On March 14th, 2001, two Indian batsmen walked to the crease with not many people expecting them to do much. At the end of the day the two were still undefeated and one of the greatest rearguard actions in the history of Test cricket was well on its way.
Six years later, I still get goosebumps when I think of that match. Sadly I did not follow the scores for those two days as I was visiting a friend whose birthday falls during the same time period. When I had last checked the scores, India were 128 for 8 in the first innings. When I opened CricInfo two days later the headline said "Laxman, Dravid seize initiative for India". While the page was downloading (slow Internet connections are a terrible curse to bear during such occasions) I tried to figure out a scenario where the two could have even batted together, let alone seize the initiative for India. As the page loaded, right below it, was an article about Gavaskar congratulating Laxman. I was confused but happy. When I saw the scorecard I was shocked. The rest of the series was followed closely by me, needless to say.
My eternal regret is that I did not follow either of his innings as it transpired over those two glorious days. I just hope that there are more performances from VVS Laxman over the next few years to make that regret a little less pronounced.
1 comment:
Sorry for this late response to your post.
But did you know that Laxman and Dravid picked a Very Very Special day to pull of the recovery for the ages. Somewhere up there, Albert Einstein must have celebrated his birthday (March 14th) with a smile as he saw relativity being proven on the cricket ground.
That is the day on which time stood still to applaud what is to date perhaps the pre-eminent test innings by an Indian batsman (only comparable one for me - has to be in a winning cause - is of course GR Viswanath's 97 Not Out in 1974 v/s Clive Lloyd's marauding Windies).
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