Cricket: From the Far End

Okay at least Dhoni did enough to save the game. Yes we were lucky, that it rained later, but somebody had to hold the team until then. India has had to see a test draw from a winning position before, like the third test in their South Africa tour on 1996-97,  partly due to rain and partly due to their inability to run through the lower order. This time it’s India who escaped.

There are a lot of series where India loses the first one badly and then tries to sneak back up by the second or third test. Usually that leaves no time for it to come back from behind and win a series but this time they will go into the second test 0-0 and with more chances of winning it. This drawn test could be the difference between a drawn and a won series.

Now only if the first five can make big scores!

It seems if India loses the toss and bats second in a match, we need not bother watching it. After spending the first day admiring the Lords, Sreesanth got back to his form the next day, taking six wickets. Now Indians know that they have to bat fourth and are very familiar what happens when they have to chase a 300+ score. That meant they needed to try something out of ordinary to make sure they don’t end up chasing that much. They haven’t and here we are again, England already 174 runs ahead in the third innings with just 2 wickets lost. So they need to only accumulate another 100-125 and then just show up in the fourth innings to watch the 400+ test cumulative experienced Indian batting self destruct. English bowlers must already be waiting in anticipation.

Pessimistic, may be. I know sometime in next few years there will be a test where either India will win a test batting fourth while chasing a substantial total. I just don’t know for how many tests we will have to see an abject surrender in the fourth innings before that. Regardless of who is the captain or coach this particular thing hasn’t changed for Indian batting.

What are the only hopes, then? May be the English batting will collapse, may be the 7 batsmen can put together 300 for once when it matters, may be Tendulkar or Ganguly will do something extraordinary, may be Dravid will bat like he used to when he wasn’t leading, may be Dhoni will do something outside the subcontinent for once. Or nothing of this will happen but they will all bat together to chase it successfully. May be they will approach it differently this time since there is nobody to coach them.

When they compared the total test experience of Indian batting versus that of English bowling, it made me scared right then. The Indian batsmen typically make it hard to believe after the match

Can this match be saved? May be because of rain. But it’s the batting which will win or lose it from here.