Line & Length
R. Mohan
Run out 99 is not national tragedy
June 29, 2007
It's no national tragedy. It was, however, a first of sorts for Sachin Tendulkar who has never been run out before on 99. As a nation we tend to pay such deference to landmarks that all his fans must have felt let down in Tuesday's ODI at Stormont in which Sachin picked up a curious statistical distinction.
It was Sachin's call as he ran the second to try and get to a landmark that is a kind of Shangrila in Indian cricket. Veteran administrator Raj Singh Dungarpur has held a theory for long that Team India has often been ruined by its obsession with individual accomplishments that come with a statistical embellishment.
He has a point there, which is perhaps proved by the inordinate number of ODI centuries that Indian batsmen have scored in a losing cause. Raj Singh's contention is Indian batsmen tend to slow down when into the 80s and 90s, putting individual cause above that of the team. Early in his career, Sachin himself may not have been guiltless with regard to imposing caution when in search of centuries.
In Northern Ireland, Sachin was certainly not guilty of pursuing a landmark to the detriment of team priorities. In fact, his last ODI century, a blazing effort in Baroda, that came off 76 balls was scored in the nick of time before the overs of the West Indian bowlers ran out. There was no sign of selfishness there either. That was also his first century in a winning cause in nearly three years, after having ended up on the losing side even with a couple of 140s, versus Pakistan and West Indies.
The ODI opener may have had a very slow start thrust upon him by the morning conditions, which are always perky in the UK and such other climes. A somewhat two-paced pitch was not conducive to crisp, early stroke making and there was sufficient indication of the mental makeup of the batsman in his hopping defence, his bottom hand constantly slipping off as he tried to ease the ball down.
The fact remains that since the 2003-04 home season, Sachin has not had a century against any of the ODI majors like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. To see him fight it out while also rescuing the Indian innings from the in-form Ganguly's fall was to see new aspects of the batsman that he has evolved into in what, in his case, has to be the season that is beyond the high summer of his career.
As the years roll by, the fluidity is always harder to fund, the early flow quite elusive save in perfect batting conditions when anyone can allow his instincts to take over. This is a fact of life that ageing batsmen have to reconcile to. As wisdom replaces the adventurousness of youth, so too does batting slip into a lesser mode since cruise control is never easy to achieve.
The advantage of youth was symbolised in the bowling of Piyush Chawla who tossed up his leg breaks and googlies with an air of abandon only those with a reputation to achieve rather than to preserve one seem to command. Chawla's intelligent mix of leg spin and the wrong 'un came like a breath of fresh air. Spinners do tend to mature with age but with experience comes tense ways in which economy tends to ride over the hunt for wickets. Harbhajan is one who is suffering the syndrome now. The youth come with boldness and enthusiasm that is always nice to see. Like a rookie golfer knocking the putts in without fear, young sinners attack in a nerveless way. Alas, success tends to inhibit all but the best like Warne and Murali who are in a class by themselves. Chawla has a career ahead of him. His googly to bowl Gibbs was the ball of the day. Let's see how far he goes.
It was Sachin's call as he ran the second to try and get to a landmark that is a kind of Shangrila in Indian cricket. Veteran administrator Raj Singh Dungarpur has held a theory for long that Team India has often been ruined by its obsession with individual accomplishments that come with a statistical embellishment.
He has a point there, which is perhaps proved by the inordinate number of ODI centuries that Indian batsmen have scored in a losing cause. Raj Singh's contention is Indian batsmen tend to slow down when into the 80s and 90s, putting individual cause above that of the team. Early in his career, Sachin himself may not have been guiltless with regard to imposing caution when in search of centuries.
In Northern Ireland, Sachin was certainly not guilty of pursuing a landmark to the detriment of team priorities. In fact, his last ODI century, a blazing effort in Baroda, that came off 76 balls was scored in the nick of time before the overs of the West Indian bowlers ran out. There was no sign of selfishness there either. That was also his first century in a winning cause in nearly three years, after having ended up on the losing side even with a couple of 140s, versus Pakistan and West Indies.
The ODI opener may have had a very slow start thrust upon him by the morning conditions, which are always perky in the UK and such other climes. A somewhat two-paced pitch was not conducive to crisp, early stroke making and there was sufficient indication of the mental makeup of the batsman in his hopping defence, his bottom hand constantly slipping off as he tried to ease the ball down.
The fact remains that since the 2003-04 home season, Sachin has not had a century against any of the ODI majors like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. To see him fight it out while also rescuing the Indian innings from the in-form Ganguly's fall was to see new aspects of the batsman that he has evolved into in what, in his case, has to be the season that is beyond the high summer of his career.
As the years roll by, the fluidity is always harder to fund, the early flow quite elusive save in perfect batting conditions when anyone can allow his instincts to take over. This is a fact of life that ageing batsmen have to reconcile to. As wisdom replaces the adventurousness of youth, so too does batting slip into a lesser mode since cruise control is never easy to achieve.
The advantage of youth was symbolised in the bowling of Piyush Chawla who tossed up his leg breaks and googlies with an air of abandon only those with a reputation to achieve rather than to preserve one seem to command. Chawla's intelligent mix of leg spin and the wrong 'un came like a breath of fresh air. Spinners do tend to mature with age but with experience comes tense ways in which economy tends to ride over the hunt for wickets. Harbhajan is one who is suffering the syndrome now. The youth come with boldness and enthusiasm that is always nice to see. Like a rookie golfer knocking the putts in without fear, young sinners attack in a nerveless way. Alas, success tends to inhibit all but the best like Warne and Murali who are in a class by themselves. Chawla has a career ahead of him. His googly to bowl Gibbs was the ball of the day. Let's see how far he goes.
