Cricket: From the Far End

How can India make this different from Kolkata in 1999 (http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1998-99/ASIA-TEST/SCORECARDS/IND_PAK_ASIA-TEST_T1_16-20FEB1999.html)? Then also Pakistan started the test and were 26/6. They went up to 185. India started well but after two consecutive wickets by Shoaib (Dravid, and Tendulkar bowled the first ball) barely managed 235. India went on to lose the game.

On the first day here, they haven’t been able to break two age-old problems India has faced - not being able to finish off the tail after removing top order and losing a lot of wickets cheaply when suddenly confronted with adverse conditions after having played on friendlier wickets before.

It will be interesting to see whether and how they can grab the momentum back on Day 2. Strangely it’s going to be the competing partners who will be needed contribute here - Yuvraj and Ganguly. Getting back into this test is one problem and deciding between these two for future matches is another long term one Dravid-Chappell have to solve. If both of them fail here, it’s the worse of all options because then chances of saving or winning this test are further reduced and there won’t be anything between these two to decide for the next test - With England on March 1st. If both of them succeed, the second problem is still unsolved but it’s still a better situation to be in. If one of them succeeds he can claim the right to play the next test. I hope none of them follows that another age-old Indian pattern of scoring just enough to not get dropped, but not enough to have any influence on the outcome of the match. I am sure Dravid and Chappell won’t give importance to such an innings and hopefully the bar is set higher. But Ganguly has a golden chance to do something because it seems he is trying to make his way in here and Yuvraj looks to be the more stable player at that position.

Overall, India has tended to give up in such situations in the past. But this team has looked different and more aggressive in the first two games. Hopefully they will come up with something to come back into this game. If they do, it will be another proof that under Dravid there is something different in this unit.

Today will be the real test of just how much exactly has changed since Dravid-Chappell combo took over. Especially in the 2004-05 season when India batted, mostly there was no particular plan or intent visible except when Sehwag batted and occasionally Dravid. One can look at three specific instances:

Ind-RSA at Kanpur (http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/RSA_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/RSA_IND_T1_20-24NOV2004.html) - in response to RSA’s 510/9, India went to 294/2 in 70 overs when Sehwag was there. Then once he got out, the rest of them managed just another 172 and took another 64 overs for that. This was supposed to be the series where India should have dominated RSA completely.

But once Sehwag got out it was a completely defensive approach taken by India that left them no chance to win the game once RSA had used up most of the time.

Ind-Pak at Mohali (http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/PAK_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/PAK_IND_T1_08-12MAR2005.html)- this was the match that prevented India from winning the Pak series at home and go to no 2 in tests. Kamran Akman and Razzaq did defend for a long time and India ended up chasing 293 with very little time left but it was the slow batting in the first innings that was also a major factor in that. When Sehwag got out at 334 India had scored those in just 80 overs and India were already ahead of Pak. But the rest of the batting took another 68 overs to score another 180 runs or so.

The third such occurance actually costed India the game - against Pak in Bangalore (http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/PAK_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/PAK_IND_T3_24-28MAR2005.html). With one test up in the series, it appeared that India was always playing for a draw in Bangalore whereas Pak wanted to create chances. They scored 261 in just 50 overs and opened up the game. Again India tried to survive and not score rather than make a serious attempt to chase 383, despite that some of their previous scores in that season were - 449, 407/9, 407, 516, 540, 526, 411, 120/2 and 466.

Now in this game, they can’t survive most of the three days and 270 remaining overs by trying to defend. In fact they will give a lot of confidence to Pak bowlers if they tried to do that. They need another 270 runs or so to avoid following on and once that’s done, it’s most likely a draw. So in the recent past when India were faced with a similar situation they have messed it either by losing it or by giving away winning opportunities. Thas was one of the big problems in the last few days of Ganguly-Wright combination and today we are likely to witness whether the new leadership has been able to bring any change in the attitude of the rest of the batsmen. Sehwag has always been out of all this and has played as if playing on a different pitch than the rest of them.

In last five matches where the opponents scored more than 500 runs, India’s response has been 410/1, 449, 466, 286 (third inn) and 424. At least if they can repeat any of that here, it will be interesting to see.

Moreover with such emphatic signals given by Dravid and Sehwag in the first match there is a lot to hope for in this game and the next one. India is one short in batting and so this is going to be one major test of Dhoni and Pathan.

One of my friend’s father once said he would start opposing the dowry system after his son’s marriage. He was just joking and he really didn’t take dowry etc, but it struck me when I read Inzamam’s comment about the pitch (http://ia.rediff.com/cricket/2006/jan/15inzy.htm) - which came only after India started emphatically in their response. When Pak were batting, for a while it looked like their revenge for Multan in 2004. But India’s response diffused all such fears. Typically it’s the first test on a tour abroad that seals the series against India. Far too often we have seen India start the test series with less than 100 runs and some 5+ wickets down. You know India is batting, you do something else for a couple of hours and when you are back in front of the TV you see Kumble and the wicket-keeper nudging the ball around. Only in the last couple of tours India has started off pretty well in their first test and eventually did very well in the series: