Twenty20 has had its share of critics (me included).. yeah, you've heard all the arguments.. it's heavily loaded in favour of batsmen.. it doesn't give enough time for subplots.. it's the fast food outlet that takes the charm out of the granny making parathas next door.
However, we all forgot one thing.. in the end, it's still cricket. And it took a tied match between India and Pakistan to show us that. Yeah, so we have cricket's version of cheerleaders.. and a DJ on a cricket field.. but then, like any other form of the game, if you provide a pitch that has that little something for the bowlers, the contest is riveting. And so we had a Mohammad Asif who was unplayable.. an Irfan Pathan who bowled beauties.. an Uthappa who improvised.. and a Misbah-ul-Haq who proved his detractors wrong.. there were dropped catches, direct hits.. and finally in a contest that was supposed to be a sure win for the batsmen, the last 2 balls couldn't produce the final run.
Yeah.. this is cricket in a very different package.. and when you hear about 277 runs in 20 overs, you do feel a little sorry for the bowlers.. but then, it's the same feeling you get when you hear of 434 in 50 overs.. or when both teams score 600 in a drawn test match. But in Twenty20 in particular, the combination of a juicy pitch (if you get one) and the compulsion batsmen feel towards scoring every ball seems to give the bowlers more than a fighting chance. Obviously, Twenty20 will never be the same as a test match.. but different doesn't necessarily mean bad.
I guess some would criticize the bowl out.. there wasn't the real need of a result and a tied match has a charm of its own. But I thought it was amazing. It got the spectators involved, edge of the seat stuff. Think about it.. I recounted each ball to Goyal (whose power got cut), sent smses to Gattu (who was in transit and without access to a TV set) and changed the way I sat each time to bring India luck.. I got an ecstatic call from Ravi (who hasn't ever called me for non-official stuff) after we won.. I woke up in the morning and saw the highlights again on SportsCenter.. and Parul's sms 10 min ago said ":D we won!" though we had talked about it for ages last night itself!!
It was brilliant, it was a night I won't easily forget.. thank you Twenty20.. and welcome to the world!
23 hours ago
3 comments:
Yeah, super fun!
- We made a guy hold burning cigarettes in both his hands but not smoke during last couple of overs and bowl out :) and finished the last diwali's 'pathakas' quota afterwards.
So much for the superstitious us.
Twenty20 will never be the same as a test match.. but different doesn't necessarily mean bad.
Very true.
@Ojas - Last year's diwali patakhas a month before this year's diwali?!! I guess that just shows the state of Indian sport in the past year :)
heh.
... or my lack of following indian sports (teams) thereof :)
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