The first match against Bangladesh certainly was a nail biting one! Their batting was excellent, and 250 runs on the board was no mean task to chase. Of course, India really had no choice.
I groaned when Bangladesh won the toss. The batting team would have an advantage for sure on that pitch. Plus, the sultry heat was killing. A team out in the field for the first half of the day would have spent huge energy reserves and would already have begun their battle with the heat and humidity way before they got to put any runs on the score board. But someone had to bat first, and it turned out to be Bangladesh.
Sehwag was in and Utthapa was out,and that was irritating me too, not because I don’t like Sehwag, because I do, but because he wasn’t in dependable form these days, and this was a match we just couldn’t afford to lose.
As I watched, the Bangladeshis ripped apart our bowling attack steadily. Waiting for wickets to fall was almost an agony. Nothing seemed to be happening much on that front and wickets were really sparse. Our fielding was a little clumsy the way I saw it too. And I just watched helplessly till the Bangladeshis took their score up to a nice 250 runs in 47 overs for 7 wickets, most of which were in the end overs.
Lunch was a distracted affair, looking at “Fourth Umpire” on Door Darshan, to see what kind of hope India had…. and it was all the same….. They have no choice. If they want to protect their name, they HAVE TO win. Cool, but what are their chances? Nothing helpful was coming to reassure me.
Then we came on to bat, and Gambhir and Sehwag ripped apart through their attack like no one’s business. The boundaries were flowing. Things were looking like they were in the mood to wrap up the match in 25 overs. Serious “men on fire” stuff. And then, Gambhir was gone. Rasel, I must say got whacked all over the place by the two of them, but he also got their wickets way early in the match and had brought Bangladesh within an inch of victory. Also their fielding. When I saw them whizzing every which way and stopping runs and keeping things really tight, I had this grudging admiration. I wanted to yell out to our side, “Look guys! This is how its supposed to be.”
Ok, we were still doing good. Dhoni was in, so I was looking forward to plenty more of the same. This guy is gloriously spectacular with his bat.
But before that more of the same could happen, Sehwag was gone, and India was sky high with the runrate, but had lost two wickets way too early in the match. The score was nowhere near where we had to go. Yuvraj Singh came and went. Dravid came in with a hope of stability and he managed some, but couldn’t take it ahead. He went too. Dinesh Mongia was more of the same. And we were at the dead end of our batting at 144 for 5 with over a hundred runs to go for victory. The tailenders couldn’t be counted on for such a performance. They were bowlers, not batsmen. You could see the Bangladeshis partying in their minds. Our run rate was good, but we were out of chances for slipping up anywhere and had a long way to go.
And as we watched, Dhoni made that transition from hard hitting boundary blazing rocket to anchor that makes me fall in love with him all over again. A strike rate of 77 is very good for a batsman, but not Dhoni. Dhoni is 133! But we watched patiently as he stuck to his guns and Dinesh Kartik came to give him company. They just parked themselves there. They were playing and they were going nowhere toward the dressing room. They had come to stay!
It was a nail biting time all through, with Dhoni visibly in pain with cramps and Yuvraj coming in as his runner. Not surprising, as he had been under pressure as the wicket keeper and had come in third to bat and stuck on ever since in that terrible heat. I dare say if the pressure had cramped some of his flashy batting, the cramps did the same too, as he stuck his ground and played for ones and twos. Yuvraj did the running around really well, with some very close calls. The required rate was always just hovering at the range of possible. Never looking comfortable or impossible, so it was nail biting for Bangladeh as well.
Patient singles, doubles and the occasional boundary was the note of the day. And the rest, folks, is history. We won! Not the thumping victory that would bring credit to the Indian team’s status in cricket, but certainly better than the defeat that looked inevitable until Dhoni made that incredible anchoring innings.
Karthik got the fastest 50 and Dhoni was the man of the match! No surprises there. Way to go! From here, tomorrow, and on the 15th, I can only hope we seal this shaky victory with resounding ones that pack matches a couple of hours early, like our collective ego needs to.
