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DEAR REDIFF

It's India, by ten wickets

Prem Panicker

If the seeds of defeat in Saturday's encounter were sown prior to the game in the Indian dressing room, then a day later, the same dressing room was where India took its first step towards its most convincing one day win in some time.

For once, the think tank got everything right - in came Saurav Ganguly for the off-form Robin Singh (incidentally, giving the equally off-form Mohammad Azharuddin a longer run of life). Saba Karim's entry was a cert, given that Mongia was injured by the Ambrose lifter he took on his hand while batting on Saturday. And in its boldest move in a long time, the Indian think tank dropped Joshi, bringing in debutant off-spinner Noel David.

And that reminds me - we guys who are paid to write about the game tend, every now and again, to forget we are human beings. And as such, neither omniscient, nor omnipotent. I had argued a strong case, yesterday, for going into this game with three spinners, dropping either Azhar or Kuruvilla to make room for the third spinner. Well, I'll tell you what - dropping Azhar is a debatable question, but happen they had dropped Kuruvilla, this game could possibly have taken a different course altogether. So like I said, the game provides me the reminder of my own fallibility - and, for readers out there, another reminder that what you read, in here and otherwhere, are merely the opinions of a human being, implying all the fallibilities inherent therein. NOT gospel.

Okay, back to the game. The wicket was the same as the one on which, 24 hours earlier, the two teams had played out the first encounter. With this essential difference - that the heavy moisture under the pitch, thanks to the watering before the game, had dried in the interim. So for the second game, the pitch rolled out a lot truer than the day before.

India, as mentioned above, made three changes, the West Indies made none.

Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and opted to field. Seemed surprising at the time - in fact, a couple of experts on television even questioned the wisdom of that decision, arguing that the wicket would crumble and making batting a misery by the time the second innings came around.

Tendulkar, however, was gambling on two factors - one, the pitch had been covered overnight, so it would have "sweated" through the night, producing some life early on. And two, there was a heavy cloud cover, which would suit Venkatesh Prasad and Abey Kuruvilla.

The Indian captain was right, as it turned out, on both counts. Unlike in the previous game, both medium pacers bowled tight, probing opening overs. And in the third over of the day, the fireworks began - Venkatesh Prasad produced one that pitched on middle stump, and where Stuart Williams was looking for the away swing, it held its line and thudded into the pads, giving the umpire no problems. Williams gone for 3 off 6 deliveries, Windies 5/1.

That brought Brian Lara, the Prince of Port of Spain, to the wicket. And even before the cheers had stopped, he had begun the long walk back, out off the very first ball he faced. Happens, sometimes, to the greatest batsmen in the world - bowlers in any event tend to try harder when they are bowling to a quality player, and ever so often, they produce the unplayable delivery they can never reproduce when, say, a number ten is at the wicket. This one from Prasad was straight out of a medium pacer's wish list - bowled from over the wicket, slanting across the left hander, pitching just short enough of driving length to draw Lara forward, and seaming just sufficiently to miss the middle of the bat, and feather its edge. Lara caught Karim bowled Prasad 0, and Windies 5/2, still in the third over of the innings.

That pretty much set the pattern. Chanderpaul, so fluent the day before, found himself at sea as both Prasad and Kuruvilla, utilising the conditions to the optimum and bowling a very full length, which meant that the ball had time to move in the air, kept beating the edge. Hooper, who came in at the fall of Lara's wicket, looked equally hesitant, and for once, the Indian bowlers were still bowling when the first ten overs were up. Sheer desperation at not being able to hit a convincing stroke perhaps prompted the airy drive that Hooper launched at an away swinger from Kuruvilla. In the event, the movement was enough to take the thick outer edge, and Jadeja doesn't make too many mistakes at point. Hooper 14 off 23, the West Indies 32/3.

In came Roland Holder, and out he went six balls later. This time, it was Kuruvilla's turn to produce the beauty - a ball on off stump that swung in late, and kept slanting after pitching. Holder was decieved into going down the wrong line, and got the thick inner edge, the ball passing between bat and body. Saba Karim, seeing the swing, had begun moving towards leg side when the edge flashed to his right - the keeper checked, flung himself the other way and pulled off a blinder to send Holder back for 0, and Windies 32/4.

All this proved a bit much for Chanderpaul. Realising that half the side were already in the pavilion and that Kuruvilla and Prasad were by then threatening to run away with the game, he tried to take the battle to the opposition. Yesterday we spoke of how, after his century, Chanderpaul has gained the confidence to drive on the up, off the front foot - today, the same shot was his undoing. Kuruvilla produced another of those away swingers that moved very late in the air, foxing the batsman into playing down the wrong line - and Karim flung himself miles to his left to grasp yet another blinder. Chanderpaul gone for 12 off 30, and the West Indies 32/5.

Jimmy Adams and Courtney Browne put their heads down, weathered the storm, and took whatever singles there were on offer. And it must be said here that runs were very difficult to come by - because for once, the Indian fielders backed their bowlers to the hilt.

It was amazing to see Adams drop a ball at his feet only for four fielders to come charging in from four different directions, intent on not letting the single be taken. It also makes one think - as so often, when India plays to its potential - of what this team could achieve if it had this level of commitment every time it took the field. With the electric Noel David leading the way and Azharuddin and Jadeja in support, the fielding on the day was easily the best that has been seen from an Indian team this season, and don't forget the season began with the World Cup last year.

Such pressure produces wickets - but the next one to go was rather fortuitous. Kumble bowled one outside off, Browne lashed at it, the ball went like a rocket and before Rahul Dravid at silly point could take evasive action, thudded high into his shoulder. Dravid collapsed in pain - and in the confusion, not even Kumble realised, for a moment, that Kumble had caught the ball as it bounced off Dravid. Ball in hand, Kumble was more intent on running up to the fallen fielder - and if he and Karim hadn't, as an afterthought, let loose with a vague Howzaat, Browne wouldn't have been out - after all, no appeal, no decision. In the event, Browne went, for 7 off 14, with Windies on 44/6. And so did Dravid, to take treatment for that clout, which should keep him up most of tonight with pain.

Ian Bishop's batting skills are grossly underrated. He is in fact quite an accomplished bat, with sound footwork and a good defensive technique. And it was all on display today as he, with Jimmy Adams being his usual obdurate self, inched the score along with singles. The two put on 56 runs at a time when it looked like the team's total score wouldn't cross 56 - and then Bishop made the mistake of trying to force the pace, ending up spooning an off spinner to Prasad at mid off. Bishop gone for 31 off 77 and Windies 100/7.

Curtley Ambrose rather fancies himself as a batsman, and has an ability to hit clean blows over the top. But then, Ambrose hasn't played an off spinner for a while now - for the left hander, hitting the leg spinner over the top comes easy, but off spin takes the ball away from the bat, and the inevitable miscue was safely caught in the deep by Ganguly off David, Ambrose going for 4 off 9 deliveries, Windies 107/8.

Rose was in a bit of a hurry, too, apparently - and again, like Ambrose, rather too used to playing Kumble and Joshi. So here he drew back, intending the square drive - but the ball turned in sharply, went under the bat and crashed into middle stump. Rose gone for 5 off 10 deliveries, and Windies 116/9.

Jimmy Adams did his best to farm the strike, but in the end was left unbeaten on a fighting 35 off 86 deliveries. Walsh, the last man, came forward to Kumble, Karim collected the ball and in the split second in which the batsman overbalanced and his left toe lifted from behind anchor in the batting crease, whipped the bails off. A world class stumping to go with two world class catches, and Karim - as in South Africa - had come in for an injured Mongia and delivered the goods, in spades.

For India, every single bowler did the job required. Prasad (8-1-22-2) started it all with those first two wickets, Kuruvilla (10-2-23-3) gutted the middle order and it was noteworthy that by the time the two medium pacers had finished their first spells, five of the top Windies batsmen were back in the pavilion.

Saurav Ganguly got a nice little spell here, in fact coming on second change after Kumble, and was his usual tidy self. Kumble for his part was miserly as usual, with figures of 2 for 22 off 8.5. But for me, the extra dimension to the attack came from David. The lad runs in just three lazy paces, has a nice easy action, gives the ball a good tweak and has a loop pronounced enough to keep the batsmen guessing about where the ball is going to pitch. Figures of 8-0-21-3 make for a dream debut, and in the process David stepped in to rectify a problem India has faced too often in the recent past - namely, having got rid of the top order, finding itself unable to finish the job off. Add to this his outstanding fielding, and this seems to be a lad for the long haul.

Rain interruptions there had been, as on the first day, and the last of them had forced the lunch break to be taken early. Still, four overs were reduced, and India's revised target was 119 to win, in 46 overs. Another interruption, and the target was again revised, to 113 in 42. Irrespective, the actual task was different. 25 overs bowled to the side batting second constitutes a match, and as per the Clarke's Curve, India's score had to be above 83 at the half way mark.

Given the small size of the total, one would have expected Sachin Tendulkar in particular to blaze away. But Tendulkar, opening with Ganguly, appeared determined to prove some kind of point - he was calm, assured, very controlled in his batting. And though he did dance down, yet again, to flat bat Bishop back over his head before stepping away from the stumps and slamming over cover in a manner reminiscent of Saturday's blitz, Tendulkar for the most part got all his runs with deft little placements and brisk running between the wickets. In fact, it is a surprising facet that Ganguly, always rated a poor and, worse, lazy runner between wickets, is positively on his toes when he bats with his captain.

At the other end, Ganguly faced one torrid over from Ambrose, in which he was beaten for pace and movement repeatedly. But that was it - from that point, there was never a let up. True, he didn't indulge his penchant for silken off drives, nor his new found love for wafting balls away over midwicket - except once, when he startled Walsh by picking up a good length ball and lifting effortlessly to the midwicket boundary. The rest of the time, he concentrated on keeping his end up, taking the singles as and when possible, and ensuring that India was well ahead of the moderate run rate required of them.

Another point worth making is that most times, Ganguly (39 off 77) and Tendulkar (65 off 70) batting in tandem get off to good starts. Here, the two were batting at half throttle, and yet took India to 116 for no loss in only 23.1 overs, securing the ten wicket win, levelling the series, and all this before the innings had reached the half way stage.

The team got a win it can be proud of because for once, neither bowlers nor fielders nor batsmen ever put a foot wrong.

Now to see if they can keep that level of commitment going, in the final two games of the series...