Watching the white ball action was fun, especially last week when there were hectic run chases that seemed to be on the very edge of impossibility of attaining but were met to further the modern cricket idiom of no chase to be considered impossible.
Ages ago an inspired Herschelle Gibbs propelled South Africa to an improbable record-setting victory in a chase of 400-pls. It took the Sri Lankans to prove that 400 is not an insurmountable target in 50 overs.
There was a different type of win for Team India that came on top of a frenetic chase of 250 in the first T20I in New Zealand at the Hagley Park in Christchurch. This one was a hard-earned win that seemed particularly exciting because the team seemed hopelessly behind and needed two runs per ball in the death overs.
The near miracle that Tilak Varma and Nitish Kumar Reddy fashioned to achieve victory from the jaws of defeat also helped beat the argument that T20Is are too predictable these days of big hitting interspersed with high catches, some acrobatically on the ropes, a few in relay fashion emphasising how much fielding and catching have come on in modern cricket.
Of course, the Kiwis were left rueing the catches they dropped, which perhaps made all the difference as this brand-new striker of T20Is Nama Dhir proved his capabilities in striking the ball cleanly in the fashion of many of India’s big hitting greats in this format.
The victory, achieved against a challenge that was different from merely hitting the ball out of the ground mechanically, made to show that the T20 format can also offer some of the nuances of the gritty game of pendulous fortunes that cricket is.
Since even a tie is a result only until the super overs are bowled, the format is all about winning, which is what pro sport is all about, that is if you believe the winning teams. “Winning is the only thing,” is a favourite expression from the super money-rich pro sport world as it exists in the USA.
Like Homer said, they also serve who only stand and wait, which is what Tambo Bavuma proved in his nine-hour marathon in battling conditions at the rani-hit venue with the unpronounceable name of Gqeberha in South Africa. Besides, he is always battling the demons of race and racialism in a nation torn by that even if cricket has always played the healer in the rainbow nation.
What the week of remarkably entertaining cricket also threw up was the lesson that Test cricket may burn slow but it produces a nuanced spectacle that only the aficionados may truly relish. The sight of Bavuma, said to be one of the 10 shortest men to have played the game at Test level, and his pivotal century partnership with the gangling Marco Jansen was really something to behold. Jansen carried on while proving that he is potentially the best allrounder of contemporary cricket.
A pity viewing of the Test may have been possible only on streaming sites and not TV. This combination of resilience, active intelligence and correct strokeplay would have served as a lesson for any youngster watching the game. But that is another story altogether as the stands were also said to be nearly empty at the venue. And to think this was Test cricket between the two top-ranked nations currently that had also met in the final of the last WTC cycle at Lord’s in 2025.
(R. Mohan is Resident Editor of Chennai and Tamil Nadu editions of Deccan Chronicle)
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
