Cheated could be another way I could describe how I feel. After a few years of watching my team not giving up without a fight even under the most dire situations, these sort of meek surrenders are hard to believe.

More than not losing the next 2 matches, what I seek is some sort of explanation of what’s going on here. Nothing airy-fairy like “Oh, the batting did not click”. Something more concrete

What is it? Is the captain stubborn, set in his ways, and not willing to think outside the box? Are the bowlers not motivated? Are the batsmen on vacation? Is the coach not getting through to the players or not attempting to? Are we not planning well? Is the composition of the team not correct? Is it the IPL? The BCCI? The Indian Government, or the ISI? Or have we been invaded by extraterrestrials?

Actually, forget it. I’m not even sure if I care that much right now.

Back in May earlier this year, WC victory fresh in my mind, I decided I wanted to go watch a day or two of the upcoming Ind-Eng series in July. Looked up the respective websites for tix, only to realise I was a little late in my decision, and most days for most of the matches were all sold out already. My only feasible option was Day 4 of the Oval test match. And I thought – that’s not too bad. Day 4 of the final test. Who knows, with a little bit of luck I will probably end up watching India crush England and take the series 4-0..or 2-1..or whatever. You are free to laugh at me now, but admit it. No one, not even you, would have ever imagined India to be in the position it found itself on August 21st.

Cut to Day 4, 4th Test – India trying hard to stay alive in the Test and avoid a washout. Follow on is looming, hopes of watching Dravid and Tendulkar bat together gone too. Unless of course India start following on soon. The only thing to look forward to then is some good batting by Rahul Dravid. Ravi Shastri was loitering outside the stadium talking on his phone a few feet away from where I was standing with my group. He walked past with a “Enjoy the game, guys” comment. Yeah right. I told him as he walked away that the only hope here was a big innings by Dravid. He replied back, saying that if there was one person who looked up to this task in Team India, Dravid was it. And who am I to disagree with the “feelings” of Ravi!

So after watching the commentators as they went into the stadium (Wasim Akram – HOT!!), taking a tour of the ground, watching the players warm up at nets, and hounding a few of them for autographs as they returned to the pavillion (Sachin Tendulkar..woohoo!), I settled into my seat as the play started. The joy of what unfolded on that day then is something that not even the knowledge of imminent defeat could take away from me.

Here I present a few photographs taken that day at the stadium -

(ok, not really how I wanted the pics to be displayed..kindly bear while I try to fix this. For now, just click on the image to enlarge it and see my comments below the image

Update -Hmm, a little better now)

What's Kohli doing here??

He was the most serious about getting his batting right during the sessions, as is evident from the photo. But when I told him we were expecting him to dig in and score a 50 to save his team the blushes, he looked at me like I was a ghost or something!

The loudest applause, the most vocal appreciation of a shot well played, the most respect, for any Indian player, from the English is saved for this man.

Led to the field by their captain.

The Man walking in to save the day. Oh, and Dhoni too.

And we all rush back to our seats..and wait for the day's proceedings to begin..

At this point I realised that my camera’s battery was down to 1 bar out of 3. So I had to shut shop until it was The Moment. And hence, I only have Dravid’s pics here onwards…Also, the camera is now with a friend, as I would be busy cheering and clapping…

And here is where I got my money's worth..

Dravid raises his bat in acknowledgement to the standing ovation..

Yes Rahul, I know you knew the whole time where I was sitting

Rahul Dravid c Cook b Swann 159.

I’ll take some consolation from the fact that we would have definitely won today had days not been lost to rain. Also, a second string India side beating WI is good enough for me.

Onto India vs England now then….

India have started poorly again on a tour and how! To be defeated inside 4 days by an innings and some is very disappointing show by the #1 team. Not using this as the excuse and the only reason for India’s loss, but for a pitch to be very conducive to bowling on Day 1 only to flatten out like a runway from the next day, isn’t exactly fair. I haven’t heard too many calling the pitch this time and I am not surprised with that either.

Nonetheless, India has some hard thinking to do before the next test. The bowling department looks pretty useless without Zak at the helm of affairs and this does not bode well for the team in general, never mind this tour. To give away 200 runs in a session (30-35 overs?) would be bad enough in an ODI. It is unacceptable in a Test. Sure, hindsight is 20-20, but was it really wise to pick 2 very inexperienced bowlers in Unadkat and Yadav, knowing that having 3 seamers in the team is a given for SA?

The first innings collapse for India had as much to do with the batsmen themselves as it had to with the bowlers. In some cases, they were set up perfectly. In some cases (yup…I’m looking at you Viru) they threw it away. Let me just repeat my request from the last post. “Please bat like it is a Test match”. Nobody is saying that the SR should be sub-20 (you know who I am talking to, don’t you)…but trying to blast your way out of trouble isn’t going to help either. Let’s get over the “Indians can’t play the short ball” bogey-man and get back to basics. The batting line-up is a very capable one and I expect things to turn around from the next test onwards.

Nothing works like India vs SA to bring updates to this blog.

My check-list looks good -

• Amicable times – check
• Availability of holidays for Tests- check
• Availability of Rahul Dravid for Tests- check

One request of the batsmen – Please bat like it is a Test match. Thank you.

Just one item on the wish list to save on time – INDIA WINS.

That’s it then! Looking forward to Thursday.

Mendis gets wickets in this game. He gets selected for Tests 2 and 3. The Indian batsmen launch a savage attack on him and the 2008 series is avenged for, the way it was supposed to be.

59/5 off 48.3 overs..not too shabby..

India remain #1..and all is fine with the world for now…

And you, Mr. Amla…MUCH RESPECT sir..hats off!

More later,

Ciao.

Nagpur

• Yeah yeah, Steyn was great..blah blah blah..line and length, and oh the pace…yada, yada, yada. Someday, I will appreciate that bowling performance more than I do right now. Ditto for Kallis and Amla. (P.S. In my last post, when I said that it would be great to see a Sehwag/Gambhir vs Morkel/Steyn, I meant I wanted to see a lovely contest where we could go all “ooh..aah..lovely bowling” for the first 20 overs, after which, normal service would resume and we would proceed to the demolition bit. Obviously, Steyn thought otherwise…)

• Mixed feelings regarding India’s injury woes. It could have been different if India wasn’t missing the middle-order mainstays. On the other hand, would it really have been any different, considering how unstoppable Steyn was? (While we are on injuries, I wonder why Harbhajan Singh never gets injured? :-/)

• The law of averages finally caught up with GG and MSD. 1^st real failure for GG in approx 11 test matches. And 1^st loss for Team India under MSD after 11 matches. That says something, huh! Too bad it had to happen now.

• Selection..uff…the lesser said the better!

Present

• THIS IS NOT DOOMSDAY. It’s ok. We lost. Rather badly, I agree. But it is ok. It doesn’t mean that we are suddenly not worthy of the #1 spot we hold (and hopefully will continue to hold). We lost to a very close #2 ranked team. Who, incidentally, just about managed to draw their “home” series with a team ranked #5. So if anything, this should just reinforce the fact that there is no clear “best” team right now. Just a bunch of very good ones, who will play “pass the parcel” with the coveted top rank based on who plays better when and against who. Until one of them finds the consistency synonymous with the Aussies of yore.

• I hope Laxman and Sreesanth are truly fit and not just hoping to somehow manage through the test. Playing XI – Sehwag, Gambhir, Vijay, Sachin, Laxman/Raina, Badri, Dhoni, Mishra, Bhajji, Zak, Ishant/Sreesanth? Barring any unforeseen injuries?

Kolkata

• The Test Of Love begins on Valentine’s Day. Aren’t you glad that it is going to be at Eden Gardens, a ground we hold great memories of? A ground we love? (Geddit? Test of Love…ground we love??)
• BCCI allegedly wants a dustbowl for Eden Gardens, and I say bring it on! Everyone plays to their strength right? And spin, apparently, is ours. Our batsmen can play it, and our bowlers can bowl it (er…right?).
• There is something about Eden Gardens that does something to Bhajji and makes him capable of taking more than 0 wickets. I checked.
• Just one piece of advice. India will do well to keep in check their fielding lapses. It didn’t matter that much against SL and B’desh, coz they were as awful as us. SA is a different league. (Visions of Saffers flying all over the field…suddenly appearing out of nowhere…)
• India will win this one. And it is going to be better than 2001. Think positive, be optimistic!

I don’t know why I am so fond of South Africa. It is not like we have a particularly great record against them. It’s not like they are an awesome team..they do tend to choke a lot. Is it because my earliest memory of cricket is that series back in ’92? Perhaps. But whatever the reason might be, they are here and we have delicious contest at hand.

(A lesson in history of these two teams wouldn’t be amiss here, so here you go.)

India goes into this series with a near inexperienced middle order. Rahul Dravid is injured thanks to Shahadat Hossein…

(Shahadat, you are one useless fellow. You can’t even bowl a bouncer properly and you call yourself a fast bowler?? And now Dravid will not be able to play against SA thanks to your uselessness!! WTH!! Test matches are a rarity anyways, and now I’ll have to wait till the IPL to see Dravid in action again…the IPL…do you realise how painful that is for me?? You better not get within 50 feet of me in your lifetime..or I promise..bad things will happen to you…I hope you have a rotten 2010…I hope that you don’t get any wickets this year and get dropped from the team..yes, this is my curse!!)

Sorry, where was I?

Yes, so as I was saying, RD is out because of his jaw and Yuvi and possibly VVS are out too. This means that we get a little peek into the future of Team India with Badri and Vijay and possibly Sharma getting a look in. I am not too happy about playing an opener at #3, but I guess asking for Pujara would be expecting too much from the selectors. And anyways, the BCCI did one good thing by at least scheduling a couple of tests, so one should not be greedy. Also, Vijay has done well with the chances he has got so far. And it is not unheard of in India for a player to bat in a completely different slot than he is used to. So, I can live with this.

Badri, I am happy he is getting a chance to stake his claim for the future. Whether he is able to do anything about it remains to be seen. Sharma, though, does not inspire much confidence in me. He might be immensely talented, but I feel he needs a year or two in the domestic circuit to learn how to do justice to his ability. To learn how to construct an innings. My choice for that slot would have been Kaif. But the lesser I think about that option, the better it will be for me coz I don’t see it happening.

Bowling now. I suppose the lineup should read Zak, Ishant, Bhajji and Mishra for tomorrow? Hope to see Ishant bowl well and Mishra out-bowl the dart-thrower.

For a team I claim to be a huge fan of, I am embarrassingly ignorant of their batsmen. Yes, so Graeme Smith is one of the mainstays. And so is Kallis (By the way, why does everyone hate Kallis so much? What has he done?). I hear good things about AB too. So I suppose they are the ones to look out for?

And their bowling strength lies in their seamers. Morkel, Steyn and Parnell. If at all there are some seam-friendly conditions, a Morkel-Steyn vs Sehwag-Gambhir contest should be riveting stuff.

I am hopeful for an intense competition on-field like Ind vs Aus usually is, but without the nasties.

Gentleman, play!

What do you do then if you lose out on the record by a whisker? You are pained, you throw your bat about in disgust, you are extremely disappointed and tell everyone as much. If you are Sehwag though, you go out with a smile on your face. You acknowledge the fact that there was a record for the taking, that you missed an opportunity, but are not overly concerned. “There is always a next time”, you say.

I like that. There is a certain amount of selflessness in this approach. I like the fact that Sehwag is not too concerned about making and breaking records. It tells me that he will not alter the natural flow of his game just because he is near a milestone. Good for the team!

Congratulations and well done on the 293, Veeru. Veeru aur Jai (victory) ki jodi bani rahe!