If one thought Sunday’s first game in Thiruvananthapuram was a tall-scoring affair – 595 runs in 91.4 overs, overall run-rate 6.51 – then how do you even begin to describe the massacre in Guwahati on Wednesday? If the West Indian – and Indian – bowling fraternities currently doing battle in the One-Day International series decide to go on strike, they will be greeted with empathy, sympathy and understanding.
But not so in Guwahati. There was a sense of the inevitable when India began their reply. To have to score at more than eight an over from the off was a massive ask, on the face of it. Not easy, you’d think. Not by a long way. Well, think again. The artificial clouds of uncertainty that had been thrust above Rohit Sharma’s head disappeared in a flurry of boundaries at Lord’s some two and a half months back, when the right-hander produced his 34th ODI hundred. You quickly sum up the conditions, you figure out rapidly what works and what may not. You decide which bowlers to target, which areas to score freely in. And that’s exactly what he did, hanging just that touch back and letting loose without ever trying to overhit or muscle the ball as he kept his tryst with three-figures.
Never mind how flat the track, how small the boundaries and how inexperienced the bowling attack, to reel in 405? His subliminal 138 wasn’t enough to help India overhaul England’s 387 in the deciding game of the three-match series, but coming as it did just a day and a bit after BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia moved to quell speculations that Lord’s would be his swansong, it was a statement of great intent and import. One of the great virtues of having played internationally for 19 years and represented the country in more than 500 matches is that you know your game inside out. Having spent 50 overs in the field chasing leather, Rohit knew that to hop on to the backfoot and play from there was a fruitful, productive, paying option.
Kohli was also the Player of the Final when Rohit hoisted the T20 World Cup trophy in Bridgetown two and a quarter years back, so he has the full set of white-ball winners’ medals, so to say. But he is the latest shining example of age being just a number. Driven by a raging inner fire and happily immune to the goings-on around him, his goal is palpable, his focus narrow, his vision understandably blinkered. In New Zealand in November, when the final preparatory exercise will get underway, he will get five opportunities to refamiliarise himself with the conditions that can be expected to be on offer in Africa.
Rohit holds two T20 World Cup champion medals – on debut in 2007 and on his swansong in 2024 – but having heartbreakingly missed out on selection in 2011, slammed five centuries in 2019 and stumbled at the final hurdle, as skipper, in 2023, he is determined, if not desperate, to make his final chance a telling, successful one. A year is still a long time in international sport and Rohit will be nearly 40 and a half when the World Cup gets going.
How often does a team rack up 405 and end by licking its wounds? The thousands at the ground and millions watching on television must have wondered at the wisdom of Shubman Gill’s decision to stick the visitors in after West Indies rode on sparkling centuries from John Campbell, skipper Shai Hope and the free-flowing Amir Jangoo to amass 405 for seven. On that instance, South Africa rode on the incandescence of Herschelle Gibbs (175), and key contributions from Graeme Smith (90), Mark Boucher (50) and Johan van der Wath (35 off 18) to overhaul Australia’s 434 for four with one wicket and one delivery to spare.
How often does a team boast three centurions and get beaten out of sight? Only once before in the history of the game, more than a decade back, has a higher total been scaled down in ODI history. A tantalisingly close contest with the result in doubt till the very final ball.
If you said never, allow yourself a pat on the back. If you said once before, another pat. Though, it must be said, each of these gentle pats will heap untold misery and psychological pain on the Caribbean bowling group.