Watching cricket in the 90s was a life of its own. We had the best batsman in the world but the team around him was pretty much just 10 numbers. It was fun while he was there but the moment he got out, it all went downhill. Think 96 semifinals. The hopes of a nation rose and drowned with a single person. The emotions contrasted from watching the most beautiful cover drive to watching a series of dismissals in line. The math was simple. Sachin or no Sachin. That decided our fate.
Then Lords happened and India built a better batting unit around him. Our hopes of winning increased. Math was easy to do. 120 to win a test match. 10 Wickets in hand. This should be easy. Nope, 83 all out.
4th-day pitch, against Pakistan. 5 wickets in hand. Almost there. Then Sachin falls and we fall away like a pack of cards. 99 in Australia we watch the duck animation more than anything else. The belief only increased through this period but the results were the same.
I sat and did the mental math for every test match that India batted in the 4th innings. It was always almost similar. About 100–120 overs left. With Dravid and Ganguly and Sachin and Laxman, it always felt like we should be able to easily play out 100 overs so we would be able to draw the game. That is where our hopes resided. In drawing out a game after being set an improbable target. As we woke up, we would already be 5 down or sometimes bundled out. It was the same no matter where it was.
2001 was an aberration. It didn’t matter. When those 4th innings came and we needed to draw a game or win we crumbled. Very rarely did we come out victorious or even draw the game.
The scars of 98 Chennai were too strong. There were other scars too. Across different formats. Against Zimbabwe in England in the world cup in 99 as I sat and watched calculating the math required to win. It was still mathematically possible even if it was the no 8 and 9 batting. Math always told you the win was possible. The reality differed.
In 2003, the world cup final. The math said it was doable. My math was always strong and I believed in it. Hence I sat and watched until the last ball was bowled or the last wicket was taken. Until math said we could not win, I believed we could. But subconsciously, all the losses take a toll. They start lowering your expectations. They make you forget the math and hope we draw out a game even when the math says it’s improbable.
The post-2010 series dint help. We dint face a chance overseas. We just kept crumbling and losing. No 4th innings. No math is needed. Then the Kohli’s team arrived. The next generation. Bold and Aggressive. They said they would go for it if the math said there was a chance. They did but lost. While the efforts were applauded, the result dint change much. The 4th innings scars continued.
And hence today becomes that much more significant. My mind was saying we should play safe and go for a draw. The series would be drawn. That in itself would have been an unbelievable result given how the series turned out. I was wrong. I was proved wrong by this new generation of Indian players. The Gills, The Pants, and the Sundars and Thakurs.
They went for the win. I sat and watched hoping we at least draw the game. This team dint deserve to lose the series. These new guys said, we deserve a win. And they went and got it. They grabbed a test win they had no business being anywhere close to. They just told me and a generation of Indian Cricket Fans. Forget the scars of 98. This is the new India. 4th innings. If the math tells you we have a chance, We will grab that chance and ride it all the way to victory.
This victory is to that 90s kid who would sit and dream India would win because the math said so. That win has finally arrived.
