Dear Editor,
One great cricketer, captain and commentator, the late Ritchie Benaud often remarked after a thrilling match that ‘cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties’. He would have experienced that firsthand being the captain of Australia in the memorable Tied-Test against the West Indies some six decades ago. The changing fortunes in last Saturday’s epic spectacle in the ICC T/20 Final between India and South Africa have once again brought to the fore that discipline and fighting spirit are the most essential qualities needed in any sporting exercise if one is to come out on top. Cricket is a very peculiar sport and the only game that is being played in three different formats, Test matches, ODI (50 overs), and T/20. Test matches are considered the purest form of cricket and their records are stored in the Wisden.
In the past, I never appreciated T/20 cricket since it was mostly franchise cricket sponsored by wealthy corporations and individuals dominated by batsmen hitting sixes and with crowds mainly there for entertainment. However, when the ICC started sponsoring T/20 World Cup matches my interest grew for this format. The recent CPL matches in the Caribbean made the matches more real since it was no longer the batsmen’s paradise and teams won by putting in their best bowling and fielding. Everyone expected the highest quality of cricket from the two best teams that went undefeated in the World Cup and a competition that went down to the wire and watched by millions around the world.
Further there was no better venue for such a spectacle than the Kensington Oval in Barbados that lighted up the stand with presence of past great cricketers like Sobers, Garner, Hall et al., and not to mention, even the Barbados currency carries the names of the three Ws – Weekes, Worrell and Walcott. This brings me back home and memories of Dave Martins’ famous calypso ‘Where are your heroes, Caribbean’.
India after winning the toss, elected to bat and put up a competitive total of 176. After gaining two early South African wickets India might have thought they had South Africa’s back against the wall. However, South Africa recovered splendidly and was cruising towards victory at 151 for 4. With 26 runs needed in 30 deliveries, South Africa needed less than a run a ball and six wickets in hand but the battle was not over in normal time. India’s captain, in a dramatic move, entrusted the ball to his champion bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, and the dynamics changed as the first ball almost bowled David Miller. He later sent down three cracking deliveries to Klaasen that forced the batsman to rethink.
The South African strategy might have been ‘let’s play Bumrah out’ and go after the lesser bowlers, so it was not surprising that when Klaasen chased a wide slower ball from Hardik Pandya, he got a thick outside edge and wicketkeeper Pant did the rest. Bumrah’s next over was devastating as commentator Ravi Shastri remarked he is telling the ball what to do and making it talk as he scattered the stumps of Marco Jansen. The last two overs, South Africa needed 22 runs for victory. Arshdeep Singh was given the penultimate over; each of his deliveries was right in the block hole leaving South Africa needing 18 runs in the last over. One of great finishers of limited over matches, David Miller, lofted a low full toss from Pandya high to the long-off boundary that saw one of the finest catches ever seen in cricket by Surya Kumar Yadav that left Miller stunned. Eventually. South Africa fell some 7 runs short.
The T/20 Final proved that cricket is a game of international stature and needed not only talent but the strong mental capacity of the players to take team over the border. In the final analysis, not only India, but cricket was the real winner. In closing, I must say that the West Indies has much to learn after the team’s lacklustre performance in the World Cup especially the batsmen and fielders who hardly give the necessary support to its formidable bowling attack. The crisis in the West Indies administration has been dealt with by a number of Stabroek News editorials. It was sad to look at West Indies fans covering their faces and bending their heads in agony because of mediocre performances. Hopefully the hosting of the World Cup will provide important lessons for the future.
Sincerely,
Rajendra Rampersaud