Fascinating Draws: No Result But a Gripping Match

Is there any other game except cricket where a drawn game is described as a fascinating, gripping, interesting match? What is it about cricket that a match that doesn't throw up a result can sometimes be more engaging than one that has produced a result?

Now I don't follow other sports as passionately as I follow cricket, and it will be good if those who display similar madness about their favourite sport can tell me that a drawn match can make hearts beat faster and leave fingers bereft of nails.

Sport is oftentimes less about skill and more about spirit. The spirit of those who play it, the grit they display, and the character they bring to the field of play. Gautam Gambhir played a knock of amazing grit spread over almost 11 hours, hung in just to make sure New Zealand couldn't find a way to threaten India's 1-0 lead in the ongoing series.

It's a surprise that just about a year ago the same man was seen as a shorter-version, slam-bang specialist with many a question mark around his temperament. He batted with just one focus: crease occupation.

Nothing else mattered to him as he ran the singles for his partners, even as his own run-scoring got reduced to a crawl, and the manner in which he got stuck at 83 for several overs told a story.

Here was a man standing in for his team, and as Arun Lal said, in the context of the series this wasn't just a match-saving innings. It was, in fact, a series-winning innings.

He partnered Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, and then, that consummate artist called Laxman. If Gambhir's innings was about resolute determination, Laxman's was about how to entertain while saving a match, and how to play the same delivery in many ways.

His face wore an unperturbed look, and the ease with which he found gaps betrayed a concern about distrurbing the field. It seemed that he didn't want to trouble the fielders too much; all that he wanted them to do was to fetch the ball back from the boundary so that he could unleash his silken artistry once again.

Test cricket has seen several similar dramas, and the fans often remember these draws with as much appreciation as they remember the victories.

The lone hand that Atherton played while scoring 185 against a fearsome South African attack in South Africa, or Vishwanath and Vengsarkar holding out against England's mammoth total, or quite recently when the West Indian tailenders defied a desperate England attack to keep their noses ahead in the series.

As I said earlier, oftentimes, such matches are more absorbing than whodunnit.