India win against odds at Lucknow !!

 

In some ways, Indian fans were thinking that law of average would catch up and it did appear at the start – till atleast close of Indian innings, yet Team India won by 100 runs today at Lucknow !!

 

Some of us would never forget that ignominy of  202 run defeat at Lords on June 7, 1975.  Do you know or remember the fame of a batsman who was born at Byculla in Bombay, Maharashra on June 30, 1941 !?!?   

As I watched the  match, that ball from Kuldeep jumped, turned and shot fast from the surface – a killer beauty – delivered from over the wicket – Kuldeep Yadap pitched it wide outside off, extracted a sharp turn as it coming in beat the batter Jos Butler to clean him up !  - what a delivery !

 

Today Jos Butler won the toss and opted to field – for 50 overs,  England bowling with venom and fielding with spirit and commitment, had the game in control restricting India to 229 ..    King Kohli who had been the lynch pin was out for a duck and that perhaps tested the side which replaced Hardik Pandya with Suryakumar Yadav – one bowler short and a strengthened batting line up ! 

Having watched Kohli right from U19 days, he is a livewire and brings in lot of charm on to the game – be it taking catches running hard in the deep, throwing flat, running fast in between the wickets and scoring runs and tons – he is supreme – a great performer of all times.  There was a time when he took a break and talked about mental toughness – there was a very short period when he had not touched the bat in a whole month.  The way he has been performing – India should win the WC with Kohli scoring a century in the finals !! 

Today the Scorecard reads :  India 229 for 8 (Rohit 87, Suryakumar 49, Willey 3-45) beat England 129 (Livingstone 27, Shami 4-22, Bumrah 3-32) by 100 runs.  

A target of 230 on Indian soil is imminently gettable but Indian bowlers did a marvelous job. How will the captain and the Coach Rahul Dravid explain keeping out Mohammad Shami for Shardul Thakur !   As it occurred, Shami,   ripped the heart out of England to keep India undefeated. Shami claimed 2 for 4 from three overs inside the first powerplay in a breathtaking spell and Jasprit Bumrah 2 for 17 from five as England lurched to 40 for 4 after 10 overs. Shami  came back to claim  two more, Kuldeep, Jadeja  and Bumrah ensured India romping  to a 100-run victory with 15.1 overs to spare. 

England needed something big from Jos Buttler, their besieged captain, who had managed just 95 runs from the first five games, including a highest score of 43 in the opening match against New Zealand. But Kuldeep Yadav ensured Buttler's lean run continued with a gem of a delivery that turned ferociously from outside off and crashed into the top of middle and off to send him on his way for just 10 and leave England reeling at 52 for 5. 

Bizarrely, England have still not been eliminated from this competition and even after the guillotine falls they will have plenty of motivation for their three remaining fixtures. It emerged before the game that the qualification process for the next Champions Trophy had been changed – in 2021, without a whisper of public announcement – so that only the top seven teams in this tournament’s group stage (or eight, should the hosts, Pakistan, be among the seven) would be involved. Amazingly, nobody in the England camp had any idea.   

Retreating back to June 7, 1975 – it was the first match of the inaugural Prudential World Cup – a 60 overs aside tournament.  England amassed 334/4 and won by 202 runs.   

Anshuman Gaekwad,  Karsan Ghavri &  Mohinder Amarnath made their ODI debut while John  Alexander Jameson, the man born in Byculla in 1941 opened with Dennis Amiss and faced the first ball of WC from Madanlal.  Dennis Amiss led the way with 137, well supported by a solid 68 from Keith Fletcher. Chris Old bludgeoned with a 28 ball 50.  It was a turgid pathetic bitter inept batting by Indians with main culprit being Sunil Gavaskar. Dejected Indian fans pathetically pleaded with him to die fighting," reported the Cricketer.  He made an unbeated 36 off 174 deliveries with a solitary boundary at a strike rate of 20.68!!!  Perhaps it was his way of hitting back at his captain S Venkatraghavan.  The team manager GS Ramchand came out with harsh statement but he Board took no action.   

An Indian win always makes the fans rejoice and today it came from nowhere in a match were many thought – the team had lost with their batting failure, except Rohit Sharma and later Suryakumar Yadav

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
29.10.2023