The Oval and History

It was Sunday afternoon, the 12th of August, and the weather in Cambridge was not exactly sunny, though did not possess any property worth complaining about. But I was complaining, not about the weather, but about Rahul Dravid not enforcing the follow-on against England. It is a different matter altogether that before long, I had learnt to look upon the decision in better light. After all, India, with all its passion for the game of cricket, got what it really wanted - a series win, more than a win at the Oval. And as the captain of the English team, Micheal Vaughan and the venerable Geoffrey Boycott said, Dravid is not to be faulted for taking such a decision, however negative it might have been, under the prevalent circumstances. Vaughan even went to the extent of declaring that he would have taken the same decision had he been in Dravid's position. And, possibly, this decision might have meant that the game really went into the fifth day, the 13th of August, and ultimately, the distance. But all that mattered to me was that my ticket for the fifth day of play at the Oval was not to be wasted and I was guaranteed to witness a historic moment: an Indian cricket team winning a test series in England!!

And so, the day arrived, with England needing another 444 runs to win the game and India requiring 10 wickets for the win. Given the way the pitch was playing, the likely result was a draw and I did not care, as long as I got to see Kevin Pietersen present a masterclass and Dravid lift the Pataudi trophy. And I did get to see both. I will not dwell too much on the game - I shall leave it to the experts and more importantly to those who write largely uncharitable matters on the Indian team, come what may; to those to whom an Indian win is born out of sheer luck and a loss being due to the miserable 'non-talent' of the country's national cricketers.

The following is simply a collection of thoughts I had that would describe my experience at the Oval.

We had a rather nice place to be seated - located along the central normal to the pitch and pretty much at the ground level, which was particularly exciting to me as that meant I was at the ideal height to get some good snaps! Though it was a bit of a shame that India had set an attacking field for most of the game and as a result there was rarely a fielder close to the boundary and hence to the stand where I was.

Though I did get opportunities to see a few of the team members close up. Zaheer Khan was the first - he was stationed at the boundary for a short while. And he did look very serious and unmindful of and unresponsive to the chants of the goodly crowd. And more than often, he turned to face the stands, only to take a look at the replays being shown on the big screen that was right behind us. And during such moments, he offered opportunities to take photographs, though his facial expressions were not very inviting.

There were moments when RP Singh found himself close to my stand, but did not evoke any excitement from the crowd. And ditto was Dinesh Karthik whose forays to the stands were when he was chasing balls coming off the English bats.

The man of the moment, invariably, was Sachin Tendulkar, who stayed close to the rope for quite a while and showed me why he has always been dear to the masses. His every approach to the boundary was greeted by loud chants from the crowd and more often than not, he made it a point to turn, give a smile, wave his hands, either mutedly or vigorously as his instincts might have instructed him. And the smile seemed a rather permanent characteristic describing his features and thus endearing him to me and the crowd. It is quite something, having to put up with the adulation and blind debasement (to say the least) that he gets to face from the fickle minded Indian cricket lover. The response he received was something not offered to even the greatest Indian cricket captain ever, Sourav Ganguly, who did spend a short while at the boundary ropes.

Here, let me describe the English crowd that surrounded us. This, to them, must have been a time to spend and have fun. If you have seen Obelix stack up helmets that are spoils of war between him and the Roman legions, you would have immediately linked it to the activities of the chap sitting right in front of me - he was drinking pint after pint of beer, available for purchase, at the stadium, and stacking up the empty plastic cups. And at the end of it all, the pile of plastic glasses did reach a non-trivial height. And in contrast were the three of us, writing out banners (our wishes were not always granted) and showing them off and some Mr. Singh sitting next to me who did not seem to have much knowledge of the game and kept asking me strange questions that were totally unbecoming of an Indian (read cricket crazy).

And then, when it was all over - I must admit I did not give much attention to the proceedings on field, except to cheer the moments and personal landmarks (Pietersen's classic century, a beautifully positive half-century from Ian Bell, 2000 test runs to both Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood and of course the wickets that fell) - I did stay back to listen to the men who matter give their interviews. Anil Kumble received his first ever Man of the Match award for his batting. James Anderson, much to my surprise, was awarded the England Man of the Series. And to no one's surprise, Zaheer Khan was made the India Man of the Series. Michael Vaughan made a short speech on the performance of his "young" team. A rather irked Dravid made to justify his decision regarding the follow-on and yet managed a lovely answer that should have been posted on every news site worth its name.

And then it was champaign time and time for the victorious (in the context of the series) Indian team to flaunt their trophy, and time for me to catch a priceless snap: a pretty close-up portrait of a still serious-looking Mr. Dravid waving his hands and the great Sachin Tendulkar sporting a body language spelling excitement, but unfortunately facing away from the camera, on the same 3000 x 2000 pixel frame!

And today, when browsing a website, I did read comments from viewers from India claiming that it was just luck that India won the series - England did deserve to win at Lord's. It did put me off - I say, let us cherish the moment - these guys played so well, as a team and minus a coach - and dominated two of the three tests. And luck and the much talked-about umpiring decisions are part and parcel of every sport and are factors that contribute to the outcome, but that is what they are: part and parcel of the game and the game will not be without them! And I cannot but affirm that luck is of such primary importance that I dont think I would be doing the science I (and may be most other supposedly super-smart scientists) do in its absence!