The “vaunted” Indian bowling clicked to give India a stunning victory at Johannesburg against a South African team that had nastily swept them aside in the One-Dayers 4-0. Yes ladies and Gentlemen that is no typo nor am I being sarcastic, please read that sentence again and feel the weirdness sweep over you.
On Day 1, I was visiting my relatives and took an extended stop at one of their homes to watch the start of the test match. The start was delayed by an hour due to a “Sweaty” pitch. This is as close to pitch doctoring that a host nation can get without actually being pulled up by the ICC. Within the first hour my gallant men in blue were 14/2 with Shewag and Jaffer comfortably back in the pavilion and the ever daunting but of late shaky Sachin Tendulkar making his way to the pitch. I predicted a total of about 60-65 all out in the first innings and left to my next relatives home. I was told late that night that the comeback kid, our own Dada was holding fort but India was struggling.
On Day 2, I went to meet an old friend where I saw a belter of an innings by VRV singh and Dada’s 50, after which the innings ended at some 240 odd, surely not enough against a quality side like South Africa. This was around 3:30 pm and I left to meet other friends for dinner. By the end of dinner, around 10:30 pm, my friend asked me if I knew how much we had scored. I proudly told him of the 240 score I had seen. The next few words out of him left me speechless. He informed me he was asking for our second innings score as he had seen the south African batsmen capitulate at 84 all out in their first innings. My jaw dropped to the floor. He then proceeded to tell me that we had begun our second innings and were 32/1 with Shewag gone.
On Day 3, I read the papers about this incredible feat. The chief architect of this was Sreesanth who took 5 wickets in a deadly spell. I flashed back to last year when I had witnessed a tall lanky kid clean bowl the god of cricket on the first ball he had bowled. It was the challenger trophy in India that is used to select the International team. This kid had now become the spearhead of the Indian Bowling attack. An attack that has witnessed a revolving door of Balaji, Nehra, Agarkar, Munaf, Zaheer, VRV singh and god knows which others. I saw his highlights, he comes steaming in on his run up, bowls with his arm upright and the seam pointing up. 90% of his deliveries were good to full length and he allowed the seam to hit the pitch and force the ball to swing. I have not seen such style in an Indian bowler since Dev Paaji. Srinath used to be magnificent for India but he had the worst follow-through in the history of Indian Cricket. Sreesanth runs upto the batsmen on his follow-through and glares at him. It is rumored Sachin Tendulkar once threatened him in the same challenger series “Don’t ever come this close to me again”. When the match started, Indians batted fast and gave their wickets up faster. Very very slow Laxman made a characteristic 50. When Sreesanth came in to bat, he was bounced on the very first delivery by Andre Nel, on his follow-through, Nel glared at him and pointed to his heart. It was later reveled he told Sree, “You don’t have heart mate, you are just a bunny I will get you with my next delivery”. Andre did bowl that next delivery which Sree proceeded to hoist over his head for a stupendous SIX. At this stage Sree kept running towards the bowlers end, twirling his bat like a baton over his head and proceeded to perform an impromptu gig with typical south Indian pelvic thrusts that would have made Michael Jackson proud. This was a war cry from the Indian camp that had been beaten black and blue before the series. I have never witnessed such aggression from our cricketers for as long as I have understood cricket. Indians posted a target of 402 for the South Africans.
Day 4 was only a formality; South African wickets fell at regular intervals and India won convincingly by lunch. This was the first test win on South African soil ever by an Indian Cricket Team and they celebrated like they had just won the World Cup and ICC champions Trophy together. Champagne flowed like there was no tomorrow and players bathed in Beer. This was a tad extreme considering there were 2 more matches to be played and they had really won nothing yet. But for this day all was forgotten, Dravid and Saurav praised each other, Shewag was hiding, Sree promised to dance for the TV cameras, Sachin declared this one of his greatest experience and Greg Chappell smiled and hugged Dada.
I had a bounce in my step and kept watching the highlights and celebrations repeatedly and could not get enough of Sree’s jig in the middle of the field. This is elixir, this is the life of an Indian Cricket Fan.
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