Tonight's The Night (28 October 1998)

28 October 1998

Tonight's The Night

By Shakil Kasem

Beyond the Boundary

Much like the way they constantly keep the electronic scoreboard ticking, the Aussies trickled into Dhaka in ones and twos. The dribble will have spilled onto the Sonargaon lobby when the PIA flight disgorged Mark Taylor/Steve Waugh's men along with their vanquished foes the Pakistanis.

After a tour where the Aussies made history of sorts, by actually winning a Test match in Pakistan after a small matter of 39 years, the men in baggy green caps will look to continue their dream run. Flashback, circa 1961, Richie Benaud wheeling his arm over at this very stadium, Neil Harvey losing his stumps to Fazal Mahmood a whisker away from his hundred, Wally Grout going berserk scoring 66 in under an hour, and Alan Davidson making the ball talk on the matting wicket. Ray Lindwall was here too, but the mind does not co-operate adequately to remember whether he trod on the Dhaka outfield or not.

But that was then. Seize the day, this is the here and now. Under the lights, in coloured pyjamas, white ball in hand, the present-day Aussies would be a far cry from their predecessors of the sixties. Steve Waugh will ensure that charity does not begin at the cricket pitch. Mark Taylor will be missed as will be Ian Healy, whose keeping and late-order batting would have been a revelation.

The silky smoothness of Mark Waugh should be the toast of the competition, and he could be the essential difference between Australia either moving upwards in the competition, or heading Down Under early. The Aussie quickies will be expected to tame the Tendulkar-Ganguly combination, the most prolific opening pair in the business. The Fleming-Tendulkar duel will be refuelled. Whoever draws first blood will determine how the day will end.

Life after the rest day is fraught with possibilities. How will the Indian run machine cope with the pressure of having to keep the rest of the team afloat, after their none too convincing exploits in Toronto and Zimbabwe? Captains are prone to point out to anyone within earshot that the team that plays better on a particular day is likely to have the rub of the green. Azhar has been no exception in following this Confucian dictum. But one needs to shape a match to one's advantage; in a knockout tournament of this kind, performances are needed for the kind of upward mobility that does not require the services of travel agents.

In Sachin Tendulkar, India, and by extension, the rest of the world have a very rare virus that could spread an epidemic of runs, if conditions are even remotely conducive to its growth. 18 hundreds have long since flowed from his bat in one day cricket, and he certainly looks good for more. Records aside, against Australia he is in his element. If the spirit does move today, this would be a day to remember by the locals.

Tendulkar's partner in crime would be the man from the other side of the Ganga. With Amartya Sen already putting Bengal on the map, could this be the year of the Bengali? Timing is Ganguly's forte; perhaps he has saved his best for Dhaka, rather than Toronto. India's strength lie in their batting, and in Azhar and Jadeja they have just the ideal combination to shift the gears when required. More than ever, that ability will be put to the test in Dhaka's peculiar traffic.

Batting should be the key in today's match, for both teams have the firepower to gun for anything, even touching 300 or thereabouts. The day promises plenty, and the night must surely be set alight. Barring the inexplicable, this one's for the books.

Source:: The Bangladesh Daily Star (http://www.dailystarnews.com)

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