India toss a won game in the trashcan against South Africa

Prem Panicker

Yet again, India flattered - and, ultimately, deceived.

Like the riddle of the Sphinx, and the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, India's propensity to lose from seemingly invincible positions is going down as one of the great riddles of all time.

And if the Indian think tank and the players themselves don't do something about it, and soon, the country's cricketing record might just become what the Sphinx and the ships that vanished in the Triangle already have - namely, history!

With its second defeat to South Africa in two games, India has now left itself with the task of needing to beat Australia in the two encounters between the two sides still to come, on October 27 and November 1, to be sure of qualifying for the final of the ongoing Titan Cup tournament - and that, by any yardstick, is a tall ask.

The most distressing thing for afficionadoes of Indian cricket will be this, that the home side is itself to blame for its plight. India appears to be going about putting its act together much like you put together a jigsaw - in little bits and pieces, as it were. First it begins to get its fielding together - a process that began during the Canada tour versus Pakistan. Then it gets its bowling act more or less together, as seen in the way it checked both South Africa and Australia for small totals in this tournament thus far. Today it got its opening together, with a 100-plus stand for the first wicket after 18 games (in fact, the first fifty plus stand after nine games, dating back to India versus Zimbabwe in the Singer Cup in Sri Lanka). Now it still has the middle order to sort out, the slog phase to organise... and time is running out, at least as far as this tournament is concerned.

But more of that later, for now, it's the game, in retrospect.

The Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur is as good a ground as they come. A hard wicket with just a hint of sub-surface moisture which meant that batting would be easier in the second innings than in the first; long boundaries which meant that while attempts to clear the fence were not really on, the fielding side would be put in the position of giving away twos and threes if they tried to defend the ropes, or risking the hit over the top if the fielders were brought in.

Climate-wise, the day was warm and sunny, with a bit of an overcast in the afternoon but nothing dramatic enough to influence the course of the game.

As far as the sides went, South Africa stayed with its winning eleven, which makes sense as every one of the players was settling into the winning rhythm.

India made one change in personnel, bringing in Pankaj Dharmani for Sujit Somasundar after the opener had two failures in two games, and one change in order, pushing Saurav Ganguly into the opener's slot and batting Dharmani at six.

The first task for India, after Tendulkar for a change won the toss and inserted the opposition, was to take quick wickets at the top.

Tendulkar's decision to insert will, of course, be hotly debated in context of the final result, but the fact remains that against a batting side like South Africa, it is easier to apply pressure when they are batting first and unclear about what kind of total to set, than when they know the target and can plan their chase to perfection. The trick to the insertion ploy, that too on a wicket that was moist early on, is of course to grab wickets within the first 15 overs - and India got off to just the right start when Prasad brought one in to trap Andrew Hudson in front, with the total on five, and Kumble followed up by frustrating the prolific Gary Kirsten and forcing him to sweep uppishly to Joshi at midwicket (SA 55/2).

Before his dismissal, though, Kirsten had set a new world record when he reached 1352 ODI runs in a calendar year, with six centuries and four fifties - a magnificient record, and beating the 1349 runs totted up by Brian Lara in the year 1993.

Cullinan and skipper Hansie Cronje then got together for the most intriguing part of the game. India bowled tight and fielded tighter, both batsmen were constantly unsure of their footwork and timing and runs were harder to come by than pennies from Uncle Scrooge at Xmas time - yet both batsmen hung in there, got the occasional edged four, spiced with the odd firm hoik and always, kept the singles coming to put up a 113 run stand for South Africa that brought the visitors back into the game.

In the process, both batsmen indicated the importance of keeping your head down and never panicking, and by the time Cronje, in a hurry to do something about a run rate that refused to climb above the 4.7 mark, played a drive at one from Joshi that was cleverly held back to give the bowler an easy caught and bowled, the third wicket pair had given South Africa a platform from which a score of 260, even 270, looked distinctly on. Remember they were past the 34th over at that stage, remember too that Rhodes, McMillan and Symcox were yet to come, and a huge score looked on.

If South Africa lost its way at that point, the credit is due to some level-headed work by India in the field. Jadeja, filling in as fifth bowler after Tendulkar got tanked for 22 off 3, bowled a straight line and slow pace to get Rhodes plumb in front playing across the line, then struck again to get Crookes out the same way, again with the ball that straightened to beat the attempted push to leg, and SA had lost two quick wickets to take the score to 204/5.

Cullinan, meanwhile, looked considerably more confident once he got into his seventies and eighties, and serenly proceeded to complete a very useful century - the real value of which was that it kept the runs coming at one end, even during the chaos of the SA middle order.

Cullinan eventually went off an ambitious attempt to go down the wicket to Kumble, the one bowler few batsmen try such sorties against, for Mongia to stump with ease and reduce SA to 232/6. And with Kumble being superbly restrictive in the slog, SA ended on 249 for six in 50 overs - on this wicket, at least 11 runs short of what it should have been.

For India, Srinath was good as usual, though his tendency to try for pace here ensured that he didn't get any wickets. Prasad steadied himself after an erratic opening, when he followed up two good overs with a disastrous one, Kumble and Joshi were very good as usual and Jadeja, with 2/47 off eight overs, must consider himself quite happy with his own performance.

Having said that, the lack of a fifth specialist bowler is becoming too apparent, as India struggles to contain in the middle overs. Remember that Tendulkar and Jadeja between them conceeded 69 off 11 overs at just under seven an over, consider too that such prodigality not only boosts a batsman's confidence but makes the job of the regular bowlers all the more difficult, and the value of the fifth regular bowler becomes obvious.

I frankly don't understand the thinking of six batsmen and four bowlers on batting wickets like these - if five batsmen cannot get runs, where lies the sense in thinking the sixth will? And if it comes to that, given Mongia's recent Test 100, wouldn't it make sense to trust him to fill that sixth slot, rather than indicating by the inclusion of an extra batsman that the think tank doesn't consider Mongia good enough to get a useful 15, 20 in quick time low in the order?

The Indian reply

India's game plan in the chase was obvious - play out the first 15, 20 overs, make sure no wickets are lost, keep the singles coming, and use a solid opening partnership as the basis for acceleration.

Ganguly came out to open with Sachin Tendulkar and the advantage of a left and right combination was immediately obvious - not only did both Fanie De Villiers and Brian MacMillan struggle to adjust their line to the demands of bowling to such a combo, but in the process they also gave away nine wides in the first ten overs - in other words, one and a half overs more, not to mention the nine free runs.

Both openers started with a bang, getting to 22 in three overs before the SA bowlers tightened their line. From that point on, Tendulkar and Ganguly played safe, sensible cricket, keeping the singles coming, not trying any extravagant shots, and putting India in what looked the ideal position for an assault.

In the process, India for the first time in 18 games got a century partnership for the first wicket (the first fifty partnership in ten games), and the value of this lies in the pressure it takes off from the latter batsmen, allied to the pressure it puts on rival skippers who get worried when a wicket hasn't gone down with a 100 on the board.

Sachin's 64 off 93 looks slow by his standards, but it was understandable in context of the bowling, the fielding and the position of the game. What was not understandable, though, was the way Tendulkar, after playing with enormous restraint, suddenly launched himself down the wicket and over the top to Brian McMillan to give Kirsten a comfortable catch on the mid on line. I mentioned earlier that this ground was large and not exactly the place - especially with the ball not really coming on to bat - to try and hit the ball over the ropes. Sachin kept that in mind for 92 deliveries, hit one airborne shot off the 93rd, and paid the price.

What made the situation worse was that Rahul Dravid, coming in at a time when he was under no pressure, decided for once to leave his brains back in the pavilion. The first ball he got was on length and line outside off stump, and it was foolish in the extreme to go for the glide to third man without having taken time to judge the pace of the wicket. In the event, the ball was coming on slower than Dravid realised, and all he achieved was the edge to Richardson to reduce India from 126/0 at one point to 126/2 two balls later.

Azhar began with a few injudicious swishes, but soon settled into his usual wristy flicks, and with Ganguly having gone past his 50 (his 95 balls for the landmark must be viewed in context of the fact that in recent weeks, Ganguly has been dropped, batted at number three, number five, number six and once, if I remember right, even number eight before finally getting a chance to open; no batsman can in such unsettled conditions click on his first outing as number one and the fact that he stayed there with Sachin and got India off to a good start is reason enough to give him another go in the slot) decided to go down the wicket to, of all people, Allan Donald. The SA quick is too experienced a performer to take such liberties to, the wide yorker was on the cards and Ganguly's off stump went flying. And again, a batsman had thrown it away when well set - a double crime, because it meant the new man coming in ahd to do his work right from scratch.

From this point on, India just proceeded to drift out of the game, even as the spectators drifted out of the stadium. Give South Africa credit, they bowled tight and fielded magnificiently - but the fact remained that at this point, three batsmen had gifted away their wickets when there was absolutely no need for the heavy handed methods.

Jadeja came in, forced quick singles and then perished trying to whack McMillan out of the ground, Srinath proved he hadn't learnt the virtue of hitting through the line and behind the bowler when he aimed to slog Symcox to mid wicket from off stump and found his timber rattled, Kumble perished to the well aimed slower yorker from Donald - not to put too fine a point on it, the Indian batsmen kept looking up at the scoreboard, panicking at the mounting asking rate, and losing more wickets.

Was the opening partnership too slow? I maintain, no. Chasing 250 on this wicket, I would have been happy knowing I had to get 140 in 17, 18 overs with all ten wickets in hand - which is precisely the position India found itself in before it let its innate generosity get the better of its cricketing sense, and presented the match on a platter to the South Africans.

Now the side has to work even harder - it has three games left to play (two against Australia, one against South Africa). And it will need to win at least two of those to leave itself with a chance of making the final. And that, given the way the side has been playing thus far, is a rather tall order.

Having said that, let's add this - filling tall orders is what seperates men from boys, and it is time the Indian team decided which category it wants to be counted in...

Scoreboard:

South Africa innings                                            R   B   4  6
AC Hudson             lbw                b Prasad               5  10   1  0
G Kirsten             c Joshi            b Kumble              29  32   5  0
DJ Cullinan           st Mongia          b Kumble             106 130  10  0
WJ Cronje                            c & b Joshi               58  73   4  0
JN Rhodes             lbw                b Jadeja               4  12   0  0
DN Crookes            lbw                b Jadeja              10  18   1  0
BM McMillan           not out                                  19  21   2  0
DJ Richardson         not out                                   8  10   0  0
Extras                (lb 3, w 4, nb 3)                        10
Total                 (6 wickets, 50 overs)                   249


Fall of Wicket: 1-5 (Hudson), 2-55 (Kirsten), 3-168 (Cronje),
     4-180 (Rhodes), 5-204 (Crookes), 6-232 (Cullinan).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Srinath                     10      0     45      0 
Prasad                       9      0     45      1 
Kumble                      10      0     49      2 
Joshi                       10      0     41      1 
Tendulkar                    3      0     22      0
Jadeja                       8      0     47      2 

India innings                                                   R   B   4  6
SC Ganguly                               b Donald              54 104   3  0
SR Tendulkar          c Kirsten          b McMillan            64  93   3  0
R Dravid              c Richardson       b McMillan             0   1   0  0
MA Azharuddin         not out                                  55  60   5  0
J Srinath                                b Symcox               4   4   0  0
A Jadeja                                 b McMillan            13  18   0  0
P Dharmani                               b de Villiers          8   8   0  0
A Kumble                                 b Donald               1   2   0  0
NR Mongia             not out                                   8  10   0  0
Extras                (lb 8, w 7)                              15
Total                 (7 wickets, 50 overs)                   222



Fall of Wicket: 1-126 (Tendulkar), 2-126 (Dravid), 3-148 (Ganguly),
     4-153 (Srinath), 5-191 (Jadeja), 6-207 (Dharmani),
     7-208 (Kumble).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
de Villiers                 10      2     28      1 
McMillan                     9      1     32      3 
Donald                      10      0     50      2 
Symcox                      10      0     39      1
Crookes                      4      0     32      0 
Cronje                       7      0     35      0