The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : `India lost the match in the mind'

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Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

`India lost the match in the mind'

By Javed Miandad

Just two sessions to go, nine wickets in hand and a bowling attack they had unfailingly milked for over 400 runs in each innings of the series. Then what went wrong?

India's problem was in the mind. A batsman of Sachin Tendulkar's class suddenly decided to treat each ball as if it was a matter of life and death. While he could have provided direction to a batting line up consisting of two fellow senior batsmen struggling for form, a rookie wicketkeeper and the tail, he cast a spell of fear in their heart.

No wonder the Indians collapsed. They forgot the age-old maxim of cricket: you can play for draw for 20 overs, but doing so for 90 overs is out of the question. That's the surest way to disaster. The Indians must be kicking themselves.

Suddenly, every Pakistan bowler looked a match-winner. Even somebody like Shahid Afridi assumed demonic proportions. Kudos are coming the way of Mohammad Sami but what could he have done wrong, secure in the knowledge that he is not going to go for runs?

If the Indians were indeed looking for a draw the last thing they needed was for bowlers to find line and length and find themselves hemmed with eight close-in fielders. The way to go about it was to bat normally, hit balls that deserved to be hit and scatter the fielders. Anil Kumble did it admirably and taught his seniors a thing or two about batting.

I remember in our times we used to go hard at our opener Shoaib Mohammad for batting defensively. We used to tell him: you are allowing the bowlers to find their rhythm and gain in confidence and they would create problems for us. At times, we used to love close-in fielders: it only meant we were going to get free runs in the outfield!

Imran and I always used to plot ways to win matches. That's why we called for neutral umpires because we thought we were not getting credit for our skills. We backed ourselves to defend even a total as paltry as 120.

Australians do exactly the same. They lost to India in Mumbai on a vicious turner but did they change their style of play? No. They lost but put themselves under pressure while batting.

I remember Sunil Gavaskar on-driving against the spin with aplomb, even on a minefield of a pitch. He did so because he read the ball off the bowler's hand. But somebody like Sourav Ganguly seems to decide on which way to move only after a ball is pitched.

The Indians deserve their fans' ire but not in the second innings alone. I thought they were equally terrible in the first innings. But for Virender Sehwag, who else batted well? The negative mindset was all too apparent. That was the period when they should have shut the door on Pakistan. Tendulkar played an airy-fairy shot on 41 when better application was required. If you are a high-quality bat and well set, you don't do that.

Not that Pakistan was without a fault. I thought the team batted too long on the fourth evening. It ought to have given the Indian openers more than six overs. When Pakistan knew it was not going to get bowled out, it ought to have promoted Abdul Razzaq for quick runs and give the Indians more overs to play.

The Pakistan players played out of their skins in this Test because they knew a backlash awaited them back home. I would like to see them similarly aggressive at all times.

Somehow we in the sub-continent allow pressure to get the better of us, rather than back ourselves and play the ball on merit. The `white' countries, let's give them credit, play cricket as it should be played. Just a game and an exhibition of skills and your mental resoluteness.

More than celebrating a team's win or wallowing in the sorrow of a loss, the lesson from this series is that the teams from the sub-continent are still not able to absorb pressure. It worries me.

The gains for Pakistan were obvious: Younis Khan and Danish Kaneria. Both have taken important strides for themselves in their careers.

The profits for India were less obvious except for the impressive comeback of Laxmipathy Balaji. India looks a side which needs a bit of a shake-up: may be it's time to recall somebody like Mohammad Kaif, who is in good nick and whose energy in the field gives the side the fillip. — PTI

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