Going ballistic

(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)

What happens when three generations come together, with all guns blazing? 4-1, avers L Suresh.

One does not know if Nostradamus ever used his clairvoyant powers to prophecise on the India-Pakistan tour that climaxed last Sunday, but if he had, he would have got it all wrong. To start with, India was reputed to have the better test side and Pakistan’s one-day side was considered capable of challenging Australia. But, in the end, India was humbled in the test series while Pakistan was made to feel like a club side that would have trouble challenging Kenya, leave alone Australia.

A handful of men from either sides of the border must have celebrated all night long as 2006 came into view, licking their lips and having an eye on the record books - an Indo-Pak series was in the offing. Sehwag’s dreams of yet another triple century must have seen him pack his bags and leave for the airport earlier than usual. For Dravid, a win in the series would end the debate on captaincy, after a thunderous performance at home against Sri Lanka and South Africa, winning 8 out of 11 one dayers and two out of three tests. Ganguly would be eyeing that elusive knock that would put him back into the team for good – it was high time that he had something other than political pressures to assure him of a berth in the playing eleven. On the other side of the Wagah, a long list of batsmen had already padded up – Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf and Shoaib Malik – it was time to order for more bats, the Indians were coming. A refocused, rejuvenated and relaunched version of Shoaib Akthar was waiting, fresh from his scrap’ n ‘scalp success against the English. He couldn’t believe his luck – cold winters, 100 mph missiles, grassy tracks… How many would he pick in three tests? 40 wickets? 45?

He managed four. And that was how the story began to go awry for Pakistan. The pitch report for the first and second tests could have been sponsored by Gillette – the pitch, on both occasions, had received its smoothest shave a Mach 3 razor would envy. An inexplicable omission of grass from the tracks, a pitch so flat that a few grains of sand would form a Manhattan skyline and coach Bob Woolmer’s comments about the team management not having a say in wicket preparation – there were many twists to the tale that must have dumbfounded even the Pakistani team and if not for the Asian obsession with mammoth totals, there would have been a stampede at Lahore and Faisalabad, with more people trying to get out of the stadium than get in. And just when the world thought this would be a retro series, played in memory of those countless Indo-Pak matches in the early 80s when neither team won, came the third test.

If Irfan Pathan’s hattrick and a never-seen-before, never-to-be-seen-again century by Kamran Akmal set up the test for a fight, Mohammed Asif showed his class and phrases like ‘home advantage’ and ‘weak Indian pace attack’ were finally brought out of cold storage. The ignominy of being six down for a paltry 39 runs in the first innings spurred the entire Pakistani batting line up during the second innings, as batsmen jostled with each other in trying to get to the crease first. Six fifties, a maiden hundred from Faisal Iqbal, Javed Miandad’s nephew, (thereby proving that the love for Indian bowling ran in the family) and two whole days of cricket waiting to be played ensured that there was only one way for the match to end. After giving away 2601 runs and chasing leather for a good part of two weeks, the Indians were in no mood for a run chase. And even as Greg Chappell revisited Shoaib Akthar’s controversial chucking action, the Indian batsmen, with the exception of Yuvraj, collectively threw in the towel. The controversy died a quiet death, but Yuvraj had just begun.

A ‘how do we stop them’ Indian team against a ‘who’s for breakfast’ Pakistani team. Only an eternal optimist would have given the visitors some chance of winning a couple of matches. But a team that was always notorious for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory decided to do it the other way around. After being comprehensively beaten by bad light, Duckworth-Lewis and the Pakistani team, the Indians took a break – and changed the script. A new formula was worked out, one that would bring three generations together – the experience of veterans like Dravid and Sachin, the exuberance of youth with Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan leading the way and the high energy of the newcomers like Sreesanth, R P Singh and Suresh Raina. And the men in blue reversed roles, changed strategies and did things in a way they had never been done before.

For starters, India played a four-pronged pace attack for most part of the series. Experience had been discarded in favour of youth, with the average age of the frontline bowlers – R P Singh, Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth - just around 21. The batting strengths of Pathan and Dhoni had long since given the team the option of playing extra bowlers. And new comers like Suresh Raina and Sreesanth ushered in a wave of energy that galvanized Team India into action. Salman Butt, after scoring 101 in the first one dayer, made just 13 in the next three outings. The famed batting line up of Inzamam, Mohammed Yousuf, Kamran Akmal and Afridi couldn’t average more than 22 in the series. The bowling statistics are more shocking, with none of their bowlers managing to pick up over 5 wickets in five matches. Compare this to the ‘weak one-dimensional pace attack’ of India that picked up 29 wickets, knocking off the top four Pakistani batsmen with unfailing regularity, before the Power Plays could end.

The Indian batting, meanwhile, was getting better with each match and reminded one of Pakistan’s ‘92 World Cup win, with a young Inzamam bludgeoning his way to victory and Miandad playing sheet anchor. While the Pakistanis ignored their past feats, the Indians emulated them, with Dhoni and Yuvraj powering their way through and with Sachin and Rahul being the calming influence, steering the ship home. With every passing game, India’s margin of victory was getting better. With the fifth one dayer, they added insult to an already maimed Pakistan. Two of India’s best players – Sachin and Pathan – were left out, to test the bench strength. The resultant still wasn’t any different – the men in blue won by a convincing 8-wicket margin. The good work done by Yuvraj and Dhoni in the centre right through the series received its ultimate acknowledgement when Sachin ran in, carrying drinks for his younger teammates.

There are two things about Sachin that opposition teams need to know. One, don’t ever write him off. Two, don’t call him chicken. The World Cup 2003 is a classic case in point. India had just come back from a disastrous tour of New Zealand played on designer pitches and Sachin, just back from an injury, had scored two runs from three matches, with an average of 0.66. Soon after, the World Cup began and the bowlers who challenged him in print before a match were left gnawing at the newspaper in sheer desperation as Sachin plundered runs at will. (Shoaib Akthar and Andy Caddick are wiser men these days.) Obviously, Moin Khan was oblivious to this fact when he, in a rash moment, questioned ‘Sachin’s present-day ability against quality fast bowling’. Sachin took the cue and after scores of 100, 42 and 95, sent Moin Khan scurrying to his book of phrases to find out what ‘beginning of the end’ actually meant.

Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid knew that a lot was at stake in this tour. The Chappell baiters, the pro-Ganguly faction and the India bashers were all waiting to see how he would fare with a bunch of youngsters. Having to ‘accommodate’ a recently deposed captain, leave two specialist openers out of the playing eleven and play five bowlers, Dravid decided to nix all three issues with one move – by opening the innings. The raw pace of Shoaib, inexperience as a test opener and a litmus test as a captain must have all played on his mind. But in the end, leading from the front paid off, with two test centuries and an average of just over 80. And in the one dayers, he was the cog around which the Indian winning machine operated. Three fifties in five matches and like a true veteran, he chose to remain in the background while his young guns basked in the limelight.

If one were to savour the joy of India’s comprehensive series win at 1000 frames per second – thanks to technology’s latest marvel, ultra motion - one would have to rewind to the fourth one dayer, when Salman Butt nicked Sreesanth and the ball descended in a low trajectory, onto the field. Frame after frame rolled on as the ball sought to bite the dust. And just when one thought that no-man’s land had been found, in came a pair of hands from the left of the screen. The rest of skipper Rahul Dravid followed as he dived to his left and scooped the ball before it hit the ground. And that defining moment captured the progress of India through the one day series – the point of no hope, a half-chance, a suspenseful nanosecond, a dramatic act of valour and finally the exhilarating win.

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement as 'The winter's tale' on 26 February, 2006)