Saturday, Oct 12, 2002
Saturday, Oct 12, 2002 |
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
India's Zaheer Khan (second from left), who claimed four wickets, celebrates the dismissial of Ryan Hinds with teammates in West Indies' first innings at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre
They may be hopelessly placed by the time they travel to the Eastern part of the country in the last week of October. The chilling fact of India's cricket pitches being slow turners might have knocked them down already. The ball did not spin much at the Wankhede on Friday and of the nine wickets the West Indies lost in its first innings and after India enforced the follow-on, not one could be blamed on the behaviour of the surface. There were instances when the spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble saw a few deliveries jumping and keeping low, but the fall of wickets was not because of the tricks of their trade, although the off-spinner must be given some credit for putting an end to Wavel Hinds' splendid strokeplay in the second innings. Hinds' dismissal in the second innings, bowled around his legs by Harbhajan, was a stroke of luck. Hinds, who felt he had to make amends for his first innings failure, attacked the Indian bowlers without being reckless. But he made the mistake of moving too far across and exposing his leg stump while trying to deflect Harbhajan's delivery that curved in from outside his leg stump, beat the bat and hit the target. The left-hander's bright innings of 40, with nine 4s, and the rousing opening stand with Chris Gayle, reduced the first innings deficit of 300 by 60 runs. Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan batted cautiously in the last hour to further bring down the lead, but the two will be up against an inspired duo of Kumble and Harbhajan for whom the fourth day pitch will offer assistance. The pitch, in the tradition of Wankhede, is playing slow and low, but definitely not alarming enough to menace the West Indies batsmen into submission. The new wicket caused eyebrows to be raised, because not a match was played on the ground after four pitches in the centre square were re-laid. The fears of the surface behaving spitefully were allayed on the first day when it was seen at its best behaviour. But there was noticeable decline on the second itself when the Indian batsmen struggled to score. This saw even the good players losing confidence, although Sarwan made it look as though everything was normal for one and a quarter hours before a delivery from Kumble dipped and hit him under the roll. Sarwan's dismissal was a big blow. Nightwatchman Mervyn Dillon was bowled by Javagal Srinath and soon the West Indies was under immense pressure. The fall of the overnight batsmen brought Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper to the middle. Chanderpaul and his skipper needed to look at things in a positive frame of mind. Hooper executed a couple of delightful shots. He pulled left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan and came down the pitch to flick Harbhajan with the spin over mid-wicket. A straight hit off Zaheer clearly pointed to the mood he was in. There is always the danger of top edging or mishitting when the ball does not gain height. Hooper, perhaps, paid the price, playing a shot off Zaheer that did not clear the long-leg fence where Sanjay Bangar held an excellent catch. It was like breaking the back of the West Indies batting and Zaheer proceeded to pick up two more wickets, of Ryan Hinds and Ridley Jacobs. Among the Indians, other than Virender Sewhag, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, nobody was able to play give an impression of being dutiful. For the West Indies it was Hooper, before Khan plotted his downfall and then, Chanderpaul, before Kumble caught him off his own bowling. The West Indies' first innings lasted one ball short of 75 overs. A total of 157 was too meagre. There was no question of Ganguly not applying the follow-on Zaheer and Kumble have tightened the screws and though Wavel Hinds' robust hitting caused concern to the home team, Harbhajan, who held a superb catch to dismiss Nagamootoo in the first innings, bowled a smart delivery to catch Hinds completely off guard. SCOREBOARD
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