Box office showdown: Sparks set to fly as Indian juggernaut faces tricky New Zealand in repeat of 2019 semifinal

Tribune News Service

Rohit Mahajan

Mumbai, November 15

India have smashed every opponent over the past six weeks, but now comes the moment of truth — and moment of luck, too, says Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain.

“The time has come that you need a little bit of luck to go your way,” said Rohit on the eve of their semifinal against New Zealand. “Obviously, we’re going to be brave enough. And hopefully, fortune favours the brave.”

The time has come that you need a little bit of luck to go your way. Obviously, we’re going to be brave enough. And hopefully, fortune favours the brave. Rohit Sharma

The underdog thing, from what you guys write, I do not think it has changed too much, but that is fine you know, and India have been exceptional. Kane Williamson

Rohit’s assertion of positivity seemed to reflect a mind coach’s words; his comment about luck, the need for luck, however, reflected the underlying fear of the unknown that preys on the mind of a sportsperson.

85 India currently have the most wickets (85), best economy rate (4.5), best average (19.6) and best strike-rate (26.2) among all teams in the World Cup.

6.5 New Zealand have been effective at scoring runs quickly in this World Cup, having the joint-highest run rate (6.5) among all teams in the tournament.

5 In nine World Cup matches against each other, New Zealand have won five times, while India have won four times.

In any game, there are uncontrollables that sportspersons are wary of; at the Wankhede, which side the coin lands on at the toss could be a decisive uncontrollable — teams batting first enjoy a massive advantage at this ground, right from the first game in 1987, when India batted first against Sri Lanka and piled up 299 in those days of relatively conservative batting.

During this tournament, batting first, South Africa made 399/7 against England and 382/5 against Bangladesh and won with ease; India then smashed 357/8 against Sri Lanka and routed them by 302 runs; Afghanistan made 291/5 against Australia and lost — but that was only due to a freakish innings of 201 by Glenn Maxwell, and the inexperience of the Afghan bowlers.

When the stadium was redeveloped before the 2011 World Cup, the ground became smaller, playing right into the hands of the batsmen. The dice is loaded in favour of the batsmen — in 12 ODIs played at the ground since the stadium’s diminution, the team batting first has topped 300 four times, once exceeding 400. The clincher? The average first-innings total here since then is 308, the average for the second innings is 218 — a clear difference of 90 runs.

If that doesn’t make the toss — perhaps the ‘luck’ Rohit talked about — critical, nothing would. The mantra would be — bat first, pile up a huge score when the conditions favour the batters, then rock the opposition with movement in the air and off the pitch, as India did against Sri Lanka.

What India did to Sri Lanka, New Zealand can do to India under the lights — they do have the resources in Trent Boult, the tall left-handed paceman who can make the ball angle across and then suddenly bend it back into the right-hander. Under the lights at the Wankhede, the ball has swung prodigiously — Boult could be quite a handful here, as he was in Manchester on July 9-10, 2019, when New Zealand beat India at the same stage of the World Cup.

India have struck fear into the hearts of the opposition, especially their pace bowlers — and their spin bowlers, and their batsmen! The pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj has taken 45 wickets; spin twins Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav have another 30; Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer have accumulated 1,518 runs, average 72.28; KL Rahul and Shubman Gill have 347 and 270 runs, respectively. Really, it seems India have all their bases covered, as Rohit said.

“The first (part) of the tournament, we chased the first five games, then the next four games we batted first,” said Rohit. “So, in terms of the areas that we wanted to cover, I think we’ve covered almost every bit. We do understand the importance of this week, but I don’t think we need to do anything different from what we’ve been doing in this tournament.”

Yes, but a bit of luck would be most welcome.

Everybody wants a piece of Rachin

Rachin Ravindra, 24 in four days, is a bald man’s envy — he seems to have such a full head of hair as could be enough for three men. But he’s also the envy of batsmen of all sorts, hairy or bald — the Wellington-born young man, son of migrants from India, has scored 565 runs in nine innings, average 70.62, with three hundreds and two 50s.

He’s inspired myths, too, with the internet buzzing with the news that his name is a combination of the names of two legends, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, he himself seemed to have bought into this, having said: “Back in the day when Mum and Dad were deciding the names, they both liked Rahul and Sachin, so “Ra” from Rahul and “chin” from Sachin, but that was a long time ago. We don’t talk about it much anymore.”

That’s a pleasing and plausible story, but his father now says the son got his facts wrong. He was named Rachin because it “sounded good, was easy to spell, and short”, says the dad, Ravi Krishnamurthy, who obviously possesses accurate information. He added that Rachin wasn’t named “with the intention to make our child a cricketer”. But he’s turned out to be quite a useful cricketer, as Kane Williamson acknowledged with his native effusiveness. “Yeah, good player, right?”

Kane and Everest

Kane Williamson is still cool. He was the losing captain in the 2019 World Cup final, and shrugged off the defeat that July 14 with remarkable stoicism, saying: “Yeah, obviously, just gutted.”

Today, before the biggest game of the World Cup so far, Williamson put up a comedic performance, raising laughter loud and often. The first question to him started with: “Kane, just going back in history a bit, 29th of May 1953, about 70 years back…”

Williamson interrupted him: “I remember, yeah!” Williamson had been some 30 minutes late for the press conference. His tardiness was punished just as the first question was asked, as the sound failed. Williamson kept the restive reporters in good humour with wisecracks. There was another interruption — the public address system of the ground was being tested, and a male voice boomed through the room: “Mic check, mic check, mic check…” Williamson responded: “The mic’s working, the mic’s working!”

The press conference stops, and when it was time to resume it, Williamson sought to know if all’s well with: “Mic check, mic check, mic check,” mimicking the invisible voice that had caused the interruption.

This is my property!

Some cricket-lovers were spotted at the Marine Drive today. It was easy to spot them, for they were dressed in identical blue shirts and ICC World Cup caps. They’re an excited lot, the few who seem excited about the cricket. They’re discussing their exclusive properties, their “licensed cricket digital collectibles”.

What are these? “They are digitally signed properties, such as videos, which are released in limited numbers,” says Vijay Kumar, an engineer from Bengaluru. He then displays a video of Virat Kohli that, he says, is valued at $700. But how can a video that can be watched by everyone on the internet be valued so much, one wonders.

“It’s not just the video, one gets privileges if one possesses these properties,” says Vijay. “So, those who have certain properties can take part in contests where one can win a sizeable prize money. Today we met Shane Watson, who was in the commentary box, just because we have these collectibles!”

In impressive tones, the talks about a limited edition Sachin Tendulkar digital property — a digitally signed video — which he says is worth $25,000. “Only five of these have been released so far!” he says. All this sounds a bit fishy to those used to the idea of brick and mortar companies, but Vijay Kumar and his friends are sure they’ve got a good thing going.

— Rohit Mahajan

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