The Surfer

Everyone in the vicinity of the pitch had either an opinion on its nature, or an anecdote about it from the years gone by. There were reminders of how the wicket for this Test hadn’t been used for an international match in decades, and how it was the one on which Malcolm Marshall had made Sunil Gavaskar drop his bat with a bouncer in 1983.

Maybe young Tim Southee could see himself unlucky here, but Tuffey by all accounts was the pick of the first-class bowlers last season and that may have been enough to see him in over Southee. O'Brien and Martin are our Test specialists and deserve the right to show it, while Bond simply must play if he is fit enough.

Tactics are often dictated by conditions and a negative line can, on occasions, yield positive results. Mishra should have consistently landed the ball outside leg and spun it around the leg-stump. Instead, he experimented by flighting the ball across the right-hander and went for runs.

Test match victories come along often enough to keep us interested. One-day success, in any sustained sense — or any significant trophy sense — eludes Our Boys. Perhaps it’s a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest: we’d be more likely to win if we all took it seriously.

The ICC should have had the backbone to stand straight and tell the guys who were against it, that they are the ones running the game and calling the shots and that the Referral System stays and be played accordingly. But what did the ICC do.? They were as meek as lambs and without a murmur bent backwards to please the cricketers who objected to that system, like they did during the Australia- India series when the Indians threatened to pull out of the series if action was taken against Harbhajan Singh.

Elevated to the country's leadership in 1974, his blade continued to carve runs and carve them with a flourish. The relatively small build, dancing feet, exquisite timing and ramrod straight bat, Anura, batting everything except his eyelids, established supremacy over the bowlers within seconds of having scratched out his guard. His cover drives held one transfixed and he could clip a ball off his ankles with that wristy authority of his.

At some point Nehra left his dream world, put aside his laziness and decided to apply himself. As much could be gleaned from his efforts in a Ranji Trophy match staged in Delhi. It was a hot day but the beanpole did not flag, rushing to the crease in his energetic way, whirling over his arm and causing all sorts of difficulties. He may resemble a giraffe but with ball in hand he becomes a gazelle.