Indian batting fails to deliver adequately

By G. Viswanath

CENTURION, OCT. 10. The South African captain, Shaun Pollock made a significant contribution in his team's comeback by denting the Indian innings at different stages in the third match of the Summer Spice one-day International series at the Super Sport Park on Wednesday.

He stopped his rampaging counterpart Sourav Ganguly from taking control of the match, after the latter had elected to bat, and hit back in his second and third spells to take five wickets and also reach 200 wickets in one-day Internationals.

The red-haired fast bowler's super effort brought the Indian innings to an abrupt end at 233, scored in seven balls short of 50 overs and set up a good opportunity for his batsmen to notch a second win against the Indians.

The Indians must have been frustrated, failing to capitalise on a fine chance to stretch the home team and in which four batsmen played roles that lasted different lengths of time. The Indian batsmen seemed to have come to terms with the pitch at the `The Centurion', too.

The name of the game at the venue is pace and bounce and not swing and seam. The venue at the outskirts of Johannesburg became a much sought after venue even by the Indians, who had not built a good reputation for relishing pace and bounce having fallen victims to Allan Donald & Co five years ago.

In attempting to organise their preparation for the tri-series and three Test series, the Indians did not mind travelling to this venue to get some valuable practice. Their refreshing outlook to get used to the conditions only helped them in tackling the four man pace attack through a familiar counter- attack by the Indian captain Ganguly and thereafter by the vice- captain Rahul Dravid and Yuveraj Singh.

The Indians have been very earnest and have showed a lot of commitment on this third tour to South Africa in ten years. They had spent the last three days here sweating it, trained with Andrew Leipus and made a genuine effort to deal with things hands-on with the help of coach John Wright in the nets. The entire fifteen member team felt obliged to improve and make a mark.

There was the familiar sight of Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar taking on the might of Pollock and Andrew Nel and their bag of tricks on a pitch that was more amenable to their trade. The openers went out to bat with plenty of confidence, having made 193 against Pollock, Nel, Kallis, Ntini, Klusener and Justin Kemp at `The Wanderers'.

Pollock had showed in the previous match against Kenya what a wonderful bowler and he got sufficient lift of the pitch to keep his chief tormentor at `The Wanderers', Ganguly in leash. There was a victory of sorts for him when he beat the left-hander twice outside the off stump.

Tendulkar looked formidable in his own way, showing tremendous patience and skills in leaving the ball just around the off stump and also those going over the stumps.

The first five overs yielded nothing for India, except for a slash-over-point four by Ganguly in the last ball of the fifth over bowled by Pollock. This was the beginning of a small cameo that Ganguly fashioned in general and against Pollock in particular.

There might have been an element of risk attached to the shots he played, but it appeared that the Indian captain seemed to have got it all - timing and placement - right when he stepped out, used the pace and bounce of the bowler, to put away the ball over in front and behind point for two sixes - his 100th and 101st beyond-the-boundary-line shots in one-day Internationals.

India had jumped from 14 for no loss in 30 balls to 51 off 50 balls, when Pollock had a sweet revenge by sending back the Indian captain, snapped up by an electrifying catch by Kallis at second slip. It appeared to be a classic example of a fielder making an attempt with two hands and converting a catch.

Kallis was off balance, the result of his having had to dive to his right. Ganguly stood for a few seconds before leaving the ground, but umpire Brian Jerling nodded his head to confirm that the catch held by Kallis was clean and fair.

Television replays raised enough doubts, but Ganguly, docked couple of times in recent times, simply could not have showed any gesture that would have been construed as dissent and bringing disrepute to the game. Ganguly left at 51 and in second ball of the ninth over.

Shiv Sundar Das was retained in the eleven only because he was not in the middle for sufficient time in the first match. He nudged twice for singles, offered the strike to Tendulkar and indicated that he would adhere to a practical course. But soon he gifted his wicket steering Pollock to Lance Klusener in the slip cordon.

Pollock had turned the tide. He might have been lucky to get the wicket of Ganguly, but he bowled with a lot of responsibility and resourcefulness. The departure of Ganguly, resulted in the run rate dropping from 51 for one from 50 balls to 77 for 3 in the 20th over.

Things appeared to be going Tendulkar's way right from the beginning. He was in command hitting the ball up, one of which was a square drive off Makhaya Ntini. Having got used to the pace of Pollock and Nel, Tendulkar was frustrated at not being able to play forcing shots off Ntini and Kallis. Eventually a quicker one from Ntini saw him steer straight down the throat of Nel at third man. Tendulkar has been dismissed quite a few times in this manner.

India would have been in dire straits had Dravid not been reprieved at his individual score of 13. He was dropped off successive balls by Herschelle Gibbs (at mid on off Ntini) and by Klusener (at slip off Kallis). India needed this luck and a plucky show by the fourth wicket pair of Dravid and Yuveraj. There were encouraging signs when Dravid forced the pace in the middle overs and Yuveraj showed his power-play against left hand spinner Nicky Boje.

It was quite a change for the Indians, for by the 20th over there was a new pair in the middle in Dravid and Yuveraj. In the previous match, the No. 3 batsman had come only at the fall of Ganguly's outstanding 127 in the last ball of the 35th over.

For the left hander it was a big learning experience, but Yuveraj proved quite adept in dealing with the situation. Dravid who hit his first four off the 32nd ball he faced, reached an individual milestone of 5000 in one-day Internationals.

It was when everything seemed nice and comfortable that the Indian innings declined in a horrible fashion, Dravid, after scoring his half century, was held by Klusener at mid- wicket off Pollock. Then Nel beat the downswing of Yuveraj to knock back his stumps. From an impressive looking 165 for three (the pair had added 90 runs) the Indian innings lost its way to finish at 233, which meant a target of less than five runs an over for South Africa.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Next     : Tiger turns author, reveals secrets behind his
           success