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Sarwan helps West Indies draw first blood
By Vijay Lokapally
West Indies, set 284 to win, finished the job in breathtaking style as the Indians were done in by an `Indian'. The minor aberration apart, it was a great game all the way and the last-ball finish at the Keenan Stadium was a tribute to the wonderful spirit displayed by the teams. Cricket truly was the winner! The last ball decided the match and the `man of the match'.
The West Indies batsman, Ramnaresh Sarwan, exults after hitting the winning shot off the bowling of Ajit Agarkar in the first one-day international at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. — Photo: V.V.Krishnan
Ramnaresh Sarwan took the honours as he drove Ajit Agarkar for the winning stroke. Agarkar, after his batting show in the first half, would have emerged a hero but then cricket has its way of handing justice and it was no different in this case too. The West Indies won by four wickets in one of the finest limited-over matches.
The sight of Sarwan sprinting to the dressing room and into the arms of his joyous mates brought the curtain down on this fascinating contest. It had all the intrigue that makes one-day cricket such a grand spectacle. A grudging `thanks' was due to that unruly section which `contributed' to force such a sensational end.
When missiles and bottles landed on the field, the West Indies was cruising at 271 for four and 18 balls to go. The players left the field as some disgruntled spectators could not digest an impending India debacle.
Harbhajan Singh, who had an awful match, had been savaged to the tune of 17 runs in an over and Anil Kumble, who reached 300 one-day wickets today, had been erratic too.
The spinners, everyone actually barring Virender Sehwag, had failed the team. The writing was on the wall.
The shame may not have come from the defeat but in the manner in which the result would have been reached. An international match being abandoned brought back some dark memories of Calcutta.
Poor crowd behaviour is not a new phenomenon in the sub-continent but this was as needless as the previous ones.
Ajit Agarkar, who made full use of the opportunity of coming in at No. 3, lifts Nagamootoo for a six. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan
The West Indies certainly was a better team this day. The West Indies won, rightly and deservingly too, in fading light, to give the seven-match series an unexpected start.
The visitors had come close to staging a walk out in the first half when missiles were hurled at Vasbert Drakes but `ironically' it was the Indian team, which was driven out later by its so-called passionate followers. It was a sensible decision by the Indian team to brave the bottles and missiles.
An abandoned match, television commentators even made an announcement to that effect, would have blotted the image of the Board and the organisers. Once again the security measures here were embarrassing but then some things just do not seem to change. Sanity prevailed and the match reached a proper end.
The West Indies was prepared for the battle and was served by three meaty partnerships. After the cheap dismissal of Chris Gayle, the pair of Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels set the momentum in an association of 86 runs. Hinds and Sarwan put on 87 runs and then Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul came up with a stellar stand of 71 runs which swung the match away from India. Hinds, who played a responsible innings, was dropped by Kaif at 88 but his strokeful essay was a feature of West Indies' triumph. Samuels whipped the bowlers around disdainfully while Hinds impressed with his aggressive instincts.
The base was now laid for Sarwan to play the innings of his life.``I just stayed positive,'' gushed Sarwan and that signified his wonderful knock.
He changed the course of the match with a remarkable charge.
Shots flowed freely from his bat and he was all set to bury the opposition when trouble erupted from the stands.
The break of 18 minutes did hamper the West Indian chase. Chanderpaul played a terrible stroke and when Ridley Jacobs ran himself out, the Indians stood a chance.
It was six off six balls. Sarwan versus Agarkar. The West Indian survived a return catch, which Agarkar would rue.
It boiled down to three off the last ball as Mahendra Nagamootoo handed the strike to the man suited most this day to see West Indies through.
The crowd waited with bated breath. Bouquets surfaced in place of brickbats. Sarwan too waited for Agarkar. The batsman read the bowler's mind and the attempted yorker became a full toss and was promptly banished to the covers. What a stroke to play at that stage! It could well have been Agarkar's day.
Agarkar shines with the bat
Promoted in the order, his confident gait was ominous as he grabbed the opportunity to come good with the bat. Termed an all-rounder for long, the Mumbai seamer took one small step towards achieving that status as the Indian team management explored a few possibilities in its grand experiments in the run up to the World Cup.
Agarkar had produced a few cameos in the past but this one was aimed at giving the team the option of trying him at number three in the role of a pinch-hitter.
The success achieved by Agarkar justified skipper Sourav Ganguly's faith in the Mumbai cricketer's batting abilities. Agarkar stood out as he did not lose time in reading the bounce and pace and played some outstanding shots in his knock, which ended on a tame note with the batsman five runs short of a century.
Sehwag provided the usual start before he and Ganguly fell in succession. Sehwag was cramped in trying a pull and Ganguly misread the line. The partnership between Agarkar and Laxman gave the jitters to the West Indies as Merwyn Dillon bowled a wayward spell and Drakes shone in patches.
Laxman applied himself well as Agarkar went about his job merrily. Having looked good for a bigger innings, Laxman was baffled by Nagamootoo's spin.
Agarkar drove the ball well for two superb sixes. A straight six off Nagamootoo showed Agarkar in fine form. He earned a reprieve at 94 when Collins dropped a return catch but the bowler soon foxed Agarkar into presenting a comfortable catch at short covers.
Yuveraj Singh and Jai Prakash Yadav, who had a most forgettable debut, could do little as they tried to force the pace but an unbeaten partnership of 47 runs between Rahul Dravid and Kaif saw India post a challenging target.
``It was a winning total,'' conceded Ganguly. Well, it fell short as this unassuming man from distant Guyana left his mark on the land from where his forefathers came. He had the steely resolve to emerge the champion in a grand finish!
| INDIA | |
| V. Sehwag c and b Drakes | 28 |
| S. Ganguly b Collins | 16 |
| A. Agarkar c Gayle b Collins | 95 |
| V.V.S. Laxman b Nagamootoo | 47 |
| R. Dravid (not out) | 46 |
| Yuveraj Singh c Gayle | |
| 4 | |
| J. P. Yadav b Dillon | 0 |
| M. Kaif (not out) | 31 |
| Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-1, w-5) | 16 |
| — — | |
| Total (6 wkts. in 50 overs) | 283 |
| — — | |
West Indies bowling: Dillon 10-0-64-1 (w-2), Collins 10-1-39-2, Drakes 10-1-63-1 (w-1), Hooper 10-2-46-1 (w-2), Nagamootoo 8-0-45-1 (nb-1), Gayle 2-0-16-0.
| WEST INDIES | |
| W. Hinds c Dravid b Nehra | 93 |
| C. Gayle c Yadav b Agarkar | 7 |
| M. Samuels b Kumble | 51 |
| R. Sarwan (not out) | 83 |
| C. Hooper c Yadav b Sehwag | 4 |
| S. Chanderpaul c Ganguly | |
| 23 | |
| R. Jacobs (run out) | 0 |
| M. Nagamootoo (not out) | 1 |
| Extras (b-2, lb-5, w-16) | 23 |
| — — | |
| Total (6 wkts. in 50 overs) | 285 |
| — — | |
India bowling: Nehra 9-1-50-2 (w-2), Agarkar 9-1-42-1 (w-4), Yadav 4-0-22-0, Harbhajan 9-0-68-0 (w-2), Kumble 7-0-48-1, Sehwag 10-0-37-1, Yuveraj 2-0-11-0.
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