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Do not plonk the itinerary on to your desktop. This may not be enough to ignore game dates, but it will help you ignore game timings; and like me, you will expect every game to be a day-night game.
After all in India the floodlights move in even before Hon’ble Chief Guest can lay the foundation stone. Then follows camera, action and lastly the stadium. But Vadodara turned out to be a day game. Had it been Baroda, who knows what would have been.
Like the players, plan for a hedonistic night-before match - you will wake up wasted in the 48th over of the first innings. Good only, Amit Mishra’s not playing. For that matter, the eleven on the field are not playing either– by now you will have updates on missed catches. So what, you missed them too.
Hydrate yourself. Make yourself useful round the house. Turn up for the first over; be there to see Jatman off. See yourself off.
Count on a powercut, one hour and middle overs gone. Return with power, and the batting power play.
Feel vindicated that the batting power play should not be taken before the forty fifth over. Watch the tail-enders smash it around. See the last ball of the game, finally that’s what leaves you with that ‘I-saw-it-all feeling’. You will have invested very little, but the returns will be Reliancelike (and it was the Reliance stadium today)
Stick to these simple steps, not only will you survive this series, you will live through another seven. Just like Bhajji the bowler.
How to survive seven
Exit the bowling coach... Enter the bowling coach.
You know the story.. Venkatesh Prasad got the boot as bowling coach. Leading to a lot of breast beating ( and not a few snide remarks on the workings of the BCCI).The boot was ostensibly because of the decline in fortunes of India's next great bowling hope.
Which is why today's bowling effort was important. And what a bowling effort it was.
Ishant spoke to a lot of people today and a lot more people spoke to him. There was Nehra. And Kohli.. Delhi statemates. But not his India captain. Or his Delhi one.
But one man spoke to Ishant more than most. When he was not in the young man's ear he was more than willing to pull his ears, literally and figuratively. Standing at mid on, the little man spoke to Lambu.
But then again, he has been speaking to Ishant for a long time.. Remember "Ek Aur Over Karega?"
The God of Sehwagology is back. As is With him, India's bowling coach.
