India must make their own statement!

Getting up at four (IST), well an hour before the Indian batsmen undertake an arduous, rather a near impossible, journey for glory at Melbourne, reminds me of the days in the eighties when we would not be able to sleep the whole night in anticipation of a great telecast from Australia.

It used to be a tremendous telecast with crystal clear pictures and mind-blowing action replays considering the telecast standards that prevailed in India at that time. One can still recall with amusement how Srikaanth backed away nonchalantly and fooled everybody after dislodging a bail. He even had the gumption to put it back on. But for those action replays, one would have never known that kind of drama. That the Indian team was almost equal to Australia in mid-eighties also helped the matters a lot.

Coming back to Melbourne, I could not sleep tonight (the whole neighbourhood is still pitch dark), because I still hope that this Indian team can leave Melbourne with a good batting display, a display which may not win them the match, but which will surely be a solid statement for the next three matches.

India will badly need to make a statement with the bat because Ponting, by setting a target of 499 when he could have easily gone for 525-550, made a statement that the Australians were brave enough to be prepared to lose, in order to win. After all, statistically speaking, a strike rate of 47 should be good enough to take India through. Even though no team has lasted hundred overs in this match.

Now the Indians must be brave enough to resist even if they lose some early wickets. As Sunil Gavaskar had said yesterday, they must not think of 180 overs or 499 runs. They must play it ball-by-ball, session-by-session and keep rotating the strike.

They will also do well to remember Steve Waugh’s words at Sydney four years ago. Faced with a daunting Indian first innings score of around 700 and in danger of losing the final test and the series, the about-to-retire skipper had said that Australia will fight till the last man standing. And they managed to escape with a draw!

Surely, a draw is impossible here unless bad weather intervenes, and an Indian defeat looks the most likely outcome, but the visitors must go down with all guns blazing. They will make their own statement this way.

Related Links
http://atulsondhi.blogspot.com/2007/12/if-you-do-not-score-australia-will.html

http://atulsondhi.blogspot.com/2007/12/india-look-doomed.html