21 January 2014, 03:16 PM IST
Laxmi Ratna Shukla is right.
If Bengal had won the toss, who knows.... Maharashtra would have been all out early and Bengal would have won their Ranji Trophy semifinal in Indore in three days.
Who knows... Maharashtra would have scored 700 in two days and Bengal would have been twice all out before lunch on the third day...
Who knows... if the umpires had caught Shukla playing with the seam of the ball, they would have banned him for the next couple of games... nay, barred him from his illogical utterances... who knows?
Mind you, I'm not against sense of wonder and hindsight. Both are beautiful, non-performance excusing drugs. Shukla is perfectly entitled to his opinion. His argument that the match should last five days is valid too. And so is the fact that in both knockout games in the Ranji Trophy, Maharashtra had won the toss.
However, it's time to ponder why batsmen from either side could not survive four days on the Wankhede and Holkar stadium tracks. Are they spoilt by aided pitches and hence have forgotten the art to play on seaming tracks? Or are they allergic to 'result' (undoctored) pitches and kings of the sick first-innings lead?
Shulka's argument that the toss played a crucial role would have been perfectly valid had his team scored 500-plus in their second innings. But they managed less than 350, with the last five wickets contributing more than 200.
So, Bengal could not bat well on the so-called unfair track on the first day and could not tally a mountain of runs in the second innings too. It indicates that they were short on skills first time and mental fortitude the second time, assuming that the wicket was eased out.
Perhaps, Shukla's definition of sports is more wide-ranging. For most of us, it's skills and mental fortitude. His team failed miserably on both counts and their gamesmanship went unpunished. Maybe, just maybe, rather who knows, Shulka was waiting for this punishment. Well waited, LR! You were just outclassed, outplayed and outgunned by Maharashtra.
PS: Like BCCI, ECB and CA will not be relegated in the proposed two-tier Test structure, even Shukla & Co should not be relegated to Group C of the Ranji Trophy even if they finish last in the pool next season. It will not be a bad idea to reserve a quarterfinal berth, and permanent status of toss-winners, to Shukla's champion of champions (Caution: what if they say it was a good toss to lose!?). After all, comedians are always welcome!
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Shukla's Bengal Ranji team: champions emiratus!
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Shukla's Bengal Ranji team: champions emiratus!
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Shukla's Bengal Ranji team: champions emiratus!
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