A Fight

In the 10 losses that we have witnessed in the last 18 months Vs Eng and Aus – India had clearly forgotten what the phrase “to put up a fight” meant. Given the abject surrenders we were put through, the hope to win is seriously all gone and all that we hold onto is to see our team fight. Make the opposition earn their win – not hand it on a platter to them.

The batting has been a huge let down – go through the stats and you will realise that in those 10 matches and 20 innings we batted for more than 100 overs only in 3 innings. Which means we did not last more than 3 sessions of batting on 17 occasions and to me that has been a disturbing fact.

Yes bowlers win you matches, we are a rubbish bowling side but given the batting talent the least you expect is that your side will bat 4-5 sessions to give the team a chance to draw the match if not win. We have failed at this miserably.

It’s a tough period for us fans and it is not going to change for another 3-4 years. So we need to take the little moments that will be offered and treasure them for as long as we can.

Today Kohli and Dhoni gave us that moment – India was tottering at 71-4 against England’s 330 in the first innings yesterday and given how our batting has played out – a collapse was just a matter of time. And that collapse did not come in until the last hour today – I felt a bit gutted seeing the score at the end of the day but I thought I needed to reflect on the ‘fight”. Isn’t that what I wanted from my team?

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Kohli and Dhoni batted for 90.1 overs for their 202 runs – I’m going to cheer that today.

Yes we collapsed in the last hour – Dhoni went for a needless run, we may well trail Eng tomorrow and Eng may bat us out of the game , our batsmen may fail to save the match and the scoreline may read 3-1. Win,draw or loss in this match – changes will need to be done to the team sooner than later but that discussion is for another day, another post.

But all that matters to me today is that 2 guys put their hands up and showed this team what they had forgotten – resilience, patience, grit and a fight.

Tomorrow I’m going to wake up with a little bit of relief with the realization that this team is getting its memory back. Dada, Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Kumble,Srinath, Sehwag,GG  spoilt us in the 2000s with innumerable instances of grit, determination and miracle wins/draws.

Those will take time to repeat with this team – but at least I take solace in the fact that they have taken the first step to “Fight” and not let the opposition have it easy.

Cherish that thought for now!

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