Friday 19 December 2008

Mohali Test...Day 1

0909: Welcome to WNWSACWR (What Neo Won't Show and Cricinfo Won't Report, for the uninitiated). The sky is laden and light is so low that upire Daryl Harper is groping in his pocket for the light metre. Finally it's out but Harper is struggling to read the reading. The press box, however, looks more illuminated, more so with the presence of Mike Brearley, Mike Atherton, Angus Fraser and the massive Derek Pringle.

1005: Sehwag proved third time lucky. After two botched attempts to edge Stuart Broad, he nicks it third time and lays the egg -- his 10th Test duck. Grateful Broad adimts even teammates didn't greet him better on his return.

1012: Brearley offered tips to KP in the flight from Chennai to Mohali. I think he is still contributing. A registered psychoanalyst-cum-psychotherapist, I suspect he is a hypnotist as well. Just before the dismissal, Brearley picked up a binocular and gazed at Sehwag who looked in a trance and nicked it.

1043: If Chennai was a great advertisement for Test cricket, Mohali missed that commercial. Crowd is sparse, you have more hair in Sehwag's bullhead. Organisers blame low turnout to exams in school. Flimsy excuse no doubt. Dravid faces the mother of all exams and even he turned up for the match!

1230: Every time a plane passes over the stadium, English fielders look up, as if ECB was supposed to airdrop their saviour. Derek Pringle was overheard saying one of those had Steve Harmison inside. Planes are flying really low, apparently after BCCI assured the airlines that Sehwag is out and there's not much aerial threat for the flying machines.

1538: Nursing a fractured rib and probably a broken heart, KP tried to do a Denis Compton. Compton had famously ran out Vijay Hazare in an Eden Gardens Test with a deft kick from mid-on. But then Compton had also won 54 caps for Arsenal as a footballer! No wonder, Gambhir is safe home.

12 comments:

straight point said...

nice one on dravid...

but sir of they cant turn up for sachin's record...no way they will turn to see dravid...

they didnt came to protest his presence...i guess :)

Anonymous said...

SP, that's a food for thought. Meanwhile, laden sky, gushing wind, we're told it's pretty much England's home condition here.

Gaurav Sethi said...

When will Dravid realise his contribution to cricket humour has only just begun. he must soldier on.

that exam bit was funny.

Som said...

NC, he clears the exam. MSD said let him get to that 30-mark. I expected him to raise his bat after that.

Anonymous said...

So Som, Dravid has likely passed the test......seems like you might have to well defer your plans to write a tribute on him. What say??

Kinka said...

'Moments' of the day looks funny and exquisited....

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, if I had prepared a tribute for Dravid, it would have come handy whenever he retired. No problem for me as such.

One strange thing about pressure is that it leaves one shoulder to rest on another. I guess it's off Dravid's shoulder now and is about to settle on Dhoni's:)

Anonymous said...

Kinka, welcome. Only England failed to see the funny side of it.

Anonymous said...

I think by the time this test ends, Swann will lose whatever remains of his body hair.

On Dravid, ain't this cool... we are starting to cherish and celebrate his fifties!

Som said...

Scorpicity, Swann clearly did a better job than Monty and you still predict he would lose certain aspect of his personality at the end of the Test. What's your prediction on Panesar? You think he would be Full Monty Panesar by then?

Anonymous said...

I thought Swann was unlucky and was hard done by the umps in both the matches on some crucial sitters.

Full mont is a victim. Their stupidity to shield him only for tests etc. all these years won't pay any dividends in toughening him up or learning more tricks in the trade. It so obviously shows.

Also he kind of gives out a "I'm a subdued dude in this team" vibes. Wonder if his team mates makes him feel like that.

Som said...

Scorpicty, he does look little out of sort. Little clumsy and little aloof as well, hanging around as if waiting for an instruction.