The outrageousness of India’s defeat at Trent Bridge was actually predicted by Mirza Ghalib when he wrote “Dard ka hadh se guzar jaana hai dawa hona”. For the Urdu challenged, Ghalib was referring to the second test at Trent Bridge in India's current tour to England, when he wrote “pain can only increase to a certain point, beyond which you don’t feel it anymore”. Such was the brutality and ruthlessness of the English attack that the Indian Cricket Team disintegrated in perfect resonance, with the inflicted pain increasing a bit at a time till Sachin was given LBW, and then we were all comfortably numb.
England did everything right. If the victory at Lord’s was near-perfect, the Trent Bridge rout was one scripted by the Cricketing Gods. Slight hiccups were simply opportunities for new heroes to seize moments and continue the carnage, with the bat or the ball, at the top or at the tail. If Cook and Swann seemed to lose their incredible forms, others rediscovered theirs and more than made for all Brit shortcomings. Broad was a marginal selection at the beginning of the series. What a joke that looks like in hindsight! We would have to go back a long long way to find another Test player that could match his current purple patch. Bat, Ball or words, he is playing with them all with mind numbing brilliance.
Bresnan, another outside selection, couldn’t do anything wrong either. Kevin Pietersen, yet another out-of-form man has found his knick in the nick of time to deflate India. Bell, Trott, Anderson, Tremlett are all names in a long list of fine performances from England. The Cricket has indeed been near flawless from the hosts. They have truly and fully outplayed India in all departments and have registered two thumping victories to ensure that they will not lose this series. Glorious memories of 2007 can find another home; they were mercilessly washed away today.
What’s more, it wasn’t cheeky Cricket at any stage. It was bold and handsome, going for the jugular. Victory was never sneaked in by going after the tail while giving easy singles on the other end. England dismissed Sachin in the second innings, and Dravid in the first, before ripping through the tail like a knife through warm soufflé. India didn’t have a lone fighter stranded on one end as it so often happens.
Like the Cricket from England, my fellow fans, India’s defeat was just brilliant in its completeness.
It is also symbolic and morbidly ironic that India’s number one test ranking is being washed away in this fashion. One could argue that this is the last golden legion of Test Cricketers to have represented India. The only way we will see VVS, Sachin or Dravid back at the 2015 tour of England would be as commentators, spectators, umpires or all of the above. One wonders, once these greats hang up their boots and take up alternate professions, who will step up and be the next great Test Cricketer from India? Would any of our new crop go on to become a legend of such stature? Would this seemingly last league of extraordinary gentlemen take with them the last golden era of Indian Test Cricket?
Oh well! No matter how deep these gashes are, and how excruciating the pain may be, we have to cherish these dying moments of India’s reign at the top. We have to cherish these last batting stands by the likes of Sachin, Dravid and VVS. Each boundary, each forward defense, even the well judged ‘leaves’ are like last breaths. We have to live them to the fullest while they last.
Until the next jagging delivery by Anderson, or the precisely shaping outswinger from Broad, takes our breaths away….
