New look India beat Windies
Prem Panicker
When last did India rest players in favour of giving those on the bench a chance to get their feet wet?
More than the win in its third encounter -- first against the West Indies -- of the ongoing triseries, it is this that should rank as the highlight of Saturday's game: India benched Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra, and brought in Reetinder Sodhi, Harvinder Singh and Debashish Mohanty.
And the new boys delivered -- Mohanty and Harvinder with immaculate seam and swing bowling; and a disciplined performance that indicated that even if they haven't got to play much till date, they've benefited from their time with the team. And Retinder with a display of immaculate fielding in the covers that helped turn the screws on the opposition.
On a wicket with some life and movement, Ganguly did his team proud yet again by winning the toss and opting to bowl. "I would have done the same," said Windies skipper Carl Hooper.
In recent games, India's lead bowlers have been able to take out early wickets -- and at least one reason is the discipline they have brought to their bowling, and a focus on getting the basics of line, length and direction right.
Harvinder Singh triggered things off in the second over, when he produced an awayswinger that hit line of middle and straightened, to trap Chris Gayle bang in front as the opener played defensively from the top of his crease.
The very next over saw Mohanty strike. The open chested bowler has the knack of making the ball go either way, which early in an innings can cause problems. It did here, as Darren Ganga seemed unsure of whether the ball was coming or going, tried to shut the bat face and work an awayswinger to leg, got the leading edge and gave Reetinder Sodhi at extra cover an easy take.
The bowling stayed tight and the fielding was of the high quality that the Indians have increasingly made the norm. Runs were almost impossible to find, the pressure mounted, and Wavell Hinds succumbed -- a Mohanty awayswinger just back of good length saw the batsman attempt to shorten the length and force off the back foot, but manage only to pick out Ritender, yet again, at cover.
Possibly the best measure of the Indian bowling and fielding lies in the fact that the first boundary of the innings came in the 14th over, and the score after that shot was a mere 26/3. And off the very next ball to that boundary hit, the perpetrator -- Shivnaraine Chanderpaul -- was walking back. This time it was Harvinder, angling one across the left hander and seaming it away for the batsman to feather the edge through to the keeper.
Mohanty turned in a first spell of 7-1-8-2, Harvinder chipped in with 8-3-18-2 and by the time the lead seamers made way for Zaheer Khan and the support staff, Windies were as good as knocked out of the game.
The early wickets, coupled with the tight bowling and fielding drying up runs, began to have an impact on the batsmen. Carl Hooper played a few copybook shots, got nowhere, decided on more drastic measures and tried to hit Zaheer Khan over the top. The bowler held it back just that touch, forcing the Windies skipper to hole out to mid on and reduce the Windies to 47/5.
The 50 came up in the 26th over -- and at that point, 125 deliveries had not been scored off. At the 30 over mark, the Windies were 71/5.
Marlon Samuels led the fightback, and led it well. With the ball getting older and softer, and the movement less pronounced, Samuels began pushing on the strokeplay, playing late and working the ball around with skill to get the seemingly static board moving again.
Thus, if the first 50 of the innings took 155 balls to achieve, the second one came up off just 66 balls. But it was a case of too little, almost too late. Mohanty (who, incidentally, has a strike rate of 33.5 and an average of 27.7) was brought back, and immediately obliged with the wicket. Spotting Samuels giving him the charge, the seamer banged it in short, and Samuels' attempt to clear mid on came unstuck.
From then on, the bowlers and fielders merely had to stay disciplined, to keep Windies down to 169 in the alloted 50 overs.
Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar made an uncharacteristically slow start. Sachin's bowed head style was particularly noteworthy -- and led to a sneaking thought. Has the batsman gotten sick and tired of people criticising his shotplay -- Sunny Gavaskar being the latest to join the chorus -- and decided on an "I'll show them I can cut out all risk and bat bloody slow" style?
At the end of 10 overs, India had made 24. And Sachin had made 5 of those.
Ganguly, meanwhile, brought a lot of discipline to his offside play -- and did it so well that he whittled the slip cordon, which at first was a hopeful 3, down to zero as he refused to fiddle outside his off. And then, having done all the hard work, he undid it all by going too far across to flick one down the leg side and managing only to touch through to the keeper.
India's 50 came up in the 17th over. And if that is slow scoring, a lot of credit goes to the West Indies bowlers who bowled with the kind of discipline the Indians showed in the first innings. Cameron Cuffy, who in his early days attempted to play the part of a tearaway, seems to have settled down into a more sober avtaar. Here he bowled an immaculate line, back of length on off, giving no room to cut, none to drive and no length to pull.
The 20th over was a rare wayward one, from change bowler Wavell Hinds, and contained wides both sides of the wicket. It also contained a wicket -- a loose delivery outside off had Mongia driving without bothering to get his foot to the crease, for Jacobs, standing up, to snaffle the resulting edge.
Dravid, as per his new style, started off with a flowing on drive to the first ball he faced. But he didn't face too many -- a waltz down the wicket and an attempt to whip a ball from Nagamootoo off to leg saw him play around it to present the keeper with a simple stumping. At the half way stage, India had gotten to 76/3.
Hemang Badani and Sachin Tendulkar settled down to play a calm, sensible style that was a complete antithesis to India's normal mode. And then, after having done a good bit of the hard work, Badani in the 40th over lashed a pull at a ball that climbed higher than he thought it would, and put it up in the air for Dillon to hold on the follow through.
At the other end, Tendulkar did just what was required to keep the run rate within reach, without ever over-reaching himself. Virendra Sehwag for his part showed fine form, playing the end phase with unhurried ease and helping to guide the team past the winning post, with six wickets and as many overs in hand.
Tendulkar walked back with 81 off 110 balls to his name -- and not a false shot in there. I wonder if he thinks he's proved his point, or if this is going to be the new face of the erstwhile blaster?
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