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Thursday's thriller of a contest in the Hero Honda Cup between the world's two best cricketing nations at the moment—India and Australia—in Hyderabad seems destined to go down as one of those unforgettable and historic clashes of which much will be said for years to come, as long as the rivalry between the two teams remains icily strong as it is today.
It is being described as a massive choke by the hosts which has "let" the Australian team edge ahead 3-2 in the series, with two games left to be played.
They say it was all about one team losing its way. Hardly the other finding a way to somehow win.
Apparently, it was one man's glorious effort which went in vain, due to sheer dumb ill fate (and some dumb teammates!).
It will do us well to remember that Australia had come into this match will the odds stacked against them, for their first choice players had been rendered non-combative because of various injuries.
It was virtually a third-tier Australian team which had wrestled victory out there in the Rajiv Gandhi stadium yesterday, in a gritty display which was a fitting tribute to their unmatched willpower.
With 19 runs to get off 17 balls, with the batting powerplay on and three wickets remaining, almos any team would have given up disheartened at the sight of their mommoth total being chased down due to one's man's brilliance.
Any team other than Australia.
They quite simply refused to stop competing. They wouldnt let themselves be gutted - not till the last ball is bowled.
It is all about pressure, mate.
Pressure, Pressure. A history of pressure.
Some may call them lucky to have scraped through yesterday.
In fact, indeed they may have been so.
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
I am a sucker for cliches. I love them.
Because they are almost always, inspite of being recited over time and again to the point of exhaustion, true.
The above said quote perhaps ideally describes how the Kangaroos had thoroughly deserved any amount of luck they might have had as darkness descended in the City of Pearls.
True, enough cannot be said about Tendulkar's knock, which is sure to go down in history as one of those epic efforts which were cruelly left unrewarded.
It was one of those draining at the same time scintillating innings' which is rarely witnessed, especially in chases.
With some enthralling stroke-play, he had single handedly kept his team in the game. But was let down by ten other men, who had never before looked so dwarfed in a cricket pitch as they did yesterday.
A bitter pill to swallow for the cricket-frenzy nation that is India.
From him was an innings of pure class.
But there is a reason why Cricket was never a one-man show.
One man's classy effort was never going to be enough to combat one hell of a team's inspiringly incredible will to succeed.
At the end of the day, even as the day will perhaps be remembered years down the lane as one in which the little man from Mumbai endured a painful heartbreak—oh, let us just add to that already long list of those—for now let us not fail to appreciate the sheer courage that Ponting and his men showed in snatching victory from the biting jaws of defeat.
From them was a display of unity and character.
For, in a match which had become a battle of wits as night fell in Hyderabad, it was that inexperienced but brave visitng Aussie outfit that had refused to blink first...and thus finished the deserved victors.
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