The Brewing of a Promising Association!

They say make hay while the sun shines. It was a sunny day dispersed with a tinge of white cloud. On a slightly clearer setting 11 years ago a homogeneous association scripted one of its many fabled narratives. The day began after a briefly promising spell of resistance at the end of the preceding one. Two previous contests were lost, the venue wasn’t conquered in 33 years and a mountain was to be confronted. History rebutted any of this materializing, the critics wouldn’t denounce individuals if it wasn’t accomplished and it was a bit cosmetic to foresee that happening. As the shadows lengthened across the carpet, the summit wasn’t scaled wholly but a subtle reference to that event of the past could be ascertained.

It wasn’t as serene as the legend of Adelaide and probably not as monumental. It was imperfect, it was brittle at times, it was twitchy but it managed to compose a story for the ages, comprehensively. The craft of scoring runs wasn’t too dissimilar but the abrasive outlook in which they were put up was largely different from the tranquillity in which 303 runs were accumulated in 2003. Skills were examined extensively on the day and so was the temperament. The question on whether runs could be scored in Australia was answered in the affirmative, the ability to sustain concentration after a verbal face-off, unexpectedly, remains unanswered.

The last time an Indian notched up a 3-figure knock at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) was an illustrious compilation of flamboyant striking in 2003. The wait for his successor finally ended, in a slightly more pleasing fashion. Those who recollect the failed glory hit at Delhi in March 2013 wouldn’t have envisaged a certain Ajinkya Rahane being the one to do so. Having modelled his batting demeanour on Dravid, 2014 has allowed ‘Jinks’ to carve a niche for himself; much like in the manner his hero went about doing so for 16 years. Durban, Wellington and Lord’s were distinctly outstanding yet the 147 was exceptional in most ways. For starters he outscored the in-form Kohli, the pull shot was executed with panache, the flair in the back foot play was demonstrated and barring the floored chance by Lyon he was largely in cruise control mode on a testing track and a tantalising scoreboard of 147-3 when he walked out to bat.

At the other end prior to Rahane’s class, Virat Kohli had already embarked on a fresh long journey, something which he has habituated so smoothly over the last couple of years. Nothing on display was unfamiliar, nothing was unseen and yet the innings of 169 was spectacular. A big hundred in a 56-innings career was coming and for India’s sake it coalesced with a big one from his batting partner in a crisis-aversion situation. Runs flowing off the ‘MRF’ labelled cricket bat was a sight to behold over the years, and it was rerun of sorts in terms of domination, footwork and holistic scoring directions. Unlike his predecessor though, Virat preferred to permit his adrenaline to surface up not only through his batting. It affected his mojo briefly but his aggressive self continued to desiccate a bowling attack probing his weakness diligently. His off-field partner was blamed for all ills of his failures in England and he didn’t miss the opportunity to express his emotions on reaching his 6^th away ton; quietly banishing all correlations of his personal life with his on-field output.

In the context of the match and series the individual hundreds are important and probably pivotal. The fabric knitted during the course of this innings has much more significance and will enrol into folktales. Kohli & Rahane substituted the positions vacated by Tendulkar & Laxman respectively; while there is an analogous promise on individual front, the partnership of 262 does comfort ardent followers suspecting lack of test match temperament in the current batch of players. Both fell in the last hour of the day, neither to good deliveries. A ship was carried through tough weather only to miss the shores by a whisker. The day was over, the contest stood in the balance and Kohli-Rahane did indeed make hay while the sun shined!