in this series. For the moment though, the first two tests have been moral victory enough. I am just glad I got to watch a great game, and in Bombay at that.
