“Being in the zone”

Dec 11, 2011 Sports

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Though India’s ODI captain, Virender Sehwag had been badly dropped, by West Indies captain, Darren

Sammy, when he had scored ‘only’ 170, and had produced a very rare ‘dive’ to keep his wicket, when he was on only 78, Sehwag was already in that zone of certainty.  Nothing could have gone wrong!
“If you could keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowances for their doubting too, etc, etc;..…….Yours is the earth, and everything that’s in it, and, which is more, you’ll be a man, my son!”
No, this is not “Scarface – The world is yours”, that quasi-sequel video game of the excellent original “Scarface”, starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana, with motto – “The world is yours!”
This is from the No. 8 ranked poem of all time, “If”, by Rudyard Kipling, referring, pertinently, to India’s opening batsman extraordinaire, Virender Sehwag!
Aged 33, 240 ODI’s, 8025 runs, avg. 35.66, “Viru” had long been one of India’s main men, also taking into consideration his 92 Tests, 7980 runs, avg. 52.15.  What a great player!
That the earth and everything in it, at least everything in India, has not been his has been due to the fact that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, nearer to being a cricketing god than earthling, also plays for India!
Sehwag did keep his head, even as he was being lampooned for his failings in the previous three ODI’s against West Indies.  38, 0, 20, 26, 0, were Virender’s last five ODI innings, the last three against West Indies, before that titillating 219 last Thursday, only the 2nd man to achieve such ODI heights!
Sachin has 18,111 runs, avg. 45.16, 453 ODI (whoa!), and 15183 runs, avg. 56.02, 184 Tests (papa!).  It is ironic that the only other person to make an ODI double century, before “Viru”, was indeed Sachin; 200 no v South Africa, at Gwalior, also in the state of Madhya Pradesh, certainly a good run-getting zone.
Comparisons will certainly continue.  Sachin made 200 no. in his 442nd ODI; 147 deliveries, twenty five 4’s, three 6’s; against South Africa’s Dale Stein, Wayne Parnell, Rolf van der Merwe, Charl Langeveldt, JP Duminy and Jacques Kalli, an extremely good bowling attack indeed!
“Viru’s” 200 (201 no.) came in 140 deliveries, twenty three 4’s, six 6’s; the eventual 219, in only his 240th ODI, 149 deliveries, twenty five 4’s, seven 6’s.  West Indies bowlers in ODI #4 were  Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard and Marlon Samuels, certainly not as accomplished as South Africa’s.  It really does not matter much at all!  Viru was in that special place!
Basketballers, tennis players, Formula 1 drivers, American Grid Iron players, marathon runners, talk much about “being in the zone”, that place where no-one, or nothing, can interrupt the all encompassing self.  What exactly is this “zone”, this phenomenon that so encapsulates professionals?
It is not only recognized by highly honed sportsmen and sportswomen.  Guys and girls of Wall Street, New York, or ‘The City’, London, also suggest that “you must be in the zone to make real money”.
Certainly they were not suggesting that you should be on some street or in a building?  Not even close!  It is much more than that.  “The zone” is more like a vacuum, a space where only one of anything exists!
“Zone” should not be confused with “synchronicity”, which suggests several things happening, favorably or unfavorably, simultaneously.  Sehwag put his mind and body in the same place at once!  Uncanny!
I have seen so many examples of the zone.   1977, 3rd Test, v Pakistan; Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana; my 3rd Test, overall, and only Test in Guyana; was my first experience of that zone.  I was not in it, but did suffer considerably because of it!
Pakistan’s opener, Majid Khan, had feared reasonably in two previous Tests; 88, 28, 47, 54; 4 innings before Georgetown.  We had a very close draw in Barbados, West Indies winning at Port of Spain, courtesy of yours truly’s 8-29, and Roy Fredericks’ 120.  My spell was more synchronicity than zone!
Somehow, though, that galvanized Majid into his own place.  Even 1st innings, 3rd Test, was normal, Majid making only 23.  Then he switched on, or went into that zone.
Led by 254 on 1st innings, Pakistan then made 540, Majid Khan playing one of the most majestic innings ever seen; 167; glorious, if you were a spectator or supporter; agonizing, if, like me, you were on the field!
Test No. 3 was eventually drawn, West Indies getting 154-1, 2nd innings, set 287 to win.  Andy Roberts, Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Bernard Julien, Viv Richards and late Roy Fredericks, the bowlers used, would never have forgotten that “zone” attack by Majid Khan in Guyana.
Nothing that we bowled missed the middle of the bat.  Indeed, I cannot remember anything even missing the bat.  Majid had put us in his Zone!
In 1979 ICC World Cup Final, which West Indies won by 92 runs, we saw, from the dressing room, another zone attack.  Sent to bat first, we were tottering at 99-4, when Collis King joined Viv Richards at the crease.  When King left, at 238-5, the collective drew breath for the first time in two hours.
King had “zoned” us all, with 86; 77 balls, ten 4’s, three 6’s; in that partnership of 139, making even Viv, who eventually made 138 no., ‘Man of the Match’ award, look ordinary.  Collis was surely robbed then!
Australia v West Indies, the Melbourne Cricket Club, – MCG – 1979, was where I had my maiden “zone”!  We had drawn Test No. 1, Brisbane, but needed to win Test No 2 to show how good we were.  There were 85,000+ people at the “Bull Ring”, just after Christmas.  I did not see or hear any one of them at all!
We won by 10 wickets, my contributions 3-27 and 3-61.  Mike Holding had match figures of 6-101, Andy Roberts, 3-103, and Joel Garner, 5-89, both respective match figures.  Those were the only West Indies bowlers used in that Test.  All of us were in that special real place; “the zone!”  Oh, what a feeling!
1st Test, Australia v West Indies, Boxing Day 1982, again at MCG, gave another zone, from Kim Hughes.  Same bowling attack, but Hughes pummeled us for 100 not out, from a total of only 198.  It was one of the most adventurous, and correct, innings played against “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”!
Brian Lara’s 153, v Australia, to win Test No. 3, 1999, Kensington Oval, was so focused that he zoned us.  Batting at No. 5; 78-3; Lara made 153 no. from 233 that West Indies eventually added to win that game.  Way after that epic innings, BL was still struggling to get back down with us at the press conference!
Virender Sehwag, like marathon runners who win races, and still keep running, not aware that they had not only won, but that the races had indeed been completed, was in that one place, brimming with full focus on self – the zone!  Enjoy!

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