21 club

The Australian commentator David Hookes,who was killed in a freak brawl outside a pub in 2004,sought as much entertainment from cricket as he brought to his reports. When Bangladesh,then new to Test status,were to tour Australia at a time when the Baggy Greens were more indisputably the champions than ever before or afterwards he worried about lack of interest in such a one-sided contest. He advised the hosts to spice it up and approach each Test match as a one-day game,and get the visitors out twice and bat long and fast enough to secure the game by sun-down. In the event,Bangladesh had something to say about that and the Darwin Test took three days,the Cairns Test four days. But the idea was still intriguing,the desire to wipe out the entire opposition in the course of a few overs. Eighteen-year-old Deepak Chahar has certainly reminded us of how attentive we are to the quick dismissal. On his debut for Rajasthan against Hyderabad,the swing bowler grabbed eight wickets for 10 runs,in all of seven-and-a-half overs,contributing to Hyderabads grand innings total of 21. Thats the lowest ever in a Ranji match. And it is a confirmation of the rich legacy of records Indian greats have compiled in the Ranji competition that Chahars own effort is not marked out. Yet,his dominance in Rajasthans bowling attack indicates another fascination. In February 1999,at Delhis Ferozeshah Kotla,one could sense from his fellow bowlers actions that Anil Kumbles 10-for against Pakistan had become a possibility. They began to show an aversion to taking a wicket,and even began to account for the batsmans error and there was the consequent spectacle of the umpire minding them by using one-day standards to call a wide in a Test. So,thats how the Hyderabad team should look at this unfortunate tryst with the record books,as the innings that was taken away by a bowler on his day. Sometimes,taking the gaze away from ones own performance to the others extraordinary day is the truer way of keeping fidelity to the sport.