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Down, out

Prem Panicker

Those who don't learn from history, the cliché goes, are condemned to repeat it.

India's skipper in Kuala Lumpur, Ajay Jadeja, is a case in point. In the first outing, against Antigua, he had them going under for the third time, thanks to Anil Kumble, only to throw the batting side a lifeline by taking the leg-spinner off.

On that occasion, it didn't matter too much as, in the end, India went on to win. But the same mistake, repeated in the key game against Australia, meant the difference between a semifinal berth, which was India's for the taking, and an early flight home, which is what the side is booked for now.

Consider this: In the 20th over, Australia are 84/5. Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Darren Lehmann and the dangerous Michael Bevan are all back in the hut. Only Steve Waugh and Tom Moody among the recognised batsmen are left, there are 30 overs still to go in the innings, and Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh are bowling supremely well in tandem.

Moody, in fact, was distinctly lucky to get off the mark. Completely unsettled by Kumble's bounce and Harbhajan's turn, he poked a bat at a top spinner from the latter, got a faint inside nick and must have been mighty relieved to see the umpire shake his head at the frenzied appeal.

At this point, the two spinners were operating with a slip, silly point and short leg in place, runs were as scarce as rain in the Sahara, and it was all going India's way. So why, oh why, did Jadeja at this point revert to an orthodox, run-saving one-day field, and take Kumble and Harbajan Singh off in favour of Rahul Sanghvi and Robin Singh, the latter coming in for a second spell?

Richie Benaud described the field best: "Mid off," he said in course of his TV commentary, "which was saving the one, has now been pushed to long off to GIVE the single!"

Exactly. I mean, look at it from the point of view of the two surviving batsmen. With 30 overs to go, their focus was going to be on playing out overs, not on big hits over the top, since neither could afford a single error. Thus, it made sense to keep the field in attacking positions, choke the singles, and ensure that there were fielders in close positions for the edges.

Instead, the Indians allowed Waugh and Moody the luxury of settling themselves, of gently stroking out into the deep field for the singles, of keeping the board ticking over with no danger to themselves. The two experienced cricketers milked the situation, progressed in this fashion right until the 43rd over and, at that stage, with five wickets still in hand (what an enormous difference there is, in being five down in 20 overs and five down in 45) they went after the bowling. The result, a 171-run unbeaten partnership for the sixth wicket, a century with a single off the last ball to skipper Steve Waugh and, for the fielding side, effectively, the end of the match.

The ostensible reason for holding Kumble and Harbhajan could be that Jadeja wanted to save them for the end. Which end? The end, in a cricket match, comes when you get the other side all out, and as far as I know, there is no rule which says you can do so only in the 50th over. Meaning, that Jadeja, instead of saving Kumble and Bajju for the end, could have pressed for wickets, and effectively kayoed the batting side. In the event, the three Kumble overs 'saved for the end' went for 20, and Bajju's finishing overs went for even more, as the well-set Moody and Waugh cut loose with a vim.

In the beginning, everything was going good for India. Mohanty, revelling in conditions that provided some swing and seam movement, went round the wicket to bring one back in to the left handed Adam Gilchrist, the ball taking the inner edge of an attempted forcing shot square of the wicket, and crashing into the stumps.

During the tour of India earlier this year, we kept talking of Ricky Ponting's habit of going far across off to work the ball to leg, and how it made him a natural for the LBW. Happened again here, as Ponting went too far across, Mohanty straightened one on him, and the verdict was a given.

Michael Bevan came in and went out again before he had time to really catch his breath, Kumble making one rear up at him, forcing the helpless forward prod, the climbing ball taking the glove and nestling in Laxman's grasp at forward square leg.

At the other end, Mark Waugh was fretting a shade at the restraint imposed on him. His impatience ended with a rather needless waltz down the wicket, attempting to hit over long on but not quite getting to the pitch of a Mohanty away swinger that took the leading edge and looped high behind the bowler for Rahul Sanghvi to run around and hold from mid on.

And almost immediately thereafter, Darren Lehmann -- who must have been watching Bevan's batting technique closely from the pavilion -- poked forward in identical fashion at a Kumble top-spinner, and Laxman didn't have to move from his position at forward square leg to hold.

Kumble at that point had figures of 7-0-22-2 and looked completely unplayable. Immediately thereafter, he was patrolling the deep, and Waugh and Moody were busy settling in, consolidating, and then -- experience and natural astuteness combing well here -- batting India almost entirely out of the game.

And it was not just the way Kumble and Harbhajan -- who, by rights, should have got Moody before the batsman had scored, Steve Waugh in the 40th over when that batsman played all over a looping off-break, M S K Prasad fumbling a leg-side stumping (Prasad also put down Waugh off Kumble, rounding off a pretty bad day with the gloves) -- were taken off. Even the subsequent handling of the bowling resources left much to be desired. For instance, Laxman (4-0-11-0) and Rahul Sanghvi (4-0-15-0) were making the two batsmen miserable, denying runs even despite the deep set field, when off they went and on came Robin, again, and Tendulkar.

If there was a method to all this madness, it escaped me completely.

India, however, did have one chance left, and his name was Sachin Tendulkar. six centuries in his last 12 innings against the Aussies, three in the last five -- the Indian opener had a huge psychological edge over the opponents, as exemplified by Steve Waugh's now famous 'bad news' quote when he learnt that Sachin was coming to Kuala Lumpur.

Given that India were chasing 256, and needed to go at over five an over, then, where lay the sense in pushing him down the order to number four? True, Tendulkar hadn't been among the runs in the first two games -- but a lot of cricket is played in the mind. Tendulkar is the kind of player who gets 'up' for a big game. The sight of him walking out to open would have diluted the edge of Australia's aggression.

But no, we had M S K Prasad, a non-regular, opening with Gagan Khoda. When two people open who are not used to each other's game, the first casualty is running between the wickets -- and Prasad paid the price. Khoda played towards mid-on, called late. Prasad started later. Darren Lehmann raced in and threw down the stumps, and India had lost the first wicket before getting into double figures.

After 10 overs, India were 28/2, V V S Laxman being the second casualty. The batsman is a fluent player on the leg side but that very fluency often proves his undoing. Here again, he went across to off to try and flick to leg, a Moody leg-cutter caught the leading edge, and Steve Waugh at gully made a difficult catch, low to his right, look ridiculously simple.

But the really crucial statistic, at that point was that of Gagan Khoda. At the end of 10 overs, Khoda was batting at 11, those 11 runs coming off 40, count them, 40 balls. Which meant that the batsman had got the lion's share -- 40 balls out of 60 -- of the strike, and failed to make any proper use of them.

That kind of thing, when you are facing 256, puts so much pressure on the latter batsmen that mistakes are inevitable. Adding to the confusion was the fact that Amay Khurasia had fainted on the field during the Australian innings, suffering a bad case of dehydration. He had to be carried off the field, and later, taken to the hospital as first aid failed to bring his temperature down. This meant India was a middle order batsman short going in to the match.

Tendulkar is at his very best when he goes out there and plays his natural game. Here, he was obviously under instructions to bat himself in, to curb his aggressive instincts. He did flat bat a pull at Damien Fleming, the ball rocketing to midwicket, but for the most part, his batting was eerily reminiscent of that time when he was captain -- the selectors were on his back, and he was attempting to curb his natural, instinctive aggression and play like Geoffrey Boycott meets Sunil Gavaskar.

Remember how he used to get out then? He would get a ball on or around off -- the kind which, in his natural mode, he would blast on the up through extra cover. Instead of going through with the shot, he would check it at the last minute. And if there was any deviation, the edge to either the keeper or slip was inevitable.

Today's dismissal was straight out of that book -- the bowler being Fleming.

And shortly thereafter, Khoda -- I've never quite figured out just what the selectors see in him, that gets him chance after wasted chance -- who had remained strokeless until then, suddenly launched into a drive with his feet about a mile from where the ball was going, and gave a regulation catch to second slip to have India, after 20 overs, down and almost entirely out at 56/4.

Robin Singh and Ajay Jadeja made a pretence of emulating the Waugh-Moody partnership -- trouble being, the Australians were being led not by Jadeja but by the astute Steven Waugh, who kept his fielders inside the circle, ensured that there were no singles to be had for love or money, and then sat back and waited for the batsmen to make the mistakes.

When there are no singles, you look to hit out. Robin did, trying to clear deep mid-wicket, only to get a top edge off Young's orthodox left arm spin, for Mark Waugh to hold comfortably at deep backward square. Kumble, off the first ball that he faced, launched an extravagant cut at Gavin Robertson and Tom Moody, at slip, clamped his huge hands around the ball. And a while later, Ajay Jadeja went down the track trying to flat-bat Young over the off side boundary, only for Damien Fleming to run around and take, sliding on his knee and letting the ball settle in the reverse cup, much in the manner of a baseball outfielder.

That left Sanghvi, Debashish Mohanty, and Harbhajan Singh to overhaul Australia's total -- you don't really need a commentary on how they got out, do you?

End, then, of the campaign for a medal -- under the interested gaze, incidentally, of no less than IOA president Suresh Kalmadi, who was present in the VIP box throughout the match. Not that he'll be too worried -- he wanted Tendulkar, Jadeja and company to play in Kuala Lumpur and he got his wish, so what the hell?

Interestingly, even as the Aussies were turning the game around in the morning session, board secretary J Y Lele was informing the media that there was no question of Tendulkar, Robin, Jadeja and Kumble flying to Toronto in the event of an Indian defeat. "They will all return by the next flight if India loses," Lele categorically told the media, pointing out that there has been no request from the management in Toronto for replacements. Of course, the officials changed their mind later.

So, there ends India's medal campaign, such as it was, in the Commonwealth Games. Fortunately, for the rest of the season, India is not slated to play in two or more places at once, so sanity will hopefully return to the proceedings shortly.