A now familiar, nauseating and now habitual tale unfolded as the marauding English pacers sent the much vaunted or fancied Indian batsmen packing with their tails between their legs and bowled them out for a paltry 148 on the first day of the fifth and final test match of the bilateral series at London's Kia Oval.........
Forgive me for being a sentimental and naive fool but I for one expected a minimum of one batsman to stand up and make himself be counted (notch up a century); beleaguered skipper and oft ridiculed batsman Mahendar Singh Dhoni did come close with a valiant 82 which will go down as one of the most heroic knocks that one was privileged to witness in recent times...........
A sterling 58 run partnership between Messrs Dhoni and Ishant Sharma for the last wicket did not only prolong the Indian innings but also add some substance to it; but the English batsmen soon put paid to whatever little hopes the Indian team had about defending their meagre total as they not only put up an undefeated 62 run partnership for the first wicket but also negated the so called wiles of the Indian pace triumvirate..........
What baffles the mind and raises the blood pressure is the fact that almost all the Indian batsmen seem to be outdoing each other in the quest to locate their long lost off stumps; the so called best young batsman on planet earth Virat Kohli looked like a fish out of the water and ended up shouldering arms to an incoming delivery that would have clattered into the top of his off stump........
While, the so called master tactician and technician Cheteshwar Pujara once again left a gap as wide as the grand canyon between bat and pad; in fact, I for one would venture as far as saying that one could have ended up driving a truck through the gap with space left over for half a dozen cricket balls or so..........
Ajinkya Rahane once again failed to gauge the pace of the pitch and ended up thrusting his bat so far in front of his pad that he ended up scooping a return catch into the waiting hands of under pressure English all rounder Chris Martin who ended up accepting the gilt edged offering with consummate ease...........
Be as it may, team England hold all the cards going into day two of the ongoing test match and team India might soon find themselves facing the ignominy and insult of yet another 3-1 scoreline unless they conjure up a superhuman effort and dismiss the dominating English batting line up for a sub 250 total.........
Will team India buck the trend and redeem both themselves and their flagging fortunes by coming ups with a superhuman effort; well I for one will certainly be praying and hoping for one..........
Forgive me for being a sentimental and naive fool but I for one expected a minimum of one batsman to stand up and make himself be counted (notch up a century); beleaguered skipper and oft ridiculed batsman Mahendar Singh Dhoni did come close with a valiant 82 which will go down as one of the most heroic knocks that one was privileged to witness in recent times...........
A sterling 58 run partnership between Messrs Dhoni and Ishant Sharma for the last wicket did not only prolong the Indian innings but also add some substance to it; but the English batsmen soon put paid to whatever little hopes the Indian team had about defending their meagre total as they not only put up an undefeated 62 run partnership for the first wicket but also negated the so called wiles of the Indian pace triumvirate..........
What baffles the mind and raises the blood pressure is the fact that almost all the Indian batsmen seem to be outdoing each other in the quest to locate their long lost off stumps; the so called best young batsman on planet earth Virat Kohli looked like a fish out of the water and ended up shouldering arms to an incoming delivery that would have clattered into the top of his off stump........
While, the so called master tactician and technician Cheteshwar Pujara once again left a gap as wide as the grand canyon between bat and pad; in fact, I for one would venture as far as saying that one could have ended up driving a truck through the gap with space left over for half a dozen cricket balls or so..........
Ajinkya Rahane once again failed to gauge the pace of the pitch and ended up thrusting his bat so far in front of his pad that he ended up scooping a return catch into the waiting hands of under pressure English all rounder Chris Martin who ended up accepting the gilt edged offering with consummate ease...........
Be as it may, team England hold all the cards going into day two of the ongoing test match and team India might soon find themselves facing the ignominy and insult of yet another 3-1 scoreline unless they conjure up a superhuman effort and dismiss the dominating English batting line up for a sub 250 total.........
Will team India buck the trend and redeem both themselves and their flagging fortunes by coming ups with a superhuman effort; well I for one will certainly be praying and hoping for one..........
No comments:
Post a Comment