If your Cricket memory is
very bright, you may have recalled that ODI at Dhaka on 15.6.2014 when India
won by 7 wickets. Bangladesh made 272/9
and India made 153/3 (no prize for guessing that it was revised target by D/L
method)
To many of us,
Srirangam Rangarajan (Sujatha) was the most intelligent man and his writings mesmerized
us. Srinivasan Venkatraghavan was a
look-alike and perhaps was equally brilliant .. .. among modern day Cricketers,
we adore Ravichandran Ashwin (not only for that brilliant double at Chepauk in
this Test) – more so, for his Cricketing acumen, the way he speaks and the way
he constantly chases changes !! ..
hallmark of a genius.
Looking back,
remembered the bespectacled man who debuted in the 1st Test of against
Australia at this same venue,
Chepauk. It was Test no. 855 played
in Sept 1979. Kim Hughes and Sunil
Gavaskar were the Captains. Playing first Australia made 390,
thanks to centuries by Alan Border [162] and Kim Hughes [100]. From 2 for 75, they had a 222 run
partnership. Kapil Dev bowled well
taking 2 wickets; it was the debutant Dilip Doshi who stole the show taking 6
for 103 off his 43 overs. India replied
soundly making 425 ~ surprisingly no centuries but 50s by Gavaskar, Kirmani who
came in as nightwatchman, Vengsarkar, Yashpal Sharma and 83 by Kapil Dev. John Higgs, a leg spinner took 7
wickets. Australians started their 2nd
innings towards the end of the 4th day and ended up making 212/7 with half
centuries by Hilditch and Border.
Venkatraghavan took 3 and Doshi got 2 wickets. The match ended in a tame draw…… that was a 6
match series. In the next test another
good spinner, Shivlal Yadav debuted.
Doshi is one of only four
Test bowlers that played their first Test after the age of thirty, yet went on
to take more than 100 wickets, the other three being Clarrie Grimmett, Saeed
Ajmal and Ryan Harris. ‘Spin Punch’ was his auto-biography. Doshi is probably
one of the few cricketers who after retiring from the game chose an entirely
different playing field. He was the
Managing Director of Entrack India, a firm that marketted Montblanc pens in
India.
After
delivering a dream performance in front of his home crowd, R Ashwin asked for more positivity, understanding and
pride from the cricket community in India. Ashwin's eight-wicket haul and
century led India to a series-levelling win in Chennai where the crowd made him
"feel like a hero", cheering every move of his on the ground. However, one of the other heroes of India's
incredible success in Australia and here, Rishabh Pant, was not long ago made
to feel like a villain in Indian grounds when the crowds chanted MS Dhoni's
name whenever he made a mistake. Ashwin compared the opinion around Pant to the
one around a young Australia cricketer when asked what he made of Pant's
wicketkeeping.
"I
didn't think I would say this but I am coming out and saying it," Ashwin
said. "But because you are asking me this question, I couldn't think of
anything else. About two months ago we had a cricketer called Cameron Green who
made his debut for Australia. Even before he made his debut, everybody said he
was the next big thing. And as he was playing, I think he got one fifty in the
entire series. I don't think he got a wicket through the series. But how much
he was built up and how much confidence he was given back in Australia made me
reflect and think about how we as a community treat our cricketers when they
come through, the young ones. It gave me a massive perspective. Yes Ashwin’s
perspective is correct .. .. youngsters need to be supported and groomed. There should never be unwanted comparisons
and derisive statements. If Axar had
done well, good, even otherwise when a player gets a chance – he needs solid
support of all to perform well (there is no point in comments like – Axar would
not have played if Jadeja was fit or someother bowler too would have performed
in a pitch of this sort)
India cruised to victory
in a little over a session on the fourth day at Chepauk, Axar Patel collecting
a five-wicket haul on debut as England went down by a crushing margin of 317
runs - emphatic retribution after the tourists had gone 1-0 up on this ground
less than a week earlier. On a
classically subcontinental surface, England twice could barely match the
individual contribution of India's first-innings centurion, Rohit Sharma, and
were left with precious few scraps with which to slink off to Ahmedabad ahead
of the day-night encounter, their six-match winning run in away Tests at a
halt.
The only
slight regret for another enthusiastic crowd came in the absence of another R
Ashwin landmark for them to acknowledge - he finished with 8 for 96, narrowly
short of becoming only the fourth man to score a century and take ten-for in a
Test. Cannot help the feeling that
perhaps Kohli should have continued with him, rather than double left-arm spin
attack towards the end !! but .. .. …
England's task on their
return to the ground was a near-futile one, but there was the potential to
spend time in the middle against India's spinners and salt away knowledge for
the battles ahead. As it was, only Joe Root spent any significant amount of
time at the crease - even 33 from 92 balls was modest by his recent standards -
and barely a shot was played in anger until Moeen Ali thought of IPL auction and tried showcasing
his skills for the IPL franchisees swinging five towering sixes before being
last man out, stumped off Kuldeep Yadav.
Pant was a revelation – made
runs with the bat, caught a couple flying awy from him and made couple of
acrobatic stumpings. Fittingly, the game ended with the ball in the hands of
Rishabh Pant. This was only the sixth time in Tests that a match had featured
five or more stumpings - and India's march to victory on the fourth morning
began with another, as Dan Lawrence charged at Ashwin only to be nutmegged,
leaving Pant to seal his fate after collecting brilliantly down the leg side.
Axar Patel had
a remarkable debut – taking five wickets in an innings in his first Test. He joins an elite list. The first Indian to take a
five-wicket haul was Mohammad Nissar in June 1932 against England. A great classy Vaman Kumar, a leg spinner, took 5/64 against Pakistan but sadly played
just one more test !! Syed Abid Ali took 6 wickets for 55 runs
against Australia. Then there are - Dilip
Doshi, Narendra Hirwani, Amit Mishra, Ravi Ashwin & Mohammad Shami, in that group. Axar has now
registered the seventh-best figures of 5-60 for an India bowler on debut in
red-ball internationals. Narendra Hirwani (8-61, 8-75) is the topper.
Way back in 15th June 2014 at Dhaka against Bangladesh, Axar Patel made his ODI debut alongside Parvez Rasool – in between played IPL, Ranji, T20I and everything else – and at last got his chance at Chepauk.
16.2.2020.
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