Thank God, it'll be 'Jai Ho! Pur' to Glory

‘India’s 360-degree turn’ – so ran the brilliant main headline on the dna sports page of Thursday. My proficient colleagues played on India’s ‘360’ target in Jaipur and, perhaps, didn’t mean to suggest any potential long-term change in fortunes of the Indian cricket team.

But, I suspect the headline may well prove prescient. The unprecedented super run-chase in Jaipur – how about rechristening the Pink City ‘Jai Ho! Pur’? – and the unforgettable mauling of the Aussies by an Indian team sans Sachin Tendulkar (and Sehwag) will likely herald a new chapter in the history of Indian cricket.

When was the last time in the last 24 years (that is, from 1989 onwards) that India withstood the psychological pressure of chasing a stiff 300+ target and overtook it in an aggressive, dominant and emphatic manner, without any hiccups midway? Well, you don’t even need to consult cricinfo or other online databases to say never. (By the way, the Yuvi-Kaif combine’s Lord’s exploits in 2002 were preceded by some tense moments.)

How many times since 1989 did the allegedly billion-plus Indian cricket aficionados on our planet wish, crave and pray for a Tendulkar-shaped dream victory of the Jai Ho! Pur kind? Well, ‘n’ number of times. And, pray, how many times were such prayers granted with the desired fruit? How many times did ‘God’ deliver (as in contribute a match-winning knock) when all of India and Indians everywhere wanted the team to win a particularly crucial match badly?

Before you scratch your head for the answers, you may want to recall many such key matches – like, the knock-out tie against the Aussies in the 1999 WC, the 2003 WC final against the Aussies when the target was, well, 360… On all (okay, I’ll make that many) such occasions, God would flatter to deceive. A bereavement-related emotion-laced 100 against lowly Kenya once; next, a similarly premature peaking against Pakistan in the 2003 WC QF, only to succumb yet again to the Aussies in the key final later; not discharging the responsibility of taking the team home like Rohit Sharma did at Jai Ho! Pur (remember the Chennai Test collapse in 1998 against Pakistan).


So, seen against the obvious answer to the above questions, Wednesday’s victory acquires additional significance. It shows that the post-Tendulkar Indian batting line-up may be beginning to see that it is not a sensible thing to depend on one superstar alone always; that, in the face of a seemingly insurmountable total, it is not necessary to throw in the towel even before the chase begins (like the 2003 WC Indian team did chasing 360 in the final); that, an early reverse in a series needs to be overcome at the earliest, no matter what, lest a downward spiral should set in; that, given SRT’s imminent retirement, it is time to draw inspiration from the living legend and take Indian cricket to the next higher level, a level that the Aussies monopolised from 1987 to 2007.


Make no mistake, Jai Ho! Pur is no flash in the pan. It is a sign of the things to come.

Pundits will argue that this Aussie attack is not the same as the one that had McGrath, Lee, Warne, et al; that Indian pitches are different; that a superlative performance on a batsman’s paradise ought not to set off jingle bells; that nothing should be taken at face value in this age of match-fixing; that SA chased down 434 against the Aussies in the past and yet did not exactly set the world on fire later; so on.

But, heck, this Indian batting line-up is bereft of SRT, Viru, Gauti, big-hitters Yusuf Pathan, Vijay and Uthappa; and Jai Ho! Pur happened without Yuvi and Dhoni even coming to the crease.

So, I’m not at all mourning the loss of Tendulkar to Indian and world cricket; in fact, I’m elated at the prospect of a batting line-up that would not centre around one individual and crumble every time he fails to deliver; I’m excited that the New Order will comprise individuals who will, to use some evocative and effective clichés, rise to the occasion, take the bull by its horns and deliver meaningful, substantial individual performances that bring about memorable wins for the team.

In that sense, Jai Ho! Pur is up there among the all-time great Indian matches, alongside the 2001 Eden masterpiece painted by Laxman, Dravid and Harbhajan. As November 18 nears, it’s time to thank God, and quickly move on to celebrate the heroes who will likely hold India in good stead: Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Yuvraj, Vijay, Tiwari and Rayudu. Godspeed to God-inspired blokes, then.