The last day at Mohali was as absorbing a day of Test cricket that a connoisseur could hope to see. There was the Indian attack, looking to wrap up the game and start the series on a winning note, and then there was the pair of Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal, both determined to stave off defeat but without curbing their natural game. The draw was fully deserved and it showed that in cricket, even a no-result could be a great game. Pakistan would have been expecting similar resistance to save them at Eden Gardens, but it was not to be as Kumble in particular, and Harbhajan Singh cast their spell on leaden-footed batsmen and led them to their doom.
Pakistan erred in persisting with Taufiq Omar instead of Salman Butt. For one, Butt had scored a century in his previous appearance at the Eden Gardens in the BCCI Platinum Jubilee game in November and two, he was also in good form in Australia, scoring a century and half-century in the Tests there. So there was no ostensible reason to leave him out and that too for Taufiq Omar, who did not play in Australia and had no scores to speak about unless it was in Dhaka or Dubai cub cricket. Afridi’s selection was a brave one, for he is the kind of cricketer who will play in a manner that you want to embrace him to whack him. Still he is value for the bowling option he provides and for the runs he saves in the field.
Unfortunately, most Indian cricket lovers have never understood the value of Rahul Dravid to the team. The modern age wants everything in a jiffy so it hero-worships those who provide that instant gratification. We have become a people used to taking shortcuts and so players like Dravid who take a bit longer are not in the frame of accolades. Even a Sehwag century takes at least three and half hours. Dravid’s takes half an hour more, but he gets there more certainly and while he is at the crease, there is a hopless look about the opposition who are often at their wit’s end on how to send him back to the pavilion. No better tribute can be paid to him than the fact that the little champion in recent times is trying to bat like him. By all means, be obsessed with Tendulkar for he has been delighting us for 16 years now, but please don’t ignore Dravid, who in less than 9 years of international cricket has notched up a phenomenal 20 centuries.
The team certainly knows where to look for when it’s in a crisis. It looks at the Rahul Dravid corner for they know that he will take the blows, the badmouthing, but will bat on. He had a spirited partner in Dinesh Karthik whose batting practice finally paid dividends. If there was one man quick to get into the nets even after a tiring day’s keeping, it was Karthik who would have the reserves and net bowlers bowl to him till the light finally gave up. He was perhaps not judicious in the selection of balls to hit in previous innings and it was a pity that he missed a century, but make no mistake, it was that partnership that put paid to Pakistan’s hopes of surprising India. If the Dravid-Tendulkar partnership thwarted the Pakistani advance, the Dravid-Karthik one pushed the game beyond Pakistan’s grasp.
Even Australia would have struggled to score 422 to win in the final innings and the though Afridi gave Pakistan a whirlwind start, the others simply had no clue to Kumble and Harbhajan. The Eden Gardens ground has been a wicket-taking one for Harbhajan, but he seemed a lot more conscious of getting his action right and so did not grab the wickets that he usually does. What can one say about Kumble excepting to ask where would India win without him? His relentless pursuit of wickets and the nagging accuracy would have test the patience of even Hanif Mohammad. It’s not so much the wickets that he took in the second innings but those crucial ones in the first that ensured that Pakistan did not get a lead and the psychological advantage. He was simply devastating in the second innings and though he came close to being the man of the match, he would agree that it was Dravid’s batting that gave India the comfort level it was seeking.
Now just think if these two have done so brilliantly in Calcutta, what will they do in their hometown, Bangalore for the third and final Test.
