Monday, Jan 05, 2004
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Cricket
The Indian batsmen have dashed the Steve Waugh's retirement celebrations over three sell-out days of this final Test match. Steve Waugh has come and gone to the disappointment of the local crowd and the Australians still trail by 364 runs and need 164 to avoid the follow-on. Amazingly, over 1,000 runs have already been scored. Sachin Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman hogged the limelight through the record-breaking first innings by the Indians. At tea a high scoring draw looked the most likely result until Kumble, ably assisted by Irfan Pathan, turned the game on its head. Having made a massive 705 for seven declared India looked as though it might have consigned itself to three tough days in the field. To win the Test match it faced the prospect of having to bowl Australia out twice within the space of 160 overs or thereabout. At lunch yesterday, this was a prospect that seemed highly unlikely on what is still a batsman-friendly wicket. Australia's only chance of pulling off a remarkable victory seemed to lie in getting to 506 as quickly as possible, declaring behind, and hoping India would bat badly enough in the second innings to leave it to a run chase on the last day. The way Langer and Hayden started there was a time when 700 did not seem to be enough. The Indian bowlers were not having any more joy than their Australian counterparts until Kumble started to make inroads into the top order. He used all of his experience and guile to get rid of Hayden, Langer, Ponting and Martyn and is probably bowling as well as anytime in his career. His reputation has been considerably enhanced by his work on this tour. One thing that has me stumped is why the wickets seem to be at their best for batting on the third day. I don't understand why some curators in Australia are leaving so much moisture in the wicket for the start of the game. This makes the wicket slow on the first day, which suits neither batsman nor bowler, and often means the wicket is at its best for batting on days two, three and four. The MCG pitch contained a lot of moisture on the first day, as did the pitch here in Sydney. Personally I would like to see the wicket much drier on the first day so that the pace bowlers can have some bounce and carry through to the wicketkeeper. This would mean batting is at its best on days one and two before offering some assistance to the spinners, and the better pace bowlers, on days three, four and five. Adelaide Oval provided the best wicket for the current series in my view because it was drier on the first day than any of the other pitches. The preparation for the Brisbane Test was handicapped by rain leading up to and during the Test match there. Mind you, should there be a result in this Test it will be hard to criticise any of them for we have seen some absorbing cricket. It must be said that neither team had bowled particularly well in this Test match before the last session of the third day. The Australians generally bowled too short or too wide while the Indian bowlers were overpowered by the Australian openers before lapsing into similar error. It was only the big-hearted performance by Kumble that saved some face for the bowling fraternity. What this Test match has confirmed is that India is one of the best batting teams in world cricket at present. With the openers continuing to give it good starts the middle four has been able to plunder runs against a thin Australian bowling attack. At times the Australians have looked at a loss as to what to do to reign in the talented quartet. It has appeared to me that Steve Waugh has had a plan A but when that hasn't worked the only recourse has been to set defensive fields with a packed off side and have his bowlers bowl outside off stump. Against good teams and good batsmen it is hard to get wickets when you have stopped trying to force the error. Few bowlers can bowl an attacking defensive line like Glenn McGrath has been able to do for so long. This may be the look of the future for Australia unless it can find a different approach under Ponting. McGrath may come back and may recapture his best form but then again he may not. Shane Warne may also be the answer to Australia's prayers but failing that I think it will have to think about picking some aggressive bowlers and be prepared to attack a bit more. Bracken appears to have been chosen ahead of either Williams or Bichel in this Test to do a stopping job. He was nowhere near as effective with the red ball as he was with the white one in India and may be consigned to a career as a one-day specialist unless he can learn to swing the red ball into the right handed batsmen. It doesn't look like Steve Waugh is going to get the fairytale finish he had hoped for on his departure from Test cricket but Australia may need one last rearguard action from him over the next two days to prevent a disappointing loss in his last series at the helm. The Australians are not used to this situation so it is a chance to show that they can do the hard work as well as they play from the front. If they are unable to hold India to save the game it may cause questions to be asked about just how good this Australian team really is!
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