A chance for Indians to warm-up in right earnest

By G. Viswanath

JOHANNESBURG, OCT. 2. It has been a rare first week for the Indian cricketers on a tour. The Indians must thank their lucky stars for the happy turn of events and the administrators who offered them on a platter five extra days for preparation in a country they are going to be for more than two months at a stretch.

Ever since they landed at the Jan Smuts International Airport on September 24, there has not been a necessity for them to go to the airport. The `fly-out and fly-in' routine will start from October 11 and after the second of the back-to-back of the Standard Bank tri-series match against South Africa at `The Centurion'.

On Monday the Indians even made a rousing start to the tour with an overwhelming victory over the Nicky Oppenheimer XI in which only the captain, Jonathan, did not belong to the select band of first class cricketers. The other ten were and among them a handful are seemingly close to get the Proteas cap.

The competition in the coming weeks, especially against the home team and the Kenyans, will be a far cry from the description of `warm-up' and `friendly' games the Indian team would have played before the tri-series opener against South Africa. But it was, nevertheless, a good and morale boosting win to a bunch of Indian cricketers who seldom have notched a win so early on a tour.

So far things have gone the Indians way. They appear to be a committed lot, putting in hours of training at the two Test venues. The one-day match at the Ranjesfontein broke the tedium of physical training and practice. The most important aspect of the game from the Indian point of view was the return to the team of Sachin Tendulkar, for whom Monday's tour opener was the first game in 87 days, his last innings being the final of the Coca Cola Tri-series in Harare.

Tendulkar, who has even been bowling at nets consistently, showed no evidence of pain when he bowled that five overs to the Oppenheimer XI and on quite a few occasions when he had to show a fast pair heels, sprinting from long on and deep mid wicket. Thereafter he looked the part when he whipped drives to mid wicket, hit checked straight drives and showed the full face of the bat to the seamers, Albie Morkel and Garnett Kruger, both of whom looked lively and nippy in their first few overs. The champion batsman showed his class taking three fours in a single over from Kruger who bowled with a high arm action and generated pace.

The Indians on Wednesday afternoon take a bus to a venue (the second warm up game against South Africa `A' being a day/night match) which has a strong and powerful Tendulkar connection. The place is called Benoni, where local Indians turned out in large numbers and applauded and danced to every power packed shot played by Tendulkar against Zimbabwe in the summer of 1997.

It was a remarkable century by Tendulkar, the captain then-the Indians were set a target of 200 plus in less than 40.5 overs)- that enabled India to enter the final of the series. Tendulkar left the scene of action, but with a less formidable strike rate to be achieved by Robin Singh and Ajay Jadeja. This pair scored at run-a-ball to win that crucial match against Zimbabwe.

There are certain events that change the complexion of a game and affect the confidence of a side. With Tendulkar's return to the Indian ranks, there was evidence of small and big changes. To start with, Ganguly gave himself a little more freedom and played a few excellent shots. Their opening stand looked like stretching beyond the 62 they made. The result of this bright and positive partnership was the middle order in Shiv Sundar Das, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag scoring runs in an uninhibited manner.

Should Das make a contribution in the Test series to be played in November, a major share of credit should be given to the selectors. In the team management's views, he has looked good in the `nets' and on Monday he made a solid 59 before retiring to the pavilion.

Evidently the team management decided to change its plan of fielding Kumble in the first match and Harbhajan in the second against South Africa `A'. But both were given chance in the first match itself. The offspinner was brought in in the 27th over. He bowled seven overs conceding just 20 runs; two of his overs not being scored off. Should the spinners do well against the `A' team, a new line of thought could emerge in fielding two spinners in certain matches of the tri-series.

The Ngam factor

The second and final warm up match, against South Africa `A', will be a proper one in the sense that it will be played over 50 overs and with all the bowling and fielding restrictions coming into play. The Indians would have been much happier if they had got an opportunity to face fast bowler Mfuneko Ngam, who is being compared to the likes of Pakistan's Shoiab Akhtar and Australia's Brett Lee.

Ngam emerged as a quality product of the United Cricket Board's Development Programme and made a terrific impact on the batsmen and his teammates alike and of course on a great many of the South Africans. He is recovering from stress fractures and a shoulder injury and was allowed to bowl only six overs, but those who have watched him bowl in the `nets' in Eastern Cape say that he works up speeds of 150 kmph consistently. What's on record is that Ngam is 60 or 70 per cent fit and that he will return to spearhead the South African bowling when the time is right. Obviously the South African selectors do not want to risk playing him, what with the signature event of their cricketing season being the back-to-back series against Australia from December to March-April.

Ngam's place has been given to another fast bowler, Mornatau Hayward, who had a major success on Monday when he brought a sudden and numbing end to Tendulkar's blazing 45. Hayward is one of the handful of fast bowlers captain Hylton Ackerman will have at his command. The others are Roger Telemachus and Charl Langeveldt (he replaced Donald for the Zimbabwe tour), who has taken 56 wickets in 20 first class games and 68 wickets in 39 limited over matches of the Super Sport series.

Another promising youngster in the `A' team is Thami Tsolekile, a wicketkeeper-batsman from Western Province. But it is also said that this 20-year-old stumper, who is seen as a successor to Mark Boucher, is of the undisciplined type and inclined to pick a row at the slightest provocation. But his notorious behaviour has not prevented people here talking about his talent, which quite a few in the `A' team have aplenty and will be keen to parade against the Indians on Wednesday.

The teams:

India (from): S.S. Das, Rahul Dravid, Yuveraj Singh, Jacob Martin, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Harvinder Singh, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Virender Sehwag, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Deepdas Gupta.

South Africa `A' (from 12): Hylton Ackerman, Boeta Dippenaar, Gerald Dros, Justin Kemp, John Kent, Charl Langeveldt, Mornatau Hayward, Justin Ontong, Jacques Rudolph, Roger Telemachus, Thami Tsolekile, Martin van Jaarsveld.

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