The Hindu : Mongia's was a well paced innings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002

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Sport - Cricket

Mongia's was a well paced innings
BY K. SRIKKANTH

India finally managed to score a truly dominating victory in the series, going past the 300-run mark for the second time in five matches.

But the fact remains that the host should have won the series 5-0. Instead, it just about managed to squeeze past Zimbabwe, which to me, has one of the weakest bowling attacks in limited-overs cricket.

I hope Sourav Ganguly and his boys have learnt their lessons from this series in which it had more downs than ups, really. The gains for India was that a couple of its boys turned into men; Dinesh Mongia especially, and then there was the rebirth of Yuveraj Singh.

It was nice to see major contributions coming from the relatively inexperienced Mongia and Yuveraj. Mongia's century on Tuesday was among the better limited-overs knocks that I've seen.

What I liked most about his innings was the manner in which he paced it. It was beautifully done. And what more, the opener batted right through the innings.

The Punjab lad did not compromise on any front. Most batsmen have the tendency to slow down the scoring rate when nearing personal landmarks, especially the coveted three-figure mark. Mongia didn't, instead he reached each one of them in absolute style. He played some splendid shots and his placements were perfect. An unselfish innings to boot.

With his second successive half century, Yuveraj has made a statement: that he can also be consistent. And the two tore through the Zimbabwe attack, batting the opposition out of contention.

Yuveraj is talented, he fields well and bowls usefully. But he needs to be nurtured properly. The boy looks a lot matured now and will hopefully handle stardom a lot better than what he did the first time. Yuveraj, Mongia and Kaif are our future assets. Batting in limited-overs cricket is about partnerships, and the Indian innings in Guwahati was all about that.

With a total of 300-plus behind them, the Indian bowlers were under no pressure. It was good to see left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan use the opportunity to practice his yorkers. If the young man masters the art of bowling inswinging yorkers, in the manner that legend Wasim Akram did, Zaheer will be hot to handle.

www.krishsrikkanth.com

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