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DEAR REDIFF

Morale-boosting win for India ahead of fifth Test

Prem Panicker

Winning tour games is not an Indian speciality - in fact, in recent times, the Indian squad has made rather a fetish of either losing, or scrambling desperate draws, in tour games.

And that is one reason why the 91-run win over Guyana at the Bourda, in Georgetown, just two days before the fifth Test of the Cable And Wireless Series will come as a morale-booster to the touring squad.

A more important reason, however, is this - spinners Sunil Joshi (24.5-9-74-4) and Noel David (10-7-40-2) were largely instrumental in bowling out the opposition for just 227 well inside a day's play, and this will come as a major worry to Courtney Walsh and his men who, just two days from now, are scheduled to take on India in the final Test of the series on an identical spin-friendly track.

The Bourda was never among the paciest of Carribbean pitches, but in recent times, it has taken on a character that rivals the spin-friendly pitches of the Indian sub-continent. West Indies manager Clive Lloyd, in fact, is on record as remarking that for a West Indies hoping to hang on to the 1-0 lead and take the series, the Bourda is probably the last track they would like to play on in the decider.

The pitch has been newly relaid, and since then, just two games have been played on it. In one, Guyana took on Barbados in a Red Stripe Cup game and, with four spinners in its ranks, won handily. And the second game is the one just over, between India and Guyana, and again, spinners have done the job with Joshi, in particular, ending with nine wickets in the game.

India, going into the second innings with a lead of 41 over the home side, piled up 277 for four in the second innings before declaring - and acting skipper Mohammad Azharuddin's decision to bat on for a while on the morning of the fourth day appeared inspired by the need to let Saurav Ganguly, the overnight not out, get some batting practise. The innings, in fact, was declared when Ganguly played across the line to Stuart to be bowled for 81, which in tandem with his 90 in the first innings made for a nice confidence-building essay.

Guyana, set to make 319 to win or, more realistically, a little over two sessions to play, began disastrously with Ganesh (15-4-25-3) clean bowling opener Rahul Sarjoo in his second over for 3, to reduce the batting side to 17/1.

Abey Kuruvilla (7-2-9-1), less than at peak form in this game, removed the other opener, Nicholas DeGroot, to a fine slip catch by Azharuddin to reduce the home side to 18/2, and after that, the floodgates were pretty much opened. David and Joshi, bowling in tandem for most of the rest of the innings, ran through the side, Joshi dealing the biggest blow when he had Shivnaraine Chanderpaul (10) outer-edging to Venkat Laxman off an attempted flick off the pads. Ganesh chipped in with two middle-order wickets and, with just two balls remaining in the game, Joshi wrapped it up by inducing Reon King to hole out to Navjot Singh Sidhu to end the Guyana innings on 227 for India to register a 91 run win.

What was impressive was not the margin of victory, but the attacking bowling by all three - Joshi, David and Ganesh. While the emerging quick concentrated on an off stump line and got his wickets with seam movement into the batsman, Joshi eschewed his tendency to over-flight and, instead, kept a length just short of full, forcing the batsmen to play the turning ball and commit the error.

For the home side, only Zaheer Hanif the number three batsman who made a competent 57,Neil McGarrell with a fine 47 and all-rounder Mahandra Nagamootoo with a hard hit 56 offered any resistance.

India's tour management will, of course, take heart from this indication that the Bourda track, on which they take on the West Indies on Thursday needing to win to square the series, is so amenable to spin. However, the win has also given the touring side's think-tank a few equations to worry about.

India was very obviously trying to decide who should fill the second opener's slot. Thus, Jadeja opened for India in the first innings, and Laxman in the second. The former scored a century, the latter managed a mere 29, and that would appear to have sealed matters in favour of Ajay Jadeja walking out to open in the fifth Test with Navjot Singh Sidhu, who for his part heralded his return to fitness with a brisk 103 inclusive of 12 boundaries and a six in India's second essay.

But that again only adds to the confusion. If India go in with two openers, plus Dravid, Tendulkar, Azharuddin, Ganguly and Mongia, that is 7 places filled right there. Kumble and Prasad are certain to play, so that leaves just two more slots to fill. And that brings us to the hard choices - Kuruvilla has bowled impressively in all the Tests thus far, while Ganesh did well with the ball both at Barbados and here at the Bourda, getting six wickets in the India win. And they there is Joshi with his nine wicket haul on a track identical to the one on which India will play the fifth Test. And a certain Noel David. All vying for those two slots.

The equation, then, is that for two bowling slots, India has to choose between Kuruvilla, Ganesh, Joshi and David - and chances are that Noel David and Dodda Ganesh will sit out the game, the Indian think tank preferring to rely on the greater experience of Joshi and the proven ability of Kuruvilla.

There is, of course, another solution - a bold one. And that is to open with Mongia and Sidhu, freeing up one more bowling slot. With the wicket not likely to assist the quick bowlers, Mongia can more than do the job at the top, as he did at Ahmedabad last year against the Aussies. And India can then play three pace bowlers in Prasad, Kuruvilla and Ganesh and two spinners in Kumble and Joshi or, alternately, a two-pronged pace attack with all three spinners playing.

Equally interestingly, a case can be made for dropping Mohammad Azharuddin for the game, and bringing Ajay Jadeja into the middle order. Jadeja is striking the ball well, and his brilliance in the field will be required in a game where attacking spin bowling is likely to be the norm - though, of course, Azhar's catching in the slips will be an equally important asset. Azhar, though, has thus far been going through the motions at the batting crease, and it might be a good idea to give him a layoff ahead of the one-day series, so he can return with renewed motivation.

But these are bold measures - and somehow, it does not appear likely that the Indian management will go for them. Oh well, we'll know in two days, won't we?

PS: When I first wrote this piece, I got my arithmetic totally wrong, and had 5 plus 2 equalling six. I am grateful to the dozens of people out there who wrote in to point this out. Thank you all... and apologies for the mistake - Prem.