{"id":1345,"date":"2010-10-14T10:09:29","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T04:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2010-10-14T10:09:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T04:39:29","slug":"the-ducks-gonna-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/the-ducks-gonna-go\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duck’s Gonna Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was sitting in the D stand on the fourth day, watching the match<\/a> when Pujara<\/a> walked by. I normally don’t scream at players to grab their attention, I mean fuck. No. But when I saw Pujara, I felt like I had to tell him. I screamed “Pujara! Hard luck man!” He was mildly shocked I guess. He smiled at me and gave a thumbs-up. I told myself ‘hope this boy makes it in the second innings.’ I had doubts though. I was sure Pujara would walk in only if the top order collapsed. It didn’t and Dhoni & co made that brilliant move: sending Pujara one down.
\n\"Cheteshwar
\nWatching Pujara and the first innings hero M. Vijay<\/a> play, I couldn’t help but think ‘Our cricket is in good hands.’ Agreed, their litmus test will happen when they tour abroad. That is THE true test, yes, but indulge me here: I have seen talent like Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj, Sreeshant screw it all up… squander beautiful opportunities and end up on the wrong side of the limelight. These two boys though, Murali and Pujara, seem like they are made of different, better material. Murali’s patience and Pujara’s courage and cool are their best weapons.<\/p>\n

When Sehwag <\/a>fell, I had a familiar, sick feeling in the pit of my tummy: are we going to crumble. Again? And, I left home to watch the fifth day from the T stand. By the time I reached the stadium, Pujara and Murali were cruising along. 73 for 1 was the score. I sighed in relief, for in the first innings Pujara was very unlucky. But not in the second. The Aussies tried attacking him, but Pujara was fluent and intrepid: he pulled Johnson<\/a> and mauled Hauritz<\/a>. Even Hilfenhaus<\/a>, the pick of the Aussie pace men, couldn’t do much. Pujara is someone that knows that ducking is not the only way to play a short ball. And I am glad. If ever I had a complaint on Sachin<\/a>, it is this: ducking too much. Ducking even at innocuous outside-the-off, mother-promise-I-won’t-rise-above-your-knee deliveries. All right he’s made ducking an art, but that’s not the *only* way. It’s time we changed that. Let’s play the short ball boys. Fuck the duck.<\/p>\n

I hope they take Pujara and Vijay to South Africa <\/a>and England<\/a>. Agreed, you can’t even think about replacing Dravid or VVS on an away series, but these boys need to play in those pitches. Please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was sitting in the D stand on the fourth day, watching the match when Pujara walked by. I normally don’t scream at players to grab their attention, I mean fuck. No. But when I saw Pujara, I felt like I had to tell him. I screamed “Pujara! Hard luck man!” He was mildly shocked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","tag-cricket"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"I was sitting in the D stand on the fourth day, watching the match when Pujara walked by. I normally don’t scream at players to grab their attention, I mean fuck. No. But when I saw Pujara, I felt like I had to tell him. I screamed “Pujara! Hard luck man!” He was mildly shocked…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-lH","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":506,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/12\/cricket-ind-vs-aus-indians-win-in-foreign-soil-after-22-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":1345,"position":0},"title":"Cricket (Ind Vs Aus): Indians win in foreign soil after 22 years","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"December 16, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Cricket (Ind Vs Aus): Indians win in foreign soil after 22 years \"\"I am happy for Laxman. He proved critics wrong -- again. You can't keep a good man down for long isn't it? But look at what the captain - Ganguly - had to say \"Ajit (Agarkar) must have\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":527,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/03\/india-pak-cricket-watching-it-on-the-big-screen\/","url_meta":{"origin":1345,"position":1},"title":"India-Pak Cricket: Watching it on the big screen","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"March 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A bunch of us watched the match in a movie hall called E-Square in Pune. It was a stunning and memorable experience. After the match, the roads of Pune came alive with people chanting slogans and waving the tri-color. The next time when you get a chance watch it on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1014,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/the-brown-man-down-under\/","url_meta":{"origin":1345,"position":2},"title":"The brown man Down Under","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"January 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When young Ishant Sharma gave away his wicket, predictably so, under what was probably one of the most dramatic and high-pressure situations in the history of the game, Cricket took an irreversible turn. I predict the beginning of the end of Aussie supremacy, for true champions do not resort to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cricket\"","block_context":{"text":"cricket","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/cricket\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/the-historic-tests-last-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1345,"position":3},"title":"The Historic Test’s Last Day","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"December 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the images that will stay with me for a long time is that of the lady from the cleaning staff of the MAC stadium in Chennai, running up to Sachin Tendular, shaking his hand, and blushing and running back. I was not planning to watch the match in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chennai"","block_context":{"text":"chennai","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/chennai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1580,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/hate-sachin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1345,"position":4},"title":"I Hate Sachin","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"December 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"An edited version of this story appears in ESPNcricinfo 1989. \"Yaaru pethha puallayo! Punyam panna vairu!\" my late granny remarked upon hearing about Sachin's debut and subsequent exploits. She looked at her sons (my uncles) and said \"Yenakkum vandhu porandhudhu paaru!\" She was paying a glowing tribute to Sachin Tendulkar's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cricket"","block_context":{"text":"cricket","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/cricket\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1390,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/how-i-won-the-world-cup-for-india\/","url_meta":{"origin":1345,"position":5},"title":"How I won the World Cup for India","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"February 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ramaswami Mudaliar was a kind man but he wasn\u2019t too kind when it came to his Dyanora black-and-white television. In 1983, owning a television was the current day equivalent of driving a BMW with Katrina Kaif as your dinner date. Mudaliar probably hugged and slept on the TV, which was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "culture"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1346,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}