Tale of three legs…
If the contents were to be anyway related to the title, then you will probably draw a picture of a three legged animal or some thing of that sort. A few ‘good’ men would go a step further, and will put a little more stress on their blue cells, but I prefer more direct ways.
If somebody has to be credited for today’s
If you haven’t seen the match, then it’s very less probable that you will get to know about those three legs, which based upon today’s performance should get more sponsors than Dada, Sachin’s bat. The kind of world we live in, Aajtak’s match ka mujrim.. star news’s ho gayi teri balle(bat) balle(bat), package match in a kind of musical melodrama, which would give Suraj Barjatya a run, for his money. These match review shows, use echo effects twice more than the number of times it was used when Mihir came back in Kyunki Saas bhee kabhee bahu thee… because har balla(Bat),wicket, pitch kuch naa kuch to jaroor kehta hain.
The fact that makes them more interesting, is the very fact that people who keenly listen and interpret these chuckles, shrieks were unable to even connect the ball properly with their bats, and hold catches; when billions of Indians were there shouting in the stadium, drawing rooms, street corners, front of TV show rooms, only a few year ago.
Getting back, to today’s match, without extending the suspense further, the three legs I was talking about belonged to Dhoni and Bhajji.. pair to dhoni, Bhajji chipping in with one..
Dhoni’s today innings was so un-Dhoni like, and was one of the first of it’s kind, in many such incidents that were there, for all of us to see, but for few to observe. His innings of 50 had no lusty hits to boundary. Actually it was more of a craftsman, deft at his art, beautifully maneuvering the ball through the Inroads, setu’s of lankan field, and running as if somebody told him, that Dada will get back to the team, if you don’t reach the other end, within this much time. This innings was so different from his innings of 180, against same opposition and pretty much the same belter of conditions, after which the number of children opting milk over cola’s sky-rocketed, and Pepsico, coke had to call in for some marketing, advertising guru’s to tackle Dhoni’s Dhood-o-mania.
The way dhoni ran, not only for his runs but also helping yuraj, pathan to convert singles into two’s, which Indians, not much time before were masters at converting into runouts; was stand out feature of whole Indian innings. In the latter part of the innings, when he was visibly cramped up and was limping badly, he ran with such urgency, yet confidence that it almost made aussie commentators use figure of speech’s that they generally reserve for Gillys Haydens smashing bowlers out of park; Tendulkars, laxmans are an exception, you know.
Dhoni’s pair make it two, but the third and the most timely used leg belongs to none other than Punjab ki shaan, apna sardar who visits zoo often, and has an uncanny penchant towards tailed, human emoting species. Bhajji guided a wide Malinga delivery to boundary with such elegance and class that, for a minute everybody in TV room was stunned with his footwork. A classy straight drive from Tendulkar’s bat, showing MRF logo for exact 2.67 seconds (a .69 sec. more than the time, Dada stares at Puma logo, after getting a nick down to keeper’s throat), wouldn’t have fetched more applauds and astonished gasps, that bhajji’s supremely accurate, well honed footwork fetched in the TV room.
So if you think, it was only this was worth knowing about the match, then you pretty much missed out on some vital stats.. that any statistician in world wouldn’t tell you.
For starters, It was first match of it’s kind, where Tendulkar didn’t adjust his Abdominal guard during the whole innings. Skeptics will claim, that his stay at crease was short, but then we have seen him adjusting it, standing at non strike and getting run out without facing a delivery.
It was first of it’s kind incident, when Dhoni refused a interview, after running that winning double and completing his fifty.
It was first of it’s kind crowd (Indian section) in recent times, where no supporter in the crowd had a cut out of Padukones, Zeintas, Kim Sharmas.
It was first of its kind coverage of Espn star, where no blonde was telecasted adjusting her clothes, putting sunscreen. Discounting the fact that it was a Day night encounter, and no aussie affair, but then shaz and waz were there in the commentary box for almost 3 hrs. I guess they need to get good bino’s or may be get their far sightedness index checked.
And for H-3 TV room Fans, it was first match, event of it’s kind, where a special guest, face was missing in the crowd of 100s.. It was none other our own Akshay(Jha-2), who was so dearly missed in the whole match.
