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Fearless Cricket

19 Tuesday Jan 2021

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I hear this phrase “fearless cricket” thrown around a lot these days. It’s been associated quite frequently with England’s brand of one day cricket these past few years… but this series and in particular these past five days, the Indian Cricket Team have given the phrase a whole new meaning.

Winning a Test match at the Australian fortress of Brisbane (the first team to beat Australia at the Gabba since 1988) with what was basically a 2nd XI team showed something few thought India were capable of. WinViz had India’s chances of winning at 1% before the first over of Day 5 had even been bowled with 0 wickets down. So what was the deciding factor in the game?

How was it that after losing the first test, being 36 a/o, losing their captain, having been plagued with injury after injury, losing the toss and fielding a team with 2 debutants and a grand total of four Test matches worth of experience in their bowling attack (if you discount Rohit Sharma’s ball), India pulled off one of the greatest wins in Test match history to secure the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the second time in a row?

As Sachin Tendulkar so eloquantly put it: “Every session we discovered a new hero. Everytime we got hit, we stayed put & stood taller. We pushed boundaries of belief to play fearless but not careless cricket.”

They weren’t overconfident but neither were they afraid. They played with clarity, grit, purpose and most importantly courage. At no point did India look resigned to whatever ‘fate’ was in store for them. They played a brand of cricket that was unbridled by expectation and uninhibited by fear and by doing so pulled off an incredible feat.

Each and every one of those those players who took to the field for the 4th Test gave their all.

Each and every bowler shouldered their responsibility including an injured Navdeep Saini (who was fielding very gingerly) came on to bowl in the 3rd innings to support his teammates. And through their combined four Test experience managed to extract 20 Australian wickets.

Each and every one of those batters showcased why they had made it into the international side. From Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar’s valiant assault in the second innings that rescued India from 6-186 to 7-309 to Cheteshwar Pujara’s impregnable defence and Shubman Gill’s elegant drives that set the platform up perfectly for Rishabh Pant & Co. to storm the castle in the fourth innings.

It was in the final hour of play we saw this new brand of cricket come to fruition, after a series of partnerships had taken India to within 63 runs of victory, they lost Mayank Agarwal. The burden of either pushing for a win or closing off fell on Pant and debutant Washington Sundar.

The two left-handers chose to be fearless and go for the win.. but in all honesty was it really a choice? Had they even considered it a dare to take on the challenge and risk the loss? Did it even cross their mind? Nothing we saw in that final hour was out of character for Pant and we had seen that same drive in Sundar during the second innings.

So how do you beat a man that just plays the way he plays?

How do you beat a team unburdened by consequence and fear?

It seemed Australia just couldn’t find an answer as India won by 3 wickets and recorded the highest ever run chase at the Gabba to take the series 2-1. A testament to this new brand of cricket. The beginning of a new era.

A lifetimes worth of emotions rolled into five days

15 Monday Dec 2014

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The entire cricketing world stopped spinning on the 25th of November. It remained frozen in time as Australia and the rest of the world mourned the loss of Philip Hughes until the first test between India and Australia began at the Adelaide Oval on the 9th of December.

The opening ceremony of the test was a beautifully dedicated moment towards Hughes. 408 was painted onto the pitch, Hughes was named 13th man and the crowd applauded for 63 seconds in honour of Hughes’ final score.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first, David Warner was clear from the start on his intent. He smashed three fours from both the second and third over and seemed to be in as great form as ever. It took until the fourth over for a bouncer to be bowled by a brave Varun Aaron and cricket finally started to feel normal again. India removed Chris Rogers and Shane Watson fairly quickly but fell behind as Warner continued to score at more than a run-a-ball. By the 25th over, he had scored 77 runs and raised his bat twice at 50 and 63 to once again commemorate his teammate .

David Warner and Michael Clarke dominated the Indian bowlers through the day. They seemed untroubled and Warner reached his century with ease. Clarke’s injuries flared up again and he retired hurt on 60 with Australia at 206-2 giving India the chance to break through with a new unsettled batsman. Steve Smith who has been in great form continued in the place of Clarke and pushed the score on. Australia went on to score an immense 517 runs with three centurions including Smith who ended on 162 not out, Warner and Clarke who came back out to play after retiring hurt.

517 seemed like a daunting total in itself but appeared almost laughably unattainable considering the very young Indian team, their performance in England, and the fact that they were playing away against the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris under the stand-in captain Virat Kohli.

India’s innings got off to a much slower start than Australia’s and Shikhar Dhawan fell early chopping one onto his stumps. Cheteshwar Pujara steadied the innings scoring 73, he seemed much more comfortable here than in England. Murali Vijay fell on 53 to bring Virat Kohli out. On the first ball, Kohli was hit on the helmet from a bouncer by Johnson  and the entire Australian team which had a reputation for being aggressive and intimidating rushed to his side. It seemed that Australia had changed.

Kohli, like Pujara, appeared much more comfortable here than in England, he went on to score an incredible century. With contributions from Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma, India ended on what was a respectable total of 444. Except for Kohli, four of India’s top batsmen appeared to settle into the innings with three scoring half centuries and yet they all got out without converting their figures into big scores.

Australia still had a 73 run lead and built up their lead on day four to 363 runs with David Warner scoring another century in the test. This was the second time Warner scored two centuries in one test this year. Only five other batsmen had ever achieved this. Tensions rose during his innings as Warner was given out to a ball and then recalled after it was deemed a no ball. Warner taunted Varun Aaron as he came back having been given a send off by the bowler and captain. Dhawan also got involved and cricket appeared to be recovering to its fiercely passionate self once again.

Day 5. Target for Australia: 10 wickets. Target for India: 364 runs.

The target for India would have been a draw had it been an older team or a different captain. In fact a draw would have been the target for most teams. Virat Kohli however, had his sights set on the win. At no point did India look like they would attempt to bat through the day to draw the game.

Dhawan and Pujara fell early, the pitch was a truly intimidating day five pitch and no team would have liked to be chasing a 300+ total on it.

Kohli came onto the pitch to join Vijay and the game changed. The first debut captain to score two centuries in an test. He appeared to be floating above the ground, he did not put a foot wrong. On a pitch that would have had any batsman second guessing himself, Kohli had reached his zone. Vijay was at one end playing on the day five pitch and scored an admirable 99 whilst Kohli was playing as though it was day 1 again and India were batting first.

Another twist in the match occurred again just as India were cruising as Vijay fell to Nathan Lyon. Rahane and Sharma couldn’t hold on either as Lyon bested them with his sharp turn and bounce. On 141, Kohli appeared to momentarily come out of his trance as he mishit one straight to Mitchell Marsh. Possibly the most gut wrenching moment for Kohli who had brought India within 60 runs of what could have been one of the most incredible wins ever.

The final three wickets fell quickly and Australia had won the first test by 48 runs with Nathan Lyon taking a seven of the wickets in the fourth innings.

The match was truly competitive game that brought in every aspect of the sport. Through its aggressiveness, passion and record breaking cricket it was the perfect way to get the cricketing world spinning again.