India versus South Africa is the 'boro match' Kolkata, Eden Gardens ...
The steel barricades at the entrance of the Eden Gardens creaked as hundreds of fans pushed each other to capture the photographs of South Africa cricketers de-boarding from the team bus. The fans waved banners and newspaper cutouts of Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada, and chanted their names in the forenoon frenzy.
Some of the South African cricketers, delightfully shocked, waved them back and the bunched-up crowd roared in joy. “Cheer us, tomorrow too,” shouted one of the support staff members.
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The undulating fanfare was such that it seemed like the most awaited match of the World Cup, bigger in the quality-scale than when India and Pakistan meet.
A big match it is indeed, as high-flying South Africa duel unstoppable India, on a seven-match unbeaten streak.
The locals have a phrase for big games, or rather the biggest game of the city, the Kolkata Derby between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, called ‘boro match’. Boro literally means big, but contained in the simple world are complex layers of politics and history, passion and affection for the sport. That they have dispensed, they rarely do, the India-South Africa game with this label is a glowing recognition of the significance of the encounter. Can South Africa bell India, finally? Can India’s polished seamers defuse the flash of South Africa’s power-lit batting firm? Who will finish as leaders?
But this is not merely a clash of teams placed one and two on the table, grappling to top the group stages or gain psychological edge, or produce a statement performance before the knockouts that makes the game theoretically appealing.
(LEFT) South Africa’s Aiden Markram and (RIGHT) India’s Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill inspect the pitch during practice on Saturday. (PHOTOS: REUTERS)
It’s the blending of the rich array of talents that renders the game as unputdownable. Even if you remove the context and backdrop, the match still has a staggering standalone value.
This is a game laden with narrative and meaning; with characters and themes. No other contest in the tournament could boast such a unique exhibition of skills, catering to all varieties of viewers.
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There is the modern classicism of Virat Kohli, the spunk of Rohit Sharma and Quiton de Kock; the belligerence of Rassie van Der Dussen and Shreyas Iyer; the languid stroke-play of Aiden Markram and Shubman Gill; the unique craft of Jasprit Bumrah, the rare wizardry of Tabraiz Shamsi and Kuldeep Yadav, the understated guiles of Keshav Maharaj and Ravindra Jadeja; the seaming geniuses of Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Shami. Every over, every ball, every stroke holds the capacity to be an event in itself.
Virat Kohli at the Indian cricket team’s practice session at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. Express photo by Partha Paul.
The personal duels are riveting too — Rabada and Kohli resuming their storied exchanges; Bumrah revving it up against his former Mumbai Indians colleague, de Kock. KL Rahul against Keshav Maharaj, Markram pitted against Kuldeep, bouncer-savvy Gerald Coetzee against the compulsively pulling Rahul. Every other match-up looks enticing; every other cricketer looks capable of producing match-defining performance. These have been easily the best teams of the tournament, and these could again meet in the final.
It is only fitting that Eden Gardens is hosting a match of such magical quality, The most romanticized venue of the country, though it might not be the most important one these days, the Eden has watched history unfold like few other stadiums in the country. South Africa captain Temba Bavuma could not hide his excitement either.
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“There’ is a lot of excitement within our group. The excitement of the occasion of playing here at Eden Gardens. There is quite a lot of history about the ground, and I think the more important one is coming up against India,” he would say.
Later, India coach Rahul Dravid would talk about the pride and privilege of playing at the Eden Gardens: “I have always enjoyed playing here, the history, crowd and the atmosphere. It’s a special place.”
Here, three decades ago South Africa played their first game upon reintroduction; here Bavuma’s predecessors tasted their first Test victory on Indian soil; here Australia lifted their first ever World Cup; here Carlos Brathwaite slammed four sixes in a row in the last over of the final against England to lift the T20 World Cup; here VVS Laxman orchestrated one the greatest comebacks in the game’s history. Here, South Africa and India hope to add more sheets of history to the turf and stands of the grand old stadium of Indian cricket.
