India Win Test Series 1-0 To Score The Maximum Points In WTC Rankings Crushing New Zealand In Mumbai!

It was inevitable that India would beat New Zealand in the Test Series decider in Mumbai after the Kiwis were bowled out for a pathetic 62 in their first innings giving India a lead of 263 runs; only the margin of the victory was of interest. It could have been by an innings and some runs had India enforced the follow-on at the last session of the second day. That surprising decision was somewhat explained by the Head Coach Rahul Dravid, happy with his first series win as a coach, that it was to give some batting experience to the Indian young guns and that there was no worry at all as India had ample time to bowl New Zealand out in the second innings. Perhaps, the decision was also to enable the inconsistent Pujara who came out to open in the second innings with Mayank and captain Kohli to have some batting practice too ahead of the South Africa tour starting from 26^thof this month. And more importantly, considering the fact that India’s top order or middle order or both has been failing at most times in the recent matches covering all the formats with only the lower order performing consistently, it was possible that Team India might have been worried of chasing even 100 runs in the last innings, because the lower order could not be depended upon every time.

 

Whatever be the reasons for not enforcing the follow-on, India had beaten New Zealand by a mammoth margin of 372 runs in the morning session of the fourth day of the second and last Test match in Mumbai today thus winning the series 1-0 and scoring 42 in the WTC-2021-23 (World Test Championship) points table which is the highest for all teams so far; but due to India’s winning percentage of 58.33 being less than Sri Lanka’s 100% and Pakistan’s winning percentage of 66.66, India occupy the third position at the moment.

 

The Wankhede pitch, traditionally a bit difficult for free scoring, has been a mystery in this test match. After two days of continuous rain in the city prior to the day of start the pitch definitely had moisture underneath which should have helped the Kiwi fast bowlers attacking the Indian batsmen on the first morning. However, as it turned out, they, Southee and Jamieson prominently, failed to capture even a single wicket in both the innings while India’s Siraj got three scalps on the second day and Umesh Yadav also got a lot of help from the pitch. This leads to the incredible feat of the Mumbai-born Ajaz Patel taking all the 10 India wickets in the first innings and taking the tally to 14 in the match thus equaling Kumble’s record. Of the other Kiwi spinners, Rachin Ravindra and Somerville, only the former managed 3 wickets in India’s second innings.

 

Ajaz Patel’s feat of being the third bowler ever to take all 10 wickets in a Test innings has a unique twist as even after his incredible performance his team not only could not win, but suffered a mammoth loss and he failed to qualify for the player of the match or the player of the series. This was not the case with Jim Laker who took 19 wickets in that match against Australia in 1956 or Anil Kumble who took 14 in that match against Pakistan in 1998 with their respective teams registering huge wins over their opponents thanks to their feats. This does not reduce Ajaz’s marvelous performance in any way, his misfortune is that he happened to be a part of the losing team.

 

Mayank Agarwal was justifiably declared the player of the match for his definitive 150 in the first innings and 62 in the second innings. Ravichandran Ashwin was declared the player of the series for his consistent performance of taking 8 wickets in the match—4/8 in 8 overs in the first innings and another 4/34 in 22 overs in the second innings—which never allowed the visitors to launch a comeback in the match. Jayant Yadav chipped in with 4/49 in 14 overs in the second innings, restricting New Zealand to just 167 all out. Axar Patel starred as a batsman in both innings—extremely useful 52 and 41—apart from his 3 wickets.

 

The match would put the Kiwis in a lot of introspection as to what exactly led to the absolute surrender of their batsmen who defended the first test with a sensational draw and the fast bowlers languishing wicketless despite a helpful pitch. They are sure to rue for a long time the fact that they could not capitalize on Ajaz Patel’s record haul of wickets. As for India, Virat Kohli would be very happy to achieve the feat of winning 50 international matches each in all the three formats and this Series victory ahead of the South Africa tour. As he said after the match his team enjoys a veritable luxury of selecting players for the final eleven with the young guns firing and the rested seniors joining the team for the coming tour.

India Vs New Zealand: Incredible 10-Wicket Haul By Ajaz Patel To Become Only The Third Bowler in Test Cricket History!

photo: espncricinfo.com

History is repeated at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai today, the second day of the second and last Test match between India Vs New Zealand, when the New Zealand left-arm orthodox spinner Ajaz Yunus Patel captured all the 10 wickets in the India first innings total of 325, to become only the third bowler to take 10 wickets (10/119) in a Test innings after Jim Laker in the 4^th Test between England and Australia at the Old Trafford in England in 1956, and Anil Kumble did in the second Test between India and Pakistan in 1998-99 at the Firoz Shah Kotla ground, Delhi. However, both Laker and Kumble achieved the incredible feats in the second innings of the opponent’s batting respectively while Ajaz becomes the first bowler to do so in the first innings of a Test in world test cricket history. The 33-year-old spinner made his Test debut in 2018 against Pakistan and has also been playing in the T20Is since that year. So far, Ajaz has played only 10 Tests for New Zealand with 29 wickets and also played a handy role as the last batsman like he contributed toward a sensational draw in the Kanpur Test.

 

Significantly, the English right-arm off-spinner James Charles Laker took an almost perfect haul of 19 wickets (19/90) in that historic test match which came to be known later as Laker’s match. His haul of 19 wickets in a test match is still unbeaten. Laker played 46 Tests for England taking with 193 wickets and made his Test debut in 1948 against the West Indies during England tour of West Indies in 1947-48 taking 7 wickets in the first innings on debut. Laker was an all-rounder too with two half-centuries in Tests and 2 centuries and 18 half-centuries in first class cricket. He took 9 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket (an incredible 127 fivers in first class cricket) and over 10-wicket hauls in a test match 3 times. His best was his historic 10/53 against Australia, the first time ever. He played his last Test in 1959 against Australia and passed away in Wimbledon in 1986.

 

Anil Kumble, one of the greatest leg spinners in world test cricket history, became the second bowler to take 10 wickets in a test innings in 1998-99 during the Pakistan tour of India, taking a total of 14 wickets in that 4^th Test match. Kumble played 132 Tests for India and had a massive tally of 619 test wickets—the fourth highest wicket-taking bowler of the world so far. He had five-wicket hauls 35 times in test cricket with over 10 wickets in a match 8 times and 72 fivers in first class cricket. His best was 10/74 in that historic match against Pakistan batting in the second innings and it was reported later that the other bowlers/players of his team helped him achieve the feat by bowling wide of stumps or not trying to take catches off them! Kumble made his Test debut in 1990 against England and played his last Test against Australia in 2008. He had also been a handy batsman having 1 century and 5 half-centuries in Tests. The 51-year-old great cricketer has always been engaged with Team India in various roles apart from the IPL.

 

It seems Ajaz Patel is not going to have a real chance of increasing his tally in this historic match for him as the Indian pacers, in sharp contrast to the NZ fast bowlers, mopped up 3 early wickets (all 3 going to Mohammed Siraj who replaced Ishant Sharma in this match) and later, the three spinners—R Ashwin, Axar Patel and Jayant Yadav (replaced an injured Ravindra Jadeja, making a comeback to India Test team after a record 9^th wicket batting performance for India with Virat Kohli in 2016 at the Wankhede only)—taking 1 each and making New Zealand reel at 38/6 at Tea. The Kiwis are missing the injured regular captain Kane Williamson sorely as the stand-in captain Tom Latham falling for just 10 runs, after a good performance in the Kanpur Test. As was inevitable the Kiwis got all out for a mere 62, giving India a massive lead of 263 runs. Ashwin finally made it 4 wickets for him for 19 runs and 3 for Siraj, 2 for Axar and 1 for Jayant Yadav. Surprisingly, India did not enforce the follow-on, and therefore, Ajaz gets a chance to increase his match tally.

 

photo: wionnews.com

The good part about the second Test in Mumbai is that the debut sensation Shreyas Iyer was not dropped as speculated with Ajinkya Rahane going out due to reportedly a hamstring niggle and not being fully fit, even though he was facing the specter of being dropped after poor batting and not being able to force a win in the Kanpur Test. The regular captain, Virat Kohli, coming in for this Test was out for a duck following Pujara’s. Not just because of this, but in general the BCCI would do better to appoint captains for the full series, rather than dividing the matches between two or three. India progressed to a pitch-specific good total of 325 runs in fits and starts, and largely thanks to opener Mayank Agarwal’s brilliant century (150 off 311 balls), his third Test ton, sticking on almost to the end of the innings, aided by an equally brilliant half-century by Axar (52), 44 by opener Shubman Gill and 27 by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha.

Nominated For India Authors’ Award-2021 In Humor Category: But Is The NMCBI The Right Platform For Creative Writer-Authors?

The India Authors’ Conference and Awards-2021, a great initiative by the Navi Mumbai Chamber of Business and Industry (NMCBI) in collaboration with Great Human University, was held in Vashi, Navi Mumbai on 30^th November 2021, giving away the Awards to writers/authors/bloggers/poets in a range of categories. The full-day function was a dignified affair with the anchor Yesudas coming up with some humorous interludes at various stages to involve, entertain and enthuse the writers present there. The event was also available online for those who could not be physically present. All the Award winners and even the nominees were invited on stage to be felicitated—the winners getting an Oscar-like trophy and a certificate while the nominees were given a certificate of nomination along with a token gift—and to speak their minds. The Awards were presented by the Chairman of NMCBI, Dr. Dhirendra Gautam Mishra who has also been an author/researcher. 

This writer was present on this significant occasion and was also presented with a certificate of nomination as the Best Author-2021 in the category of ‘Humor and Entertainment’ for his books ‘Laugh and Let Laugh’ (2017) and ‘The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales’ (2021), being felicitated on stage. The Award in this category was won by retired Lt. Commander of the Indian Navy who fought in the Kargil War and has been a passionate runner afterward, Bijay Nair, for his book of humorous anecdotes on the runners ‘B.H.A.G.H’ (2020).

 

The biggest highlight of the event has been the launch of the India Authors’ Federation (IAF) by the NMCBI to further their initiative to recognize the great efforts and contributions of the writer-authors. The IAF is to have a Governing Council with representation from all the states of India and the inclusion of the regional languages of India in the federation was also marked as a most important issue to be taken up in due course of time. The IAF promises to be a great platform for the writer-authors to interact with fellow writer-authors, showcase their books and to have mutual promotion campaigns to increase sales. All the nominated and awarded writers of the India Authors’ Conference and Awards-2021 are to be the founding members of the federation with Rahul Bansode from the NMCBI being the prime mover. The IAF also promises to hold frequent meets/events for authors including a Lit Fest in Delhi next year.

 

Notwithstanding all the moves in a definitely positive direction some questions and ‘ifs and buts’ do arise, mostly from the perspective of this writer’s experience. Firstly, about the objective of the NMCBI to take up this initiative for the first time (earlier they held events to award the coaches in various fields of activity) which is basically ‘to recognize the great efforts of writers/authors in empowering people (may also call readers)’. This phrase of ‘empowering people’ leads to various interpretations including the ‘business angle’ most prominently. And this leads to the second point.

 

Personally speaking, I never knew about this competition till a message came from the NMCBI through LinkedIn came to me informing that I was being shortlisted for Nomination for the Awards. As a low-profile writer like me who does not even manage to sell a lot of copies of his books, I was hugely excited and filled up the nomination process with zest—choosing naturally the ‘Humor and Entertainment’ category. However, I continued to have my reservations about the event thanks largely to the ‘empowering’ factor and that all the activities had been happening in the social media of LinkedIn which is always a natural platform for the business community. Although I have been having a LinkedIn account for several years now, I never felt that I belonged there, mainly because I never had any ‘business strategy’ behind my writing or my books, and my posts/articles never got any attention. At best, I used to get some telephone calls from the private life insurance companies offering me ‘jobs’!

 

Thirdly, even though I found the three-layer evaluation process adopted by the NMCBI transparent and good enough the same persistence on ‘purpose of my work or adding values to human lives’ kept on disturbing my mind. As the first step I had to send a video of mine talking about the event and my ‘purpose’. Next, I had to fill up a power-point presentation form, telling about myself, my book/books and the ‘purpose or adding values to fellow human beings’. The last step was an interaction with the Jury on Zoom. Even though it was for more than 10 minutes, quite liberal and friendly the questions or queries again concentrated mostly on the same things. The Jury for me was only two persons—the Chairman of the NMCBI who, I’m sure, never had time to read my work or for that matter any other contender’s work, and a lady Juror whose name was not announced to me and even now I don’t know her credentials, apart from the fact that most of the Jurors were CEOs or Business and Finance stalwarts. Anyway, the lady Juror said that she found some of the stories in my first book ‘funny’, a statement which was not at all convincing for me—strengthening my doubt that the ‘work’ they consider amounts to be about the ‘business or empowering’ part only, and never about reading the writings or the books competing with other books.

 

Lastly, even after being fully aware of what were the exact ‘requirements’ I, you can call it foolish, kept on with my views that ‘my only purpose is to make people laugh; I believe that laughter is the best medicine; that one should laugh from within rather than resorting to artificial means; that creating a merry and friendly atmosphere in workplaces increase efficiency and productivity of which I had first-hand experience; and so on. I could never say that my purpose is to motivate people to laugh, to act as a stress-buster in difficult times like the pandemic-age and making better persons of fellow human beings, because I had never undertaken the on-field businesses in various roles of a ‘motivator’ or an ‘educator’ or whatever in writing my books.

 

After the Jury interaction I was convinced that I could never make it to getting the award; but I wanted to attend the great event as basically it was for a very good purpose of promoting writers/authors giving them a platform to showcase and interact. My experience of the event was mixture of excitement and disappointment—exciting for the IAF and disappointed because the way of giving the awards more or less confirmed my suspicions. Most of the established ‘business-driven’ or else and writer/authors with celebrity status got most of the awards with a few given to the promising youngsters which is extremely necessary in the new age, as the Chairman himself said earlier in this introductory address that ‘digital-driven expert youngsters are much more valuable than the old-timer or retired writers/authors’.

 

Therefore, I raised the question. Is the NMCBI the right platform for genuinely creative fiction or non-fiction writers many of whom become bestselling authors just on the basis of their content, and not on any ‘empowering business strategy’ except for trying various ways of promoting their books? I don’t question the necessity of the businesses of ‘motivators’, ‘educators’, ‘self-help campaigners’, ‘coaching for both mental and physical wellbeing’, ‘personality transformers’ and so on. However, what about the writers having only good readable creative content with the absence any business strategy behind?  

 

This post is going to be my last one on LinkedIn where I never belonged, because I don’t have any business other than to love having more readers to my blog that I managed to monetize recently and my books, and of course, selling more copies—hoping against hope. I’ve already started the process deleting most of my previous posts from my timeline. I’d let the account go on though as I’m very keen to follow the updates on the proposed India Authors’ Federation and how it goes.