West Indies vs India, 2017: Is this even cricket?
Cricket in India, ever since it began to capture the imagination several decades ago, is not just any other sport. It often turns out to be a celebration, where folks unite and have a great time together.
Families watch matches seated together. Students in college hostels gather around the television set in the mess to cheer for the players. Friends plan stay overs to enjoy the game and have a blast over a meal. It brings people together to celebrate.
And yet, there are instances when no one even wants to have anything even remotely close to the above. One such instance is the ongoing India's tour of West Indies, which saw one of most lifeless matches at the Queens Park Oval, played out on Sunday night.
After India had amassed 310 runs on the board, the West Indies batsmen gave every reason for all cricket viewers to shut their television and do something else, when they lost two wickets in the opening five overs to find themselves at 4 for 2.
In a case as big as that to be achieved in 43 overs, one hopes to see an intent of at least coming close, if not win a game.
The West Indies showed anything but that when the reached their 100 in the 23rd over. With 200 runs to chase down in 20 overs, one further hoped of any form of aggression, which would have elevated their chances of winning.
None of it came. The 150 was reached exactly 9 overs later and then for the remainder of the overs, they tamely went their way to add 53 more runs and finish with 205 for 7, thereby falling short by 105 runs.
It almost felt as if you were watching two completely different matches.
On one hand, Virat Kohli was smashing sixes only the way he can, while on the other hand, the West Indies were giving a live example of how not to chase a big score.
One of my earliest memories of watching a game involving these two teams on television was in 2002 when they both met in Trinidad.
It was an engaging contest, which stood on a knife's edge, with the hosts needing 182 runs on the final day and the visitors needing 8 wickets. I was quite small to understand what it meant to win in the West Indies, but my father did.
He managed to stay up all night to watch India win a nail-biting contest by 37 runs and celebrated the following day, as if he had received the greatest promotion at work.
Years later, I asked him why he did so and he told me about how when he was much younger, winning in the West Indies was the holy grail and Indian teams would go there, put up a fight on certain occasions, look ugly on others, but would rarely win.
And so when he realised that the team had a chance that day in Trinidad, he did not want to miss the moment. For each of the two ODIs that have just been played, he didn't care to sit beyond half past 10.
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Normally, when Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan make runs, it makes for attractive viewing. How many of us did not enjoy watching Dhawan tear apart a quality South African attack in the 2015 World Cup?
But when Kohli was hammering what seemed a really helpless West Indies unit on Sunday, it appeared like lambs were being put to the most brutal torture imaginable. West Indies just did not look at any point as if they would trouble any of the Indian batsmen, with any form of penetration.
A lot has been written about the stagnating quality of West Indies and how they are just unable to produce the type of players, who could pose a serious threat, either with the bat or ball.
Unlike a lot of the other teams, the present West Indies outfit just doesn't seem to possess even one batsman or one bowler who would make the opposition spend an hour or two trying to decipher them.
Until that day comes, it does look difficult to see how they can threaten the opposition. Until such time, we have to bear with more lifeless cricket which awaits us.