The Hindu : Sport : Hall made the difference

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

Sport

Sport

Hall made the difference

If you have saved your hard earned money to see places in the world, Kanpur will not be your first choice destination. Then if you have a five-day cricket match ending in a draw, it can be an absolute nightmare. Thank God there was Virendra Sehwag!

The Kanpur pitch, once again reminded us that reading a pitch is a very difficult art, rarely mastered. Not one cricket expert called it a `draw' pitch before play started.

As it turned out it was a pitch on which bowling an unplayable ball to get a wicket was impossible. It is real credit to Kumble that he managed six scalps in the first innings.

Perhaps the Indian bowlers have a reason to moan about the complete absence of any spice in the surface but then I thought Harbhajan and Kartik also did not dig deep within themselves to come up with some ideas to pick up wickets.

For starters, getting the batsmen to drive consistently to induce a mistake was not tried with enough conviction. Both Harbhajan and Kartik have the gift of guile as bowlers but they just did not use that part of their skill enough, I thought.

They were both trying the almost impossible, of getting the batsmen caught around the bat while they were defending on a placid surface.

South Africa did not win the Test match but they certainly won their battle against the demons in their minds while playing in the subcontinent. Don't forget this team actually embarrassed themselves in Sri Lanka a few weeks back.

Genuine all-rounder

Andrew Hall's second highest Test score is a 99 against England and it came in 87 balls. He got 163 runs opening the innings for the first time in Tests and almost batted for two whole days.

When someone performs against his natural instincts for the sake of the team it is a performance that has to be hailed. He has also amazingly kept wickets in an international game for South Africa. Now that is a genuine all-rounder.

Judging by the way South Africa batted in that second innings Andrew Hall's knock in the first innings was the single factor for me that earned his team a creditable draw.

After the Australia series India obviously was looking at this series to put their house in order. They may not have exactly done. Gautam Gambhir's innings was a plus for the team.

If he establishes himself at the opening position it will be a great asset for India with the left hand, right hand combination and also because both he and Sehwag play for Delhi the vibes between the two at the start of an Indian innings will be extremely beneficial.

Finally not quite the result India would have expected at the start of the Test match. But scoring more than 400 runs with the knowledge that the opposition had got 510 runs is praiseworthy.

Just a thought, I hope now, that the Indian team management puts a team policy in place. That henceforth, like the Australians do, they would only make a passing mention of the pitch on which they are playing and not what seems now, like an obsession with the nature of the pitch every time before a Test match.

They could well let the curators do their jobs and they could concentrate on their own. It is one way of improving performances.

And yes, thanks Viru ! for making my Kanpur trip, not so bad after all.

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