Kolkata…. Déjà vu? (revisited)

Well, there are times when your predictions come out true and you want to shout out from rooftops “I said so”. Similar are my sentiments following the conclusion of the India-South Africa test at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.  In fact, the topic for my last post (“Kolkata…. Déjà vu?”)  seems so prophetic now that I am putting up another post on the topic. Forgive me friends for this show of self-indulgence, my sense of bravado being heightened by the emphatic win India achieved to retain the No.1 spot in a fiercely contested match and series.

And what a series it was…

World No. 1 v/s World No.2, top ranking at stake, a drawn series 1-1, both teams winning a test by an innings each and the series undecided till the last 9 balls on Day Five of the last test. Had Hashim Amla and Morne Morkel seen off those 9 balls, the series would have been the Proteas’ and with it the No. 1 ranking.

However, Eden Gardens had scripted a different epic for the capacity crowd gathered there.  The Eden nominated one of its favorite adopted sons, Harbhajan Singh to execute the final act in a brilliant tale. He caught Morkel plumb in line to make India victors by an innings and 58 runs and the celebration that ensued  showed how much the win mattered for India, in general and Harbhajan, in particular. He had come under a lot of flak for his below-par performance in the last Test and he was lambasted for not taking up the responsibility as a senior with the team missing certain key players. He replied with a solid performance picking up 8 wickets in the match with a 5-wickwt haul in the second innings.

This brings me back to the topic of the sense of déjà vu and the feeling of nostalgia that this Test invoked.

Just like the ‘01 test v/s Australia at the Eden, where the stars were Laxman, Dravid and Bhajji  (as I tabulated in the last post) ; Laxman and Bhajji played important roles in this game too. (Dravid sat out due to injury). Though this time around there were contributions from Tendulkar, Sehwag , Mishra and Dhoni as well.

The similarity in some of the events in the two tests couldn’t have been more stark .

In 2001, Australia were going along at 193/1 when Harbhajan took a fiver (including that famous hat-trick) to reduce them to 291/8 in the last session.

 Here, South Africa was coasting along on Day 1 at 218/1 when Harbhajan picked up 3 wickets in quick succession and aided by Zaheer reduced SA to 266/9 by day end. He was also on a hat-trick at one point of time but missed it.

Now,  the second favorite son of the Eden, VVS Laxman.  Laxman played one of the finest  innings(281*)  in the 2001 Test which redeemed India from a seemingly hopeless situation.

Here, after Sehwag and Tendulkar had given a solid start, he produced an unbeaten hundred under much less pressure but in a match of no less importance.

All in all, a heart- warming performance by India coupled with some nostalgic moments of triumph  from Harbhajan and Laxman made it a game which the Indian supporters will remember for some time to come.

And so will I, especially if my predictions keep coming out true.   ;)

 

P.S.  This article was posted after the Test but due to a technical error, it didn’t come up on the blog. So, I am posting it again.

Eden Gardens... deja vu?

Well,I am back after a long break following my first post... Blame it on my laziness to put the large volumes of thoughts churning in my mind into a coherent article.. But now have decided to religiously express those thoughts on a regular basis and post whenever an event or issue interests me or moves me to draw a comment.Lets see how long the resolution lasts.

For this post,nothing in particluar.

Except the second love of my love,cricket...   Will talk of the first one some other day..   ;)  

India take on SA on Sunday at the Eden Gardens in a battle to regain test supremacy. In the first of this kind of instance in a long time, two teams are battling it out in a Test series with the winner emerging the numero uno, a rare situation in Test cricket where official rankings were first used only 10 years back. I think the only time this happened before was when SA took the No. 1 position from Australia just before the 2003 WC.

An Indian team high on expectations following their ascent to the top have had their hopes dampened by injuries to Dravid and Laxman and then the crushing defeat in the first Test.An innings defeat inflicted to the No. 1 team... Time to ponder? Time to accept that we are not the best?  Time to play the waiting game?  I don't think so...  As any fan who has followed Indian team's sojourns over the past decade will vouch for, you never write off an Indian team and do so at your peril.

I suppose it is something inherently Indian not to be unfazed by adversity and achieve your bests when the chips are down.

Some of the more celebrated turnarounds that come to mind: 

Year               Venues Heroes 

2001 Kolkata                          Dravid,Laxman,Harbhajan

2002 Birmingham Dravid,Bangar,Zaheer

2004 Adelaide Dravid,Laxman,Agarkar

2007 Cape Town  Ganguly

Though the first name in three of those occasions would be missing the second Test,  it is his counterpart in two of them turnarounds who gives me hope. Vengipurrappu Venkat Sai Laxman, making a return from injury, at a time when Indians are staring down the barrel after an innings defeat at the hand of the Proteas, has the script perfectly written for him to come and conjure magic and produce another of those beautiful innings under pressure that has dominance and elegance wonderfully blended. 

It is this uncanny ability of his to remain unfazed under pressure and produce those gems of a knock that led some critics in Australia to call him the best batsman in the world. Very true, in his genre, he is arguably one of the best.... The genre of wristy,elegant batsmen, punctuated by names like Gundappa Vishwanath and Mohd. Azharuddin.   

And the venue gives me further hope that Very Very Special Laxman will rise into his own. Eden Gardens witnessed the best comeback and one of the finest innings under pressure in Test cricket in 2001. Could it see an encore over the coming week?

It is also worthwile to note that when India played Aus there in the second Test, they had been crushed at Mumbai by 10 wickets by an Aussie juggernaut that had won 16 Tests in succesion and was looking to breach "the final frontier" to stake their claim to be the best in the world. 

All this is what gives me a sense of deja vu. India down in the series after a crushing defeat, the battle for being the best in the world, speculation that the team's best days are behind, a Laxman coming back into the side (though this wasn't the case then) and the Eden...

Would we witness another of those special matches , or does magic happens only once in a blue moon?

We'll have to wait and watch.

Turn your eyes to Eden and keep your fingers crossed.

Rishabh Kalia

P.S. Do feel free to comment.