Indians keen on clinching series now and here

By G. Viswanath

VISAKHAPATNAM, APRIL 2. The Prince who has been batting like a pauper has decided to return to his favourite position in the batting order he had given up for one match in Indore. The Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly said he would open the innings in the Pepsi Series' fourth One-day international against Australia at the Indira Priyadarshini Municipal Corporation Stadium on Tuesday. He has realised the folly he made in the third match.

It seemed it was becoming an unwelcome habit with him to react to his whim following a couple of failures with the bat. He did so seven months ago in the Sharjah, dropping down in the order, but he did not meet with success. He explained then that he had rarely batted beyond the fifteenth over in Sharjah, which was actually saying that the desert venue was not a happy hunting ground for him.

In recent times, at home he has unquestionably been frustrated by his poor scores in six innings of the Test series when pressure got over him. The Australians, too, made sure that they manipulated the tide of events in their favour against Ganguly. The Indian captain himself, must, to an extent, take the blame for his loss of form. He neglected his batting, which was his principal discipline, apart from leading the side. He allowed himself to be distracted by matters he had no business to deal with.

Ganguly also got into the knack of getting into unseemly and uninterrupted run-ins with his Australian counterpart, Steve Waugh. After a three-hour practice session at the Diamond Jubilee Stadium of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust, Ganguly said: ``I have stopped bothering about them.'' But he soon made matters worse for himself saying ``There has been too many complications in this series. Whether they (Australians) are doing this is deliberate or not, it has put me off. They are supposed to be a good team. To be complaining all the time is really schoolboy stuff.''

Ganguly's batting reputation at stake

The tough and mean Australians, who have managed to keep Ganguly on edge, will be after him again here and in Goa. He might have upset Steve Waugh, reporting late for the toss for seven consecutive matches, and scored a few psychological points. He has promised to make up for that in the next two matches. But what Ganguly would have realised is that at stake is his batting reputation which he must rectify in the remaining two matches.

Ganguly has played 18 One-day internationals against Australia and his batting record in these has not been particularly impressive. Ten times he has been dismissed for single digit scores before and after his exact 100 in Sydney in January 2000. He has just two fifties and all put together gives him an average lower than 25, which sure Ganguly must not be happy with. Certainly not his scores in Bangalore, Pune and Indore and also the manner in which he approached these matches.

On Monday he was given an opportunity to bat for 20 minutes in the nets with coach John Wright giving him special attention. He appeared like a batsman who was out of touch and form. Wright made sure that left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan bowled at him and also the off-spinner Sarandeep Singh. The `Badsha of off-side' has not even given a glimpse of his elegant stroke play in this series. He batted at No. 4 to return to form, but he did not even make a run in Indore.

As he himself has said, he has not really gone through a bad patch. The fact is that he is in a rut now. But it is also a fact that he has scored over 6,000 runs in 161 matches and knows the way to score some runs. He has taken the important decision to open the innings with Sachin Tendulkar. They have made 4,555 runs playing in tandem, with partnership of 12 centuries and twenty fifties in 98 matches.

West Indians Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge who opened the innings in 102 matches and scored 5,150 runs hold the record. Another five matches - which should become a reality in Zimbabwe in June - would make the Indian pair the longest serving opening pair in limited-over internationals. ``I will open. I tried it (coming down the order) for a game because I was not scoring runs. But it did not work. I have decided to get back to where I have scored all my runs,'' said Ganguly.

India is obviously keen to clinch the series here itself. Short of lavishing praise, Wright, carefully choosing words, said good things about the team's performance in Indore. ``Yes. it's a good position to be in. We played pretty good cricket in the last game. The batting of Sachin Tendulkar and Laxman was outstanding. We have always encouraged the batters to go on. So that's satisfying. Our fielding has improved and though there were two run outs, I thought the communication was better. These were the improvements. So we have played good cricket and up to our potential. This game (fourth match) is important from the mental aspect because we are trying to improve from our last performance. They must try and do it again,'' said Wright.

Almost every batsman in the team got an opportunity to bat, beginning with Robin Singh and Ajit Agarkar and then followed by Tendulkar and Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman, Dinesh Mongia and Hemang Badani and Yuveraj Singh and Vijay Dahiya. The VPT ground looked a pretty venue for practice, the local district association changing the venue for practice because of security reasons. ``There was no choice. Something better than nothing,'' said Ganguly.

This is the first time in the present series that both the teams had to practise at a venue other than the match. The VPT ground is about five kilometres from the venue of the match. Five years ago, the South Africans insisted on practising on a pitch adjacent to the match pitch at the Wankhede Stadium. The objective was to get a feeling of the `match atmosphere' without the crowd in the stands. The home team cannot complain much because it is the home team. Sure, the Australians would have been disappointed that did not get an opportunity to practise at the match venue.

Australia reiterated a point that it would adopt the `rotation' policy which entails even resting the star players. It will pick the team on Tuesday morning after ascertaining the physical fitness of Darren Lehmman who has hurt his right hamstring and left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken, who is recovering from a bout of flu. But Australia's top batsman on the tour, Matthew Hayden, should be back in the eleven along with Shane Lee, who was the eleventh-hour replacement for Jason Gillespie in the series.

The eve of the match did not pass without questions being asked on the `coin' that was tossed in Indore and answers from Ganguly.``I did not tell the Match Referee that I had won the toss. I just asked for clarification on which side was heads and tails. Is it a crime to ask him? Different two rupee coins have been used so far. Why use a complicated coin and not a simple two rupee coin,'' asked Ganguly, who has evoked interest in almost every aspect of the game, except scoring runs.

The Australians will give their best shot, though they will be without Mark Waugh, who made a match-winning 133 in Pune. Steve Waugh's team will have to not only overcome an in-form Indian team, but also the heat and high humidity that can really make it a `sticky day out' for them. The humidity can even make things difficult for the home team which will be trying hard to improve the winning percentage at home against Australia. So far the two teams have played 23 matches in India. India has won 11 and Australia 9. There was no result in three matches.

The teams (from):

India: Sourav Ganguly (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Yuveraj Singh, Robin Singh, Vijay Dahiya, Ajit Agarkar, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Sarandeep Singh.

Australia: Steve Waugh (Captain), Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Ian Harvey, Shane Lee, Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming, Shane Warne, Darren Lehmann and Nathan Bracken.

Umpires: Messrs G.A. Pratapkumar & S.K. Tarapore; Third umpire: Mr. A. Bhattacharjee; Fourth umpire: Dr. K.N. Raghavan; Match Referee: Mr. Cammie Smith.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Eight athletes from Tamil Nadu to represent India
Next     : Waugh defends rotation system