Any given Tuesday

Virat Kohli must have woken up with a premonition that the world was ending real soon

Any other reason which could explain the ferocity of Tuesday’s trailblazer would be deemed unworthy of an innings that seemed to crashland from some parallel universe. But if you dig a little deeper, the collective over joyousness didn’t stem from the innings itself, but what was surmounted to reach that point of no return.

The scoreboard is a liar

It speaks eloquently of results but not the fight or the heartbreak. The scoreboard since India’s English summer that was dubiously replicated in the Australian summer showed huge defeat margins. But the fan didn’t just grieve for the losses. He grieved for the nature of the losses. There was no fight to reminiscence about, no intent to find solace in. The scoreboard didn’t speak of the nihilism that followed those disastrous outings.

The excuses won’t set you free

VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid know a thing or two about conquering the improbable. Their collective master classes in Kolkata didn’t just ensure victory. It opened the door of possibility, something which hadn’t existed before the series. A series victory shifted gears from being a stuff of dreams to stuff of history. That a miniature version of that seminal event played itself out again on Tuesday is in itself a miracle. Suddenly, no one’s complaining about form, surfaces, and ageing superstars whose flourishes crept away gently into the night.

A first for Australian cricket

When Australia takes on Sri Lanka, it will be under unusual circumstances. For the first time in its history, the team will have the support of a billion people (and counting).

As Agassi surmised in his last few minutes as a pro, ‘the scoreboard says I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what I’ve gained.’

Virat Kohli will realise the value of the knock goes beyond mere numbers. It’s a knock every sport lover would love to see more often, a knock which seamlessly lends itself to sporting folklore.

Heck, it’s a knock we’d like to see any given day.

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