Thursday, February 18, 2010

Yup, an Eden Gardens of a test allright

What a finish. Couldn't stay up to watch it past lunch unfortunately. Today is a heavy teaching day and there was no way I could have pulled it off.

A result in a test match that ends on the fifth day, and that featured six centuries. Take a bow, Eden Gardens.

And Harbhajan, congrats and all, but could you please put the "I've-scored-a-goal-in-the-WC-final" run to rest? You're starting to resemble Flintoff in his idiotic Jesus mode, and thats not a good thing.

More thoughts later. But once again, test cricket, you kick serious arse. You have no competitors on this planet. Pehaps even in the Local Magellanic Cluster.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Jaunty Quicksand said...

As Mark Nicholas would have gushed, "Test cricket, you beauty!"

What an end. The SAffers held out for 789 balls, and needed to sort out just 9 more. (India could have forced an extra over or two, though).

The post-tea session was as nerve-wracking as anything I have seen in a while. There were times when I felt like shaking the Indian players for the lines they bowled, the liberty they gave Amla to just bunt the ball away, and for their butterfingers. What does it tell you when the fellows who dropped a catch on Day 5 were Raina, Badrinath, and Vijay - who are (on reputation) better than the oldie-goldies we hide during the ODIs?

The SAffers gave the match away by imitating a tortoise. You do not let a classic bully like Harbhajan get confident. Milking him for just 59 runs in 43 overs is playing into his hands. Sheesh.

And yes, it would be nice if the rest of the Indian team did not go haring after Bhajji just so their mugs show up on TV. If you let Economy Singh run around all by himself, he will come sulking back soon enough.

I wonder if that is mandated in their endorsement deals. Even Hashim Amla has some sort of arrangement, it appears. He is always careful to twirl the bat so the maker's name shows up on TV when he is acknowledging cheers.

12:18 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Firstly, a small correction - 7 centuries in the match, not 6 (Amla, Peterson, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman, Dhoni, Amla again). A wonderful Test - and we both are in the same boat. Even I was unable to watch the game live. Thank God for highlights.

3:15 PM  
Blogger Subash said...

Cricket ceased to be a gentlemen's game a long time ago! Listen -- if the players don't perform as expected by the fans and media, they are put under the hammer and when they come through, they deserve that leeway to express themselves in which ever way they see fit. Yeah, if the ICC thinks these celebrations are getting out of hand, they could send the message across.. it makes for beautiful viewing especially at the ground!! TV watchers get to see zillion different replays after a wicket falls, let the people at the ground enjoy watch these celebrations man!

4:13 PM  
Blogger Samir Chopra said...

JQ: You're right, the Indian over-rate was high enough to have forced another couple more. Surprising the Saffers didn't find a way to slow down things a bit). And, yes, they made things harder for themselves by not trying to score a few more runs. What if they had gone past the Indian total? 131 overs for 290 is very slow.

Watching that last session must have been nerve-wracking especially as the seventh wicket went down at 180.

It'd be pretty funny if Bhajji went off on a run and was not chased by anyone!

Shridhar: Thanks for the comment. Yes, indeed, I should have said "six centurions" :) Thank god for highlights (or in my case, a replay!)

10:01 PM  

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