India clinch final berth in a thriller at Mohali
Prem Panicker
I'll tell you what, if a writer of fiction had dreamt this one up, he would have been accused of the grossest exaggeration!
One of the best, not to mention prettiest, cricket stadia in the world. A perfect wicket and outfield. A full house. Two international teams, battling its own inner demons and each other for a passage to the final. Spectacular batting performances. Brilliant fielding. Almost 600 runs scored in course of just under one hundred overs. More twists and turns in the plotline than you would find in a fair-sized corkscrew. Suspense till the very end. And a result in the very last over...
I mean, if it hadn't happened, would you have believed it?
And yet this is, in essence, the true magic of cricket - that at its very best, this game alone among the many dozens that man plays around the world, is capable of keeping attention rivetted, of nailing the spectators to the edges of their seat, for 10 hours at a time.
One scene alone suffices to encapsulate the game. It is the first ball of the very last over. Australia needs six for a win, with one wicket in hand and six balls remaining. The Indian captain, who has surprisingly not bowled a single over till then, decides to put himself on the firing line and bowl the last over himself.
The field is set. There's a kind of hush all over the ground...
The ball is bowled - an attempted swipe to the boundary, an LBW appeal, two batsmen frantically scrambling a single, the keeper, partially unsighted, reacting with lightning speed at the very end of a long, hard day, throwing a dew-drenched ball with unerring accuracy to run the non-striker out.
Sachin Tendulkar goes up in the air - a picture of sheer ecstasy.
While at the other end, the tall, loose-limbed Glenn McGrath stands perfectly still. Head down. The very personification of misery...
Oh well!
The essence of sport, frozen in that one tableau...
The pitch, and such...
Mohali, in the Punjab, is arguably one of the prettiest cricket stadia in the world. An almost perfect circle, fringed by the massed tiers of stands. 18 light towers, as opposed to the conventional four, bathing the stadium in a uniform glow. Impeccable facilities, with the possible exception of a sightscreen just that bit too narrow to be perfect. And groundstaff capable of turning out, irrespective of the time of the year, supreme cricketing pitches...
The one on which the last league match of the Titan Cup, a day night winner-takes-all clash between Australia and India, was played out was no exception. Hard and true, with not a blade of grass on its surface, the wicket produced for this virtual semifinal was the kind batsmen the world over would like to roll up and cart along in their kit bags. A ball coming on to the bat meant that those who had the strokes could play them without the lurking fear that a bad bounce would defeat a good stroke. An outfield that was uniformly lush meant that a stroke would get the momentum it deserved. And long boundaries meant that the fielding side had the space needed to defend it - unlike the smaller fields where even mishits carry for fours and sixes.
The teams
India went into the match with one change in its lineup - Ravindra Ramnarayan Singh aka Robin Singh, inducted in place of the injured Saurav Ganguly, was picked to replace Aashish Kapoor. Kapoor had bowled very well in India's last outing, teaming with Joshi to choke the South African batsmen and making them struggle to get to a total just over 180. But on the day, the team management obviously felt that it needed some beef in its batting department - and therefore compromised by playing Singh, seven years after his international debut, as a batting all-rounder.
Australia for its part made three changes. Mark Waugh, who sat out the side's previous engagement with a calf strain, returned to the number one slot in the batting order. Ian Healy, recovered from his hamstring strain, came back into the side at the expense of the young and talented Adam Gilchrist. And Jason Gillespie replaced Damien Fleming.
Waugh is one of the top batsmen in the world today, Healy is the vice captain of the side. Gillespie's inclusion, though, seemed rather pointless - Fleming, with his ability to get both seam and swing movement, was far more likely to trouble the Indian batsmen than the lanky medium pacer whose lack of variety is an open invitation, on a batting track, to mayhem.
Mark Taylor won the toss. And surprisingly, elected to insert the opposition.
Again, a rather surprising move. For one thing, India's propensity to panic when chasing is too well known. Or was Taylor thinking about the miraculous last ditch win Kumble and Srinath pulled off in Bangalore?
Was Taylor reasoning that his team of talented strokeplayers would do a better job of organising their innings when they had a fixed target?
Did Taylor figure that the dew that falls on the ground at night in these parts would make bowling and fielding difficult in the second half of the game?
Imponderables, these. In the event, Taylor invited India to bat, and the match was on...
The Indian innings
For weeks now, commentators - including yours truly - have worked their typing fingers to the bone pointing out the obvious. Namely, that the key to India's batting coming good is for Sachin Tendulkar, its captain and best batsman, to play his normal free stroking game.
True, as captain of the side Tendulkar did probably feel, within his cricketing brain, that it was not fair for him to hit out at the top, with the consequent risk of falling early and putting an enormous burden on the rest of the batting lineup. But the converse logic holds more water - if and when Tendulkar fires, he provides such a great start that the rest of the batsmen find the task of keeping the momentum going that much easier. And equally importantly, a trademark Sachin blitz is demoralising for any bowling side in the world - and as such, worth the risk of his early dismissal.
On the day, Tendulkar decided to revert to his normal free scoring self. And the result was electric. Glenn McGrath, who along with Fanie De Villiers has emerged as one of the most niggardly of pace bowlers on view in this tournament, was imperiously dismissed from the presence with two impeccable drives on either side of the wicket, quickly followed by the trademark Tendulkar slash-cut through point. Paul Reiffel's pretentions to length and accuracy were shown up by two blistering drives on either side of the wicket, followed by as immaculate a square drive past point as you will ever see. And when young Jason Gillespie replaced McGrath, Tendulkar proved that there is no real length or line you can bowl to him when he is in assassin mode - Gillespie went for fours from outside off stump, from the middle stump, from the leg stump, off a full length, when he pitched short...
Navjot Singh Sidhu, meanwhile, was his usual self - a bat that seemed to have only edges, no middle. Feet that seemed to have been nailed in place. And a style of running between wickets that defies description.
When Sidhu was dropped for the third Texaco Trophy tournament in England, then captain Azharuddin had implied that his disastrous running between wickets was one of the reasons for the omission. Sidhu on that occasion walked out of the team, and the tour. He has now made his way back into the side by default - only to prove Azhar right, with two nonsensical run outs in his two innings thus far. As in his previous outing, it was Sidhu again who, having played a stroke straight to a fielder (in this case, Brad Hogg at close in mid off) called his partner and raced down the wicket without any thought to consequences. And as in his previous outing, Sidhu was a few yards out of his crease when the stumps were downed.
True, Sidhu has a great record at both the Test and ODI levels. But his initial hesitancy, allied to his incredibly inept running between wickets, are fatal flaws - and in these days of laptop computers and data bases, such flaws are noted, and utilised by opposing sides. If Sidhu desires to re-establish his place in the side - that too in a context where so many young and talented players are emerging at the domestic level - he will need to work on eradicating these two chinks in his batting armour.
India lost its first wicket, Sidhu's, at 54. And its second shortly thereafter when Srinath, again coming in as pinch hitter, was deceived by Mark Waugh's flight and stumped by a mile. No matter - the 'pinch hitter' is an expendable commodity, the thinking behind his insertion ahead of recognised batsmen being that if he strikes a few good ones, great; if he fails, nothing lost.
Mohammad Azharuddin, before this game, had gone to his captain and said, if you send me in at number three for this game, I will bat through the innings. Tendulkar took the promise on faith, and inserted Azhar ahead of Dravid in the line up. And the former captain rewarded his successor with a gem of an innings. Circumspect initially, eschewing his wristy leg side play from outside off, Azhar played the classical off-to-off, leg-to-leg style, taking his runs in singles for the most part, eschewing senseless heaves, and showing no sign of impatience when first Tendulkar, then Dravid, scored faster than he could. The veteran batsman is a savvy player when he is in nick, he knows that if he hangs in there for a while, he will catch up with his strike rate - and what he produced on the day was vintage Azhar. Scoring at a run every two balls at the start of his innings, he finished up on 94 off just 104 balls with four fours and two spectacular sixes, the only player other than Jadeja on either side to clear the boundary. And in the end, it took a spectacular catch by Mark Waugh at point, off an Azhar square drive off McGrath, to end his innings just short of what would have been a very well deserved century.
Tendulkar, meanwhile, had lived by the sword, and in the end died by it. Having determined that he would play his shots no matter what, he swept Mark Waugh from the off stump, the ball flew through the air, and was taken easily by Stuart Law on the fence at midwicket. No matter - the Indian skipper had more than done his bit with an innings of 62 off 60 deliveries and, more importantly, got the side off to a blazing start, helping bring up the 100 in just under 20 overs.
"This boy has class written all over him!", said Ian Chappell. Not once, but several times through this tournament, and in fact, thrice in course of one commentary stint today.
The boy referred to here was Rahul Dravid - calm, composed, immaculate off either foot, perfectly balanced, and today, perhaps the sweetest timer of the ball in Indian cricket after Sachin Tendulkar. If the latter provided the impetus with his early innings blitz, then it was Dravid, in tandem with Azhar, who ensured that the pace of run getting never flagged below the five an over mark with superb placements, very good calling and running between the wickets. It was vintage middle order stuff, and what is most amazing about the young man is the consistency he has displayed, ever since he debuted against England earlier this year.
Robin Singh came in when the emphasis on getting runs quick, and looked ready, able and willing during a brief stay at the crease. A power packed drive went for four, an attempt to find the boundary again off the next ball of Stuart Law with a sweep found the fielder in the way.
Ajay Jadeja, meanwhile, was his trademark stuff - the typical hustler, trying everything in the book and then some in a bid to put the fielders and bowlers off their stride and, in the crunch, going at comfortably over a run a ball. And though Mongia, at a vital time, played out too many dot balls, he got his act right just in time, hitting across the line, playing to his strength which is the leg side, and coming up with a quick 19 off 13 deliveries.
This was vintage one day cricket - a blazing start, a steady middle, an emphasis on deft placing and quick running, and at the very end, the perfectly timed acceleration. All combining to give India an eminently defensible score of 289 for six in 50 overs.
The Australian bowlers, meanwhile, performed as well as they were allowed to. On the day, though, the Indian batsmen were in no mood to respect reputations, and bowler after bowler came, turned his arm over, and disappeared. And - another instance of the surprising amnesia that seems to afflict modern day skippers - though frontline bowlers Gillespie and Hogg were mauled, though Stuart Law's 10 overs cost him 65 runs, Taylor never once tried Steve Waugh. I am not suggesting that Waugh would have run through the side - but when your bowlers are getting hit all round the ball park, what a captain could, and indeed should, do is use everything he has in his arsenal, if only to prevent the batsmen from establishing a dominance over any one bowler. Thus, Steve Waugh could have been utilised. As could the occasional spin of Michael Bevan.
The Australian innings
For Taylor and his men, the gameplan chasing 290 on a batting track as good as this one was simple. Go flat out in the first fifteen overs, then allow the free-stroking middle order to consolidate and pace the chase.
To their credit, the Australian openers fulfilled the first part of that plan, batting briskly right from the start and ensuring that despite the Tendulkar blitz, the difference between Australia's run rate and that of India remained on par through the first 15 overs. Thus, when the field restrictions came off, Australia had posted 79/0, as against India's 83/2 - the home side's four extra runs more than negated by the fact that Australia had not lost a wicket.
Mark Waugh, through this phase, looked in dangerous touch, stroking freely, never looking in any trouble, and batting with an ease and assurance that indicated that he could bat India out of the game on his own.
Taylor, meanwhile, took his chances, rode his luck, and on the day found that fortune was most definitely on his side as edges flew wide of the fielders, mistimed shots fell in those exact areas of the field that were untenanted... It was a calculated gamble, Taylor banking on the thinking that if he got quick runs then his side benefitted, if he hung in there and played with his usual dourness then the cause was lost anyway.
In the event, Taylor prospered. And it was Mark Waugh who fell, at just the wrong moment. Robin Singh had been given his first bowl in international cricket for seven years, and Waugh appeared to face the bowler with just that little edge of contempt. The ball was on a line of off and middle, Mark went lazily forward into a casual seeming drive, and the delivery eased through the gap between bat and pad to knock back middle stump.
For skipper Tendulkar, Robin was worth his place in the side for that wicket alone, as Mark Waugh is one of those players who can, if not dismissed early, bat any bowling side out of the game. But Singh put the icing on the cake when, off the very next ball, he surprised the in-form Stuart Law, promoted to number three thanks to two superb innings in his last two outings, with one that stood up from a length. Perhaps riding the confidence of his previous good scores, Law didn't take the time to read the wicket - off the very first ball, he looked instead to take the ball off his hips from off and middle and find the gap backward of square. The result - the higher bounce forced the surprised prod, and Azghar at midwicket didn't need to move an inch to take the catch.
For the fifth time in this tournament, a bowler found himself on the verge of a hat trick - and for the fifth time, that honour proved elusive as Steve Waugh settled in quickly, batting not with his usual initial hesitancy but with an ominous assurance as he found the ball coming nicely on to bat. And with Taylor still getting the runs at a fair old clip, Australia looked to have recovered when it went to 123/2 in 25 overs (India at that stage 125/3), and to 151 in 29.2 overs (India 151/3 in 30).
And then Steve Waugh fell to his own tactics. Earlier in the over, he had played the ball to the left of Joshi the bowler and when the latter picked up, taunted him by moving out of his crease and inviting the shy. Joshi, for a moment, lost his cool, flung the ball back and had the mortification of seeing the ball miss the stumps, the keeper and everything else besides, and race away for four unnecessary byes. And then Waugh grinned mockingly at the bowler, using the needle to unsettle him. Three balls later, Waugh perished - lured by a superbly disguised floater which Joshi bowled from well within the crease, the flight luring Waugh out, the change of length deceiving him, and Mongia effecting an easy stumping with the batsman three feet down the track and hopelessly stranded.
I will never be able to understand the use of the needle as a cricketing strategy. And as Steve Waugh walked back and a delighted Joshi celebrated, my memory recalled a vision of the World Cup, India versus Pakistan at Bangalore. Aamir Sohail whacks Prasad to the fence, then contemptuously tells the bowler to go fetch the ball. The two have a mid pitch confrontation. A ball later, Prasad makes a mess of Sohail's stumps with a superb slower ball...
The trouble with aggro on the field is, it is as likely to inspire a bowler as it is to put pressure on him. Also, it is as likely to cause needless rushes of the blood to the batsman who used the tactic in the first place - ask Sohail, ask Steve Waugh...
The wicket put India back in the game - and disturbed Taylor's concentration sufficiently to induce, just four runs later, the attempted pull off a full length Kumble delivery. In this tournament, batsmen have time and again tried the shot to the leggie, only to find the flipper straightening up and crashing either into pad or stumps. Taylor was no exception, the LBW decision asked for, and given, with a minimum of fuss. And again, Australia had lost two wickets in quick succession - a facet of their performance in this tournament thus far, and fatal on a day when every batsman needed to get runs in chase of a mammoth total.
Taylor's dismissal, though, brought Michael Bevan and Michael Slater together. And the best part of the innings followed, as the two Aussies, both in brilliant touch, almost batted India out of the game.
What impresses me about Bevan is his quick thinking. Seeing Slater charging all the bowlers and hitting through the line with immense power and timing, Bevan quickly shifted gears, eschewed the hard hits and began looking for the quick singles and quicker twos, running between wickets like a sprinter on speed and putting enormous pressure on the bowlers and fielders.
Slater, meanwhile, was pure aggression, constantly moving around in his crease, unsettling every bowler and - perhaps the only time in this tournament thus far - even successfully coming down the track to Kumble and driving him brilliantly through extra cover. A measure of their success together is afforded by one statistic alone - when they came together, Australia were 155/4 in 31 overs. Four overs later, the score had gone to 179/4. And at the forty over mark, Australia were cruising on 228/4, as against India's 207/4 at a similar stage.
At this point, it was Australia's game - till Prasad, as he does so often, produced the dream slower delivery to the left hander. Bevan drove at it too early, and watched with dismay while the ball straightened, slowly drifted past his flailing bat, and crashed into the stumps. It was a superb piece of bowling against a batsman in immaculate touch, and yet another indication of Prasad's immense progress through recent months.
Slater was still going along at lightning speed, though, and India looked to have got its success too late - till Healy, coming into the side after sitting out three games and finding his timing not of the best, tried to compensate by taking a quick single and giving the strike to the settled Slater. For Srinath to run in from mid off, pick up and throw down the stumps was, given the sheer impossibility of the attempted run, child's play, and Australia had again lost two wickets on the trot.
And that, in turn, provoked the third. Slater, realising that he needed to accelerate even further, walked a long way across the stumps to unsettle Srinath. The Indian quick, having bowled brilliantly throughout this tournament without getting a single wicket, kept his head when it mattered. Seeing Slater go walkabout, he straightened his line, bowled the fullish length, defeated the attempted hoik to leg and crashed the ball into the pads, plumb in front of the stumps. From 241/4 to 250/7, and Australia had, after having batted itself into a winning position, played itself out of the game.
From then on, though Reiffel struck a couple of well timed fours and Glenn McGrath batted with amazing audacity and unlooked for obduracy, the game was lost for the visitors. And what will make the loss so poignant is this comparative figure: India after 40 overs 207/4, Australia 228/4; India after 45 overs 249 for five, Australia 262/7 and just 22 runs away from a win.
The tailenders chipped and nudged the runs, but Kumble bowled two superbly tight overs and, when the last over was due and Tendulkar, putting himself in the firing line after having abstained thus far, took the ball with Australia needing six for six, it was almost mathematical that the pressure would tell on the Australians more than the Indians.
And so it proved, McGrath after having batted very well to get 8 runs off just four balls charging down for a single off a ball that had nicked Hogg's bat and gone to the keeper, Mongia in turn whipping off his gloves and with good presence of mind, aiming not at his end but at the other...
India had won, by holding its nerve; Australia had lost, by losing its...
When two teams are evenly matched on a good wicket, it is often that way - nerve tells. Ask the Aussies, who on this very ground against the West Indies pulled off a brilliant win after Richie Richardson and company looked to be cruising to victory...
A footnote: when commentators talk of the talent latent in this Indian side, fans disappointed with the lack of results jeer. In recent times, I have received at least a dozen stinkers in my mailbox, suggesting that we stop covering the doings of the Indian cricket team as they are not worth the trouble.
On the day, when it mattered, India showed that when it applies itself to its task, it is a class act. The batting fired, the bowlers held their nerve and the fielding was world class - with the electric Robin Singh joining the brilliant Azharuddin and Jadeja, and the safe-as-houses Kumble and Tendulkar, in patrolling the inner ring on either side of the wicket while Dravid in particular excelled in the deep, the Indian side looked top notch in the field.
Footnote two: Navjot Sidhu batted for 25 deliveres, and then ran himself out. When India came on to field, Sidhu was nowhere in sight, being substituted throughout the innings by Aashish Kapoor. The excuse given was a "bruised forearm" - though how, given that he was not injured while batting, Sidhu came to bruise that forearm of his remains a mystery.
Sidhu has been, in the past, prone to such "injuries" that keep him off the field while a substitute, fleeter of foot on the field, does his job for him. And this is patently unfair - in these times, when cricket is competitive to a very high degree, every single player in the side needs to pull his weight right through a game. Gone are the days when a Prasanna, a Bedi or a Chandra would be excused their misfielding - today, Kumble is one of the best in the side and Joshi not a whit less. Then, an ageing, increasingly rotund Vishwanath could get away with fielding only in slips because he didn't have the footspeed to field anywhere else - today, a Sidhu needs to work on his fitness and pull his weight in the field, if only because there are other players waiting in the wings who can bat well, and are far fleeter of foot than him.
Just a thought...
Scoreboard:
India innings R B 4 6
SR Tendulkar c Law b ME Waugh 62 60 8 0
NS Sidhu run out (Hogg) 11 25 2 0
J Srinath st Healy b ME Waugh 3 8 0 0
MA Azharuddin c ME Waugh b McGrath 94 104 4 2
R Dravid c Taylor b Law 56 67 3 0
R Singh c SR Waugh b Law 6 6 1 0
A Jadeja not out 25 18 1 1
NR Mongia not out 19 15 3 0
Extras (lb 7, w 2, nb 4) 13
Total (6 wickets, 50 overs) 289
Fall of Wicket: 1-54 (Sidhu), 2-75 (Srinath), 3-95 (Tendulkar),
4-205 (R Dravid), 5-217 (R Singh), 6-252 (Azharuddin).
Bowling O M R W
McGrath 10 0 52 1
Reiffel 10 1 52 0
Gillespie 9 0 63 0
ME Waugh 9 0 38 2
Law 10 0 65 2
Hogg 2 0 12 0
Australia innings R B 4 6
ME Waugh b Singh 37 49 1 0
MA Taylor lbw b Kumble 78 92 6 0
SG Law c Azharuddin b Singh 0 1 0 0
SR Waugh st Mongia b Joshi 33 40 2 0
MG Bevan b Prasad 40 43 2 0
MJ Slater lbw b Srinath 52 38 5 0
IA Healy run out (Srinath) 2 2 0 0
GB Hogg run out (Mongia) 11 14 0 0
PR Reiffel b Kumble 9 8 2 0
JR Gillespie b Kumble 2 8 0 0
GD McGrath not out 8 4 1 0
Extras (lb 7, w 2, nb 4) 13
Total (all out, 49.1 overs) 284
Fall of Wicket: 1-84 (ME Waugh), 2-84 (Law), 3-151 (SR Waugh),
4-155 (Taylor), 5-241 (Bevan), 6-248 (Healy),
7-250 (Slater), 8-265 (Reiffel), 9-273 (Gillespie),
10-284 (Hogg).
Bowling O M R W
Srinath 10 0 62 1
Prasad 10 0 68 1
Kumble 10 0 42 3
Singh 7 0 45 2
Joshi 10 0 50 1
Jadeja 2 0 11 0
Tendulkar 0.1 0 0 0
Teams Comparitive scores
Overs 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
India 22/0 54/1 83/2 102/3 125/3 151/3 176/3 201/4 249/5 289/6
Australia 26/0 49/0 79/0 101/2 123/2 155/3 179/4 228/4 262/7
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