From the peak of euphoria to the dumps of grief! Well Indian cricket team was hardly expected to experience this violent turn of fortunes. The defeat in the first Test to New Zealand in Bengaluru was just as unexpected as the dramatic win over Bangladesh just a few days earlier. Both seemed created efforts. True, the New Zealand series is not over, there are two more two Tests to go but the tumble was just about the last thing cricket fans in the country would have asked for. But then that is why cricket can be such a funny game!
Like in Kanpur everything seemed in the hands of nature. Rain had almost ruined the Test then or so it was thought when so much time was lost but in a matter of two days, India invented a winning strategy and what is more executed it to perfection. Cricket lovers were happy and surely the top brass of ICC too for Test cricket in the end was the biggest winner. There could not have been a better way to prop up the image of Test cricket for there was everything, time lost through rain, scintillating batting and keen and sharp bowling, all combined to still give a result in that match. Much the same seemed on the cards in Bengaluru.
Rain was a visitor in Bengaluru too. Chunks of playing time were getting lost but better facilities at the Chinnaswamy stadium meant the rains had only to stop before playing conditions could be brought back to normal. But who would have foreseen a catastrophical turn of events and that........