On Saturday, two young men — one who was on the verge of leaving the sport for good and another who almost died less than two years ago — gave wings to new dreams. They broke open a hitherto lost cause. To be inside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium during their madcap three-hour stand was to be taken on a joyride.
Indian millennials had Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar from Cape Town in 1996. Now, centennials have their own partnership. It will find a place in reels and drive kids to the nearest net, with a bat in hand, oodles of hope and plenty of imagination in their eyes. If Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli fantasised on Friday, Sarfaraz and Pant almost manifested it into reality.
Both of them, indulging in an art of batsmanship from an ultra-modern age (entertaining is the only currency in town), took the weekend hoi-polloi through a journey from cautious optimism to gay abandon.
One of the most significant pit stops during their journey will possibly see NFTs making a comeback. It was that special. Sarfaraz, who has already faced multiple rejections in his nascent career, punched one off the back foot to the boundary between point and cover before taking off. By the time he was back in the striker's end, he knew he had completed a long cherished dream. A Test century. One of Azad maidans great enigmas had answered the call of duty thanks to a breathless display of counter-punching.
There were late cuts so late his bat was within kissing distance of keeper Tom Blundell. The uppercuts were so nonchalant it would have made the bowler weep. He repeatedly kept peppering the area between keeper and backward point so much the visitors had as many four fielders in that part of the ground. But Sarfaraz still found a keyhole gap to thread the ball to the Toblerone-shaped cushions (47 off his 150 runs came in that region).
When he wasn't notching up boundaries at will in a fever dream of a morning session, he was doing a mid-pitch rain dance.
After completing a single, Pant, turning blindly, had run almost half-way before looking at Sarfaraz. The Mumbaikar, built like a professional wrestler, had turned around and stopped. After seeing Pant haring back, he was wildly gesticulating, jumping up and down in the middle of the pitch, like a kid throwing a tantrum in the ice cream section of a supermarket. He was so daring, so adventurous, one failed execution even made Pant to mildly exhort in his direction. Think about it. Pant exhorting a fellow batter.
It was ironic considering Pant, whose last involvement in the match saw him copping a blow to the knee-cap, played the most audacious shot of the home season. In the process, he sent the ball into ever-present Bengaluru traffic on Infantry Road. Tim Southee, with a six-over ball, bowled a fullish length delivery on off-stump.
Pant went down on one knee before picking it up and pumping it onto the roof and beyond. It was all wrists and hips. It was so absurd it brought the same reaction from teammates and opponents. "How did you do that?" It resulted in a ball change. It indirectly led to his downfall as he played on when he was on 99.
When Pant walked out to bat with Sarfaraz at the start of the day's play, it showed two things. One, the knock to his knee wasn't serious enough. From a match perspective, India wanted to be aggressive. The southpaw gave them that as one lofted straight-drive landed next to the press box when they were still trailing by more than 70 runs. A complete momentum shift happened a few overs later when he cooked Ajaz Patel's left-arm spin for two sixes and a boundary in an over.
Looking at the bigger picture, the 177-run partnership at a run-rate of over five per over may have only delayed the inevitable. However, that has given the hosts a toenail in the door.
