How The 'Gabbatoir' Breach Helped A Billion Team India Fans Exorcise The Demons Of The 4th Innings Run-Chase

”Okay! we have done well to negotiate the first session. But there is still a long LONG way to go,” I told myself as Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill walked back to the dressing room for Lunch, ensuring that India was just one wicket down after the first two hours of what eventually turned out to be a HISTORIC day for Indian cricket.

As has been the ritual for a major part of the Test series, I had spent a sleepless night leading into the final day. 324 to win on a cracked-up final day pitch at the ‘Gabbatoir’ against the likes of Josh Hazlewood, Pat ‘The Machine’ Cummins, a temperamental Mitchell Starc- who one can never take lightly despite him being in poor form- and of-course the ‘GOAT’ Nathan Lyon.

‘Surely we can’t do an encore of Sydney! Lightning doesn’t strike twice. Normal services will be restored on the final day of what has been a pretty abnormal series,’ I said to myself while imagining the worst possible scenarios that could take place on the fifth day. In between, I would constantly google ‘Brisbane weather tomorrow’.

The meteorologists and weather experts had been going on and on and on that it would rain like cats and dogs on the final day. But, as is the case almost every time, they were proven wrong. Even though there was a huge thunderstorm on the night leading into the final day, the weather had significantly cleared.

“Damn! These rain gods never help us when we want them to” My mind immediately wandered back to Jo’Burg 1997 when it rained only in the vicinity of the Wanderers to deny us a rare overseas win and to Sydney 2018 when an unrelenting light drizzle for a better part of two days prevented us from a much-deserved 3-1 route of Australia.

“Surely, everything is conspiring against us. We are destined to lose” said a dejected and pessimistic fan in me as I waited for the clock to strike 5:00 AM.

Now, you can turn around and say that ‘Dude! You should back your team in thick and thin. What’s with this pessimism? Haven’t you seen these brave hearts turn the tables on Australia at the MCG or grind out a draw for the ages at the SCG?’

My response to that would be that, ‘Yes! We should back our boys. We should support them in thick and thin. And, yes, I was among the select few people, who were backing Team India to script a comeback for the ages in Melbourne following the 36 all-out in Adelaide.”

“But then, I am also a fan with a significant amount of past baggage. I have witnessed the heartbreak of Chennai in 1999 where 10 men failed the Master Blaster. I have seen the horror of Adelaide 2014, where eight men pretty much undo the hard work of Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli in a maniac final session against Nathan Lyon. I have witnessed Auckland 2014 where a mad half hour denied us of a historic run-chase,”

”Hell! I have even gone through the nightmares that ensued in the 2018 overseas cycle where our batsmen bottled not one, not two but four 4th innings run-chases- Cape Town, Centurion, Edgbaston, and Southampton.”

And, each of those targets were way less than what we were set at the ‘Gabbatoirrrr’. Australia doesn’t lose at the Gabba. They are not meant to lose at the Gabba. The last time they lost there, USSR was still three years away from collapsing, Virat Kohli was just a few days old, SRT was still a school cricket sensation. Hell! It was so long back that I wasn’t even in the pre-production stage (I was born in 1992).

And, so even though Cheteshwar ‘The immovable force’ Pujara and  Shubman Gill ensured that we were just one wicket down at Lunch, ”It can all come crumbling down within a space of a spell’, I feared. Every single minute of the Lunch break felt like an hour. The tension was unimaginable. In my mind, I was already preparing myself on how to deal with yet another ‘yet so close, yet so far’ moment in Indian cricket history.

Anyway, the break finally ended, and out walked Pujara and Shubman. The Australians had resorted to bodyline stuff in the final hour of the morning session and much of the same was expected to be the norm post the break.

And, it turned out the exact same way. Pat Cummins bowled a ferocious- when does he not, the guy is a human incarnation of a machine, perhaps even better than a machine- spell to Cheteshwar Pujara, hitting him on almost every part of his body.

The ultimate warrior. Will go down as one of the best test batsmen India has ever produced. The last day grind at The GABBA will forever be remembered, ofc, that is just one of his several warrior like inng. The GABBA encapsulates his career so far. #HappyBirthdayPujara pic.twitter.com/NiNTDMWkg6

— BALAJI (@deep_extracover) January 25, 2021

My heart, as would have been the case with every Indian fan- sank every time Pujara howled in pain. It was the baptism with fire in its literal sense. But Pujara, the immovable force that he is, stood like a soldier braving every blow on his head, shoulder, elbow, fingers.

Pujara’s ‘over my dead body’ attitude was a lesson to me and millions watching on the television that no matter the magnanimity of adversity that you encounter, it is your attitude that will decide whether you’ll encounter it or fall way behind. With him withstanding everything that the  Aussies threw at him, my heart breathed a sigh of relief.

Cheteshwar Pujara appreciation tweet ?

He will leave the Gabba battered and bruised and a winner…

56 off 211 balls and hours occupied frustrating the Aussie bowlers ? pic.twitter.com/7J8lYa4mWd

— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) January 19, 2021

On the other end, though, it was a roller coaster of emotions. Mitchell Starc was using the same short-pitch ploy and Shubman Gill was more than ready to take him on. ”Calm down Shubman! This is a trap. Don’t fall for it’, I shouted every time the 21-year-old attempted to take on the bumpers. But, then, Shubman is a reflection of ‘New India’. He wasn’t ready to be bogged down. He would fight fire with fire. And, fight with fire, he did. He smoked Starc for disdainful pull strokes and ferocious upper-cuts.

Pujara too joined the party and chipped in with a couple of delightful upper-cuts off Starc. Mitchell Starc was being annihilated at the Gabba and suddenly the target looked within the realms of reality.

‘Calm down Yash! You have seen this before. One wicket and it will all come crumbling down’– my baggage-laden inner conscience cautioned me. And, minutes later, Shubman edged Nathan Lyon to Steve Smith at first slip. And, I was like ”Oh! Here we go again’.

Ajinkya Rahane came out all guns blazing but one shot proved to be too many and he too was soon dismissed by Pat Cummins after he edged an attempted ‘upper-cut’. India- 3/167 and still a million runs away from the target. A conservative side of me called for the team to shut shop and aim for a draw.

And, then Rishabh Pant walked out to bat, which was a clear signal that this match ain’t gonna end in a stalemate. Either we are winning this, or we’ll fall short by a long way. Pant had played the innings of life in Sydney. ‘Surely he can’t do that again’, wondered an ever-pessimistic fan in me.

But just as he had done in the initial part of his innings on that historic final day at the SCG, the 23-year-old showed remarkable restraint. He ensured that he went unbeaten into the Tea break.

Cheteshwar Pujara completed a well-deserved half-century post the Tea break but once again Pat Cummins proved to be his nemesis. The champion pacer finally went past his defence to trap him leg-before-wicket as soon as the second new ball was taken. ‘Oh Gosh! There goes any chance of drawing the Test match’, I surrendered. Cummins was breathing fire with the new nut in his hand, and every ball seemed like an event.

Make no mistake, I wasn’t underestimating the talent of Rishabh Pant. But with the new ball jagging around, it almost felt like a collapse was around the corner. Heart sank further when Mayank Agarwal hit Cummins straight to short-cover. India 5/265 after 86.4 overs. But, Pant, as he later revealed, was determined to exorcise the heartbreak of Old Trafford 2019 [Yep! THAT semi-final where after having looked so good, he played a poor shot to throw it away].

And, with every straight drive or cover-drive that he played off Cummins and Hazlewood, his resolve got even more strengthened. This was his moment. This was his chance to tell the entire world that yes, he may not be the greatest wicketkeeper going around, but he is as rare a batting talent as you’d ever see. The fire in his eyes, the strength in his resolve was there to see for everyone, especially his detractors.

But, Pant could not have achieved that alone. It helped that he had an equally determined youngster in Washington  Sundar at the other end, who was out there to prove to his detractors like me, that, yes, ‘I may not have played an FC match since 2017 but I am no mug’.

In many ways, the pick-up six that Sundar hit off Pat Cummins on the fifth ball of the 93rd over proved to be the clincher for Team India and for its billion fans like me. The floodgates were opened and within a space of the next seven balls, four boundaries were hit. The wheels came off for Australia and at the heart of it, were two young men, who, with their talent and nerves of steel, forced everyone to stand up and take notice.

The moment of truth eventually came on the final ball of the 97th over when Risbhabh Pant stroked Josh Hazlewood for a straight drive. The ‘Gabbatoir’ was breached. The demons of the past that had clouded the belief of a billion Indian fans, including me, had been exorcised.

‘New India’ had risen like a phoenix amid the ruins of a million fourth-innings heartbreaks of the past. And, just as Justin Langer said later in a post-match interview, I had learned an important lesson, which is—-‘ Never ever ever EVER underestimate the Indians, especially this new generation of Indians’