Another Uninspiring Win

Another day. Another hot day. Another time Ganguly and Inzamam walk out to toss. Another time, Ganguly gets lucky. Another time the whole of India rejoice while Pakistan mourn. Another game in which the fate of the match is largely influenced by the toss. Another uninspiring win for India.

Bob Woolmer is not far off the mark when he says that "ODIs are lotteries anyway". The problem is that when Australia or Zimbabwe are playing anyone, the match result is a dead certainty and when 2 reasonably well-matched teams like India and Pakistan battle it out, it becomes a lottery largely dependent on the toss. At least on the terrible wickets in India which treat bowlers as if they were third-class citizens. This is the kind of game that makes Mahender Singh Dhoni a hero overnight while reducing a legend like Kumble to a laughing stock. How can this game be great ??

Of course, I do not begrudge Dhoni his success at all. He richly deserved that 100. His strokes were quite superb although his defence and pushes are unattractive and chancy to say the least and I still hold severe reservations about whether he will be able to make the cut to the highest level (otherwise called Test Match Cricket). However, for now, he seems to have made the place in the ODI side his for a fair time to come. What a great relief for Rahul Dravid !!

The media has gone gaga over the new boy - after all, his dashing demeanor and long hair will certainly complement his on-field performance and win him lucrative deals before one has time to say "Mahender Singh Dhoni". Can you imagine Nayan Mongia getting this sort of adulation after his century against Australia in the Delhi Test of 1996 ?? Soon, we will see Dhoni joining either the "Yeh Pyaas Hai Badi" bandwagon or the "Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola" one. The race must be on as I write. While Dhoni's sixes were brutal (what a superb mauling Afridi suffered), his best shot perhaps came off his first ball. Even when the 2 Jats were batting together(I am guessing Dhoni is a Jat), the difference in quality of Sehwag and Dhoni was quite patent. While Dhoni was sent out as a pinch-hitter, Sehwag was perhaps playing a reasonably subdued game yet consistently scoring at more than 1.5 times; at times 2 times as fast as the young wicket-keeper. Sehwag's pull shot off Rana today was a revelation, his six over extra cover off Sami a pure delight. But the shot of the day for me was the straight drive hit by Rahul Dravid off Abdul Razzaq. I don't care how many youngsters come and start emulating Sehwag and hit all over the park, cricket will not retain any charm if there is no Dravid-like mathematically correct figure around.

Dileep Premachandran, a writer I greatly respect writes this in his verdict on Cricinfo:

India, inspired by the ebullience of Virender Sehwag and the impudent and often imperious shotmaking of Mahendra Singh Dhoni

With his russet locks styled `80s-glam-rock style, Dhoni cuts a distinctive figure, and his cavalier batsmanship could make him a hero second only to Sehwag in years to come

There were other heroes too. Dravid was almost inscrutable on his way to a finely crafted 52, but it was an effort perfectly in sync with Dhoni's coruscating blows from the other end.

The fair man he is, he has at least found time to call Dravid a hero. I'm sure hundreds of other journalists all over would have totally missed his innings having taken it for granted. After all, who cares about the fact that until Dhoni started to tire Dravid scored consistently quicker than the dasher ??? And that on a wicket where his skipper looked as comfortable as a fish outside water, he came in and started stroking the ball as easily as plucking flowers in his own garden ?? If a similar innings had come from Sachin Tendulkar the nation would have gone gaga about a "terrific comeback" and headlines such as "the Little Maestro fires" would have done the rounds immediately.

I did not really watch the second innings (why should I ?? It's ODI cricket after all - a Masala movie - we know what the climax is going to be) but I gather we did fairly well to get through comfortably. The one new plot in this particular Masala movie was the Bee Attack. It was hilarious to see how Billy the Silly, Razzaq and Dravid fell to the ground instantly. It was a first for me on a cricket field.

Another entertaining movie comes to an end folks. Enjoy it. Leave it. But don't take it too seriously. After all no number of such happy-ending movies are going to make up for the defeat at Bangalore.