The Hindu : India has to recapture batting magic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

India has to recapture batting magic

By G. Viswanath

Rahul Dravid, like his other illustrious team-mates, was left hopping on the fast WACA pitch. - Photo: V.V. Krishnan

MELBOURNE, FEB. 4. India has to recapture its batting form this weekend if it hopes to match Australia in the VB Series triangular finals and revive memories of the first three matches between the teams.

India's batsmen adjusted and settled to fresh demands after the Test series and piled up runs against the home team at Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Its batsmen turned into run scoring machines and V.V.S. Laxman stroked his way to three centuries in four matches.

Everything appeared to running smoothly with its batsmen scoring in a prolific manner, until India's dashing openers were removed from the frontline for 12 days. Virender Sehwag could no longer put with the pain from a bruised shoulder and had to be rested.

Sachin Tendulkar sprained his ankle and Anil Kumble damaged his rotator cuff. India was further hit with Ajit Agarkar complaining of a sore calf. He was rested for three matches.

Ganguly, unquestionably a players' captain, was prepared to take the turn of events in his stride. His bowling had lost much of the sting with two match-winning bowlers in Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan forced out because of a damaged ligament and a torn thigh muscle. Ashish Nehra, bothered by his ankle, stayed with the team, but was not available for selection for the first ten days of the tournament.

Worse was to follow when India reached Perth where the pitch turned out to be unfriendly. Exposed to new conditions not ideal for one-day internationals, the Indian batsmen returned to the old-fashioned ways of failing to come to terms with the pace and bounce.

Australia's stand-in captain for one match, Adam Gilchrist, said he was pleased taking the Indians on in representative Australian conditions, but added a rider to it saying that the pitch was not the type one ought to be playing a one-day match.

The sorry part was that barring one or two batsmen, the others turned out to be meek and allowed themselves to be defeated by the pace and extra bounce. Even Zimbabwe's Heath Streak & Co. held sway over the Indian batsmen before Laxman and Hemang Badani stepped in to save India the blushes.

"There were anxious moments, but it takes time to get used to such conditions. The pitch had dried and there was extra pace and bounce for the bowlers to exploit. Once you are in, it becomes easier to play your strokes," said Rahul Dravid after the win against Zimbabwe.

After finishing the league stage with 15 wickets, Streak said the Perth pitch was the best he had bowled on in the tournament and that he was not surprised that even the technically equipped batsmen found it difficult to score off.

Tendulkar, Badani and Laxman all were hit on their body and helmet by short-pitched deliveries. For the first time in the tri-series the bowlers made use of the one bouncer rule.

More encouraging was the bowling of Irfan Pathan and Laxmipathy Balaji. Had it not been for Nehra's recurring ankle injury, both would not have played all the eight league matches. They bowled 142.4 overs and accounted for 24 wickets, with the 19-year-old Pathan improving his average from a high 36.20 to 27.57 after his four wicket haul against Zimbabwe.

After winning his first `Man of the Match' award, Pathan named Zaheer Khan and Wasim Akram as his idols. He will be raring to go against the Australians who have taken heavy toll of him. His analysis in the matches against Australia are: 10-0-61-0, 9.4-0-64-3, 7-1-51-3 and 8-0-69-2.

Pathan talked about `line and length', every bowler's mantra to keep the batsmen quiet and take wickets. "He bowled with pace and did not give width for the batsmen to cut and pull. He looked very impressive," said Streak.

It was for the first time in the eight-match league that Pathan was able to control his direction. The Indian bowlers did not overstep the crease even once in the two matches at Perth.

The Indians were upbeat before they ran into rough weather at Perth. Australia used four fast bowlers and Zimbabwe, too, as many to make life most uncomfortable for the Indian batsmen. There's much work to be done to maintain a reputation built over two months, mainly by its batsmen, who without doubt would be India's trump card in the finals.

Nets will determine Kumble's availability

Sourav Ganguly said Kumble's availability for the finals would largely depend on the way the leg-spinner feels after he bowls in the nets on Thursday.

Kumble, who has not played a match since January 20, bowled at nets at Perth before the match against Zimbabwe. "It's 50-50,'' said Ganguly, who had a sore back and hence did not play the match against Zimbabwe.

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