The commentator was his usual self praising it to be a tremendous, fantastic, historic and 'whatever adjectives he could remember' win after watching such a victory. I used to think why all these presenters are so effusive in their praise and the answer i got was, they are paid to do that. But there are few moments when you feel the excitement genuine, the stutter honest and the sense of humor spontaneous. Not the oft repeated, rehearsed and really boring lines. One such moment was India's victory in the first test.
All hope was not lost for me when the Indian team ran out of gas when they were 75 runs behind the visitors in the first innings. I don't participate in the fantasy leagues, but i always fantasize scenarios where in the Indian team does tricks which will make David Blaine look like an amateur. So I went on one of these virtual rides hoping Harbhajan and Co will wreck the feeble english batting order and set a target which will see Rahul Draid come back to form and win the test for India, only for messrs Strauss and Collingwood to wake me up with their defiant partnership.
All my life i have been a statistic freak. I try to comfort myself by adding up random statistics until they show a winning probability of the team i support. But 387 in the last 5 sessions on an Indian pitch, that was something which seemed impossible even after running wildly through the amazingly exhilarating cricinfo's statguru. But, If the world is all about inferential statistics what good is left to imagination. Imagination which can only be inspired by genius. Genius which creates a statistic, not go by it. And that Genius was Sehwag. I followed his career right from the time he made his debut and all the statistics meant nothing with him at the crease. Not only statitics greentop, cloudcover, dust bowl, Glen Mcgrath, nothing seemed to matter. It was that genius that steered the ship past the rough seas and let the Master guide it to the shore the way only he can.
Even for a losing cause two centuries in a test, that too in India, is a remarkable feat. Yet I guess no one, not even Andrew Strauss ( the one who scored the two tons), might have felt that someone else deserved the Man of the Match apart from Sehwag. When all this becomes a statistic people will wonder looking at the entry in the Man of the Match column. They will definitely feel sorry for Andrew Strauss, Sachin Tendulkar and Paul Collingwood. What they wont feel is the true wave of emotions everyone felt watching India win it. How they felt that it was all possible just because of one man who did not care what a number crunching maniac like me will feel years later, trying to fathom the numbers involved. All that mattered was a billion happy souls and a million moist eyes.
All hope was not lost for me when the Indian team ran out of gas when they were 75 runs behind the visitors in the first innings. I don't participate in the fantasy leagues, but i always fantasize scenarios where in the Indian team does tricks which will make David Blaine look like an amateur. So I went on one of these virtual rides hoping Harbhajan and Co will wreck the feeble english batting order and set a target which will see Rahul Draid come back to form and win the test for India, only for messrs Strauss and Collingwood to wake me up with their defiant partnership.
All my life i have been a statistic freak. I try to comfort myself by adding up random statistics until they show a winning probability of the team i support. But 387 in the last 5 sessions on an Indian pitch, that was something which seemed impossible even after running wildly through the amazingly exhilarating cricinfo's statguru. But, If the world is all about inferential statistics what good is left to imagination. Imagination which can only be inspired by genius. Genius which creates a statistic, not go by it. And that Genius was Sehwag. I followed his career right from the time he made his debut and all the statistics meant nothing with him at the crease. Not only statitics greentop, cloudcover, dust bowl, Glen Mcgrath, nothing seemed to matter. It was that genius that steered the ship past the rough seas and let the Master guide it to the shore the way only he can.
Even for a losing cause two centuries in a test, that too in India, is a remarkable feat. Yet I guess no one, not even Andrew Strauss ( the one who scored the two tons), might have felt that someone else deserved the Man of the Match apart from Sehwag. When all this becomes a statistic people will wonder looking at the entry in the Man of the Match column. They will definitely feel sorry for Andrew Strauss, Sachin Tendulkar and Paul Collingwood. What they wont feel is the true wave of emotions everyone felt watching India win it. How they felt that it was all possible just because of one man who did not care what a number crunching maniac like me will feel years later, trying to fathom the numbers involved. All that mattered was a billion happy souls and a million moist eyes.
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