Eighteen
years back in the evening of 22nd June the whole India were treated
to the welcome note sung by the two young Indian batsmen making their way into
the grind of international test cricket. It was the second test of India’s tour
of England and in an extremely messy scenario, perfectly exampled by the Indian
team quite a few times during that era, those two young men were playing their
first test match in the ‘Head-quarters’, the Lords.
India was
already behind in the test series thanks largely to a very mediocre batting
performance in both the innings of the Trent Bridge test match. Even a Sachin
Tendulkar century was not enough for a team to save the test match for whom the
next best score in that innings was 18. Clearly something has to give and it
was obvious that Tendulkar needs some support in the other end to build his
innings and also for India to make some sizable total.
To make
matter worse, Navjot Singh Sidhu, one of the mainstay of the Indian batting
line up walked out of the tour just before the second test due to an ugly spat
with then Captain Mohammed Azharuddin. Already there were talks of giving
chance to one of the newbie’s Sourav Ganguly to make his debut in Lords.
Ganguly just played two ODIs before that with a gap of more than 4 years
between them. But his 46 in the last One day was a good innings and he was
generally in a good form during the tour with couple of centuries in the first
class matches against the counties and other minor teams.
The other
option in the middle order was Rahul Dravid. Despite being a prolific run scorer
in domestic cricket Rahul was quickly gaining the dubious reputation of being a
‘domestic tiger’ much like Raman Lamba and some others due to the poor return
in his first few ODIs. From his debut in April of that year till that test,
Rahul played 5 ODIs scoring only 43 runs in those. But he also got a chance in
that last ODI along with Sourav and made quick unbeaten 22 of 15 at the death.
Hence when Sanjay Manjarekar was deemed injured before the second test then
Rahul replaced him in the number 7 position in the batting line up.
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| (Source: Internet) |
India won
the toss and put England in. England with a very strong top order with
Atherton, Stewart, Hussain, Thorpe and Hick found an unlikely hero in their
eccentric wicketkeeper Jack Russel, whose 124 along with support from Thorpe,
who scored 89, took England to 344. For India, Venkatesh Prasad, playing his
second test, put his name in the Lords Honour board with five wickets. Srinath
got 3 and Ganguly with his slow medium pace utilized the condition and pitch to
get enough swing to finish with two big scalps of Hussain and Hick.
At the end
of second day’s play India was 83 for loss of two wickets with Ganguly and
Tendulkar in the middle. India kept losing wickets in regular interval on the third
day and at 202 for 5 was at the risk of getting allout below 300. Ganguly was
solid in one side but needed support. Rahul Dravid came out of the dressing
room and joined Sourav to bat in his first test match. Rest as they say is
history. That day, their partnership of 94 runs was the first of many such
partnerships in next 12 years. Ganguly got that elusive debut century at Lords
to get out for 131. Dravid built important partnerships with his Karnataka team
mates Kumble and Srinath but unfortunately got out just 5 short of his debut
hundred.
That test
match ended in a draw but the course of Indian cricket was changed that day.
Those two youngsters with their talent and capability drive Indian cricket to
many new peaks and accomplishment throughout their career.
Together
they have scored almost 43,000 international runs to go with 137 wickets and
almost 600 catches. I can keep listing their 100’s and 50’s but these dry
statistics cannot completely illustrate their contribution to the Indian
cricket. They are two ideal ‘Sportsman’ in true sense of the term and as
leaders and as great performers they are well respected and loved by thousands
of fans and critics all over the cricketing world and beyond.
Let’s move
forward to 2014. India is playing another test match in Lords and the
surroundings are very similar to that 96 tour. India has not won an away test
match for over 2 years during which they have played 15 test matches outside
home. People are asking questions about the team combinations and line up. To
add to that, things got messier with India’s complaint against James Anderson
and England’s counter-complaint against Ravindra Jadeja just before the start
of the test matches. India again has a young batting line-up and although no
one is making their debut but two of them have played less than 10 test matches.
Among them Ajinkya Rahane played just 6 test matches and all though he already
scored his maiden test century in New Zealand it’s safe to say that he is still
finding his feat in the longer version of the game.
After the
slow lifeless pitch in Trent Bridge during the first test, the Lords pitch was
completely different. It is the most greenish pitch produced in Lords in ages
and just before the test match the tweeter and other social media sites were
buzzing with ex-cricketers and cricket followers exclaiming their surprise in
such a green pitch.
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| (Source: Internet) |
India lost
the toss and was sent in by England. The pitch had lots of life in it and Indians
had quite a difficult time throughout the first session. But after a relatively
better first session where they scored 78 runs with loss of just 2 wickets
India lost their way in the middle session and when they lost their 7th
wicket with 145 on board even 200 looked like a distant dream. Rahane came to
bat at the fall of 3rd wicket and by the time the 7th
wicket fall he reached 26. Although he looked solid but there was a possibility
that he could run out of partners.
But
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was not ready to give in easily; he became just the right
ally for Rahane playing very sensibly with a mindset and technique of a batsman.
And as the pressure were off from his shoulder Rahane became more and more
assured and with the second new balls coming to bat more quickly he started
playing his shots which included a wonderful lofted six of Anderson, arguably
England’s best bowler of the day. Although Kumar got out with Rahane at 78 he
found more able support in Mohammed Shami and finally reached his first Lords’
century with punch through point boundary.
It is a
memorable innings played in a difficult pitch with the team in dire straits.
Rahane is slowly making his name in test cricket and getting the reputation of
not only Top-class test batsman but also someone who has the traits to build
long partnership with the tail, an enviable quality for any middle order
batsman.
18 years
back those two gentlemen made an entire generation of cricket followers falling
in love with their brand of cricket. And although we do not know whether India
will be able to snatch a win or not but we can just hope that Ajinkya Rahane
will be able to create many such generations of fans with other great innings
like this one.
