Published: Jul 24, 2011, 03:06 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 10, 2014, 07:41 PM (IST)
By Vincent Sunder
It was a day when the complete attention of the majority of Indian cricket followers and the Indian media was fixated on whether Sachin Tendulkar would get his 100th international hundred. That another Indian batting great required just 50 runs to become the second highest run-getter in the history of the game found no mention whatsoever in any quarters. Perhaps in the days when Rahul Dravid was a good advertising proposition, some interested quarter would have tabled this possibility and drawn some advertising and brand-building mileage.
On this crucial day of the Test, a young Indian opener and a more established senior cricketer started proceedings for India. The line and length bowled by the English for the better part of the first hour made things relatively for the Indian openers, who were content to see the ball sail past their off stump. The few pitched in line were presented the full face of the blade. India had started off to a reasonably safe start in a game where a couple of early wickets would have had the game completely in English command.
It was the additional bounce that Abhinav Mukund will need to contend with, opined the experts on air. Mukund is not from Mumbai where the cricketing environment is such that it breeds mentally strong cricketers. There is so much joy elsewhere when Mumbai misses out on winning the Ranji Trophy, since this is THE team to beat, this is the side that is hard to dislodge. And that is on account of the cricketing character of the blokes who make up the team. Nor is Mukund from the street-smart environments of Uttar Pradesh. A product of the docile South where, with the exception of a few cricketers, the rest fade away over a period of time.
Whilst Gautam Gambhir, “returning back from injury”, looked tentative and appeared to push his hand out further when playing, Mukund looked more composed. He presented the full face of the bat for the better part of the first hour. He was beaten on occasions and once fended dangerously sending the ball in the air towards gully. The singles were taken with smart quick running between wickets. Slowly he seemed to switch gear. Runs through the covers, with Mukund now using his wrists and feet to get into a run seeking and run scoring mood. A flash past gully got the first boundary of the day, and how Mukund’s mind was working seemed to become apparent. When Chris Tremlett strayed on his pads, he flicked two glorious fours to get India moving. He was not the one to defend all day and the absolute lack of experience with the English conditions and the alien bounce was not going to keep him in a defensive shell. It looked like one was watching a mentally-strong young player from Mumbai’s backyard.
On a day when Dravid deservingly reached the second spot in the all-time run-getters list in Test cricket and deserving took all the attention and honors, the morning certainly belonged to the 21-year old left-hander from Chennai. He demonstrated a lovely little lesson on how an opener overcomes a difficult situation and then moves on to – if not dominates – to play positively and score runs. A demonstration in the art of building an innings. He saw Gambhir depart to a technically awful shot off Broad. In Broad’s next over he drove a four past the bowler that had David “Bumble” Lloyd commenting that a similar delivery had fetched different results! The acerbic Geoff Boycott saw nothing wrong in Mukund’s technique whilst Gavaskar was fulsome in his praise of the young opener. His eagerness to get to the half-century mark was his undoing. When Tremlett came back to trouble Tendulkar and Dravid presented a defensive face of the bat in the first session with the luncheon break approaching, the honours for the best batting performance of the morning clearly rested with the little opener. One hopes his journey is a long and rewarding one.
(Vincent Sunder aspired to play Test cricket, but had to struggle to play ‘gully’ cricket! He managed a league side to title triumph in the KSCA tournaments. He was debarred from umpiring in the gully games after he once appealed vociferously for a caught-behind decision when officiating as an umpire! After two decades in the corporate sector, he became an entrepreneur with the objective of being able to see cricket matches on working days as well. Vincent gets his ‘high’ from cricket books and cricket videos and discussing cricket)
