Eating My Words

It isn't every day that the Indian team makes me eat my words, but it was a pleasant change over the course of the last test match to be done that. They played some out of the world cricket to blast South Africa out in their own den. Suddenly, the statisticians came up with numbers as to how India has been doing great in test cricket under Greg Chappell and how pathetic South Africa has been in that form under Mickey Arthur, a thing which baffles me. Where were these statisticians when India was being belted black and blue? I guess it just proves that you can twist numbers in any which way to come up with the kind of picture you want to project. Otherwise, they could have come up with these numbers much before the test series started so that people like me would have kept our mouths shut and wouldn't have made such a big fool of ourselves. Anyway, this was one time where I was very happy to be made a fool of.

Having beaten them once, I am hoping against hope that we don't fold up in the next test. There are lots of things working against us in Durban. For starters, it is generally a green top and where the ball doesn't just talk, it shouts. As has been chronicled umpteen times, India has folded up to 100 and 66 there. I certainly feel we'll do better than that this time, but have we got what it takes to win? The South African team which blew us out for those pathetic scores was much different from this current lot. That bowling lineup had the fearsome Allan Donald, a much quicker Shaun Pollock, sledge guru Brian McMillan, and a very young Lance Klusener. Though, like now, they had a similarity in attack to them, I guess they had slightly more discipline to them. I am sure they wouldn't have sprayed the ball around so much, except for Lance Klusener of then. On top of that, the Indian batsmen of those days had lesser belief in themselves while dealing with anything bouncing over their knees and anything swinging more than a millimeter. Things have improved somewhat nowadays, with the batsmen ready to apply themselves more. Add to that the fact that we aren't as dependent on one Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, whose dismissal to a peach of an incutter from Donald in that match resulted in much of that rout, and we have a slightly better team now.

How will South Africa respond is something to ponder. Will they hit India with more pace or will they bring in some variety in their attack. Spin might not be such a big option as I don't think they have a good enough spinner who could trouble Indian batsmen in their pitches. Will they go for a green top, knowing well that India could exploit it better than them if we were to win the toss and bowl first? Or will they just sit back and hope for India to be complacent?

The last option looks the best of the lot since it won't be the first time India would have done something similar. Our test victories overseas have been so rare in the past that any win nowadays is a historic event. I read everywhere comparing India's celebrations after the Wanderers test similar to that of Australia's after their Perth victory over England. What was forgotten, though, was Australian's were celebrating a series victory, we weren't. The series is still very much alive for us. But then, after having copped brickbats for the last 4-5 months, I guess the boys were pretty relieved with any victory. I just hope the Indians will continue to make me eat my words.