Waiting Game: Hanging by the harbour with VVS Laxman

Mumbai: My abiding cricketing memory of Sydney, where India will play Australia in the World Cup semi-final today, is not of a cricket match at all. It is about being perched precariously, a few hundred feet above Sydney, while climbing the spectacular Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was the summer of 2004 (winter in Australia) and I was in the city on work. A free morning was spent attempting to conquer the bridge. 

Ahead of us was our guide for the day, a nice, chatty young bloke who told us all about the history, geography and technology of the bridge. To break the fretful mood, our guide began to ask us which countries and which parts of the world we were from. I mumbled “India” and expected it to stop there.

 

Actually it didn’t stop. “India!” the guide exclaimed, “V.V.S. Laxman… Very Very Special Laxman… I saw a Very Very Special innings from him right here at the Sydney Cricket Ground a few months ago… Err, are you a cricket fan?” I nodded and said I was. That did it. The guide stopped; the journey took a break. Our man was in his elements, describing Indian’s batting, how late Laxman played the ball, his wristwork, his elegance… He was referring to the Sydney Test match of January 2004.

The star of India, however, was Laxman, who scored a breathtaking 178, probably the most beauteous of his hundreds and for this writer at least surpassing even the immortal 281 at the Eden Gardens (against Australia in 2001). Evidently, he also made himself an everlasting fan in the form of that enthusiastic Sydney Harbour Bridge guide.

 

It is no different for the World Cup semi-final. India and Australia have played each other in every World Cup since 1983, other than in 2007, when India was knocked out in the preliminary round. Several of these matches have been memorable. Two of them have been knockout games. One of these was the quarter-final in 2011, when Ricky Ponting hit a hundred in what was to be the final World Cup match of an illustrious career. Despite a good start by Tendulkar, India seemed to falter before Yuvraj Singh, playing the tournament of his life, saw his team through.

 

Strictly speaking, the other knockout game was not meant to be one. It was a bizarre match at Chelmsford, with India being bowled out for 247. Yashpal Sharma top-scored with 40 and Mr Extras came next with a whopping 37. By today’s standards, 248 runs in 60 overs is scarcely a tough target. In those pioneering days of limited overs cricket, with the ball moving in English conditions, it was different. Roger Binny and Madan Lal took four wickets each and bowled India to an out-of-the-box victory.

 

In between those flanking years came a whole range of matches. In three World Cups in a row, 1996, 1999 and 2003 Australia hammered India. In the two preceding World Cups, in 1987 and 1992, the first played in the subcontinent and the second Down Under, Australia beat India by one run. The 1992 match was a rain-hit peculiarity, the sort the World Cup of that year seemed to specialise in. Chasing Australia’s 237 in 50 overs, India’s innings was interrupted by showers. Three overs were deducted, but the target was reduced by merely two runs. 

 

It had been a long and hard tour for Mohammad Azharuddin’s team in 1992. Now the fates seemed to conspire again. Nevertheless, the captain hit a spellbinding 93 and the lower order fought. India needed four runs off the last ball. Javagal Srinath hit what he thought was a six, but Steve Waugh caught and dropped the ball. Belatedly, the Indians started running. Waugh ran out Venkatapathy Raju as he rushed to complete the crucial third run that would have tied the match. It was not to be.

This glorious day, will it be?