Sunday, Jul 14, 2002
Sunday, Jul 14, 2002 |
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
Jubliant members of the Indian cricket team which won the NatWest Trophy triangular one-day series at Lord's, London, beating England on Saturday. -- Photo: N. Sridharan.
The two-wicket defeat with three balls remaining was a big blow to the home team which might have had good reason to believe that 325 was like a unconquerable total, but on a day when Indian cricket saw a rising star and great fighter in Mohammad Kaif (Man of the Match) and another wonderful push from Yuveraj Singh, England was destined to finish runner-up. The fall of a couple of wickets to Andrew Flintoff made it a heart stopper, but amidst the joyous celebration and scenes that prevailed at Lord's after Kaif and Zaheer Khan dashed for two runs the second of an overthrow in the heat of the moment, there was this huge figure of Flintoff going down on his knees, quite a contrast to the terrific show of euphoria he exhibited on a chilly evening at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium early this year. Essentially it was the 121 run stand for the sixth wicket that was responsible for putting India back in the winning trail. Yuveraj and Kaif challenged the wit and wisdom of England though some audacious stroke play and aggressive running between the wickets. Their partnership came only in 106 balls and in 81 minutes. It took such a long time for Yuveraj to leave the field after sweeping Paul Collingwood into the hands of Alex Tudor. Then Kaif and Harbhajan Singh made 47 runs off 35 balls, a late in the order fight back that took India to the door step of a great victory before Flintoff struck two blows although Steve Bucknor might have erred in giving Anil Kumble a rough decision. But Kaif who dropped a couple of catches of Marcus Trescothick (Man of the Series), showed tremendous maturity and fashioned a fantastic win for his side. Kaif raises flicker of hope India's reply began with a counter punch by Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag. The riposte was good as long as it lasted before India lost five wickets from 106 to 146. When the team batting first sets a specific course of action, there is bound to be a show of outrageous run chase. It happened and India had the last laugh. Yuveraj who has had an outstanding tournament and Kaif raised a flicker of hope of the contest stretching to a thrilling and climatic finish. It is unfortunate that both will be returning home. Earlier England flexed its batting muscle enjoying strokes of luck along the way when Trescothik and skipper Nasser Hussain challenged the Indian bowling boldly and with a barrage of shots of mixed quality almost right through the first three and a half hour session. Attempting hard to realise a match-winning total straightaway, it had to invent shots, which meant taking risks and unsettling the bowlers' line, and length and throwing the opposition plan in complete disarray. The upshot of Trescothick's second century in a competition that has seen only three bright summers and Hussain's first century in 72 one-day internationals lowered the NatWest Trophy aggregate that was twice battered in the first and penultimate matches in the last seventeen days. Trescothick and Hussain collared and flattened the Indian bowling, which it must be said was ordinary on a good batting pitch. England's batting display on Saturday after Hussain elected to bat was thoroughly professional. It made its intentions at the outset that it will be inclined to chose the aggressive option and prolong it right through the length of its innings than adhere to the conventional practice of maximising its potential to score in the first fifteen overs and accelerate in the last ten overs. The home team had done its homework very well. That it was beaten hollow in the first meeting between the two teams at Lord's was fresh in its memory. It learnt lessons from the shortened match of 32 overs at the Oval and firmed up its mind that there was no substitute to aggressive batting. In doing so the England batsmen, notably Trescothick and Hussain, held the Indian bowling by its scruff. There was a cheap dismissal in the form of Nick Knight's exit when Zaheer Khan bowled made a delivery curl in to the left-hander and bowl him of his pads. Knight was the first of the left handed opening pair who gave the first hints by stepping out to attempt unorthodox shots. He played across to pave the way for the swinging ball finds its way to hit the stumps. The first wicket had already cost 42 runs off 48 balls. Though not accurate, Khan did manage to bowl a maiden over, but what followed thereafter was a leather hunt till the 50th over. Trescothick, quite familiar with the Indian bowling, had not struck his first four until the sixth over of the England innings, but evident in his whipped placement between square leg and mid on was the confidence of a batsman in good nick. Trescothick's presence was essential for England to make a sound start. He is known to cut loose right from the word go, but on Saturday he was patient till the first ball of the tenth over. He picked the line and length of the left arm seamer Khan so well to time his shot that sailed over mid-wicket for the first six of the final. The first spells of Khan and Nehra — 6-1-31-1 and 6-0-36-0 — just about reflected their inability to come to terms with a pitch that encouraged the batsmen to play their shots. Both were heavily scored of in their last overs of their first spell; Trescothick and Hussain mauled them for 22 runs. India would not have been badly off without Anil Kumble, but the temptation to play two spinners, made possible the inclusion of the leg spinner suffering from a calf muscle strain, at the eleventh hour. Kumble's inclusion had the risk of aggravating his leg injury, but he himself must have been keen and eager not to miss the final. India looked upon Kumble and Harbhajan to check the run flow, but Trecothick and Hussain had other ideas. They did not stretch their front leg to smother the spin, they set off a full-fledged offensive against both of them. Like his plain speaking ways, Hussain let it known to both the bowlers and the Indian captain that he will not hesitate to go after them. England advanced at six plus an over and maintained it to keep the pressure on the Indians. While Trescothick was playing the conventional shots all along the ground picking gaps, Hussain showed his propensity to reverse sweep the off spinner and employ the conventional sweep against Kumble. It fetched him plenty of runs. It was understandable if Ganguly lacked fresh ideas when the two batsmen were going great guns. He bowled his two spinners quickly enough for them to finish their ten overs by the 40th and 41st. Harbajan went for 53 from ten and Kumble 54 from his ten. Playing two spinners did not work on a placid pitch, or Trescothick and Hussain did not allow them leeway to dominate. Kumble broke the partnerhip after Trescothick and Hussain made 185 runs for the second wicket, a record partnership against India. It was another fine exhibition of batting by Trescothick, scoring 109 off 100 balls with two big boundaries and seven fours. Hussain continued to hold fort and completed his first century and pointed his bat towards the press enclosure and turned his back suggesting to a section of the print media that he was good enough to bat at No. 3 for England. It might have been a different story had Mohammad Kaif held catches and had leading edges gone towards fielders and not miles away from them. But then England enjoyed large slices of luck to post their tenth 300 plus total in one-day internationals. Hussain and Andrew Flintoffs 32 ball 40 ensured that.
England bowling: Gough 10-1-63-0, Tudor 9-0-62-1, Flintoff 7.3-0-55-2, Irani 10-0-64-2, Giles 10-0-47-2, Collingwood 3-0-24-1.
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