That special Saturday
Harsha Bhogle
It is three days since Yuvraj Singh provided us the
most dramatic entry into one-day cricket that I can
remember seeing. Sometimes time soothes the passion of
the moment but the more I look back at that wonderful
Saturday, the more I am convinced that what I saw was
something very special. Not just from a young man but
from a side that seemed to have lost the passion to
compete.
84 runs from 80 balls against the best one-day team in
the world on a bouncy track is a sensational
performance. The Australians did not shy away from
telling him a thing or two but, as he told us on ESPN,
he merely smiled back. There is something about youth
that is so utterly unprepared for reputations, that it
reacts in a most natural, instinctive manner. And so,
it was the approach that Yuvraj brought to the crease
that meant more to me than the runs he scored.
I think Indian cricket has finally started to benefit
from the exposure that television has brought in the
last few years. Young cricketers are smarter, more
savvy and they know a few tricks of the trade without
having to discover them the hard way. And so, when
third man was creeping into the circle, Yuvraj stopped
the bowler, waited till the fielder was in position
and then took stance.
I think he is special because he brought a cool head
to a tense situation. A lot of cricketers have the
ability but fewer have the self-belief and that is
what you look for in a young man. If you have to
deviate from the model personality, it is better to
err on the side of arrogance than on the meek and it
is not difficult to see that there is a streak of
arrogance to Yuvraj.
In course of time, he might need to temper it a bit;
to replace parts of it with realism for there is no
doubt that opposition bowlers will be better prepared
for him. I will be very surprised if England or South
Africa haven't already thought of a plan to bowl to
him and that is why sometimes the second test is more
revealing than the first.
But we must guard against thinking that we have found
the solution to our one-day batting problems. We have
seen one swallow and it is beautiful but the summer is
far away and Yuvraj's future success will depend
greatly on how he perceives himself and indeed, on how
he copes with people telling him that he is the best
thing to have happened to Indian cricket.
Interestingly, and it came as a bit of a surprise to
me, Sunil Gavaskar touched on that issue during one of
our live broadcasts. He tapped me on the thigh
suggesting that he had something to say and then told
Navjot Sidhu in the studio in Singapore that it was
his responsibility as a senior player from Punjab to
speak to the crop of youngsters from there about
handling success and failure. Young minds have their
own agendas sometimes and while it works fairly well
on a cricket ground, it sometimes negates that effect
off it.
Dramatic as Yuvraj's debut was, it cannot cast a
shadow over another that, to my mind, is just as
significant to Indian cricket. I must confess I was a
bit uneasy when Sourav Ganguly tossed the new ball to
Zahir Khan during the game against Kenya. Ganguly had
spoken very highly of Zahir in the build-up to the
event and obviously had decided to follow his
instincts. To say it worked would be an understatement
because Zahir bowled with great heart and pace.
There is a spirit to him that makes you want to keep
an eye on him. He is quite happy to drop one short
early on and he bowls a mean yorker. That was the most
heartening aspect to his cricket because it is
something we have been crying ourselves hoarse about.
With Agarkar dropping off alarmingly in the slog
overs, India really have nobody to turn to and it will
do our cricket an enormous good if young Zahir can do
that job consistently. Admittedly, at this stage it
would be expecting a little too much from him but the
next few games will show whether or not he is a good
learner.
I am not sure if it was merely the presence of the
youngsters, or a symbol of the spirit that now exists
in the side that they put on the finest display of
fielding I have seen from an Indian side in recent
years. India have fielded well in patches before, and
hopefully this wasn't just a passing phase, but what
was most heartening was the fact that whenever
Australia started looking good, it was an Indian
fielder that brought about the breakthrough.
First it was a catch by Yuvraj but it was Robin
Singh's effort at square leg to remove Ponting when
Australia were cruising that really turned things
around. Robin hasn't been a very happy man in recent
times. He hasn't been bowling too much and that was
bound to put some pressure on his batting but on
Saturday he did just about everything. The fascinating
thing about the catch was that his hands split as the
ball made impact. Normally the ball tends to go down
when that happens but he held on in his left hand and
even though he came down heavily, he didn't allow it
to drop out. You could see, on the faces of Tendulkar
and Ganguly, that they believed a turning point had
been seen. If ever it needed to be driven home to
Indian cricketers that fielding wins matches, this was
it.
Almost immediately afterwards Yuvraj did it again. He
was just a touch lucky with the bounce that gave him a
very comfortable hold on the ball but his
pick-and-throw was sensational and as Ian Chappell
said, it had to be very very good because Michael
Bevan hardly ever gets run-out.
I know Friday will be another day and I will be very
pleasantly surprised if India are able to maintain
their intensity (and I say so only because I have
watched so much of them). But whatever happens from
here on, what I saw on Saturday will not fade.
India are not missing anyone here and that is
something very few of us were willing to say last
week.
Harsha Bhogle
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