The ordinary, the un-noticed, the rustics et-al many a time, do wonderful things and rewrite history with their deeds. They show and prove the hitherto ”invincible” as un-deservedly carrying the tag as Gabba was the place where Australia was made to think otherwise as comparatively less experienced and with no major exposure of the sorts Indian cricket team chasing a target of 328 with exhausted limbs and bones instead of allowing any other fate of the match to take place, made it known that settling for nothing less than a historic victory was their resolve., And they did it and proved very liberal too by sparing 18 balls. Border -Gavaskar series in Australia, thus, got a stamp of Indian cricket mastery to be known for decades. To call a spade a spade, we do it both ways, scoring all low – just 36 for 9 in the second innings of the first test at the Adelaide Oval, again, against Australia and defeating them in their home when it was almost unbelievable for any one especially when the ”known top” Indian players were away. It is important from the other angle too and that is for the last 32 years, Australia has never tasted what a defeat means and what is it like. Our team has gained sort of immunity from a negatively behaving crowd showering even uncouth remarks bringing slur to the level of treatment expected by guests from the host – may be to disrupt the concentration of the team. Their spirits were undaunted even after seeing their experienced regular captain off the field enjoying the hustle bustle back home in respect of the arrival of the new little member in the family. They lost not a shred of courage seeing their speedster and a top all-rounder bruised. New comers like Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini did not give an inkling that they had yet to get a fair exposure and if this is their performance now, what could it be after a year or so, only those having an insight in the nitty-gritty of cricket can explain. Gill’s 91, Pant not out at 89 and Pujara’s 56 turned the tables and scripted the new cricket history. That Indians should never be taken for granted or underestimated was reaffirmed and announced as if vividly but loudly on January 19. Who says that in the department of bowling, our boys are not up to the mark which has amply been demonstrated in this series, Mohammed Siraj mopping 13 wickets is by no means an ordinary feat. Once you give autonomy and that professional manner and style of playing its holding sway in its own way, the results are just before us. As it is said that what matters is delivery and not how that took place is the offshoot of such professional freedom. Today’s cricket is less of style and sports mannerism and more of professional acumen with aim to win the goal and that was seen with the emphatic win on the day of ”reckoning” for both the teams. The score of 1st innings of both the teams almost remaining the same, what mattered was 294 of Australia in 2nd innings plus a lead of 36 runs of the 1st innings, the first Indian wicket falling just at 18 had opened up the tight valves only for the host country but the second wicket falling at 132 injected new life in the tussle. It is very commonly said that there was no dearth of talent and ”spark” in Indians. What was required is recognising, polishing, moulding and giving chances. How we ”discovered” Kapil Dev, Sachin , Dhoni and the like, we still do not know how many more of their ilk are available . No wonder, Ajinkya Rahane carved out for himself and his team a special niche in the vast ambiance of cricketing and take it that with the same determination and will power continued, future is certainly of India and Indians
Follow our WhatsApp channel