Nought from AB’s ton

With poor weather conditions snatching away any potential excitement, it remains to be seen whether ABD’s milestone game ends being a mere footnote in the history of the sport. — Asian Age

For all his fan following in the city owing to his RCB connect, it appears as if AB de Villiers’ 100th Test is doomed to end in a watery grave. Having missed out on a deserving hundred on the opening day, the only day of action over three days in the second Test at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, the South African, like the other players has been left cooling his heels.

While much of Sunday was spent waiting for the rain to subside in vain, on Monday the players didn’t even have to make the effort to get to the venue with steady rain all through the previous night and into the morning ruling out all hopes. Prior to the game, there was the general belief that the de Villiers’ landmark game, given its significance, could affect the visiting team’s preparations but as it transpired, the loss of two days, may in fact, help them in going to Nagpur with just a 1-0 deficit.

The last time around this venue was gung-ho over a significant individual was during the 2004-2005 season when Inzamam-ul-Haq stepped out for his 100th game in the three-match series. On that occasion, the burly Inzy led from the front with a buccaneering 184 and though Younis Khan eclipsed him with a mind-boggling 267, an effort which was matched by the flamboyant Virender Sehwag’s 201, Pakistan had done more than enough to pull off an exciting victory to draw the series.

More than a decade later, with so much fanfare attached to de Villiers’ achievement, it was but a given that fans would throng the venue, especially over the weekend. Of late, the biggest threat facing Test cricket has been the lack of attention from the fans and Mohali, where the first Test was completed inside three days was a poor advertisement for the five-day game with extremely poor turnout.

While the advent of T20 cricket has been blamed for luring the fans away from the longer version, the fact remains that it’s only result-oriented wickets and result-oriented series that can get them through the turnstiles.

Going into the game, there was a huge clamour over India’s ploy of going in with spin-friendly wickets to shackle the Proteas but as captain Virat Kohli put it, home advantage can only do so much, it’s up to the players to execute their roles.

“Home advantage is obvious but being familiar with the conditions, a couple of their players are familiar with playing in this ground. We have to execute the skills better than the opposition to win a game of cricket and that is our main aim,” said Kohli.

The Indian skipper then went on to point out how sporting wickets rather than focusing on spin or pace ought to be the way forward to get the fans back into the game.

“We should be delighted that we are getting result-oriented wickets because then you will have more people coming in to watch Test matches rather than you know criticising the pitches and saying it is not fair.”

In the current context, with just 81 overs having gone through and almost 180 overs lost over two days, it’s impossible to fathom how the pitch would have behaved but just for good measure and elucidating Kohli’s views, the crowd turnout on the first two days had been hugely impressive.

But with poor weather conditions snatching away any potential excitement, it remains to be seen whether de Villiers’ milestone game ends being a mere footnote in the history of the sport.