How would you rate this result at Chepauk today ?

Carnage at Chepauk !!  One tends to ask – what is the procedure for changing (meaning dropping)  Ishan Kishan & Shreyas Iyer.  Rohit Sharma too failed, but Shreyas played an atrocious shot and Ishan has no place to be a specialist Opener !!  

aerial pic taken by me earlier !

Unlike Ahmedabad, the stadium was full with more than 33000 people roaring but made silent by that atrocious batting display at the start ! 

The Madras Year book 1924 – official commercial and general directory of the Madras Presidency compiled by Hon’ble Diwan Bahadur LD Swamikannu Pillai, states that Madras Cricket Club stood at Wallajah Road, Chepauk and had entrance fee of Rs.25 !! – annual subscription of Rs.40 for playing members and Rs.30 for non-playing members. Its President was  H.B. Lord Willingdon.  Politically the boundaries of what existed as Chepauk division was – Coovum river in the North, east by Sea, South by Pycrofts Road (presently Bharathiyar Salai); west Triplicane High Road, Wallajah Road & Mount road.   

In 1859, Madras Presidency acquired Chepauk palace in an auction – a few years later obtained Govt permission to build pavilion at the palace grounds to Madras Cricket Club. The pavilion was reconstructed in 1892 and was utilized till 1982 when it was demolished as part of the stadium renovation.  Understand that a couple years ago, the lease period of the stadium was extended by the Tamil Nadu government for 21 years from 2015. Again in recent years, it has undergone major renovation  and is new for today’s match to be played under flood lights. 

In ODI no. 4662 – the 5th Match – day night at Chennai today – result card reads India won by 6 wickets (with 52 balls remaining) .. .. chasing a small but tricky 200, Indian fans were in for heartattack as 3 wickets fell with just two runs on board.  Ishan Kishan opened with Rohit Sharma – madly chased a wide delivery to be caught in the slips.  Rohit was given out LBW – exposing what Umpire Call is .. .. Hazlewood’s delivery dipped in from outside off and stuck Sharma on pads.  Umpire immediately gave him out – review suggested – ball pitching outside off, impact in line and hitting the sumps high above – Umpire call !! – strange are the rules – if the same had been given not out, and if the bowler had gone on review, Umpire would have kept his decision of not out !!  then Shreyas Iyer walked in, drove uppishly and walked back in a hurry.

 

King Virat Kohli (who benefitted from that missed catch) and cool KL Rahul took them home.  Kohli departed closer to winning score, Hardik came in.  Raul  was on 91 with India needing five to win. He went for an extra cover drive. He wanted four for it but when it sailed over the rope, he went down on his haunches, wondering what could have been. He was thinking, hit four, then hit six, get the century and the win. Instead he gets just the win and walked off unbeaten on 97 

Earlier, it was the tale of Aussie struggle – after a good start, they were tied down by the spinners.  Their batters collapsed to spin. And as if that wasn't enough, the only specialist spinner that they picked for a World Cup in India began his tournament with figures of 8-0-53-0. Adam Zampa gave away four boundaries - three of them came in one over. He was milked and leaked runs.    Australia need to find more ways to score on slow pitches; they ate up 173 dot balls in total today. Their spinners need to sit on a good length spot and keep the stumps in play. 

Full credit to Indian bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.  Initially the catching was good but towards the end, they perhaps gave away at least 40 odd runs !!  

Well, when the Team wins, most of the mistakes would be forgotten !! 

The first ever ODI played here was Reliance World Cup on Oct 9, 1987.  A match to remember for that opening stand between Sunil Gavaskar & Krish Srikkanth (83) and the sixer hitting Navjot Sidhu.  Then  Kapil Dev's sportsmanship – one of  Jones's two sixes, in his 39 from 35 balls, had been signalled as four; but between innings Kapil concurred with the Australians' insistence that the ball cleared the boundary.   India's target was increased by seemingly  insignificant 2 when India raced past 200 for the loss of only two wickets. McDermott's first four overs went for 31 runs. Closer to finish -  India, with four wickets in hand, needed just 15 from the last four overs; when the last over began, the requirement was 6, with the last man, Maninder Singh, taking strike. He managed two 2s, but was out with India short by a solitary run !! 

 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
8.10.2023 @ 10.19 pm.