Tendulkar raises the bar, India go 2-1 up
Prem Panicker
They -- at least some of them -- suggest he is a flat-track bully. That he has accumulated the bulk of his runs against sub-standard opposition.
10,105 runs over 266 matches, at a strike rate of 86 plus and a batting average of 42 plus, is what they are talking about. No one in contemporary cricket comes even close -- which makes you wonder if maybe they give Tendulkar a flat track to do his 'bullying' on, then change it around when others are batting.
There was a full house at the Nehru stadium, Indore -- and it was apparent from the outset that they had come to party. For once, the security cordon appeared to have turned a deliberate blind eye to the firecrackers -- which went off on cue as Tendulkar in the 19th over sprinted his 34th run of the innings -- a run that rewrote one-day cricket history.
Funnily enough, the 10,000 mark -- laudable though it is -- leaves you feeling strangely flat. Probably because of the inevitability of it all -- when the landmark came, it was about as surprising as being on a Japanese railway platform and finding the train pulling in on time. What captured the imagination, thus, is not the landmark that came in the first half of his innings, but the way he played the second half.
Earlier in the day, Steve Waugh won the toss -- after some confusion about which was heads and which not, on the coin used -- and opted to bowl first, a choice that surprised most given that the pitch seemed to be likely to slow down as play progressed.
But then, the Australian captain has been surprising people right through this ODI side, with the 'rotation policy' famously in operation. This game saw more of the same, with the prolific Mathew Hayden being the most prominent among those left back on the bench. Interestingly, though Glenn McGrath had apparently requested that he be 'rotated' onto the bench for a game, he found himself playing thanks to a mild bout of flu suffered by his replacement, Nathan Bracken.
India, for its part, contented itself with just the one change -- Ajit Agarkar returning to the playing eleven in place of Sunil Joshi. And one shuffle of the batting order -- the off-form Ganguly dropping himself down to number four, and Rahul Dravid taking over at the top of the order.
And for once, it was Rahul Dravid playing with uncharacteristic aggression -- vide his two front foot cover drives on the up off Glenn McGrath -- early on, while Sachin Tendulkar seemed consciously to be reining himself in.
Dravid was particularly lucky to survive an LBW appeal in the second over, when Fleming landed one on line of off, to have the batsman playing across the line and missing. Umpire Hariharan -- yet another of those who the BCCI in its wisdom lets loose for ODI tournaments in India -- was just warming to his task.
Dravid remedied the umpiring error, in a way, by walking in the 8th over. Fleming bowled one outside line of off, Dravid had a little dab at it looking to steer through to third man, and got the faintest of edges. Dravid glanced back, saw Gilchrist hold, and walked. The keeper had cut loose with a polite appeal, the bowler hadn't appealed at all -- and the umpire raised his finger only when he saw Dravid walk.
Then came the association for the second wicket that produced one-day cricket at its best. With neither McGrath nor Fleming giving Sachin any short deliveries, the opener settled into a circumspect style of play, concentrating on guiding the ball around, and rotating strike, letting the runs accumulate.
The big landmark came in the 19th over -- a single giving Sachin Tendulkar 10,000 international one day runs to add to the 6,720 Test runs.
An interesting aspect of this period of the Indian innings was the Australian bowling and field setting. Some home work appeared to have gone into the gameplan -- Warne bowled for once with an emphasis on the off side, and though both batsmen continued to play him with ease, the runs weren't coming too quickly. Ian Harvey, with his mix of various kinds of slower deliveries, buttoned down the other end, and Australia appeared to be strangling the Indians, as the score progression -- 25/0 in 5, 42/1 in 10, 64/1 in 15, 91/1 in 20 and 112/1 in 25 -- indicates.
From the 26th over on, the innings assumed a completely different complexion. A typically delicate paddle in the 26th over, to fine leg off Warne, gave Tendulkar the boundary that got him to 53 off 66 deliveries. In Warne's next over, it was Laxman's turn to dance down the track and smash the leggie over mid off, to get to his own half century (52 off 61) and bring up the 100 of the partnership in 124 balls..
From that point on, Tendulkar took off. If the first half of his innings was circumspect, the second half was all about audacious aggression. When third man was moved away, he went a long way to leg to take deliveries on the stumps and angle to third man. When a fielder was placed there, he went the other way -- outside off, to work them to fine leg. And in between, clubbed anything pitched up to him through the V, hitting with brutal power. At the other end, VVS Laxman almost matched Tendulkar stroke for stroke, as the 150 of the partnership came up off 153 deliveries.
Australia's big problem was Warne, and the fifth bowling option. The Indians, pacing their partnership superbly, bided their time then went after the weak links in the attack, in a blistering array of shots that were all the more remarkable for the fact that the softer ball, on this pitch, had begun to stay down, and come slower onto the bat.
The score progression tells its own tale: 112/1 in 25, 157/1 in 30, 209/1 in 35, 240/3 in 40.
The 35th over saw Sachin Tendulkar paddle Michael Bevan fine, to the fine leg fence, for the four that got him to his 28th ODI century -- off just 94 balls. His second 50 had in fact come off just 28 deliveries, and Laxman, who had got to his 50 just one over after Sachin, was on 78 (82 balls) when his partner raced past the 100. The acceleration had impacted on the partnership figures as well -- 168 off 162 deliveries.
As often happens when a batsman gets into rarefied heights of achievement, every other statistic impresses. Thus: Tendulkar, in 31 ODIs against Australia, has 6 fifties and 6 centuries. Again -- the five highest scores recorded against Australia in ODIs stand in his name, with Jadeja coming in at number six.
The partnership had progressed, in the 38th over, to 199 off 183 balls when Laxman drove a ball from Fleming out to deep mid off. Sachin had been pushing hard on the running between wickets and, in fact, the Indian second wicket pair had, in a very un-Indian fashion, done well in this department, racking up 50 singles in the first 25 overs and then pushing the fielders even harder. On this occasion, he pushed for the second, Laxman unaccountably hesitated, Symonds went for the long throw to the keeper's end, and Laxman was gone after a truly splendid innings of 83 off 88 balls, characterised by trademark free-flowing shots off either foot, that continued his fine run in the number three slot. What was most remarkable about his innings was that even when partnering Tendulkar at his blistering best, Laxman managed to hold his own and was never completely overshadowed -- and there are not too many batsmen around who have been able to say that.
Two balls later, Sourav Ganguly waltzed down the track, looking to blast Fleming out of the ground -- his footwork, though, was way off and all he managed was to get the ball flaring high off the bat for a simple catch to mid off.
Hemang Badani settled down to keep Sachin company, and the runs continued to come. Warne, bowling as well he has bowled at any stage on this tour, went for 64 in his ten (Badani, incidentally, hitting the only six taken off the leggie when he went down on one knee to produce a stunning strike wide of long on), the normally razor-sharp fielding wilted, the Aussie body language began recalling memories of the Indian team's attitude in the field not so long ago, and the wheels seemed to have come well and truly unstuck.
The 44th over produced yet another run out -- again, in ludicrous fashion. Badani off the last ball of the over produced a delicate late cut, raced the first, and took off for the second. Tendulkar, however, had after completing the first run held up his hand and yelled NO... Badani though seemed oblivious and when he finally realised his partner wasn't going to budge, it was way too late.
Tendulkar continued. Audacity seemed increasingly tinged with contempt, as he increasingly went so far across his off stump that all three stumps were exposed while the batsman played the angles on the leg side. One such attempt, to a short ball from McGrath outside off, saw him attempt a pull from an impossible angle, for Fleming at short fine leg to hold in the 46th over, Tendulkar walking back with 139 off 125 (44 singles, 19 fours) deliveries to his name.
Ajit Agarkar was sent in ahead of Dahiya. McGrath got him plumb in front of the wicket -- and umpire Hariharan remained unmoved. In the next over, it was Harvey's turn, to find the pad with a clever slower ball. Fortunately for the fielding side, Hariharan could only umpire from one end -- Vijay Chopra, officiating at the other, raised the finger.
Vijay Dahiya, in the 48th over, attempted to run a ball down to third man from line of the stumps. The ball stayed low, seamed in a touch, and took out the stumps to make Glenn McGrath the third Australian bowler past the 200 wicket mark.
Two deliveries later, McGrath went round the wicket and banged one in. Dinesh Mongia first shaped to pull, then checked himself as the ball kicked up, fended at it and managed only to put it back to the bowler.
Zahir Khan and Harbhajan Singh, who have been showing some resilience with the bat, ensured that India would not be bowled out, and added some valuable runs to take India through to 299/8 in 50 overs -- a total that, given the conditions, put the home team well in front.
Adam Gilchrist had earlier been demoted down the order, for lack of form. With Hayden being rotated out of the team, Gilchrist went back up the order, walking out with Damien Martyn to begin the Australian response.
Shrugging off an initial hesitation, Gilchrist began going for his shots, hitting them with trademark power while Martyn played some very fluent drives off the front foot. That same front foot play, however, caused Martyn's downfall when, in the 9th over, Srinath made one jump a touch and seam in just enough to find the edge as Martyn attempted to drive on the rise.
At the other end, Gilchrist went into overdrive, taking on Zahir Khan and pulverising him for 22 runs in the 12th over, via a stream of drives in the V including a blistering straight six played with incredible timing and control, from a very full length.
The advent of Harbhajan Singh changed the complexion of the game. Going around the wicket immediately to the left-hander, the offie made his very first delivery bounce and turn off a length and Gilchrist, till then playing the part of free spirit, felt the first shadows of doubt. In the 16th over, the off spinner tossed one right up to the left handed opener, Gilchrist responded by attempting to club him on the on, Ganguly at midwicket got both hands to it, and down went the chance.
In the very next over, Ajit Agarkar -- who from his first over was beginning to get swing and seam -- harried Gilchrist with deliveries leaving him off a length around off. The opener had a one handed swat at one such delivery, the ball got the thick edge, Dahiya dived, got the glove to it, and grassed it.
Harbhajan Singh ensured that the let offs did not cost the fielding side. In the 20th over, he once more tossed one up too full off stump, with a packed off field and a largely vacant leg side. The ploy all along was to get Gilchrist playing against the turn. Here, Gilchrist spotted the full toss and blasted away -- managing, however, only to pick out Ganguly at midwicket, the Indian captain this time taking a fine catch to send back Gilchrist. Australia had started well, with 34 runs in the first five overs, 51/1 at the end of 10, 92/1 in 15 and 109/2 in 20.
The run rate seemed fine -- but the problem with Australia right through this series has been an inability to check the middle order's penchant for sudden, dramatic collapses. Ricky Ponting, back at number three, had blasted a couple of lovely drives off the front foot, but never showed signs that his confidence was returning. His play, in fact, was a classic example of what loss of form can do to a good player -- Ponting, on song, is one of the best back-foot players in the business, yet here he time and again came onto the front foot in predetermined fashion. Ajit Agarkar took advantage of this, with a short ball that the batsman attempted to force off the front foot (where the vintage Ponting would have rocked back to smash through midwicket) only to pat it tamely back to the bowler.
Michael Bevan, through the first and second ODIs, had been in his own quiet fashion needling Harbhajan Singh, with a constant refrain of 'hey, man, why're you chucking?' The offie for his part has been biding his time -- and here, he got his man. On a wicket giving him some turn, Harbhajan turned Bevan inside out with some looping off breaks, then pushed through a quicker arm ball. Bevan misread, played for the off break, and rocked back to cut, the ball hastened off the deck and crashed into his off stump, and Australia in the 24th over were 122/4 and sinking.
Symonds was the next man in. And the next man out as well, as Agarkar pitched one on length just outside off and made it cut sharply back off the seam. Symonds, like Bevan, shaped to cut, the ball hustled through him and to Dahiya. There was an appeal, and up went the finger -- the only problem being that the ball had nicked the pad, not bat, on its way through to the keeper.
There was nothing dodgy, though, about the next one. In the same over, Agarkar angled one across Darren Lehmann. The batsman slashed at it, got the outer edge, and the ball flew straight to point, to reduce Australia to 127/6.
From then on, it was just a matter of time. Australia -- so the theory goes -- bats very deep with Ian Harvey coming in at number 8. True enough, except that the Aussie batsmen are not used to batting on these surfaces. Harvey looked completely at sea against Harbhajan and the offie, who has this knack of sniffing blood and going for the kill, teased him with a couple of arm balls before making an off break jump and turn in, for the batsman to push it back to the bowler.
Shane Warne seemed to be shaping quite well when the Indians found themselves on the right side of a run out. Warne flicked behind square, took the first, then came racing back for a second off the last ball of the over. There was no second there, though, and the throw from the deep saw Dahiya collect well and take the bails off with the batsman a good two feet short of his ground.
That left only Steve Waugh. But not for long. Sourav Ganguly, who had brought himself on to spell Agarkar, bowled one just back of a length on line of off, Waugh went low to try and blast it over the straight field, got the elevation but nowhere near the distance he needed, and holed out to Tendulkar, running in from the line to tumble and hold. 172/9 Australia, and 181 all out not long after when Srinath came back to finish it off.
India had won, by 118 runs. A massive enough margin, but what stands out is the increasingly rapid deterioration of Australia's batting -- as exemplified by the fact that the last wicket fell in the 36th over. It is not often that a team of that calibre is bowled out on a decent track with 14 overs to spare -- but increasingly, there is about the Australians in the field an air of resignation that militates against their hard-fighting, never-say-die, image.
Is there, perhaps, a lesson in there? That the best of teams can crack, in the mind, when the going gets too tough for them?
Is this an image, a memory, we need to keep in front of our mind -- so that if, and when, the Indian team hits a low again, we can temper our criticism with some understanding?
Scoreboard
Tendulkar's 10,000
Images from the match
Wish Sachin Tendulkar
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