Monday, Jul 01, 2002
Monday, Jul 01, 2002 |
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
PRIZE SCALP: Man of the match Ajit Agarkar is all smiles after dismissing the Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya in the third NatWest triangular one-day International at Oval in London on Sunday. — Photo: N. Sridharan.
Matters of cricketing consequence also brought cheer to the Indian camp as one of the heroes of its match against England, Yuveraj Singh, and another young batsman craving for opportunities, Mohammad Kaif, took their team to the winning post to make the weekend chores of the NatWest Trophy III triseries highly rewarding for the Indians. After the exit of Tendulkar for 49 — umpire Dave Orchard nodding his head to confirm that he had indeed edged Nuwan Zoysa to wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana — Yuveraj and Kaif found enough open spaces at the Oval and ran aggressively between the wickets with the sole purpose of wining the match for their side. Kaif, a regular with the India `A' team passed a severe test of character. Having restricted the Sri Lankans to 202 the Indians were always going to be ahead of the asking rate, but India required the sixth-wicket stand of 60 off 63 balls to finish its round I matches on a winning note. The behaviour of the `The Oval' puzzled many on Sunday. The second Test venue in London had provided a real belter of a pitch on a bright summer day when Surrey and Glamorgan amassed a combined sum of 867 runs 10 days ago. Glamorgan made 429 and lost the C & G Trophy one-day match to the home team by nine runs. Ten days later the sun rarely paid a visit to Surrey's home ground thus making life tough for the batsmen. Just as the sun lost the battle to the cloud blanket, the sunshine boys of Asian cricket were subdued by the Indians. The last time the two teams clashed in England in the World Cup of 1999 at Taunton, two batting maestros of the Indian team — Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid — had settled the issue in a most resounding manner scoring 183 and 145. It was quite a different story three years later. "You have to play normal cricket. When teams come to `The Oval', they think they have to play the big shots to make runs. That's wrong,'' said Geoffrey Boycott. As it emerged in the afternoon session, the two teams contrived to convert the playing field into a battleground and competed hard for supremacy. There was considerable bounce in the pitch even well past 4 p.m. for the Sri Lankan new-ball pair of Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa, who were able to pass the bat of Sachin Tendulkar, who was under pressure to take his team through as Dravid and Yuveraj had done it against England at Lord's. The two wickets Vaas captured in his first spell before the end of the seventh over ensured that India would have to labour for victory. Vaas trapped Ganguly in line with the stumps and thereafter enticed Virender Sehwag to drive uppishly into the hands of Jayasuriya at mid-off. Dinesh Mongia deliberately took a blow on his body and appeared to be a nervous starter. The arrival of Tendulkar excited the crowd, more so when he cover drove Vaas off the fourth ball he faced and then glanced the next after Zoysa had been penalised three times in a row by Peter Willey for over stepping. Mongia got an opportunity to cut Dilhara Fernando when Vaas was taken off after five overs. A little later Mongia pulled Zoysa for a six and Tendulkar sent Dilhara Fernando out of the ground. Small partnerships were the order when Sri Lanka batted. The Indians were fortunate, Tendulkar and Mongia managed to add 71 runs for the third wicket before the left-hander succumbed to Dilhara Fernando. Suddenly wickets appeared to be falling in a heap with Dravid and Tendulkar disappearing from the scene 22 runs apart, leaving a task to be realised by the young guns. Earlier, Mahela Jayawardene's patient half century had prevented the Indians from crushing the Sri Lankans under their feet in the first session itself. India's youthful seam bowlers rocked the Sri Lankan boat under overcast skies and took control of the proceedings. The three-man pace attack in Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are not exactly freshmen in the big league of international cricket. Together they had 147 India caps and a collection of 217 wickets before they were lined up before the Sri Lankan team.
Explosive start
Agarkar (Man of the Match), who was unremarkable against England at Lord's on Saturday, teased and tricked the Sri Lankans when Sanath Jayasuriya was making merry in full view of the 20,000 capacity crowd. He was sharp and made the ball skid through. He might have puzzled many here after seeing him bowl a lively spell of seven overs in which he hewed the top order of the Sri Lankan batting and when Jayasuriya was beginning to show his might with his flashing blade. Things changed dramatically the moment Agarkar replaced the expensive Khan after Jayasuriya had cut and carved the left-arm seamer and Sri Lanka was progressing at run a ball. Jayasuriya was straight off the blocks and was on song minutes after he had won the toss and elected to bat. He punished Khan, who for the second time in the competition, allowed an opening batsman to get the better of him. On Saturday Khan and Agarkar had gone for eight each in their first overs. It was not any better on Sunday the first three overs going for 20 runs. Jayasuriya's opening salvos indicated the shape of things to come. He opted for the familiar route of hitting over the inner ring. He was in devastating mood, showing his appetite to score runs off the Indian bowling, before nicking Agarkar to Dravid. There were two reasons for the Indians to celebrate. First they had removed the Sri Lankan danger man. Second, the second wicket consumed by Agarkar was his 150th in 97 one-day Internationals. Agarkar deserved all the kudos showered on him instantly by his teammates. Nehra was the unluckiest among the three seamers, but he might not have been a heartbroken man in the end finishing at 10-0-29-1. Sri Lanka's decline from 42 for no loss to 97 for five was rather swift with Khan returning for his second spell and taking the wicket of a prolific run maker like Marvan Atapattu. It was left to Sri Lanka's most methodical and stylish batsman Mahela Jayawardene to retrieve lost ground with the support of the lower order, the first of which was a 43-run partnership off 88 balls for the sixth wicket that fell because of a leaping catch by Kaif at short cover.
Scoreboard
India bowling: Nehra 10-0-29-1, Khan 10-1-48-3, Agarkar 9-2-44-3, Ganguly 10-1-28-1, Kumble 10-0-43-0, Sehwag 1-0-2-0.
Sri Lanka bowling: Vaas 10-1-38-2, Zoysa 10-0-46-1, D. Fernando 10-0-53-2, B. Fernando 3-0-11-0, Chandana 10-1-46-1, Jayasuriya 2-0-5-0, Arnold 0.2-0-2-0.
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