Beijing Brings Up its Century: 100 Days with no Rain or Snow

The 100 is up! Congratulations Beijing. You’ve reached triple figures, wave the bat with pride. It’s been a fine knock, a fine century, definitely a knock straight from the top drawer. What a way to dry things up!

This is a knock to prove the critics and the doubters wrong. And you cannot deny it, the critics had been justified after your poor run form last season. Last season you started off poorly, and then never really managed to pass 20 for the rest of the season, with your worst run of 40 years occurring in January 2010. But no, this season, you came out with a mission to defy your worst enemies and have certainly done that, and how! You’ve played an almost perfect innings, you’ve dried up the attack and left the enemy dumbfounded as to how to break the drought. You’ve been typically stubborn and unrelenting.

That said, you certainly gave us a fright or two throughout the innings. When on just (Day) 1 we thought you fell victim, and we thought your career was over, but the replays saved you. When on (Day) 67 we were certain you were out, only to be saved by the umpire overruling the original decision. Apparently there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the opponent had broken the drought. You toyed with our emotions throughout the nervous 90’s, but you got there. Take a bow. I for one never thought you’d get there.

Beijing, you deserve extra praise for this masterclass considering the situation you were facing. Your top order teammates; Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning again failed early in their knocks. Actually Heilongjiang is having a dismal season this year. You came out knowing that team China was counting on you, as captain to deliver a true captains knock. You found able assistance with Shandong (85 not out) and also formed a good partnership with Shanxi. Team China needed these middle order players to shine, because on current form, lower order players like Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou are going to fold faster than Superman on laundry day.

You’ve dried up the attack, you’ve returned to some career defining form. This is an unforgettable knock. We haven’t seen you perform like this since the halcyon days of 1988, 1974 and 1951. This is innings is the new benchmark, for good or for worse.

But we need to ask you Beijing: you’ve proved the critics wrong, your doubters are now believers, you’ve shown us once more that you can play the knock that puts you in the hall of fame, have you possibly considered retiring? Because ultimately, your innings was a tad too dry for our liking. We do want to see a balanced and even challenge next winter.