Tale Of Two Wins, Homespun and Glittering
By Gaurang
August 26 2012
Sunday August 26th 2012 was a special day in Indian Cricket, with two wins to celebrate. One a relatively modest victory at home by the senior team and the other a stunning victory overseas by the Under 19 team.
India wrapped up the first Test against New Zealand at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal in four rain-interrupted days and by the deceptively huge margin of an Innings and 100 odd runs. The fact that they were playing a decidely understrength and low ranked Kiwi team in familiar and comfortable home conditions, made even more comfortable by a near tailor made pitch that supported spin and bounce, simply resulted in the inevitable.
India fans will no doubt rejoice at the win, and there were individual performances, such as the mainden Test century by young Cheteshwar Pujara, and the 12 wicket in the match haul by Ravichandran Ashwin, to celebrate, but overall it will hardly begin to erase the ignoble stains of 8 consecutive and massive defeats overseas. Winning at home has never been an issue for India, at least since the 1970s... but winning abroad is what really determines the worth of a team and its leader. That is where the win by the India Under 19 team comes into the picture.
India U-19 under the captaincy of the young, but mature beyond his years, Unmukt Chand, started out in alien condtions in Australia on a losing note, going down to the West Indian team who used the quick and bouncy conditions to inflict a narrow loss on Chand and his boys. But after that stinging first defeat, the team went from strength to strength, beating in sequence, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, New Zealand and finally Australia. They showed that with each passing game they learned the lessons of the previous match and got better and better, until they toppled the pre-tournament favorite Hosts, in their own yard to be crowned U-19 World Champions.
Congrats to Chand and his team, and hope the seniors take inspiration from them, the next time they venture away from the cozy confines of home, and prove themselves like the juniors did, to be all terrain champions, not just Tigers at home, pussycats abroad.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:09:09:22:48:19 by Birbal.
The announcement of just Rs 20L award to each team member is underwhelming. Surely we know based on Dhoni's team's performance there, just how difficult it is to win anything there. IIRC, Dhoni's team was last even in the 3-way ODI series involving lowly Sri Lanka (besides Aus).
India - World Cup winners 2011!!!
Champions Trophy winners 2013!!!
Congrats to Indian team and all Indian fans!