38Yrs APART TWO WORLD CUPS - 359

  Test Cricket     Championship 

The just concluded Cricket Test Championship held at Hampshire Bowl in Southhampton was really interesting . Lasting as it did over Six Days with more than Two Days play washed away due to the rains , it could have been anybody's game till the Tea Time of the Final Day . New Zealand emerged as the deserving winners .

This was a contest spread over more than 2 years and was a contrast in many ways .

 The Largest populated Test Playing Country was facing the Least Populated Test Playing Country .

An out and out Professional Side was Pitted against a side whose  majority of players are amateurs playing Cricket only during the Weekends .

The playing conditions at Southampton suited the Kiwis more because of the Green Top of the Pitch and the Swing and Seaming conditions on offer both in the air and off the pitch  due to the heavily  overcast conditions . Their battery of 4 superbly talented pace bowlers with Kyle Jamieson with his extra height led the way and caused serious problems with the ball swinging both ways in the air and off the pitch .

I am a very great fan of Ravindra Jadeja and consider him to be the best All Rounder in all 3 formats of the game . Considering the overcast condition and the green top , the Horses for Courses theory should have been  the selection mantra and Siraj would have been a better option . But this is in hindsight which is always a way easier after the event has taken place .

In my view the one major reason for our defeat was Chiteshwar Pujara . Someone in the extra large contingent that the team carried should have been bold enough to tell him that Cricket , unlike the Slow Cycle Race is not an endurance game . The batsmen have to score the runs and the bowlers take the 20 wickets to win a match . PUJARA seems to have missed the point that runs too need to be scored while occupying the crease if  the bowlers are to take the wickets within the scored runs .

 Being compared to a Rahul Dravid seems to have given him all the wrong notions about himself . Rahul Dravid was a WALL but he did score runs and tons and tons of them in both the  Test and One Day Formats . The only thing  Pujara ended up doing was  adding even more pressure on the already tensed  team by occupying the crease and not scoring the runs . It is high time he is shown the door .

X factor was the weather and it made batting all that more difficult . Their attitude plus the  never say die spirit of a bunch of players who have occupations other than Cricket for their earnings have shown us the stuff they are made of .

WELL DONE NEW ZEALAND 

YOU ARE A REAL CHAMPION SIDE 

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What a rare coincidence , 25 th of June is also the Day 

Kapil s Devils Won us the 

ONE DAY WORLD CUP  WAY BACK IN THE YEAR 1983 

                       
There are some Days &  Incidents which stay firmly etched in memory . One such day  was and is the 25 th of  June  1983 . Kapil s Devils after a stupendous and unbelievable run in the Round Robin League were in the Finals of  The World Cup Cricket  and were facing  the Mighty West Indians for the coveted WORLD CUP TROPHY .

The Indians were clearly the Pre Match Minnows . The West Indies had Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd at the top to name just two of the greatest batsmen ever to have played the game and the Tearaway Speedmerchants  Andy Roberts , Michael Holding , Joel.Garner and Malcom Marshall in its ranks . Each delivery from these foursome was no less potent than a bullet fired from a very close range . The Helmet and other safety accessories were just beginning to find their way .

I have been a cricket fan all my life , having played the game at School , College and Even for Madura Coats Ambas in their District League and Inter Unit  Matches at Madurai , Tuticorin and Koratti .

On this particular day I was in the second shift which gets over at 11. 00 pm . Self and
V Srinivasan my colleague  quickly finished the shift end work and rushed out to catch the Radio Commentary by The  BBC . In Those days TV was still in its initial stages of installation in a few pockets of the National Capital  and Radio or Transistor was the only mode to stay in touch with the outside World of sports .

 I was staying at K2 , opposite the Colony Club of our Staff Quarters  . I had a powerful 5Band NATIONAL Japanese made Transistor Radio and being almost midnight the reception was fairly  good .

Not many in the present Gen will be even aware of the vagaries involved to tune into the far off Radio Stations of the BBC, VOA OR Radio Ceylon nearer home . Weather at the Transmitting - Receiving Are, The Power and Band Width of the Transistor in your hand , Your own sitting or standing posture all in good measure and plain luck determine how well you are able to tune in to the desired Radio Station .

We made ourselves comfortable on  the benches of  the colony club where  movies were  screened every alternate weekend and followed the match with a fair amount of biscuits and snacks for company .

We had lost our first wicket with hardly 2 runs on the Board and  were bundled out for a measly 183 runs . The  saving grace was that Shrikanth my favourite ended up as the top scorer with 38 runs .

What followed was something out of this world . Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal turned the match on its head and the West Indies were shot out of a paltry 140 and we had won the match by 43 incredible runs .

KAPIL S DEVILS HAD MADE THE WHOLE
OF INDIA PROUD BY THEIR MEMORABLE WIN