Underdog Punches IN Weight Division

Favourite graciously acknowledges defeat

    It has a been a golden couple of months for Test cricket. Extraordinary individual performances, unlikely results and upsets and a willingness by most teams to regard, and play, the game in a genuinely different way to that which they and previous generations have been accustomed.

    India beating Bangladesh inside two days with a two-innings run-rate in excess of seven was one of many memorable results but nothing compared to their 3-0 series loss to New Zealand ending an unbeaten 18-series streak at home spanning 12 years.

    Bangladesh beat Pakistan who, in turn, beat England. Sri Lanka beat New Zealand 2-0 shortly before the Black Caps stunned India. The gap between the top seven or eight nations, it seems, has never been smaller and much of it has to do with a completely fresh approach to the five-day game.

    New Zealand’s win in India is obsessing. Just when you think you’ve heard all the records, there are more. First series win in 13 attempts dating back to 1955. New Zealand had never won three Tests in a series against anyone. India had never lost three at home. They only time they had ever been ‘swept’ was when South Africa won two out of two in 2000.

    There have been more unexpected results and upsets in the last 25 years than ever before in Test cricket, but the Black Caps’ achievement is the most glaringly unpredictable of all of them. And there are no provisos, excuses or elements of ‘force majeure’. Just meticulous planning, hard work and impeccable execution of those plans.

    Regularly reverse-sweeping two of the great Test spinners, R.Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, was bold and audacious in equal measure. No other team has successfully done it.   

    Tom Latham accepted the captaincy from Tim Southee before the series following a 2-0 loss in Sri Lanka which did even less to inspire confidence for the trip to India. But he broke with Kiwi cricketing convention by talking of ‘firing some shots’ and ‘taking the game to them’ before the first Test.   

    “We had nothing to lose in many ways, if we were going to lose like almost everyone predicted, then I wanted us to go down playing our best game,” Latham said in the warm afterglow of his country’s greatest ever success. (Yes, comfortably more significant than winning the inaugural World Test Championship.)

    Latham was also quick to credit his opponents for their graciousness in defeat. On occasions like these the vanquished favourites might privately acknowledge their conquerors but remain defiant in public. Not so in the case of Rohit Sharma:

    “One day you’re on a high and one day you’re not, that is one thing I learned at a very young age about life. I pride myself on not getting carried away with certain things in life, it is important for me to understand that life is not just about highs, there can be lows as well, which I’ve seen a lot in my career,” Rohit said at the post-series press conference.

     “This will certainly be one of the low points of my career having lost three games at home, and I fully take responsibility for that. As a captain and as a leader I have not been at the best of my abilities right from the start of the series. With the bat as well, I have not been good enough.”

Asked whether losing three important tosses, some unlucky dismissals and untimely poor form meant his team had lost the series rather than the tourists winning it, Rohit was in gloriously generous, magnanimous form:

    “No, New Zealand won the series, to be honest. They played some really good cricket which is why, you know, this is the first series India has lost at home in a very long period of time and it is clear that New Zealand played better cricket than us.”

    “I have praised New Zealand enough in my last two press conferences…” Rohit said, unable to suppress a whispery but sincere smile. “They are a very clinical unit, I have seen it over the years. They are very smart with their own games, they understand what needs to be done, they keep it very simple and don’t complicate things and you have to give credit to them for that. They played better than us in terms of how they batted, and they bowled better than us.”

    The ‘underdog punches above weight division’ narrative has been a little tired for a while now. This result should end it. New Zealand have done in India what no other team in history has done before and it will change the narrative for many generations of players to come.

    *Page back for my column on June 26, 2021, to understand more about why I love Black Caps cricket so much!  

    *Many, many thanks to those who bought me a coffee this week. Please consider a monthly subscription if you can afford £4 per month. If not, random coffees are greatly appreciated. As are free subscriptions if you enjoy my columns.