India gaining in confidence
Daniel Laidlaw
In cricket, you often see something new or unusual every day. While Steve Waugh's mode of dismissal had been seen before, it certainly was unusual, but
there was nothing unfamiliar about the middle order collapse it
precipitated. Waugh's rare handled-the-ball exit sparked a complete change
in momentum, with the now-familiar seven-wicket session handing the
ascendancy back to India.
No matter how well Australia is batting, it remains collectively vulnerable to being spun out of control with a landslide of wickets. This is the one collapse it may really regret by series end.
It never ceases to amaze how one team can make a pitch appear spiteful
before the other proceeds to show it to be benign. India, with a palpable
sense of confidence about its batting that make the feeble showings in the
first Test a distant memory, is clearly no longer intimidated by anything
Australia can throw at them. It's almost like Laxman single-handedly woke
India up to the fact that it's playing at home now and has nothing to fear
from the conditions.
Despite the determined efforts of all the Aussie bowlers, Das and Ramesh
batted with a sense of belief that made almost every shot appear confident.
The Australians had to manufacture the presence of pressure and nervousness
because in reality there was none. The openers batted to a plan. Ramesh had
obviously been told that he was not to bat loosely because he refused to
waft at anything short or wide of off stump. As a consequence, he no longer
had the appearance of being exceedingly susceptible to an edge behind the
wicket.
The Australians rarely bowl so well for so little reward, testimony to the
temperament of the openers. Towards the end of play, this inability to earn
wickets got to them and Laxman exacerbated the mounting frustration. Warne
and Gillespie bowled their hearts out in a superb first hour after tea but
got nothing for it after Ramesh's dismissal. That would have been bad
enough, Laxman's calculated assault jabbed the bruised egos. These were the
batsmen Australia would have expected to expend the least energy on. The
established stars haven't even arrived.
If VVS Laxman's 281 in Kolkata was a movie, his next innings in Chennai
would undoubtedly be the sequel, perhaps titled "Laxman: the innings after
The Innings". Appropriately, it was filled with more action and excitement
in a shorter space of time than the original. He hardly hit the ball in the
air in Kolkata, here he was happy to go over the top against Miller, who
wasn't quite the multi-dimensional threat expected.
When Australia bowls 50 or more overs for a run rate of around 3 per over,
it usually has more than one wicket to show for it. Normally, so few wickets
mean runs are scored at a faster rate. But on day two, the number of wickets
was not commensurate to the quality of the bowling, at least for the
majority of the day.
Shane Warne couldn't have bowled much better than he did to Das and Ramesh.
With a consistent length and a hint of drift in the air, he was somewhere
near his peak. Yet even at his best, he only beat the edge occasionally and
was otherwise defended proficiently. Warne fully earned Ramesh's wicket but
it must have been disheartening to know that was all he could manage.
Laxman was a different story. Anything flighted to him was dispatched to the
rope at will, as he was able to use nimble footwork to get in position to
strike the ball anywhere he chose, usually down the ground or even more
impressively though mid on. This display of laconic skill inevitably drew
errors in length from Warne which were duly seized upon as well.
All the while, Das played the lengthy innings he had threatened in the first
two Tests. His relatively unlucky dismissals in his first few innings
balanced out as he was positively tormented by Gillespie, an unlucky
cricketer if ever there was one. Whether he was slipping the ball under the
bat, past the edge or past the batsman's nose, Das clung to his wicket. He
must be destined for a century.
The Australians only had themselves to blame for such unrewarding toil in
the field because for the majority of it their batsmen should have been the
only ones out there, still feasting on the runs Das, Ramesh and Laxman so
amply demonstrated were available. Were it not for Matthew Hayden, Australia
would already be out of the series. Hayden held the innings together and his
double century was solely responsible for Australia gathering as many runs
as it did. A collapse of 7/51 is not the kind of statistic associated with
winning efforts. Nor is a series tally of 13 ducks. Gilchrist failed to
learn from his pair in Kolkata and at the moment Ponting is to Harbhajan
what Darryl Cullinan was to Warne.
The tourists can take heart from the fact that the domination of each day
has tended to switch back and forth, and that seven-wicket sessions have
become common. But worryingly for a side that prides itself on its fierce
competitiveness and ability to turn a match around, India has been the team
to show all the recent fighting spirit. Once Laxman began to swing the
second Test in India's favour, Australia never prised an opening back into
he contest. With Harbhajan having led this comeback with the ball, India are
again in the middle of completely turning the match around and once more the
Aussies were short on opportunities. Either they summon the inspiration to
create them again or the first day was nothing more than a hiccup in India's
series renaissance.
You can also read
Harbhajan, Laxman at it again - Prem Panicker's match report
Mail Daniel Laidlaw