The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Time for McGrath and Co. to set the records right

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Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Time for McGrath and Co. to set the records right

By. S. Dinakar

Even the evening breeze from the Bay of Bengal did not sweep across the ground like it normally does. And there was a sense of stillness in the air as if the moment was meant to be frozen in time.

The decider was on razor's edge, the cricketing temperatures were high, and the hush around a full-house Chepauk seemed deafening; there are times when silence can be heard more than a million sounds.

The M.A. Chidambaram Stadium is a cauldron during most big games. It was more so on March 22, the final day of the gripping three-Test series in 2001.

India, weathering some serious inroads by the Aussies, had inched desperately close to its target of 155. Steve Waugh tossed the ball to Glenn McGrath; it was the last fling of the dice by the Aussie captain.

McGrath, radiating passion and pride, steamed in from the Wallajah Road end, as if his life depended on the verdict. He scalped Zaheer Khan, but when Harbhajan Singh drove him for a brace, India had conjured a pulse-pounding two-wicket win amid the evening hue.

Picture of dejection

His face covered in anguish, McGrath was a picture of dejection; the agony of defeat accentuated by a feeling of being drained out in hot, humid, energy sapping conditions, that only a fellow paceman could relate to.

Things are loaded against a fast bowler in the sub-continent. The weather can be uncompromising and then the slow, brown pitches can prove heartbreaking.

That a few special Australian pacemen have bucked the odds in India is a tribute to their skill, strength, and mind.

From Ray Lindwall of that lovely run-up and action in the 50s, to McGrath, the deadliest `corridor' bowler of our times, the list is an accomplished one, although the peerless Keith Miller and the famous pace pair of the 70s, the legendary Dennis Lillee, owner of a mean `leg-cutter,' and the sling armed and furiously fast Jeff Thomson, never figured in a Test in India.

Lindwall ripped through the Indian batting in the Madras Test of 1956-57, with seven for 43, and then in 1959-60, Alan Davidson, an exceptional left-arm paceman, tormented the host in the Kanpur Test with match figures of 12 for 124.

Most successful

The incisive Garth McKenzie is most successful Australian paceman in India though, with 34 wickets in eight Tests. Crucially, he was the leader of the pace pack in 1969-70, registering a six-wicket innings haul in Calcutta, and grabbing five in Bombay, as Bill Lawry's Australians triumphed 3-1; the Aussies have not won a Test series on Indian soil since.

The Aussie pace bowling scripts have not always run along expected lines here. While Rodney Hogg, red-headed and dangerous, ran into serious no-balling problems on the 1979-80 tour, it was the wily left-armer Geoff Dymock, by then in the final stretches of his career, who dismissed 12 batsmen in the Kanpur Test.

Another big name, the versatile Craig McDermott, had mixed luck in India, and it was a member of Australia's current pace quartet, Michael Kasprowicz, who whipped up a match-winning performance in 1997-98, ambushing the host in the Bangalore Test, with five for 28 in the second innings.

Come October sixth and the Aussie pacemen will be on the prowl again. McGrath's relentless off-stump line, Jason Gillespie's fire, Brett Lee's pace and Kasprowicz's heart will be put to Test.

McGrath, for sure, will be fuelled by memories of a long, hot, and eventually frustrating day in Chennai where India's winning moment stays frozen in time.

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