Ganguly, Joshi revive India
Ashish Magotra
A day that had its ups and downs ended with India
holding a slight edge. The same old failings of the
Indian team surfaced with all the top-order batsmen
getting off to good starts, but failing to
capitalise
on them. Too little Test cricket, is that the
reason?
Whatever it is, India, resuming on 81/1, clawed
their
way to 366/7 at stumps on day 3 of the inaugural
Test
against Bangladesh.
The third day began without much ado with Sadagoppan
Ramesh getting to his fifty in the second over.
Ramesh
seemed to be batting with a fair degree of comfort,
and with nightwatchman Murali Karthik holding up the
other end, India was headed in the right direction.
It was exactly at this juncture, with Indian
beginning
to gain ascendancy over Bangladesh, that Ramesh got
out playing on to his stumps off the bowling of
Ranjan
Das. Ramesh made 58. The Indian total at the time
was
104.
Next up, Rahul Dravid played a competent innings and
just seemed to be getting into his stride when he
was
declared out, caught by Sahariar Rokon off the
bowling
of Mohammed Rafique. Dravid's individual score was
28.
The fall of Dravid’s wicket seemed to stir the crowd
because it brought Sachin Tendulkar to the middle
and
every time he strides in, he brings with him a sense
of anticipation, a hope of something happening.
At the other end, Karthik on his part was continuing
on his merry way, amassing 37 runs by the stroke of
lunch when India were 165/3 with Tendulkar unbeaten
on
5.
The post-lunch session was expected to be the most
interesting of the day. India still needed another
36
runs to avoid the follow-on. At just the wrong
moment,
India lost Karthik to another dubious decision. The
ball from Naimur Rahman, the Bangladeshi captain,
pitched outside the offstump and hit the pad miles
away from the bat to find its way to Rajin Salah
fielding at silly point. But Karthik was declared
out.
Rahman bowled a really good line throughout the
morning session and this continued into the
afternoon
session. Karthik departed with the score on 175 and
India suddenly looked to be in big trouble.
Bangladesh has so far pulled all the strings at the
right time in this Test match. Sourav Ganguly
arrived
with a big responsibility on his shoulders, to get
India to a respectable position. Ganguly and
Tendulkar
constitute probably the best opening pair in one-day
cricket and were expected to tear into the
Bangladeshi
attack. But that was not to be as the next wicket to
fall was that of Tendulkar with the Bangladeshi
skipper doing the damage again.
The Bangladeshi spinners did a very good job bowling
in tandem, giving away very few loose deliveries.
Tendulkar’s dismissal brought Syed Saba Karim, eager
to prove that he deserved his place in the side, to
the wicket. When Tendulkar was dismissed, India were
reduced to 190/5 with 11 runs still needed to avoid
the follow-on. Karim played his part to perfection
and
did not try anything silly, being content to just
give
good company to his skipper.
The duo added 46 runs, taking India to relative
safety, before Karim was out stumped in a fairly
peculiar manner to Naimur Rahman, who was the pick
of
the Bangladeshi bowlers. Sunil Joshi then took
Karim’s
place and straightaway began in a positive manner,
hitting the first delivery he faced for a boundary.
The manner in which Joshi was playing seemed to rub
off on Ganguly and the two set about repairing the
damage. Thus, at tea, India were 261/6 with Ganguly
on
44 and Joshi, 12.
After tea, Ganguly and Joshi continued sensibly and
but for one occasion when there was a slight
misunderstanding between the two -- Ganguly has
always
been slightly suspect running between the wickets
and
was lucky not to see his partner back in the
pavilion
-- they took India to 300 in the 94th over of the
innings.
For once the home team allowed things to drift and
Joshi began to take the attack to the bowlers who
were
now tiring after a hard day’s work. He reached his
first Test half-century off 59 deliveries and India
looked to finally be on top. But then Ganguly was
dismissed with the score on 357. The captain
compiled
a well-made 84 before holing out to Al Shariyar to
give Naimur Rahman his country’s first five-wicket
Test haul.
Ganguly shared an invaluable partnership of 121 runs
with Joshi. Ajit Agarkar came in at the fall of
Ganguly’s wicket and gave Joshi good company to see
off the remaining four overs. Joshi, who remained
unbeaten on 71, and Agarkar on 5 will try and get
India a lead over Bangladesh on Monday.
The best Bangladeshi bowler on view was undoubtedly
Naimur Rahman. His figures tell the story:
40-9-110-5.
India ended the day at 366/7, requiring a further 35
runs to overhaul the Bangladeshi total.
Monday thus promises to be a day of expectations.
Anything is possible if the Indians manage to get a
few quick runs on the board. With the pitch
deteriorating fast, it would then be all up to the
bowlers.
Mail Cricket Editor