From the peak of euphoria to the dumps of grief! Well Indian cricket team was hardly expected to experience this violent turn of fortunes. The defeat in the first Test to New Zealand in Bengaluru was just as unexpected as the dramatic win over Bangladesh just a few days earlier. Both seemed created efforts. True, the New Zealand series is not over, there are two more two Tests to go but the tumble was just about the last thing cricket fans in the country would have asked for. But then that is why cricket can be such a funny game!

Like in Kanpur everything seemed in the hands of nature.  Rain had almost ruined the Test then or so it was thought when so much time was lost but in a matter of two days, India invented a winning strategy and what is more executed it to perfection. Cricket lovers were happy and surely the top brass of ICC too for Test cricket in the end was the biggest winner. There could not have been a better way to prop up the image of Test cricket for there was everything, time lost through rain, scintillating batting and keen and sharp bowling, all combined to still give a result  in that match.  Much the same seemed on the cards in Bengaluru.

Rain was a visitor in Bengaluru too. Chunks of playing time were getting lost but better facilities at the Chinnaswamy stadium meant the rains had only to stop before playing conditions could be brought back to normal. But who would have foreseen a catastrophical turn of events and that too involving the Indian team. Skipper Rohit Sharma calls the toss right and his decision to opt for batting on hindsight now proved wrong. What resulted from India’s point of view was madness of a herculean nature. Suffice to state, New Zealand bowling sent India crashing for its lowest total on home soil (46), five batter going without even scoring a run, and the many thousands of disbelieving eyes in the stadium conveyed the agony that had set in.

The sense of disbelief stretched when New Zealand came on to bat and what is more, flowered in their batting. No signs of discomfiture were noticed and runs came aplenty. A Test match of this nature at one time would have been immediately written off as another one-sided contest with little to look forward to except the arrival of the final moment!  But then these are slightly different times. As witnessed in Kanpur, India could lay out a plan that baffled the connoisseurs every bit. Bringing in the art of one-day cricket culture, Indian batting could deliver then. Could such a revival or an escape, to be precise, be in the offing in Bengaluru from the Indian side was the question on the lips of every fan.  The stadium had the followers in good number for there still remained hope amongst the diehards!

But then history had a different tale to tell. Yes, on fourteen occasions a team that had been shot out below 100 runs in the first innings had bounced back to win the Test. But then India has never featured in that. India had been dismissed for less than 100 runs 27 times but at best could manage a draw on five occasions. A victory has always eluded the side. Then again, no team has ever won a Test match after conceding a lead of 300 or more. India’s best had been in 2001 in Kolkata when from a 274-run deficit against Australia, the home team could claw back and come up with a famous win. V V S Laxman (281)and Rahul Dravid (180)  were the heroes in this grand revival before spinner Harbhajan Singh (six wickets) and Sachin Tendulkar (three wickets) settled the issue  in India’s favour with their final touches.

Could India have rewritten history?  With an over 350 runs deficit and enough time ahead, New Zealand had looked all set to carve out a thumping victory, its first in India’s backyard in 36 years! Rohit and his men gamely took up the challenge. The way they went about inspired and when relatively newcomer Sarfraz Khan and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant took it up further, the writing on the wall for India seemed to fade a bit! Prolific scorer in domestic cricket, Sarfraz showed his mettle while Rishabh was his usual self, steady and forceful. The two in the main ensured India scaled the huge deficit and what is more set their team on building a lead. Everything had looked like a chapter from a book of fairytales. The positive thing was Indian batting till then showed its strength facing a stiff test. Yet the unthinkable happened again. Batting collapse ensued and India could not raise a challenging target.

What still impressed right through was the Indian approach. The team did not present a defeatist look but one steeped in self-belief to take the fight to the rival end.  Clearly the sport has only strengthened its roots in the country. Cricket today in India is able to find new stars at every turn. If it was Sarfraz who delighted in Bengaluru then a few days earlier in a T20 match against Bangladesh, we had Sanju Samson providing an amazing picture of a batter who can be unstoppable. That  even seniors like Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri were profuse in their praise for this Kerala batter underscored the value of this wicketkeeper-batter’s effort.

So, all is not lost for India. It allowed a Test to slip but the battle is still on.  To prop the team up further is the statistics that India continues to be the number one in the World Test Championship ranking. Surely better days are ahead.