Deflecting focus

Thank god for small mercies (and the lower case g is intentional).

When the #1 team in the world loses by an inning scant minutes into the fifth day of a Test match where most of the first day was lost to rain, the headlines should be about that fact. Instead, thanks to the emphasis the media places on personal milestones (and we are complicit in this, too, as you will see below), Sachin Tendulkar saved the Indian Test team's bacon to a great extent.

SRT crossed Brian Lara's aggregate tally of 11,953 runs in October 2008. Since then the fellow has added a scarcely believable 2560 runs with 11 centuries and 8 fifties to his tally. Phew! And the talk back then was when, and not if, Ricky Ponting would overtake the fellow.

Many Tests have come and gone since then and nothing has been written that will be new about him. Even when the man is pilloried for his failures, he still outdoes his teammates. Case in point: Two years after he overtook Lara at Mohali against the Australians, the two teams squared off once more on the same ground at the same time of the year. That brilliant Test is remembered for VVS Laxman's 73 not out under duress in a 1-wicket victory. What people forget is that the only Indian batsman to tally more than 100 runs in that Test was SRT. His 136 runs easily eclipsed Dravid's contribution of 90.

It is a measure of SRT's stature that his failures are more memorable than his successes. It is only in the past few years that he has begun to set that part of his storybook right.

But I digress. This blogpost is about the South African dominance of the first Test. Ignore the fact that India scored more than 450 runs in the second inning. Defeat was inevitable, say what you may. There was never any doubt in my mind that the SAffers would get those 10 moments they needed in the second inning. SRT and MS Dhoni only prolonged the inevitable.

For all those folks who will try to throw Napier and other brilliant rearguard actions at me, my contention is that this is a case where the exception proves the rule. The fact that you can remember the Indian rearguard actions off the top of your head only demonstrates how infrequent they are. It a credit to this current Test squad that most of those draws have been eked out by them in the last 5 years or so.

The focus will shift to Durban and, in a few days, I shall start writing about it. Until then, I shall write about other things as the grumblings of the small number of folks who read my blog for posts not related to cricket are getting loud.