The Hindu : Match drawn, but Indian morale takes a beating

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 28, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

Match drawn, but Indian morale takes a beating

Melbourne Nov. 27. The Indians were left to do a lot of soul-searching after the unfancied Victoria Bushrangers piled on a massive 518, built around a record 264 by Brad Hodge, on the third and final day of the tour opener here on Thursday.

With Victoria deciding to bat almost through the third day before declaring at 518 for eight, minutes before the tea break, the Indians hardly had time to make up for their lapses.

In fact, the first innings disaster returned to haunt the Indians as they lost two wickets, including that of Virender Sehwag (20), before finishing at 116 for two.

Ramesh, who made 87 in the first knock, logged a few more points for his Test selection with 36 while Akash Chopra remained unbeaten on 55.

There was some drama in the final half an hour when the Victorians wanted to walk off with six overs remaining. The two Indian batsmen decided to stay put with no signal coming from the dressing room.

Obviously the Indians, miffed at Victoria's decision to continue its innings this morning, wanted to make a point. But they finally decided to call it off, strangely so, with an over still to go.

Chopra, who hit two fours in an Andrew McDonald over, reached his half-century in 146 minutes off 112 balls and hit eight fours. Rahul Dravid, coming in at the fall of Ramesh, was unbeaten on one.

But it was Hodge who continued to hog the limelight, rewriting the record books while compiling 264 with 39 fours and a six. He made the highest-ever by an Australian batsman against a touring side in a first class game in 75 years. Only two scores have been higher than Hodge's against India in any form of cricket in the last 14 years. Graham Gooch had compiled 333 in the Lord's Test of the 1990 England tour while Sanath Jayauriya made 340 in Colombo in 1997.

Resuming at 153, Hodge batted for 500 minutes in his 380-ball knock. He completed two century stands during the day, putting on 171 and 135 for the sixth and seventh wicket with Ian Harvey (71) and skipper Cameron White (39) respectively.

Hodge showed neither signs of fatigue nor lack of appetite as he tore into the Indian bowlers, making 111 of the 170 runs scored from 44 overs today. A feature of his knock was the number of straight hits he smashed down the ground against the Indian pacemen. He finally fell when a thick edge off part-time off-spinner Virender Sehwag went high and landed in the hands of Dravid, the lone slip.

The other two wickets to fall were that of Harvey and White. While Harvey fell to a questionable leg before decision off Laxmipathy Balaji, White nibbled at an outswinger from Zaheer Khan to give the left-arm paceman his first wicket of the match.

Sehwag hit a few flashing drives before suffering yet another failure but Ramesh and Chopra looked in complete control before the left-hander hooked a catch to the deep.

Ganguly backs his team

Forced on the defensive after being outplayed in the tour opener, Sourav Ganguly said it was common for a visiting side to feel the blues in the first game of the Australian tour.

``It is the first game of the tour and teams do take time to settle down,'' said Ganguly, before rushing off to the airport to catch a flight to Brisbane where India plays a three-day game against Queensland from Saturday.

``The bowlers sometimes bowled a good line and at other times were too short, but it can happen to a team playing its first game in Australia,'' Ganguly said.

The Indian skipper also backed Sehwag despite the opener's two failures.

``He is a proven customer. Obviously, he failed in this game but he would have another dig in Brisbane,'' he said.

Ganguly also chose to overlook Victoria's decision to continue its innings till late into the third day. ``There is no surprise in what they did today. They also obviously wanted to give as much time as possible to Brad Hodge to improve his chances for Test selection.''

The scores:

India — 1st innings: 266 for nine decl.

Victoria — 1st innings: M. Elliott c Chopra b Harbhajan 48; J. Arnberger c Dravid b Nehra 8; B. Hodge c Dravid b Sehwag 264; J. Moss (run out) 42; D. Hussey c Dravid b Nehra 21; A. McDonald lbw b Harbhajan 1; I. Harvey lbw b Balaji 71; C. White c Patel b Khan 39; P. Roach (not out) 0; B. Harrop (not out) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-8, w-1, nb-14) 24; Total (for eight wkts. decl.) 518.

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-85, 3-192, 4-231, 5-232, 6-393, 7-518, 8-518.

India bowling: Zaheer 24-5-75-1, Nehra 29-6-91-2, Balaji 29-4-122-1, Harbhajan 37-5-159-2, Sehwag 9-2-30-1, Tendulkar 2-0-10-0, Ganguly 4-0-22-0.

India — 2nd innings: A. Chopra (not out) 55; V. Sehwag lbw b Harrop 20; S. Ramesh c Harrop b McDonald 36; R. Dravid (not out) 1; Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-1) 4; Total (for two wkts.) 116.

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-114.

Victoria bowling: Inness 10-3-27-0, Harrop 12-3-34-1, Moss 8-3-18-0, McDonald 6-2-15-1, Hussey 5-0-17-0, Roach 1-0-2-0. — PTI

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