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By Sidharth Monga
The test series has ended 0-0
but I am inclined towards calling it NZ-2 and
Ind-0, and I know I am not the only one. They
came here as clear outsiders; they didn’t boast
of a single superstar in their side; they come
from a land where sheep outnumbers humans but,
somehow, carried lion hearts with them. And what
did we do? We complained about pitches. We
complained that they played too defensively.
There’s no secret as to who is smiling at the
conclusion of the series and there’s no secret
as to who enjoyed playing here more.
Cricket has that ability to ruin the plans, that
ability to come up with the improbable. Weren’t
the Kiwis dead and buried even before the series
started? Weren’t they in a big hole when they
were three down for next to nothing in the first
test match? Although they have Indian skippers’
tactics and the pitches to thank, their
resilience and fighting spirit can hardly be
over emphasized.
While a drawn series is not too dramatic an
upset; while some people can continue
criticising Kiwis for being defensive, it is no
mean achievement to not lose to India in India,
ask Aussies for further insight into this.
Kiwis, under Stephen Fleming, have always had an
uncanny knack of dragging the opposition down.
If they aren’t able to raise their level of play
up to the opposition’s, they are very good at
dragging the opponents down to their own level.
One perfectly justifying testimony to this is
the way Sachin has played against New Zealand in
the 4 previous test matches, 2 in NZ and 2 in
India. He scored a 100 runs at an average of 25
in NZ and 71 at an average of 17.75 in the
Indian sequel. If ever there was a side that
drew the defensive side, the non flamboyant
side, the non smiling side to Sachin out, it is
New Zealand. We all know he is at his
devastating best when he is enjoying it out
there, and Kiwis have been good enough to not
let Sachin enjoy batting against them.
What is Stephen Fleming doing on a cricket field
anyways? If he decides to play chess, FIDE will
be more than happy to give him a GM norm based
solely upon his escapades on the cricket field.
He came with the reputation of being one of the
best captains on the world scene today, and he
has done no harm to his reputation in India. The
big reason why two unevenly matched sides
finished at Even Stevens could well be the
skippers. On the one hand, we had Kiwis with a
skipper who probably thinks about the game more
than anyone among the present day cricketers; a
man who seemed to enjoy the challenge he had at
hand, and on the other, we had a combination of
two men who have almost stopped having fun on
the field and who, somehow, didn’t give the
impression that they thought a lot about the
game when off the field.
Where’s the romance, one may ask. They played
like damn computers who had specific plans for
every batsman and bowler before hand. They
didn’t entertain our crowds, one may complain.
They scored runs slowly and had defensive fields
to curb Indian batsmen’s scoring too.
But they weren’t out here to win friends;
instead they were here to not lose the series,
if not to win it. And what’s more romantic than
coming out with an upset stomach and battling
for about 3 hours in the searing heat of
Ahmedabad to save your nation’s honour? What’s
more heroic than taking five wickets in a
session and a half on a pitch which has been
declared dead by Rahul Dravid and John Wright.
Bear in mind these wickets were taken by a fast
bowler and four of those dismissals were brought
by absolute rippers bowled by Daryll Tuffey. Add
to this the run out effected by Daryll, a piece
of fielding even Jonty Rhodes would be proud of.
What’s more courageous than scoring more than 50
in all of your three innings when, apparently,
you aren’t technically equipped to play quality
spinners? Craig McMillan overcame flaws in his
technique to bail NZ out twice in the first test
along with brother-in-law Nathan Astle. Sheer
character shown by the Kiwis!
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