We are Desi cricket fans and when our players fail and collapse without any warning ( as they did in the Test series against Kiwis) we are miserable for days. But when our ‘Boys in Whites’ transform into ‘Men in Blue’ (with new set of gladiatorial prize fighters), we go insane with joy for they, like a ‘Phoenix’ rise from the ashes of ordinariness and assume superhuman traits. Simply put, while veterans are struggling in Tests and have forgotten how to play spin, young guns are ‘Lords of the Swings’ in the shorter formats !
So as is our wont, it’s befitting if we deify our two centurion batter heroes ( and a quarter too with plucky opener Abhishek, who started the mayhem !) and who between them, hit an astonishing 23 sixes scripted out of a ‘Mad Max’ movie and was like a storm that wasn’t forecast by any ‘Proteas’ weatherman for a mammoth T20 score of 283 for 1. Our Indian Cricket had this phenomenon earlier too – recall Sachin’s ‘Desert Storm’ (1998) !
We love to build up and get carried away but why pick names of Greek Gods to describe the pyrotechnics of Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma, who’d already posted 100’s earlier. Throughout world mythologies is the prevalence of storm gods. Both Zeus and Thor can be considered storm gods, as they each have a special connection with the phenomena of lightning and thunder, but they are very different from one another. Drawing parallels is not difficult here. A Leftie & a Rightie, varying in styles but with same destructive intensity.
On a sobering note and coming back to the earthly battles in store, India will be back to back-breaking five Test series Down Under against an Aussie bunch (smarting from the earlier losses ) starting from 22nd Nov. Can some of our ‘Seniors’ provide themselves a last Hurray !
Working on Living 