Ajinkya Rahane’s undefeated century propelled India to an 82 run lead on the stumps
Ajinkya Rahane celebrated her 29th birthday with a group of friends in a luxurious rental apartment in London. It was when he was part of the Indian team for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England. When the celebration began to end, the hosts decided to record a video in which they toured the room for everyone present to share their views on the fun night.
And when it was Rahane’s turn, his response was cut short as soon as he got going. The person responsible was his wife Radhika, who jokingly chided him for sounding too much like he was answering a question at a post-match press conference. He then jokingly implored him to sound less boring than the Indian hitter asked him to do for him.
The loving conversation between the two was not the only time Rahane was asked to express himself much more freely. Once, in a conversation with some members of the media staff on the sidelines of an event, he joked about how his partner had asked him to push himself a bit more and bring more of his personality to the forefront, both on the ground and. in team meetings. After all, it has been a suggestion that has followed him for most of his career.
With Rahane, it’s not always about what he’s done on the pitch, but how he’s done it or how everyone watching feels like he should have done it. As if being the Ajinkya Rahane who has scored tougher runs in more challenging conditions than any other Indian hitter of his generation wasn’t enough. He could always have shown more attitude by doing it, right?
When Rahane came out to bat on Saturday (December 27) morning, the stage was set for him to take over the scene and the series. Here he was, as India’s test captain, replacing larger-than-life Virat Kohli, with his team trying to bounce back from a debilitating defeat, and with conditions in favor of the best fast bowling attack in the world.
By the time Rahane came out, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood had played almost as superlatively as they did in Adelaide, but with less payoff. This time, the ball kept hitting the bat or caught the edge and kept dropping agonizingly under the slips when it wasn’t flying past.
The MCG may not have felt like a cauldron going in, considering the limited crowds, but facing Cummins and Hazlewood on the animated surface certainly would have. Interestingly, the moment Shubman Gill finally left Cummins behind, all eyes turned to the Indian shelter where Hanuma Vihari was sitting with his pads on. Only when it didn’t seem like it was even moving did your eyes drift a little further to the left and see Rahane stepping purposefully out of the dressing room tunnel.
The innings and a half he produced in the next two and a half sessions weren’t just him setting a score so that his team’s character doesn’t give way when the going gets tough. It was also a declaration from him, as their leader, that they would return it to the Australians but they would do it their way.
Rahane had demonstrated his knowledge of the game and his ability to take control of the game without forcing the problem as field captain on Boxing Day. Here, it was him doing the same with bat in hand.
With Cheteshwar Pujara coming within two overs of his arrival, Rahane opted to soak up the pressure alongside Vihari for the first hour or so of his innings. It meant not being disturbed by balls constantly flying past the outer rim and seeing an Australian pacemaker posing in his track as if it had his number. It also meant adapting to conditions. And Rahane did this by constantly softening his grip on his bat at the point of contact and making sure that whenever the ball made contact with the bat, it simply rolled harmlessly towards the gully fielder.
With Vihari as a company, Rahane’s strategy was to rebuild the innings not only in terms of racing, but also to smooth the ball to ensure that the mid-order influencers Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja are in the middle when conditions batting are. at its best. Rahane’s contribution to the half-century association with Vihari was 21 of 61 balls.
He picked up the pace alongside Pant, who brought his usual energy to the procedures. But it was also the period when he cleverly guided his young keeper to take a toll on Australia’s Plan A by attacking Nathan Lyon. With tired fast bowlers, the pressure would come from roulette. But by using her feet for him and carrying him through the blankets, Rahane made him think. While at the other extreme, the constant threat of Pant jumping on him even led to Lyon unusually losing his length and being cut by short-run type limits that you rarely see from him.
Rahane scored 28 of 47 balls in the company of Pant, but it was when Jadeja came out in 60th, a near perfect moment, that the Indian captain really reached top speed. Of course, there were balls that flew past the outer rim and headed toward him intermittently. But because he does it so well, Rahane’s response was to simply stick with his ritual of unbuttoning his gloves, putting them on with Velcro, punching his fists, resting the bat on the abdomen guard, and then refocusing on the next ball.
As he did with his bowling changes and field setup on Saturday, Rahane began to intelligently play the Aussie field here. His job was made easier with Jadeja in the middle of every ball he faced at the other end.
The lights were on at the MCG when the second new ball was taken. This was the moment Australians were waiting to seize. And Rahane knew it. He had been here with Kohli six years before facing Mitchell Johnson. While Kohli got the most applause for a fantastic century, it was Rahane who brought the assault on Johnson.
This time, he wasn’t taming the bully. In fact, he was about to play bully, even though he was quite polite and classy. Rahane was 73 of 167 in the late 1980s. But he signaled his intentions very early with a dazzling cut throw from Mitchell Starc that sounded like a statement he was making with the bat. There were a couple more equally aggressive shots that followed and then came another fierce shot, this time from Cummins, to bring in a career-defining century and personality – the last 27 runs came from 28 balls.
When he finally pulled away, under dramatic circumstances, having received a hit to the helmet and debris flying all over the MCG to accompany the heavy rain, Rahane, in addition to putting his team in a significantly strong position, also demonstrated why he always laughed at everyone. the talk that he needed more exposure. Because at the end of the day, Indian cricket cares more about what Ajinkya Rahane has done than how he has done it.
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