Jadeja is Jadeja, Kapil is Kapil


                                          

I’d like to draw a parallel between India’s match against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup and yesterday’s 2019 World Cup match against New Zealand.

Both the matches were critical. India had to win against Zimbabwe to qualify for the semi-finals and against New Zealand to qualify for the finals.

In both the matches, India started disastrously. Against Zimbabwe, India were

0 for 1 (Gavaskar out for 0)

6 for 2 (Srikanth out for 0)

6 for 3 (Amarnath out for 5)

9 for 4 (Patil out for 1)

17 for 5 (Yashpal out for 9)

Half the side was in the pavilion with the score not even 20.

Against New Zealand, India were

4 for 1 (Sharma out for 1)

5 for 2 (Kohli out for 1)

5 for 3 (Rahul out for 1)

24 for 4 (Karthik out for 6)

The 5th wicket fell with the score on 71.

Against Zimbabwe, Kapil Dev walked in to bat when the Indian innings was tottering and begging for some decency. Experts did not expect India to cross a total of 70. Against New Zealand, Ravindra Jadeja walked in to bat with 148 required in 19 overs, a difficult but not impossible target to achieve. With so many T20s being played and IPL every year, Jadeja had been in such a position several times before. During Kapil’s times, there were no T20s and no IPLs.

What Jadeja did yesterday was super but what Kapil Dev did on 18 June, 1983 was magical, a miracle – he played a knock that one gets to see once in a lifetime only. His 175 not out is a benchmark against which every ODI innings played since then is judged.

Within his limitations, Jadeja did everything he could (not to forget that he had an experienced Dhoni guiding him) to take India to victory and even if India had won, his innings would still have been believable.

Kapil Dev’s innings was unbelievable, unthinkable.

And therein lies the difference. Jadeja is Jadeja. Kapil is Kapil.

-          NZ

11.7.2019

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