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Plays of the day
The No. 12 shirt
Cricinfo staff
May 8, 2008
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Mine sells better than yours
© AFP
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The 12th man is Numero Uno: On Wednesday night, almost all the
Mumbai Indians replica shirts at the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul had the
No. 10 and Tendulkar printed on the back. So when you arrived at the
Eden Gardens on Thursday, the expectation was that Ganguly would be the
name of choice on the black-and-gold jerseys. Not quite. The Ganguly
shirts were conspicuously absent, with the Number 12 'Khan' shirt the
attire of choice. That should tell you all you need to know about the new
breed of Indian 'cricket' fan.
Where the mind is without fear: Right from the moment you land in
Kolkata, everything from the radio to posters on the walls inform you that
May 8 is Rabindranath Tagore's 148th birth anniversary. The first Indian
to be awarded the Nobel prize (1913), Tagore would probably beat off
competition from Satyajit Ray, Chuni Goswami and Ganguly if Bengal was
ever to choose its favourite son. And with the rain pouring down, Shah
Rukh Khan, he of the No.12 shirt, paid tribute by reciting Where The
Mind is Without Fear and the Head is Held High, one of Tagore's most
famous works. His team followed that message when they came out to field.
Not the Mystic Masseur: As the Kolkata openers prepare to
face the first ball after an interminable rain delay, the camera pans
across to Shoaib Akhtar in the dug-out. Not fit enough to play this game,
Shoaib makes himself useful by giving one of his new team-mates a shoulder
massage. A man of many talents.
Double jeopardy: Murali Kartik played a vital role in reviving the
Kolkata innings, but when he could only scoop out a yorker from Praveen
Kumar, no one was quite sure if it was a bump catch or not. Wriddhiman
Saha was already halfway down the pitch, and Praveen, who had taken the catch
on his follow-through made doubly sure by taking the bails off long before
Kartik had ambled across. The scorer initially said run out, but replays
later proved that it was a clean catch.
Anything you can do: Cameron White had come up with a stunning
direct hit on the dive to dismiss Ganguly, but then had to watch his
thunder stolen by a compatriot. When J Arunkumar cut one hard to point,
Hodge flung himself to the left to gather the ball in. In almost the same
movement, he switched the ball to the right hand and produced a throw that
took out the only stump he could see. Arunkumar departed in a state of
shock, and you could scarcely blame him.
O Captain, My Captain: With Rahul Dravid struggling to get the ball
away, Ganguly brought himself on to bowl to the man who replaced him as
India's captain. Dravid decided to go for the paddle-sweep off the
first ball, but the result was anything but pretty. The exposed leg stump
was uprooted and Ganguly ran off towards point in celebration, leaving
Bangalore supporters to reflect on the first line of Walt Whitman's
famous poem about Abraham Lincoln. O Captain my Captain! Our fearful
trip is done.
© Cricinfo
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