India vs Australia 2008-09: First Test, Bangalore

India vs Australia 2008-09, Previewing the 1^st Test at Bangalore.

Bare facts:

• Dates: 9^th Oct - 13^th 2008


• Time : Play at 9.30 am (0400 GMT); Coverage 8.30AM


• Venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore


• Weather: Weather City, Yahoo! OurCity, CNN-AccuWeather


• Live Telecast (Cable TV and Web): Neo Sports

One looks forward to a contest between two good teams in cricket. It makes you stop at the edge of the park and watch on, making you forget the reason you stepped out onto the road. It is possible that instead of urging along on business, one may be found stretched out on one's side at the grassy verge, head supported by an elbow-stand, sucking the juices of the game out of a succulent blade of grass, unmindful of the sun, heat, the hour, schedule and responsibility. One convinces oneself about the way around all those. I cannot speak for others but I have often been found in such a situation, and not always with a gratifying end to the day, if I may warn you.

There's a bit of that tonight: going into tomorrow, one is already pulsating with a wide variety of tactics, with a Plan A and a Plan B and at least one more, a Plan C, throbbing in readiness to unleash themselves, to apply themselves, poised to step in for the one which just petered out - one is preparing to be found stretched out on the verge watching the match, at the expense of routine and with all the risks involved. But there is a mitigating factor - tomorrow is Vijayadasami (Dussehra), a festival and holiday, and that generally means to me the possibility of some spare time and less use for alternative plans. But they are throbbing neverthless, straining at their leashes, to get a good bite into the game. There may not be any grass on my sofa-verge tomorrow, climate control instead of open skies, and a TV surrogating for being at the ground, but that's easily created.

However, all that may not be. Let's see how -

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Overnight Temperature: 19°C

A mix of cloudy and clear skies with a slight chance of showers or thundershowers. 0 to 1 mm of rain.


Thursday Morning Temperature: 23°C

A mix of sun and cloud with showers likely. Chance of a thunderstorm. 2 to 4 mm of rain.


Thursday Afternoon Temperature: 26°C

A mix of cloud and sun with a few showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. 5 to 9 mm of rain.


Thursday Evening Temperature: 22°C

A mix of clear and cloudy skies with showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. 8 to 15 mm of rain. ^{Weather City}

Or maybe CNN-AccuWeather ? (See weather map/graphic in "Resources" section below)

So you get the picture - this is going to be a rain-hit match and will need something exceptional for it to produce a contest. And therefore all of one's plans throbbing impatiently with pulsating tactics, ready to be flung at the throats of each team, may be becalmed to a nought by the precipitating hand of nature. "So keep your shirts on and don't lose it in jousting over the first test" is what the web told me.

There is just another aspect which kind of dampens like an extended burst of rain on a cricket field: one is unable to shake off the feeling that one is going into this series as one goes to see, say a Rocky XII, or Terminator MCL, or Godfather 5005. You know you'll get a decent quality of narrative, maybe some new Fx's and stunts, but you also know you'll be seeing the almost the same faces you saw in the 149th, or 73rd, or 10th episode of the series. It is more than possible some of the dialogues may have been heard right through the sequence. It is possible that one's tactics and strategy may not be too different from what was in the 130^th episode. From a watcher's perspective, while the teams are good and evenly matched, one would have preferred to play the game of drawing up teams, formulating strategies, putting plans into action and monitoring their progress, with some new names on either side. The actors need new faces.

I mean what more can you plan for Hayden? Or Ponting plan for his legacy in India? Other than McCainizing it all of course?^{Rolling Stones Magazine}

Our man Ricky talks about his turn for an erection ^Cricinfo, all fine of course, but you got to do it and do it and do it again so the world notices that you got some serious stuff in your record. ^Hyperbole Or he could palinize an energetic pivot ^{Daily Kos} around Virender Sehwag telling it like it really is in his straight talking way, ^Cricinfo Yeah, like they say Pivot P.Ricky, Pivot! Dance your denial away! Or dance so hard and hope that the slipstream of your counterspin can grog-up the competition.^{The Times of India}

Let me just put my own countercounterspin on that one - what if P.Ricky, you and your men decide to give the kind of farewell Ganguly gave to Steve Austrayylian Tugga Waugh in his final series ( if they are any bit Austraylian, they should be lookig to complete this unfinished task for their mayte) would it not draw your men away from the rest of the Indian team? And you know of course that Dada can take 11 Australians together anytime. Maybe this is Dada's final service to the Indian team - to be the distraction which preys on Australian minds so the rest of the team can outflank them and breach their supremacy.

Or, how often can we go over the fab four and in which order and in what manner they should eat sleep drink stand stoop play bowl roll field throw bow stay leave....?


I mean we know who will play in the XI for them and us mostly...we played each other just a year ago for lawd's sake!....and we haven't, both, really made any changes. Just the odd one or two to keep us occpied till the start of the series and through the all the rain tipping over at Bangalore.

Or how about poking a finger at the pitch...just to ckeck how it'll play of course? The last time Pakistan played here the groundsman hadn't much chance to set it up due to unseasonal showers before the game, this time I doubt if that'll be the excuse - more likely, the showers will be during the game. If they do, we'll need something exceptional to produce a result and I don't mind if the pitch can spin and bounce from day one instead of day 4-5 in that case.

All rain dance and nothing more...just to kill time....get into your shortest of shorts, head out of one of the B'lore pubs challenge the rain and do the dance!


And as it pours outside the window, let us mull over Kumble's statement - this is his final test match at his home ground - he said so at the press conference.


2.45 AM, 9^th October

I have just bounced back up from a reluctant attempt at sleep which obviously failed. The mind is preoccupied with a question - should I ring up SS in Bangalore again to know what the local weather is like now or should I wait till its at least 4.00 AM? I opt for the latter time after a period of serious reflection. It is possible for friends and relatives to take umbrage if their sleep were to be disturbed, irrespective of how much they loved you and cricket.

But wasn't it possible SS could be up as well?...unable to sleep? "Nuh...no no.."you tell yourself and haul back the attempt to put through a quick call across to B'lore to check on the weather.

With that ruled out and a mug of hot coffee having driven all vestiges of sleep, if any left, the computer booted back again and connected deeply into the webworld of cricket, the quickened mind wanders over various significant events preceding this series. Kumble is playing his last here. At a forum, a West Indian poster, who also runs a cricket blog+website ( no not you Mikey! :) ), I just discovered, had brutalized my hopes of Indian next-geners and declared to me emphatically that Kumble could not retire peacefully knowing he was leaving behind a bunch of players who weren't any good at the international level. I had suggested Anil could retire peacefully, when ready, knowing there were at least two bowlers of the same art who could carry India on after him.

I'm missing something here - either he has observed Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra play plenty of 4-5 day games at the international level or he has rare prescience. and I certainly have missed how a player can acquire great international experience without playing international test cricket, or enough of it. But the man is certain and also includes the batsmen. And words go on.

CNN International features a short report on the series just now - the highlight of which is the offense Sehwag's "looseness" has caused to the great Ricky Ponting. It distracts me from the rather engrossing conversation I was having with that Windian gent with emphatic prophecies.

I look up YouTube and like websites to refresh oneself on the claimed catches by Ricky. A year later, and away from the closeness to the event, you still can't help wonder at what percentages of Ricky were being mistaken and mischievous. Just like one is uncertain as to what percentage of Ricky is being mistaken or mischievous over his pre-series indignance at Sehwag's plain speaking. It is assuming international colours - as yet amusing - what with it is being mentioned on CNN news in almost the same breath as John McCain's push for presidency...and of course Obama's! Maybe just after...or before, depending upon which part of the late-night news cycle you joined in. I'll rate him 50:50 and move forward to today.

Almost 3.25 AM here - do I sound like a chap gripped with cricket fever? I hoped not to be, for it did nothing good to my ageing constitution to watch the matches down under, then report for work, then come back and catch the repackaged re-run afterwards, all the while blogging/forumming away, leaving one with just a couple of hours to revive oneself. Exhaustion kicked the pleasure out of the series as much as what transpired through it did. I hoped to be more my age with it this time...today will not be it...that's certain now.

How do people keep their NY resolutions?

I recall that earlier this week, Rahul Dravid, also perhaps playing his last Bangalore home Test, was honored with a terrific piece of imagination. A statue would have been "much much" as the deccani say in Hyderabad and B'lore. So why not a wall with a neo-modern steel silhouette of the great man executing a straight drive. In one stroke of someone's brainwave, a media metaphor was immortalized along with the great man himself! Take a look -

Hmmm...if Rahul Dravid turns out at no.3 a little later, he'll become the first batsman to do so for 100 tests. Fancy that!

But he'll probably fancy more getting some runs here - Kumble outstrips him at Bangalore. ^{Kumble, Dravid}

More later...let me go back to discussing the post-retirement life fo Indian cricket with that Windian gent I spoke about till the game begins in about 6 hours.

Cricket has recaptured the escapee.

Oh by the way, if India win the toss today, bowl first! With clouds, winds and moisture around, and if there are three - Ishant , Munaf and Zak to exploit, the Australians should be done within the day. The pitch should have mean juice first up - remember the test against Pakistan?