Beyond the Boundary - Dramatically Historic (15 March 1999)
Cricket is akin to theatre; played out on a stage, where the plot occasionally thickens, the cast always have assigned roles to play, and performances are at a premium, berated or applauded as the case may be by an audience which could be either
15-Mar-1999
15 March 1999
Beyond the Boundary - Dramatically Historic
Shakil Kasem
Cricket is akin to theatre; played out on a stage, where the plot
occasionally thickens, the cast always have assigned roles to play,
and performances are at a premium, berated or applauded as the case
may be by an audience which could be either indifferent or rapt
depending on what's happening on stage.
The third day of this Test meandered through the eddies and gullies
of predictability until it sparked to life, just before the day was
dead. Not that the outcome of this match is in any doubt. What
reservations there may have been lurking in the collective mind were
swept conclusively away, as Sri Lanka continued to compound their
miseries. It was Theatre of the Absurd. After a most dull and dreary
second day, the cricket aficionado at the ground had something to
gain from having paid for his entry.
Almost predictably and by design, both Ijaz and Inzamam completed
their double hundreds. With each run they remorselessly hammered
another nail into the Sri Lankan coffin. Whilst doing so, they
further cemented their place in the Pakistani middle order. Eat your
heart out, Salim Malik.
Two double hundreds ensured that Pakistan almost got to the 600 mark,
although I suspect that they would ideally have liked to bat out the
day and perhaps midway through the next as well. Something in the
region of 700 plus would have shut out Sri Lanka from the match and
snuffed out any challenge that they might have been contemplating to
mount. The late order perhaps did not do justice to the earlier work
done by the upper echelons of the batting society. But then, this is
an imperfect world.
In what amounted to a form of Black Humour, Sri Lanka had more
misfortunes to tackle. This was not Fat Lady Falling on Ice; but it
was quite baroque in its own way. The bizarre lay an inch below the
surface. Having bowled Pakistan out for 596, the Sri Lankan captain
did not get any respite to ponder on what is, what was and what must
be. The Sri Lankan team, already on the floor, then got kicked in the
guts by Wasim Akram. The perfect schoolboy bully.
I always maintained that old age and treachery win over youth and
enthusiasm. This was the master displaying his art for the world to
see. This was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Seagal rolled into
one. This was mayhem, this was chaos, this was High Definition
Performance. Kennth Tynan would have been lost for words. It was
theatrics of the highest order.
Hattricks do not occur every day, least of all in Test matches, and
back-to-back hattricks (that too against the same team) match the
odds for a hole in one on a designated hole. I don't think there
could be any similar comparison. History beckoned and how this great
fast bowler responded! He wrote this script and then performed with
panache and aplomb. Give him an Oscar, quick.
Spare a thought also for Mahela Jayawardena, an innocent victim of
the vicissitudes of this game of cricket. A double hundred in a Test
match barely two weeks ago, but now runs avoiding him like the
plague. He has managed two ducks in a row, the second one of historic
importance. Like Dhaka, he too can bask in some reflected glory, or
should that read refracted?
It is said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as a
farce. Dhaka, which last saw a Test match thirty years ago, by some
strange twist and quirk of fate has got itself into the limelight
once again. Because one of the greatest bowlers of all time decided
to rewrite history here.
What of the Test then? Well, what of it? Can it last the distance?
These are the metaphysical questions.
Source :: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)