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| Can Test cricket, still, go to the 'ashes'? |
| Monday July 13, 2009 |
| In my last post, I had talked about the thrill of watching a keenly contested Test match. I am not sure if the rival captains for the Ashes series, Andrew Strauss and Ricky Ponting, read it. But what better example could there be of a cricket match than the first Test match? The last batting pair for England, Monty Panesar and Jamie Anderson managed to survive more than 11 overs in the end to defy the Australians. It was a classic tussle between the bat and the ball, the Australians trying every trick in the book to get past the last opposition. Anderson also managed to show his aggression through the 35-minute stay when he slammed consecutive boundaries off Siddle to make sure that England had a lead. That meant that even if they got bowled out, a 10-minute break was necessary before Australia could bat again. Finally, they managed to survive the Aussie pressure and remained unbeaten. The credit for saving the Test match must also be shared with Paul Collingwood, who scored a patient 50 and played through 235 balls before heading back. Monty Panesar, nothing but a bunny with the bat, also managed to hit one four during his innings against Anderson's three. Looking at their batting credentials, Geoff Boycott would have remarked "Even my Mum could bat better than them." She could have but perhaps they knew how to fight the situation better than Boycott's Mum! Watching the match on television, I am reminded of two test matches which have been as close, one that I have seen on television and another that I have heard about a lot about from some of the followers of the game. This happened in the late 1970s, much before we were hooked to the national television network in our small town. Like the first Ashes Test, both those matches also ended without a result. During September 1986, Australia was visiting India and in the Chennai Test, Dean Jones' best test score of 210 helped Australia get a 177 run lead over India. India managed to save the follow on thanks to the heroics of Kapil Dev, whose 119 saved India from following on. Australia challenged India with a sporting declaration leaving India to score 348 off 87 overs on the final day. Sunil Gavaskar scored 90 in that innings, batting much in the same manner that Collingwood did for England. Finally, the Test match went down as only the second tie Test in history when Maninder Singh was adjudged out in the penultimate ball of the match. Spinnners had held sway and got 27 of the 32 wickets that fell in the match. And till the end of the match, either team could have won the match. The other match I remember is when West Indies led by Alvin Kalicharan was visiting India in 1978-79 for a six Test series. With their seasoned professionals having left to play the World Series Cricket for Kerry Packer, their attack had a promising but rookie fast bowler called Malcom Marshal. India had conceded a slender lead in the first innings, but Sunil Gavaskar's second century in the Test and Dilip Vengsarkar's then highest score helped India set West Indies a target of 345. They had one full day and a few more overs to achieve the target. India managed to have Windies on the mat, when they lost wickets at regular intervals. But Sew Shivnarine found the most innovative ways to waste time and prevent the quota of 87 overs from being bowled. He would take off his gloves after every ball, decide to remove his pads, tied his shoelaces several times during the innings and was sometimes distracted by the movement near the sightscreen. And at other times, he decided to have a chat with his batting partner and also had several questions to ask to the umpires. It worked and West Indies survived the test. I mention the Calcutta Test against West Indies since this practice was rampant among all teams. Umpires now have the right, and rightly so, to fine teams for wasting time on the field. Earlier, whether it was an ODI or Test matches, players could get away with a lot. For example, Pakistan bowled 40 overs in the Calcutta ODI against India in 1987, a match that India lost despite Srikkanth's blazing century. When Imran was asked later, he said that it was very hot but admitted that a few more could have been bowled. Captains and players do not have the option of such lame excuses anymore. That is one more reason why the job done by the English tail was commendable. Thank you, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Anderson and Monty Panesar for making Test cricket thoroughly entertaining. And the Aussies, too, for making a match of it. |
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Ashutosh Sinha is a business journalist, whose day job involves tracking the stock markets. He enjoys juggling with the numbers at the stock market and ones from the cricket field. Ashutosh believes that the job of Sunil Gavaskar has been one of the most difficult in cricket history and that the West Indian pace battery of the 1970s was the best ever bowling attack. His religion is cricket. 
