12 FEBRuaRy 2018 http://www.openthemagazine.com 59
easier thought than done. off the very first ball he faced in the
post-lunch session, rabada’s ball rose sharply from a length and
rapped rahane’s bat on the handle, an inch below the fingers of
his right hand. The biggest problem with the pitch was that a
crack had developed about six metres from the base of the stump,
so the batsman had no option but to play the ball—and rahane
quickly realised this—due to the crack’s proximity to his front
foot. The bounce of the ball, on hitting the crack, was wildly vari-
able too: sometimes it screeched past the batsman ankle-length
and at other times it spat up almost vertically, smashing into his
ribs, neck and as we would see off the final ball of the day, his face.
To watch rahane master these conditions was to witness a
genius cricketer at the peak of his powers. He held the bat with a
softer grip and played the ball late—or as late as he could afford to—
so that he could still dig out the low spraying ball in time. and when
he got on his front foot, a sure way to ensure body blows on this
pitch, rahane did so with unblinking confidence. Those watching
from the stands believed he was either a madman or a mastermind.
often, rahane was treading a thin line between the two.
Just four balls into his innings, rahane faced the bouncy Morne
Morkel for the first time. first ball, Morkel dug the ball in short and
rahane was ready, tiptoed on his backfoot, pulling the ball behind
square and shutting the face of his bat simultaneously—like a
top-spinning djokovic forehand. He earned two runs for this
effort. annoyed, Morkel aimed for the crack next ball and hit
bull’s eye. The ball darted in and pinned rahane on his hip. He
winced in pain, but when the next ball was bowled he had taken
a big stride ahead (madman) and drove a short of a length ball
(mastermind) past Morkel’s feet for 3 runs.
for a partner, rahane had Virat Kohli, and together they
ran hard between the wickets and made sure the fast bowlers
never did settle down against a particular batsman’s weak-
ness. when batting on 6, rahane was gifted a short and wide
ball by Vernon Philander and in the zone of complete focus
that he found himself in, rahane cut it past point for four
without much thought. Philander adjusted his length to full
and rahane merrily flicked it through
midwicket for four more.
To balloon India’s lead past 125
runs, rahane punished Morkel for two
more boundaries in an over, the sec-
ond of which was the stroke of the day.
The ball obeyed no one when it hit the
widening crack and rahane, uncon-
cerned by the wobble, thumped it over
the cover fielder’s head for a two-bounce
four. He lost Kohli soon after, with
the lead on 127, bowled by the unplay-
able rabada. but rahane’s innings, and
his will to fight, was far from finished.
after he drove Philander to the ropes
with a delicious off-drive the following
over, rahane was batting on 27 runs.
from 26 balls. on this pitch. Try and
wrap your head around that.
He was finally dismissed when India’s lead nudged the 200-
mark, four runs short of a figure that wasn’t previously touched
in this Test and wouldn’t be threatened by the chasing south af-
ricans either. To help India get to 247 and eventually win this Test
by 63 runs (sa were bowled out for 177 in the last innings), rahane
rallied the lower order with panache and scored 48. The runs were
worth a daddy hundred on any other wicket and on any other day,
it would have made headlines back in India. but shortly after rah-
ane’s knock, dean elgar was hit in the face—a hit that hurt more
than just the south african opener. Thanks to this blow, which had
nothing to do with a faulty pitch in the first place, rahane played
second fiddle in the press conference to the suits who threatened
to stop the match—the team managers and match officials.
for close to 20 minutes, rahane sat subserviently on a spare
seat in the conference hall as India’s team manager, sunil subra-
maniam, fielded questions on the pitch, the match referee, the
ball that smacked elgar and India’s position on the possible aban-
donment of the Test; in short, everything but rahane’s special
innings. when rahane finally had the clutch of mics in front of
him, with a heatboil the size of a golf ball radiating between his
eyebrows, he too patiently spoke about everything but his knock.
until, on the 16th question, he was asked about his batting.
The questioner was Lele. In Marathi, Lele had asked, “ajinkya,
how come you are so timid off the field and so aggressive on it?”
Perhaps for the first time all day, a smile tore across rahane’s face.
“what do I say, sir?” he replied, in Marathi. “My behaviour is very
different when I am not on the field and when I am on it. which
is good, I guess, because the opposition often notice what you are
like when you are not playing cricket and assume that is how you
are when playing the game also.”
at the end of the presser, once the dictaphones and the TV cam-
eras had gone off, rahane met Lele by the door and whispered a
few words into his ear. “He told me,” said Lele, “I am quite happy
if [the opposition] mistake me for a shy and docile guy. Most of
the times, that is a good thing.” nUmpires discuss suspending the match
on the third day of the third Test
in Johannesburg because of
‘dangerous’ pitch conditions