Rahane's 20: How an India "A - team" Ajinxed the Australians
For cricket fans, last week has been a rollercoaster, to say the least. The Border-Gavaskar series was poised at a precarious position on the final day. Both teams shared a win from the first two matches, and the third test went for an anti-climatic draw. The Indian (A) team's heroics on the final day with the magnificent batting from "5-innings old" Gill and Pant, along with support from every single player, was simply astounding to watch. Winning the series in the final hour of the final day of the final test indeed felt surreal. To properly give justice to their achievement, we have to look beyond the scoreboards and results because this win was not just for the record books; it was for the soul of Indian Cricket.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is a prestigious test series for Indian Cricket (some say the most), especially Down Under. Australia had never lost a series against India at home until the 2018-19 Indian team's historical win against a bruised and battered Australian side after the infamous "Sandgate" scandal, which banned Steve Smith and David Warner for a year. A few doubted if they would have achieved the same result with a fully strengthened Australian side, which also retained the Ashes in England a year before. The 2019-20 test series was the battleground to answer the question because both teams boasted fully "fit" squads. We knew this was going to be a tough battle and a treat to watch. But no one expected what was about to happen.
The Unfateful Morning
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| Indian Fans listening to Arijit Singh after the match (Photo by Nathan Cowley from Pexels) |
That innings lasted only 128 balls;
1......3.2.1......W..........2.........4..2....W...................W....W...W...4W..........2.....1..2..2......WW..4..1.W.1.4...
The blow did not end there; one of our main pacers, Mohammed Shami, suffered a wrist fracture and was out of the test series. Moreover, our batting stalwart and captain, Virat Kohli, was returning to India on paternity leave. Within a single test match, we lost our best batsman, one of our prime bowlers, and our confidence as a team. Great cricketing minds such as Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, and Michael Vaughan concluded that the team had no chance of coming back, especially without Kohli. Honestly, many people thought so too. How could a team without its key players win against Australia in their backyard? But there was a man who did not believe it was over, that was Ajinkya Rahane, our new "temporary" captain.
The Resurrection
The Border-Gavaskar series has not been kind to temporary captains, Tim Paine can vouch for it. Rahane was expected to join the list. The consensus was that the Boxing day test match would be a continuation of the first test defeat. He had an impossible job on his hand to bring out the best from his bench, primarily from the batsmen. Siraj, Jadeja, and under-19 superstar Shubman Gill were selected to replace those who were injured (or out of form). The match started in favour of the Indians; Bumrah was on song with his new bowling partners and reduced Australians to a low first innings score.
For any chance of a comeback, we required a resurgent batting performance to supplement the bowlers' excellent clean-up. Two events defined the batting innings; the glitz of Shubman Gill and the match-defining partnership of Rahane and Jadeja. If there was a shot that displayed the talent of 21-year-old Gill, it would be his backfoot punch off Cummins and Starc, a shot that generally takes years of practice and mental strength; he does it naturally. It was a short stay with many dropped catches (debut jitters), but his shot selection and class made a statement; Gill is the real deal. On the other hand, our "temporary" captain was doing permanent damage to the Australians by playing his most crucial overseas hundred to date. This allowed India to capture a massive lead of 131 runs. Then came another match-winning performance of a debutant, Mohammad Siraj, who took three crucial wickets to restrict Australians to only 200 runs. With only 70 runs to chase, a win was evident. Rahane rightfully received the Man-of-Match award. From facing their lowest low, a patched-up Indian team turned the tables within two weeks.
The Great Indian Escape
The third test didn't start with good news, Umesh Yadav injured, and KL Rahul, who would have replaced out-of-form Vihari, also got injured in the nets, decreasing the list of fit players. Moreover, Australians are not known to back down from a challenge; it was rest-assured that they will fight back better than ever after the Boxing day defeat. Steve Smith began his new year with a confidence-boosting hundred to overcome his rough patch. Despite Jadeja's bowling and fielding brilliance, Australians were in a commanding position with useful contributions from Pucovski and Labuschagne. A dismal first innings batting display put India at a disadvantage, only to find themselves chasing (read saving) a massive 407 runs for an improbable win. It was inevitable that India had no chance of winning; playing out 131 overs in the fourth innings (never done in Indian test history) while facing the golden trio would be a near impossibility.
On the final day, wicket preservation was the priority because they were one batsman short with Jadeja's injury (another in the bag). The Indians were trying their best to eat up as many balls with Pujara leading the battle. Even Pant, who is known to throw his wicket away by playing rash shots, was defending and playing sensibly, but there was something else brewing up inside him. At the end of 47th over, Pant was on an uncharacteristic 5 runs off 33 balls, with a team total of 116/4. The very next over, he let loose on Lyon by scoring two boundaries, including a six. This was the catalyst for what we saw for the next 30 overs, Pant bludgeoning every bowler left, right, and centre. Lyon ended up having 50-over-esque fielding positions, with four or five fielders at the boundary. The despair on Paine's face was clearly visible; they were scared that Pant will make a mockery out of their declaration. Pant kept playing in his own Big Bash bubble, eerily similar to what Gilchrist would do in the 2000s (leaving his keeping aside) consistently. Sadly, the miracle innings ended at the 80th by mistiming Lyon's ball, but the message was clear, nothing is a safe total in front of this Indian team.
With the new ball at the start of 80th and Pujara back in the pavilion, India had its last recognized batting (and injured) pair duo of Ashwin and Vihari at the crease. Australians were reeling close towards the win with 42 overs left to dismiss Ashwin, who was suffering from severe back pain, and out-of-form Vihari, who had a torn hamstring. The great block-a-thon commenced. Physically they were bruised, but mentally they were resilient. Vihari knew his injury would force him out of the series, and he wanted to make a difference in his final innings. He played with constant pain every time the bat hit the ball. Ashwin tried to ease his pain by facing the maximum balls possible and not rotating the strike too often. When they couldn't use their bat, they bravely used their bodies. Blow after blow, ball after ball, the overs kept ticking. The Australian grew restless, resorting to cheap tactics like sledging. However, karma bit back, especially when Paine sledged Ashwin, only to drop Vihari the very next over. Finally, at 6:10 pm, local time, the block-a-thon ended. The partnership unbeaten at 62 runs off 259 balls, the latter being more substantial than the former. If there ever was a situation where we could consider a draw as a "win," this was it. It still baffles me as to how Test cricket is on the decline in terms of popularity because in no other format can you get this amount of drama and suspense over a game that yields no result.
Injuries, Injuries galore
After the celebrations ended for the third test match, the reality set in. The heroic pair of Ashwin and Vihari were both injured beyond recovery. Another big blow came with the injuries of bowling spearhead Bumrah, along with Jadeja. At this point, India had lost all of its main frontline bowlers, either in the series or before it (Ishant, Bumrah, Ashwin, Umesh, and Shami). Leaving the match related injuries, it was indeed a matter of concern how so many players were getting fatigue-related issues. The problem may lie in the intensive cricketing schedule our players were put through with IPL, T20, and ODI series back-to-back-to-back. The team has to apply work-load management for players in future series, or else we will have to bring even larger squads to away series.
The Test of Debutants
For the final test, India accepted Paine's invitation to their fortress in Brisbane, Gabba, where they last lost a test match in 1988 against a legendary team featuring Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, to name a few. Therefore, it was clear the job was difficult and would require a mammoth team effort. However, it was even more challenging with the bowling line-up India was playing with, featuring a combined total of 13 international test wickets against an Australian side bragging of a total of 1033 wickets. The last time India played with a bowling line-up with lesser number of combined wickets was in 1933; the second-ever test played by the national team. The injuries also allowed India to break another record: most players used in an away series, which now stands at 20. However, records did not faze the young-guns; Natarajan, Thakur, and Sundar took three wickets each in the first innings. Nevertheless, the Australians were able to put up a respectable total of 369 backed by a Labuschagne century. In their reply, Indians faltered midway and fell to 186-6 with Sundar and tail-ender Thakur and the absence of an "Ashwin-Vihari" pair made a comeback very unlikely. But once again, for the umpteenth time, Indian youngsters stood up. Thakur and Sundar built the innings with a fairytale partnership. The valiant efforts of Thakur (aggressor) and Sundar (defender) reduced the Australian lead to mere 33 runs. The young guns took the initiative (again) to make sure Australians do not set a large target similar to the third test match. Thakur complemented his batting performance with a crucial four-wicket haul. The innings' highlight was Mohammad Siraj's five-wicket haul, which showed his mental resilience even after losing his father early and facing racial abuse during the series. The game was evenly poised for both sides, India needed to survive four sessions to salvage a draw (to retain the trophy), and Australia to get them all out within these sessions. Sadly, the rain completely washed out the final session on Day 4. Therefore the equation for the final day was 327 runs from 90+ overs.
The Last Day
Rohit's early wicket hampered the chase, but Gill showed maturity and skills way beyond his age by setting the tempo for the chase. He narrowly missed his maiden century, but from what we saw, he will certainly get many centuries in the coming years. Similar to the third test, Pujara again took the initiative to stabilize the innings. He made the bowler toil hard for his wicket, even deliberately taking body blows, including the helmet, to avoid edging or gloving the ball. At the other end, Pant was playing himself in and learning from his mistakes of the third test. The big blow came in the last session with the wicket of Pujara and Mayank Agarwal in quick succession with the second new ball. New batsman Sundar and Pant had to be careful with their approach; they were the last recognized pair (similar to Ashwin-Vihari). A similar block-a-thon was on the cards because a draw would have sufficed to retain the trophy. However, the batsmen thought otherwise. That was the difference between the young generation and the old; they fight for the win till the end.
Based on a very credible study performed
by professional arm-chair experts
After a few overs of defensive play, the chase's turning point arrived with Sundar's hook against the world's number one test bowler, Pat Cummins, to hit a six over fine leg; both the batsman and bowler were surprised with the result. Taking this as the cue, Pant finally broke his shackles and unleashed fury on the 100th test veteran, Nathan Lyon, reducing the required target to a mere 10 runs. A series that started with a prediction of a whitewash, ended with Australians pleading for rain on the final day. But fate did not want Indians to celebrate prematurely. In the heat of the moment, Sundar was dismissed playing a juvenile reverse-sweep, and then immediately Thakur lost his wicket too with only 3 runs to win. Pant realized he had to finish the match quickly because Australia only needed 3 good balls to finish off India. Therefore, on the last ball of the 97th over, Pant hesitantly hit a low full toss off Hazlewood towards the long-off boundary. For such a high paced series, the final act was traversed ironically as a slow-motion cinematic shot. Both batsmen saw an opportunity to get a few runs, only to realize the ball trickled into the boundary. Celebrations erupted from the dug-out; records were shattered along with the Australian hearts, especially for Tim Paine, who was possibly looking at the end of his Test captaincy and career. India beat the mighty Australians for the third consecutive series (once in India, twice in Australia).
Tim Paine (actor) contemplating his position in the team.
(Photo by jose aljovin on Unsplash)
Accolades came from all over the world, from cricketing pundits, current players and people beyond the cricket community, including the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. They deserve all the recognition and some more, considering India, with a "reserve" team (a.k.a India A), won against an all-experienced Australian side with all their key players. In the face of adversity, the team bounced back EVERY SINGLE TIME. We have to be grateful that India has such a diverse pool of talented players on the sideline. One thing is certain, the future of Indian cricket is in good hands. We also have to congratulate the Australians for their incredible cricketing spirit to keep us on our toes every minute of every match.
This unbelievable series win felt even more special due to the difficult circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic. We could set aside the pain and sorrow of these troubling times and enjoy watching the highest quality of cricket. Moreover, this generation of Indian cricket fans always envied their parents because they were fortunate (and old) enough to watch some of the greatest matches of the past, such as the 2001 Eden Gardens test, 1983 World cup, and Tendulkar’s Sharjah Sandstorm, to name a few. And now, we have the opportunity to do the same for the next generation and boast how a group of inexperienced Indians brought Australians down in their own backyard.
Hence, after a month of uncountable comebacks and injuries, Indians fans can finally go back to a regular sleep schedule and continue our dull lives to reminisce the unscripted cinematic masterpiece we watched from the comfort of our homes.
Rating: Freakin_Amazing/10
Freakin_ama-zinxed....
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