End of a painstaking two years
The Indian team can now breathe easy after a 3-0 series win against the might of the Proteas. Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers vainly tried to elude an inevitable defeat through some entertaining display of defensive stroke-play.
Other than the Bangalore Test Match, the series turned out to be a dream run for the Indians. Mohali served us with a big surprise when the traditionally fast and bouncy track provided prodigious turn for all the spinners.
The Nagpur pitch turned like a spitting cobra which drew conclusion on the third Test match in just under three days and Nagpur being the city of Oranges, I won’t shy away from saying that even an orange would have generated fair amount of bite on a track which broke the backbone of an otherwise heavyweight South African batting line-up.
It took no more than 247 overs for all 40 wickets to tumble and handed Virat Kohli – The Captain – his first home Test series triumph.
Well, that’s sweet, but what’s sweeter is that the victory broke South Africa’s unbeaten streak of 15 Test series in nine years. It must be said that India is becoming a streak-derailing specialist. First, it was Australia in 2001 when a vibrant side led by Sourav Ganguly broke the Kangaroos’ spell of 16 successive Test match victories and now it was Virat Kohli’s turn.
Amidst all the jubilation surrounding India’s victories in the Freedom series, rose some controversies regarding the nature of pitches in India which could be detrimental to Test cricket’s image in the long run and to some degree I take a stance for them.
But, if we dig deeper into the subject, we may find that India rightfully earned such tracks at least for this series. Homecoming is something every team craves for and not playing on the home turf for two long years aggravates the appetite for playing at home.
West Indies was touring India for a two-match Test Series in November 2013. It happened to be Sachin Tendulkar’s final series in International Cricket. Coincidentally, the series turned out to be India’s last Test series at home for as long as two years.
During this period, India dropped only one place, from third to fourth, in the ICC Test Rankings, which is a commendable performance considering the fact that other teams were bearing fruit on home soil.
India tour of South Africa 2013/14
India had the Proteas on the mats in the first Test in Johannesburg when India reduced them to 197/4 with close to 75 overs remaining.
It was courtesy Faf du Plessis’ and AB de Villiers’ heroics that South Africa achieved the improbable of saving the Test match. India eventually lost the series 1-0, but results don’t always reveal the whole story.
Indian pitches are always criticised for not producing batsmen who can score tons of runs on bouncy tracks. And sticking to the proverb “Action speaks louder than words”, Indian batsman boastfully held the top three spots for the top run-getters in the series (Cheteshwar Pujara – 280, Virat Kohli – 272 and Ajinkya Rahane – 209).
India tour of New Zealand 2014
In the first Test, India almost pulled off a miraculous chase of 406 runs, falling short by 40 runs, after conceding a humungous lead of 301 runs in the first innings. New Zealand, courtesy a Brendon McCullum double ton 224 (307), amassed 503 runs in the first innings, despite a six-wicket haul by Ishant Sharma and then bundled out India for 202 runs.
The comeback started with India ripping apart the New Zealand batting for a meagre 105 runs. And, there is a buzz around the cricketing fraternity that Indian pace attack is not growing due to the pitches in India. New Zealand’s second innings’ demise was caused by Mohammed Shami, Zaheer Khan, and Ishant Sharma – three trusted Indian fast bowlers.
The second Test until the end of second day’s play was on India’s grasp. With a lead of 150 with five New Zealand wickets to go, the Indian team was cantering towards victory. But Brendon McCullum had some other plans in mind and it was initiated by a drop-catch by Virat Kohli at short mid-on. McCullum went on to score 302 runs to rescue the Kiwis.
India lost the series 1-0, but it wasn’t a one-sided affair. It was also relieving to see an Indian pace bowler in Ishant Sharma being the highest wicket-taker in the series with 15 wickets, something, which is strong enough to silence critics.