Yet again, Eden Gardens did not dissatisfy the cricket
followers. The City of Joy has always lived up to the expectations of fans and
students of the great game. Be it a Test match or 50-over format, the wonderful
Eden Gardens has dished out the kind of excitement for which one can skip the
most romantic date with his or her love without a second thought. There is
something special in Eden Gardens and it is made special by the think tanks of
Bengal cricket.
November 20, 2017. Day Five. The first Test was all set to meet
a dull draw. But as usual, Kolkata did not frustarte the fans as the twenty two
yards left all of us spell bound. Courtesy of a sporting track whose brain
child was Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly.
The first three days were hit by inclement weather but on a
greenish track and overcast conditions, produced some thrilling stuffs which
were quite unbelievable on the subcontinent. But Cricket Association of Bengal’s
most prominent figure, Ganguly, thought of killing the boredom of flat and
turning tracks and decided to unleash a track which allows more assistance to
seam and swing bowlers.
Day 1 witnessed India to reel against Suranga Lakmal and co’s
movement. Day 3 witnessed a gallant fight back from Sri Lanka’s tail and Day 4
witnessed India’s dominance with the bat.
On the final day, Virat Kohli scripted his 50th international hundred relying on his typical counterattacking abilities to give
Sri Lanka a target to chase within 47 overs. As soon as Mohammed Shami and
Bhuvneshwar Kumar rolled their arms, Sri Lanka experienced hell – the track had
not lost its spice despite the sunshine and not even offered enough assistance
for the spinners. It was all about pacers and a slip cordon which Clive Lloyd’s
West Indies used to operate in the 80s.
The Test match ended in a draw and it was a lucky escape for
Sri Lanka, but the amount of drama Eden Gardens provided us, cannot be
expressed in few words – it’s unmeasurable.
Had the track not been a sporting one, we might have
experienced a dull end to the proceedings, but because of such a sporting track,
we all could experience all four innings being played and the interference of
weather became irrelevant.
Cricket Association of Bengal deserves a big thanks for such
a cracking contest and like I said earlier in my post in Bengali, a lot depends
of BCCI to inject life in Test cricket and it seems, they are doing just that.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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