Hail the immortal : Laxman is India's Greatest second inning player and the ultimate Oz Slayer

[patriot]

Lachhu: Balls of Titanium Knew it !!! Knew it !!! Knew it !!!...The only guy i trusted to take us to victory or close. Between Kolkata 2001 and Mohali 2010 ...how many times has this man showed this kind of jigra ? Dravid may be replaceable. Not this guy !

[vvvslaxman]

Hit the deck bowling is what troubles most of the subcontinent players. But Lachu just devours such bowling.

[achilles]

India's VVS Laxman has just hit Australia where it hurts. Again By Simon Briggs October 5th, 2010 Ricky Ponting has seen quite enough of VVS Laxman What is it with VVS Laxman? Some English fans struggle to understand why people get so excited about a batsman who has never passed 75 in 20 Test innings against our attack. But show him a baggy green cap, and Laxman comes alive. He ceases to be ponderous and heavy-footed, and becomes imperious, commanding, a right-handed Clive Lloyd. No cricketer has enjoyed flogging the Aussies so much since Beefy Botham. Batting with a runner because of his bad back, Laxman clobbered an unbeaten 73 from 79 balls this morning to revive an apparently lost cause, and set up a mesmerising one-wicket victory. For most people, this would be the peak of their career. For the man they call “Very, Very Special”, it just fits into his personal highlight reel. Nothing could beat his 281 at Kolkata in 2001, where an attack featuring McGrath, Gillespie and Warne went wicketless for an entire day, and India became only the third team in history to win a Test after following on. But the 148 at Adelaide, two years later, must come close, as it set up India’s first win on Australian soil in 22 years. All very well, an English fan might say, but this doesn’t have much to do with us does it? Yet even if you take the narrowest possible view of sport, Laxman has just made a major contribution to England’s Ashes prospects this winter. Over the last decade, he and Andrew Flintoff have done more than any other players to puncture Australia’s aura of invulnerability. Just as victory begets confidence, so defeat creates self-doubt. With just a single extra wicket under their belts, the Aussies could have gone away from Mohali in buoyant mood, with the time and goodwill to paper over the areas of weakness emerging in their team. As it is, the failings of Nathan Hauritz and Marcus North will come under the microscope of the unforgiving Australian media. The issue of Phillip Hughes will also resurface, putting extra pressure on the men in an underperforming top six. With the Ashes looming, Australia will not be keen to restructure their team. They must have been hoping that this series against India would confirm the promise of their inexperienced attack, and send them into Brisbane on November 25 in good heart. As it is, they are now one Test down with one match to play, starting in Bangalore on Sunday. Expect that pitch to be heartbreaking for bowlers, and the Indians to close out a series win that will shunt Australia down to No. 5 in the world rankings, one place below England. At the time of writing, none of England’s Twitterati had posted gloating messages about this morning’s result. But you can bet they were rubbing their hands at the sight of an Australian team crumbling under pressure. And most of all, they will be thankful for the genius of “Very, very selective” Laxman. At Middlesex, it used to be said that Andrew Strauss’s OBE stood for “Only Bats for England”. Today’s match supplied further evidence that the real Laxman only bats against Australia. SOURCE

Underscores the career of one of India's perceived under achiever PS- Everyone give Chandan some reps for sharing this phenomenal article. Treat yourself to anything you feel like having woman. This is a sensational find :)

[CSK Fan]

Knew it !!! Knew it !!! Knew it !!!...The only guy i trusted to take us to victory or close. Between Kolkata 2001 and Mohali 2010 ...how many times has this man showed this kind of jigra ? !

:hail:

[putrevus]

Laxman has improved his record against every country except England hope he shuts their fricking mouths and they stop writing these ridiculous articles,

[nballa]

Lax the Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. saw a few overs and the the way the ball was moving around and rising or keeping low unpredictably i 'knew' a 50- 80 run loss was on its way. and just went to bed. there is no other batsman in our team apart from maybe dravid who could have mastered this pitch. i bet 99% of india tuned into this test. big blow to the commonwealth shame revenues.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Laaloo]

Laxman has improved his record against every country except England hope he shuts their fricking mouths and they stop writing these ridiculous articles' date='[/quote'] Him and Sehwag have a golden chance next year. Hope they capitalize on it

[riya]

What an unbelievable player.No one can absorb pressure like this guy.Seriously who can replace this guy. :hail::hail:

[Deleted_User_1]

he sure has become the clutch player for India even more so than SRT.

[Sachinism]

India's Atlas, Australia's nemesis

Atlas had a bad back. Atlas took a few injections, popped some painkillers, did some exercises. Then Atlas turned up at 76 for 5 in a fourth innings, coolly scored 73 off 79 (that despite having turned down about 10 singles), forgot the pain, and carried India all the way through. This Atlas, though, does the dirty job with a certain style, creating symphonies with ambulance sirens around him. His team-mates have variously spoken of the soothing effect VVS Laxman has on them. That soothing Laxman moment came some five minutes before lunch today. A small but tense crowd at the PCA Stadium had lost its voice by then. Resigned to a defeat, they were just hoping for the lunch break to delay the final rites. Laxman and Ishant Sharma, Atlas and his deputy, on their feet thanks to shots and tablets, had added 29. Australia had by now started denying Laxman boundaries. They looked to plug his favourite area with two men that were almost two deep midwickets. Ben Hilfenhaus bowled back of a length, outside off, and Laxman still pulled it. The back might have been wobbly, but the wrists were still there, persuading the ball between the two men. Hang on, we thought, were we missing something beautiful in the tension of the result? For that moment, when the ball sped through what hardly looked like a gap, it was possible to just admire the beauty of that shot in isolation. Laxman, though, is almost embarrassed when you talk to him about the beauty of his batting. He can't understand what the big deal is, for he hasn't seen it from outside. He might never know what we feel when we see him bat. However, it is his mental strength that he - and his team-mates - pride in. Laxman has often been the most disposable member of the Indian team. It seems he has been playing for his place in the side throughout his career. Still he has played so many of these saviour knocks for India that he thrives on these situations now. Possibly he longs for them. At least he wishes he could bat the same way in normal circumstances as he does in a crisis. Cricketers spend entire careers wishing to bat in a crisis as they do in a normal situation, an art Laxman has perfected. That's the world of Laxman Last evening, around the time Ricky Ponting was warning his mates of the Laxman threat, Laxman was in the nets, testing his back, conscious that his absence in the first innings might have put India in a position from where they could lose. He had had back spasms during his match-winning century in India's previous Test too. Had India lost this one, his head would have been called for again, given the injury history and his age. In the world of Laxman, you thrive on this. Normally, just before he comes in to bat, Laxman is hard to find in the dressing room. He is either sleeping under some bench, or listening to some music on his headphones. Today he was listening to Nitin Patel, the team physio, desperately trying to get things right. Then Zaheer Khan, the nightwatchman, fell. The crowd sighed in relief when Laxman came out, and not MS Dhoni. Australia were going to put more stress on his back. There would be a fast bowler bowling bouncers, a spinner tossing it up, asking him to stretch and drive. Soon enough the flighted delivery came. Laxman leaned forward, and drove it through the covers for four. That pain was forgotten momentarily. "I had timed that well," he says. You bet you had. Ponting passively chewed gum. To the next ball, Laxman went forward and then rocked back, and took four through extra cover. The mix of injections and adrenalin was working. Out in the middle Laxman hardly showed emotion. Sachin Tendulkar's dismissal brought along the drinks, and with that more painkillers and exercises from Patel. When Dhoni ran himself out, Laxman just stood by the stumps, helpless, watching another wicket fall. Dhoni charged straight off. If Suresh Raina, Laxman's runner, was dreading blame would be apportioned to him, he was wrong. Laxman just looked away. Later Raina almost ran Laxman out, minutes before lunch, but the two came back for the interval with smiles on their faces. Nothing calms you like Laxman, they say. A possible criticism of Laxman's batting at times can be that he doesn't take charge with the tail often enough. He lets them bat unless they find a bowler difficult to face. That, though, has been the Laxman style throughout, and the results are not to be argued against. Only once did Ishant ask to be shielded, and Laxman did that against Mitchell Johnson. When you have a tailender as determined as Ishant, those singles can otherwise be picked. Ishant faced 92 balls to Laxman's 79, but there was no way one wounded man was letting another wounded man down. The umpiring did let the wounded men down, though, removing Ishant with 11 runs still to go. Laxman still just stood upright, and stared into the openness. Pragyan Ojha, though, was slow to start, not awake to twos and ones that would manoeuvre the strike. Then something rare happened. Laxman got animated, shouting at Ojha, asking him to run, willing him to run. If he didn't have a runner, surely Laxman would have managed those runs - so high was he then. "Obviously I didn't want to lose after having come so close," he says. Laxman being Laxman, he apologised to Ojha during the over break. That's perhaps why the team loves him so. That's perhaps why he generates so much confidence, so much calm, so much goodness. In almost an anti-climactic slice of luck, India sped through the last six runs. Once again, rather fittingly, Laxman was not in the winning frame. Just like at the P Sara where he had a runner when the winning runs were scored, he stood at square leg even as Ojha jumped up and down. The team, though, was not going to leave their Atlas alone. While in Colombo, they walked out as if they knew Laxman was always going to win them that match; there was more exuberance today, but they were still not going to mob him Twenty20-style. In the world of Laxman, you don't act all surprised after one of his near-impossible match-winning knocks.

http://www.cricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2010/content/current/story/480096.html B->B->

[achilles]

You wrote this, buddy? Super stuff

[CSK Fan]

he sure has become the clutch player for India even more so than SRT.

Every player we have is a clutch player. Look at Viru how he sets up wins as he helps India score at 4+ RR. We are lucky to have all of them in the team at the same time

[Sachinism]

Nope not me, sorry should have included link, from cricinfo

[achilles]

Nope not me' date=' sorry should have included link, from cricinfo[/quote'] Regardless. That is a super article.

[Cricketics]

Every player we have is a clutch player. Look at Viru how he sets up wins as he helps India score at 4+ RR. We are lucky to have all of them in the team at the same time

:two_thumbs_up: I like your such posts over sarcastic ones or any other.

[Bumper]

Respect! I can't believe what Laxman has done here- he's taken India out of the jaws of defeat two matches running with 103* and 73*, the second time with a bad back and against overwhelming odds. Man of steel! Boss, Shwetabh, Bumps, Gambo, Ravi, Rajeev, Varun, Vroom...you must be so proud! Wherever you are, I hope you are smiling today.

I sure am more than smiling, Dhondy. I felt very very happy going to bed last night. I was unfortunate not to have a live stream to watch the action, nevertheless followed it on cricinfo. Hope our resident camera man Rajeev will help us out with the highlights. There is simply no adjective that can summarize my praise for this man. I just could not believe that he pulled this off (the prev game vs Lankans, i was confident because the pitch was relatively flat and the bowling and fielding quality was not as high). Laxman resembles a bloke who just silently goes about doing his job without worrying about the consequences. Success just happens for him as a result of his endeavors. He does not seem to actively seek it. And how about Ishant! What can we say about him! He reminds me of Jason Gillespie, less for his pony tail and more for his gritty batting and bowling. This Indian team deserves to be no. 1 IMO. Not for being dominant or anything. But for the way they've pulled themselves together several times in the last year or two to snatch victories out of nowhere (Chennai chase vs Eng, Series levelling win vs SA, Series levelling win vs SL, this current win vs Aus at Mohali). Only great teams manage to do that consistently. (For comparison, The SA team under Smith managed pull off a record chase in Australia, but could not sustain their success for much longer). I believe players tend to punch above their weights when they know that they can trust their team mates and believe that they are part of a great team. I believe that is what is happening right now. An Indian team of five years ago with the same players (much younger) would have lost it. But not this team. The team may not last too long as it is getting old, but its great while it lasts! Full respect to the gentle giant of Indian cricket.

[flamy]

Laxy :cheerleader:

[Guest Hiten.]

As the saying goes, Old habit die hard. VVS you're the fecking man and whatever doubts I had earlier they're cleared. This man can actually score runs whilst on a stretcher, if the opponents are Aussies. :hail: IS too made up for tripe bowling in the first innings. Well done Instant karma :clap:

[EnterTheVoid]

Laxman saves his best for against Australia.