Choked to death!!!!!
as the second day draws to a close, one safe assumption is that the chances of indians winning this test range from remote to zero. The australian pacemen , in delightfully helpful conditions , wreaked havoc with the indian batsmen who looked lost and confused. It was pure embrassement for an indian fan to see their indians being so much on the defensive in what is their strong hold. The aussies are eyeing the summit , that is one undeniable fact.
After an agonising first day , when martyn showed them artistry with the bat , lehman demostrated cheekiness and clarke tutored them on technique, the indians were praying for a happy picnic on day two. If day one was demoralising , the second day was just short of being cataclysmic. The indians forgot the fact that between wild slashes and rock solid defense is a style of batting that is a blend of aggression and defense. Akash , dravid and sachin were insanely defensive and dug huge pits for themselves. Sehwag on the other hand was ultra aggressive , probably confused test match cricket for twenty-20. In the end wickets were lost and few runs were scored.
Tendulkar can be forgiven for his poor outing because he is coming in after a long lay off without even a decent hit in a domestic match. If anyone is to be blamed it is the selectors. However , the same cannot be said of the others. Akash chopra , i feel , is being given a raw deal here. After failing to perform in the first match he found himself in the side lines for the next. Now , he is being thrust back into the slot and asked to perform. Its true that he has failed to grab the chance but its not easy for a player when he is being played like a rugby ball. But look into the core of this rot in indian batting and you will find a name etched there : Dravid. Dravid has carried the team in his shoulders quite frequently in the recent times and ironically for many this is becoming obvious with his failures leading to a batting collapse. Its time he and his record partner Laxman came to their strides. This lean patch has gone for too long for his calibre. Knowing the kind of bloke he is , i beleive dravid will come up a match winner any time now. But will it be too late?
so where do we stand at the end of another uninspiring day for the indians. With half the side down for less than 150 and the weight of a huge lead on them , the indians need an inspiring and miraculous effort from the two men , uhhh boys at the crease. Kaif , once again proved that he is a man with a big heart by playing another critical and gritty innings. It wouldnt compare anywhere with martyn's batting the day before , in terms of attractiveness but it is an equally important innings. He is still not through and i would love to see him score a fifty first and then, go on and convert it to a big one , a seemingly far stretched imagination. He is beginning to perform in test cricket and that should give him a lot of confidence. Parthiv once again showed that ,with a bat in his hand he is a completely different proposition. He is one guy who would not gift his wicket away easily nor be subdued by intimidating bowling. He is as much an asset with the bat as a liablity with the glove.
Now coming to the million dollar question. Can the indians actually win it from here. The answer would be yes , simply because cricket is a game of uncertainties. But , apart from all that , with the hard cold facts of the scores after day two , i would say that the chance of winning the match is very small but existant. A big rear gaurd fightback , an amazing second inning bowling and an incredible second inning batting are all it would take to win this test. But then , it is asking indians to thrash the aussies in all departments in the next two games. And you know the odds.......
opening on a discordant note....
...in my last blog i described indians as being unsettled. I never imagined how much of an understatement that would be until i saw dravid walk up for the toss. My eyes popped out. What hapenned to ganguly overnight? A groin strain. Now i look at the playing eleven and i am aghast. It looks like a complete revamp of sorts and we had no idea. No harbajan! I thought harbajan in the team was a given , at least in india. But viruses dont have any discrimination and they picked the turbonator at the right time. Agarkar is in for the injured irfan pathan and karthik for harbhajan.
Now i look at the batting and indians dont fail to surprise me. Tendulkar is in , as expected , but at the expense of kaif , who played a great innings in chennai until cramps got to him. Well , yuvraj gets the stick , no surprise , and Akash chopra comes in to occupy the top slot. Well thats about the changes! In spite of all these , i think the inclusion of sachin is a huge motivation for the team , if ever they need one.
On a wicket that surprised even gilchrist , the indians could have made a gutsy move by going in with a lone spinner. But remember that sachin , apart from being the best batsman in the world is also a fairly proficient spinner. Add sehwag to the bag and dravid would have had some spinning choices even without karthik. I dont want to sound rude , but i personally dont rate karthik as a great bowler. He can be average at best. He lacks the variety , guile and spin of harbhajan. Strangely , quite often i hear people lamenting that karthik never gets a fair deal and is treated shabbily by ganguly. I dont understand this. I have never see him bowl any inspiring spell or a match turning one. So , i feel that the burden is as much on the quickies as kumble and theyy have got to do the job for india if indians are to entertain any thoughts of winning the match.
aussies dream a final frontier capture...
...The cricket caravan has moved to nagpur. This
is the last chance for the indians to come back into this series. They would , no doubt , be buoyed by the fact that that their master batsman is back. Still, the aussies hold a definite upper hand. They are 1 - 0 up in the series and a win here will seal it tight for them. So the pressure is again on the indians to win it here if they are to open the doors of a series victory.
Ganguly definitely has problems , the least of which is coming up with the playing eleven on tuesday. Sachin is coming in. Someone has to move out. The problem is not because everyone has performed wonderfully but because no one (2 exceptions of sehwag and kaif) has come good with the bat , so far. But
no captain can think of removing players like laxman or dravid. Yuvraj will most probably be dreading the axe. Axing yuvi creates a new dilema. A dilema that originated post gavaskar : The eternal search for an opener. Ganguly may fall to patel (i am shocked that he is playing , in the first place). Then there wouldnt be any changes in the team , at least in the batsmen. By some miracle , if ganguly's faith in akash chopra gets a boost (he deserves better treatment), then a second head goes to the guillotine. That would be kaif - 9 out of ten times.
Now , i ask a question that would appear blasphemous -
Should sachin play this match? This wondering is purely from a health point of view. One obvious fact that i spotted during tendulkar's press conferences is that he is still not 100 percent fit. His treatment is being hurried to get him into the team for the third test. Thats insanity. First of all , it could be dangerous for him. Second , he cant give the team 100 percent.
It paints a picture of panic and helplessness in the indian camp and sends the wrong message to the opponents....
The parthiv debacle
...in the end the chennai test was an anticlimax. As the rival camps licked their lips in anticipation of a victory , the rain god wanted no nonsense. He came showering down turning the chepauk greens into a swamp ,
a meadow where the cherubic sheperd(and Rudy) didnt want his sheeps to graze.
Dissapointment was an under-statement.
Agony and frustration were close contenders for the word that would describe the emotions of the men in blue. Interestingly , the green and gold men would also have the same emotions coursing through them. Thats paradoxical isnt it?. But that was exactly how the match was poised....delicately on a needle tip.
So what are the learnings? In spite of a spell binding effort by sehwag and a match - saving/winning effort by martyn , the name thats pops up in my mind is that of a man who keeps the wickets for the indians. And not only for the bad reasons.
In a world of miniaturisation , parthiv seems to have endorsed the trend even in his physique and talent behind the stumps. New bettings are starting , 'what are the odds of parthiv holding on to the ball?'. I dont want to show the odds , highly dissapointing for an indian fan. Now this little guy takes a few paces and stands in front of the stumps , and lo! , a complete transformation!. He becomes a gutsy match winning batsman. This transformation produces a dilema for the captain.
Parthiv i guess is just about to complete his teens and his job is to keep wickets and bat. But , the question is , what is the net score? If he can score a great 50 under pressure and drop a few batsmen who go on to make a 50 or a hundred then his net score , i am sorry to say , is way below the zero mark.
Continuing with him is a grave mistake. I am not harsh on this guy , i am just putting things in perspective. Indians need to groom him , of course , but not at the expense of international victories. He has got a problem with his technique when it comes to keeping and he 's got to correct it. the best way is to go back to the academy or domestic cricket and get it sorted.
The indians must ensure that he doesnt go out of reckoning like so many players who had taken a break from international cricket.
The nightmare begins.....
..cricket is a really fickle minded game and can make people eat their words in a real hurry. Just over 24 hours ago when i wrote , the words were dipping with despair and agony over the plight of the indians. They had lost their first test and had had a devastating start to the second one. Everything looked lost and the prospect was gloomy. Hayden was expected to atleast score a ton and aussies might have set their sights on a halfway to 1000 mark.Indian body language was not inspiring. Then Hayden had an idea. He wanted to belt harbhajan into the arabian sea but ended up spooning a catch. That was when hell broke loose , for australia.
For the green and gold men the events that followed were nighmarish.The script was right from one of Gilchrist's nerve wracking dream.Paradoxically one had a sense of deja vu as the indians played dominoes with the australian batsmen. Chepauk was back to haunt. Indians were back in the hunt.......
after the first session...
...Its ruthless and decimating , the aussie batting. The Aussie openers greeted the indians with an assault a fielding captain wouldnt want on a one-day game let alone a test match. Two towering blows , of the bowling of harbhajan , that went sailing past the boundry ropes , said the story of the morning. No respite. The aussies are determined to stamp their dominance right from the first ball of the game and they did it comprehensively. No one was spared. The chennai crowd had a feast of attacking cricket , if they could put the dissapointment away and watch some brilliant batting.
The indians must be in a state of shock. A rude welcome into the second test was not high on ganguly's agenda. He needs to prepare a really good pep talk now...to motivate his bunch
when they come after lunch. They arent still out of the game , though they would be if this continued for any longer. This session , the indians need to play for their lives if they want to
change the fate of this series in their favour.............
looking ahead at the second test....
....The champagne bottles in the aussie dressing room lie unopened...hadnt the aussies won their first test..of the series. Not yet...not this time! The premature celebrations and the nightmare that followed has gone down in history as one of the glorious classics of test cricket. It was a match where laxman and dravid set about the task of redefining the impossible and set new limits. It was also a match that shook the greatest team to its root , so much so that they are confused as to what exactly transpired in the garden of eden on a hot afternoon...so the champagne bottles are waiting....waiting like a predator.
Any attempt to draw a comparison between the sides on the conclusion of the first test would reveal a huge chasm. A chasm as deep as the indian confidence is low. Having lost contigous series. Now they've lost the first test too...never for once dominating the match. Remember 2001 , say some. However there is an unspoken feeling that the aussies aren't naive this time around.They are now ready; for surprises and turnabouts and have shed their stubborn sticking-to-my-plan attitude.
So the scenario is bleak like an alien surface(or should i say chinnaswamy surface). How do we look at a turnaround from an indian perspective? The solution is simple theoritically.By forgetting the past , by killing all emotions and looking at the job in hand at its most elementary level. The indians need to forget calcutta , forget adelaide or even the first test for that matter. They need to forget home advantage. They need to forget the recent losses. Ultimately the plan for the bowlers is to bowl a tight line. That was what they did at adelaide and they need to do it again. Seems simple isnt it. As for the batsmen...play ball by ball on merit. Ya looks good on paper but when McGraw seams one into you at 45 degrees.....stumps would tumble and so would your plans.
There were a few positives from the first test for the indians. The final two sessions were perhaps the best for them.Ironic it should come just before losing the match. We've got a lot of clues here. One , Irfan pathan is no blow away with the bat. Two , indians until then succumbed to aussies more pshycologically than technically. Through out the match the indians were on the defensive which was a clear indicator of this fact. They need to learn a few lessons from pathan and harbajan. Go for the loose ones , dent a bowler's confidence and then the job would be much easier. Shane warne had glimpses of 2001 nightmare when pathan launched into him like a mad elephant. He must be hoping other indian batsmen dont take cues from his batting.
So heres the deal...If indian batsmen attack and bowlers stick to basics then the second test would be a pretty even contest...else.....the champagnes will begin to flow...beleive me even after the second test.
