Wednesday, Nov 13, 2002
Wednesday, Nov 13, 2002 |
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
GO, FETCH IT: Virender Sehwag, dismissed cheaply in his previous two outings, gave vent to his vengeance by tearing the West Indies bowling into pieces for a hurricane hundred, in the third one-dayer at Rajkot on Tuesday. Here, he dismisses a Nagamootoo delivery disdainfully to the mid-wicket boundary. — Photo: Vivek Bendre
A couple of water bottles that was targeted on them - one reportedly missed substitute Ryan Hinds and the second one hit Vasbert Drakes - was enough for stand-in captain Ridley Jacobs to take his team back into the players' dressing room where obviously things were safe for them to take shelter. The authorities that included the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) officials, Rajkot's Collector and Police Chief attempted to deal with the situation hands-on, but even after ejecting people out of the area from where a water bottle struck Drakes near his knee, the Match Referee Mike Procter who stepped onto the ground the moment the West Indies team decided to leave the field, awarded the match to India, applying the Duckworth and Lewis (D & W) formula. An official announcement was made at 4. 45 p.m. — the match ceased to exist from 3. 22 p.m. with India's total at 200 for 1 from 27.1 overs — that India had won the third one-day international by 81 runs. According to the D & W formula India should have made 119 for 1 in 27 overs, but since it had made 200, thanks to the wonderful attacking opening stand between Ganguly and Sehwag, the home team was declared the winner by a comfortable margin, leaving the TVS Cup series 2-1 in favour of the West Indies and keeping the interest alive in the subsequent four matches to be played at Ahmedabad, Baroda, Jodhpur and Vijaywada. The Match Referee explained that three incidents, all at Rajkot and all involving the West Indies players resulted in the match being suspended first and thereafter awarded to the home team. "Pedro Collins (not playing the match) was hit by a small sand bag on his face and afterwards by a stone when he was on the ground and then Drakes was struck by a water bottle near the mid wicket fence. The Collins incident happened in the 16th or 17th overs when the West Indies manager Ricky Skerritt brought to my notice about Collins being targetted by a section of the crowd. The West Indies did not want to play the match once they left the field after Drakes was hit. I completely agreed with them.'' The stone and water bottle throwing incidents spoiled what was turning out to be a perfect day of entertainment on a belter of a pitch. The West Indies leading 2-0 in the seven-match series appeared to be sitting happily on a `match-winning' total of 300, but in a little over two hours the pocket dynamo in Sehwag stole the thunder from his West Indian counterparts in Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul all of whom contributed substantially, but missed out on personal centuries.
Sehwag's super effort
No less was Ganguly's tremendous onset on the West Indies bowlers as the opening pair went on to erase a few records during their stand of 196. Sehwag scored his first one-day hundred on home soil — he had smashed the previous two from 70 odd balls in Sri Lanka against New Zealand and England. His undefeated 114 will stand in the records, but more importantly his brilliant aggression made a big impact on the result of the match. The 81 run for India could not have come at a more appropriate time. That the match did not go the full distance must have been a disappointment for the Indians, but Sehwag's knock was a super effort. Simply, it appeared like a start-to-finish effort from him, so determined was he and his captain, who dazzled with an array of strokes before Chandrapaul plucked a great catch wide off mid of when he tried to hit Drakes over the top. Sehwag played himself in initially, not getting his first boundary shot until the first ball of seventh over. But once his straight hit crashed against the advertising board, he was literally unstoppable, driving, cutting, glancing the seamers and leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo alike. He and Ganguly spared India the humiliation of a probable third straight defeat raising a near 200 for the first wicket. It was sheer bad luck for the 20,000-odd spectators that a handful among them was responsible for bringing an abrupt end to a highly-entertaining match. For the first time in three games a one-day international was abandoned because of a few troublemakers. To qualify as a match, 25 overs have to be bowled by the fielding side in the second session and since West Indies had bowled 27.1 overs, India was declared the winner.
Sarwan — a treat to watch
Earlier, India's captain Ganguly won the toss and straightaway decided to put the West Indians in. Gayle looked ominous. His onslaught on the Indian bowlers, Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar in particular, saw the West Indies race to its 50 and 100 in quick time, although Srinath's slanted delivery had Wavell Hinds angling his bat and edge to Venkatsai Laxman at slip. Laxman put down a catch over his left shoulder, the ball flying of the outside edge of Marlon Samuels bat, but the lapse did not turn out to be dearer as Ganguly, replacing an expensive Agarkar had the right-hander held by Rahul Dravid standing up to the stumps. India has never been comfortable bowling to Chanderpaul and Sarwan. These two took charge after Gayle, tried to pull a delivery from Harbhajan Singh of stump height. After hitting two sixes, Gayle invited trouble and paid the price. He was bowled of the under edge. Gayle's departure at 119 (21.2 overs) appeared to have put India back into the game, but the fourth wicket pair in Chanderpaul and Sarwan carved a beautiful partnership that produced 149 runs off 146 balls. When Sarwan is in the middle he straightaway makes a fine impression. He made a lovely 84 off 82 balls and was dismissed for the first time in the one-day series. Chanderpaul, for a change stepped up the gear and played improvised shots. Yet, fine shots as they were, none matched the style and content of the one played by Sarwan. Once he came down the pitch to lift Harbhajan into the stands at long on and thereafter made room to dump Srinath over the roof at long on. Sarwan was a treat to watch. Surely the bowling figures of almost everyone except the captain and to an extent Sehwag, would indicate how they were demolished by the skills of Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul. Agarkar was the worst of the lot; he was removed from the team for the next two one-day internationals. His six poor overs cost India 63 runs. The selectors, it can be said, did the right thing.
SCORE BOARD
India bowling: Srinath 9-0-46-1, Nehra 10-0-56-1, Agarkar 6-0-63-0, Yadav 2-0-14-0, Ganguly 7-0-30-1, Harbhajan 10-0-59-2, Sehwag 6-0-29-0.
West Indies bowling: Dillon 6-0-40-0, Drakes 6-0-36-0, Cuffy 6-0-41-0, Gayle 1-0-18-0, Nagamootoo 5-0-43-0, Samuels 3.1-1-16-0.
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