Golf is quiet for now, but in India there’s always the cricket

By Rahul Banerji

It’s been a slow few days for golf, but with the Men in Blue going great guns in the T20 series in New Zealand, who’s complaining? Matches may have gone down to the wire, but India prevailed each time, and in differing circumstances.

Between them, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma shared captaincy duties as India swept aside the hosts for a 5-nothing scoreline. What has been most pleasing about the display is the number of players who have stepped forward at different times to set up the series thrashing, be they batsmen or bowlers.

New Zealand were well poised to win the last three matches but each time, the Indians found something extra in the tank to pull past the Kiwis. All three matches were as good as lost till the bowlers turned things around at the very end, twice in Super Overs, a format India have never played at all.

Critical inputs

The list of heroes is a long one. Lokesh Rahul has truly come into his own as a top-order bat and fittingly, topped the T20 series aggregates with close to 250 runs from the five games. Rohit and Virat at different times played critical hands, as did Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey.

Which brings to mind the muddled selection for the IC World Cup in England last summer, where India robbed themselves of critical middle order solidity. Hopefully, there has been a live and learn policy since then, which will show in the ODIs that follow in New Zealand.

Back to New Zealand, and as it was with the willow, so was it with the ball. Whenever India needed them most, one or another bowler would pitch in – Mohammad Shami of the ‘heavy ball’ in the first tied game or Shardul Thakur in the second one.

Sudeep Tyagi has emerged as yet another quick capable of extreme pace when required and 30-odd years after the great Kapil Dev retired, his legacy continues to thrive in the ever-growing assembly line of Indian fast bowlers.

Those last three words some years ago, would have led to some unkind sniggers, but these days evoke a healthy awe.

Destroyers all

In all of this, the ever-aggressive Rishab Pant seems to have lost his way. The wicketkeeper-batsman finds himself out in the cold after an extended run where he sparkled in patches, but never with any real consistency.

Even India’s four most destructive batsmen of the last 40-odd years – Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma – took time to grow into the dominant forces they were in their best years. Pant has the talent and ability.

He now needs to marry that with some cricketing nous, learn to play the percentages more smartly than he does at present. If and when he does that, India will have another dasher to watch out for.

G-Man wins in Saudi Arabia

And back to the golf. Graeme McDowell pulled off a heist of sorts to pocket half a million euros and the Saudi International title in King Abdullah Economic City in the desert kingdom, ahead of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia et al by a two-shot margin on Sunday.

Gaganjeet Bhullar was tied 67^th, while Shubhankar Sharma did not survive the cut.

The 40-year-old from Northern Ireland won his first title in almost six years – 2,037 days since the Open de France in 2015 – and his 16^th overall across 13 different nations.

“It’s special,” McDowell was quoted as saying in the European Tour website. “I’ve been working hard the last year and a half. I want to be back up there one more time just to be able to play against these guys.

“The game of golf is in such great shape, there are so many great players in the world, it’s so exciting to be a top player in the world and I want to be back up there again.

“I’m very excited that it’s happened a little faster than I expected but hopefully it’s laying some foundations down for having a big year.

“It’s been ten years since I won a US Open, ten years probably since I played the best golf of my life. I feel like I’m moving back in the right direction.”

Also read: Forty-five minutes ended India’s dream at ICC World Cup