Dust unto dust

Prem Panicker

Play the game of word association for a moment. Think of Steve Waugh, and what word springs to mind?

Remorseless?

You got it in one. The Australian captain seems to have surgically removed every one of the humane emotions -- at least on the field of play -- and transformed himself into an icy, remorseless (that word again!) cricketing machine that never misses a trick, never lets up.

Any touring team, finding itself in the position the Australian skipper found himself in on day three at the Firozeshan Kotla against the Board President's XI, would have asked his batsmen to have a bit of a hit in the morning; then declared to let his bowlers have a little go at the rivals.

Not Steve Waugh. Obviously reasoning that a win in this game would -- even if he could pull it off -- be merely cosmetic in character, the Aussie skipper opted to grind the opposition into the dust. And thus, the Australian innings went on, and on, and on. And on.

Michael Slater's need to get batting practise is obvious. So too, Justin Langer's. It could also be argued that Mark Waugh -- who could be the most dangerous of the Australian batsmen, simply because he is their best bet against quality spin on a dodgy track -- could only benefit with a bit of a bat in the middle to further hone his timing on our tracks.

But Damien Martyn? A player who is highly unlikely to be named 12th man, even, for the Calcutta Test? When Martyn came out to bat ahead of Ricky Ponting and the Aussie skipper, the gameplan became obvious -- having given Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly something to think about in the first innings, Steve Waugh seemed determined to ensure that his rival did not get any chance to bat himself into form in the second outing.

Waugh would have wanted, too, to irritate the heck out of the Indian skipper -- and nothing can be more irritating for a proud spirit than to stand out there in the blazing sun, watching the rivals hit the ball about at will.

With the team for the second Test having been named on the previous evening, the Board President's XI too had very little to play for, but pride. And a measure of pride was on view during the morning session, when Narendra Hirwani -- picked out of the blue for the first Test, dropped as abruptly for the second -- bowled in a form and a fashion approaching his own glory days.

Hirwani, probably, woke up this morning realising he had nothing more to lose, no one to impress. And suddenly, the run up was more relaxed, the ball came out of the back of the hand smoothly, the googly appeared at will. And the results reflected the change.

Having sent down a few flighted balls to Michael Slater, Hirwani dropped one a touch shorter and quicker through the air. The opener went down the track, realised he couldn't get to the pitch, elected to go through with the drive, got the bottom of the bat to the shot and watched as Dinesh Mongia at a shortish mid off took a very well judged catch.

The leggie then went round the wicket and tossed one up at Langer. The Aussie number three was lured down the track, shaping to drive. Beaten by the flight and the arc of the ball through the air, Langer pushed down the wrong line and Dinesh Mongia, bent seemingly on showing that his fielding skills were on par with his batting ability, snapped up a reflex offering at silly point.

Damien Martyn and Mark Waugh then settled down to the grind. Initially a touch discommoded by both pace and spin, both batsmen soon settled to a typical Aussie-style partnership -- big hits when the gimme balls came along, but inbetween, lots of singles taken with precise judgement. Singles that, like the Chinese water torture, dripped relentlessly onto the minds of the bowlers, forcing errors in line and length as they struggled to contain.

The post lunch session saw Hirwani yet again alter his length fractionally, fooling Martyn into lunging forward at a ball he expected to land on good length but which was in fact just back of length, the forward lunge finding the bat high up for silly point to take a simple catch.

Mark Waugh -- aided and abetted by Ricky Ponting -- then set about ensuring that any confidence Hirwani had picked up in course of a marathon spell was promptly erased. A series of drives and savage pulls saw Waugh take 21 off a Hirwani over. Not that the bowlers at the other end -- and Ganguly tried them all, barring himself -- fared any better.

From a trickle, the runs became a flood. The lead mounted -- past the 400 mark, then 500, 600...

The game had long since turned into a pointless exercise. Mark Waugh completed his 100, then his 150. In between, he got his slices of fortune when edges whistled past the slips; Hrishikesh Kanitkar got his hands to a thick edge off a slash to the medium pace of Surendar Singh and grassed it; and an attempt to cut off line of middle stump saw Sridharan Sriram's straighter ball keep low and took the pads without, however, convincing the umpire.

At the other end, Ponting decided to join the run feast. A tired Mark Waugh finally slashed Patel through to the keeper. Vijay Dahiya dived and held, the umpire seemed at a loss what decision to take, the batsman checked with the keeper and on being told that the catch was clean, strolled back to the pavilion with 166 to his name off just 186 deliveries... and the farce continued unabated.

Sourav Ganguly did well to keep Sarandeep Singh off the firing line. Given that Harbajan did well enough in the first Test, it is unlikely Sarandeep will get to play in Calcutta -- unless the Indians opt to go in with two offies, that is. But you never know -- and Ganguly, operating on the 'you never know' theory, kept the young off spinner away from the Australians, refusing to let them get a good look at him.

Sarandeep, in fact, got another lesson in the arts of spin bowling from Bishen Bedi during the lunch break -- as did Colin Miller, who went out with Bedi to the nets, and picked the Indian ace's brain for most part of the afternoon.

In Sarandeep's absence, Hirwani and Patel did the bulk of the hard work, the former ending up with the satisfaction of having taken the first four wickets to fall, in an innings haul of five.

And with that, the decks are officially cleared -- for Sunday, and the resumption of hostilities between the two sides, this time at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

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