Dream sequence 1: 2nd day afternoon. The swinging ball. 3 young seamers bowling out of their skins. Much famed Aussie batting under fire. Role reversal. This was supposed to be the scorecard of the Indian batting. This was WACA! Fightback followed by another dream within a dream sequence- first Kumble getting Symonds against the run of play and then RP getting Gilchrist with that classic ball.

Dream sequence 2: 3rd day late afternoon. Golden antipodean sunshine beats down at the WACA ground. The channel 9 camera shows a close up of Phil Jaques’s flummoxed countenance. Looks of a fish out of water. He has just dug out a superb yorker from Pathan. There was an air of inevitability about the next ball. Perfectly pitched. Movement off the air. Pathan seemed destined to bowl it as much as Jacques seemed destined to edge it. Edged to Jaffer at 4th slip. Wasim would have been proud.

Dream sequence 3: 4th day morning. A 19 year old who had lost his run up the previous day bowling to the world’s best batsman. Perfect WACA length. Bounce and carry. Sharp movement into the body of Ponting, one of the best player against fast bowling ever. But tell that to CEL Ambrose. And just ask the Aussies of that 7-1 spell in 1993. It is this kind of disconcerting bowling which makes any Aussie from that era, be it Waugh or Border, to unhesitatingly acknowledge Ambrose as the best fast bowler that they had played against. At 6’5″, Ishant Sharma in the 10th over of his great spell, bowled an Ambrose-at-his-devastating- best ball. Nostalgia. Same length and most importantly, this one held its line. And Ponting did what many Aussies before him had been forced to do again and again by that great fast bowler- edge it. Ponting gone. And you know that the Aussies may be down but are never out. But one just could not ignore the feeling seeping through that even though there were a few more battles to be fought, this particular war had been won.

…

Shamed by a gutsy tailender, India’s celebrated batting order wilted in the face of the antipodean surge. It was hard to avoid thinking that hthey have aged together. Most of them were beaten on the front foot. Virender Sehwag imitated his opening partner by driving with a stiff front leg. Rahul Dravid probed at a delivery better left alone, and Tendulkar was confounded by a fast, straight ball. For a batsman of his class, Tendulkar loses his timbers or is trapped plumb in front surprisingly often.

Sourav Ganguly wafted at a swinging delivery demanding closer scrutiny. He has had a poor match and illness alone cannot account for his weak work with the willow. His inability to transfer his weight forward into his strokes brought about his downfall. He seems to play better when he is arguing with someone.”

Only one person can write like

that.

I really hope that we show them we do…

He articulates that western political correctness is neo-racism. Too strong a word? I don’t think so.

Well, its a funny old world, Debolin, where :-

(a) The best-loved rapper is white
(b) The best-loved golfer is black
(c) The French accuse others (USA) of ‘arrogance’, &
(d) Germany is carefully avoiding the many opportunities of going to war.

And oh, yes, where Pakistan & Saudi Arabia are described as front-line partners in the fight AGAINST terrorism !!

——————————————————————————–
« Kangaroo Courts and Bent Umpires
——————————————————————————–