Srinath, Kumble bowl India back into III Test

Prem Panicker

If you were told, right up front, that in one day's play - on the second day of a Test match, mind - as many as 15 wickets fell for the addition of just 217 runs, what would you think?

Doctored wicket? Minefield? A batsman's notion of hell?

Dunno how it is for you, but I look at that statistic and think of ghosts.

Specifically, of an instance dating back to when I was 14. Of how a friend, on the way to school on the first day after the holidays, told me how he had gone to his mother's home in interior Kerala. Spent a blissful eight days stuffing himself with mangoes, jackfruits and everything else he could get. And then, one day, while he was fooling around with friends at the riverbank, he was told in course of casual chatter that the house had a history of being haunted.

For the remaining five days of his stay there, he told me, he never slept a wink, tossing fitfully all night long waiting for that ghost to come and do to him he knew not what.

Kind of reminds me of the way the batsmen played today, on the Green Park wicket at Kanpur.

Like young boys with ghosts, there were two kinds of batsmen. The kind that scares himself silly over some unknown devil and ends up losing his wicket; and the kind that, whistling in the dark as it were, attempts to scare the devil away by false bravado.

Sure, the wicket turned. Kept low. Allowed the spinners to practise their craft, and the pacemen to utilise helpful conditions.

But was the wicket bad enough to account for 15 dismissals in a day?

You be the judge...

When India resumed at the overnight score of 204 for six with Tendulkar batting on 43 and Kumble on zero, one assumed - especially in light of the previous day's display of stonewalling - that we were in for a defensive display as the batsmen sought to grind out runs by the process of painful attrition.

But no, this morning was the total antithesis of last evening - with South Africa opening with the spin of Adams at one end and the medium pace of Cronje at the other in preference to taking the overdue no ball - the Indian batsmen appeared in one heck of a hurry.

Kumble drove through the covers, Sachin cut, then drove Adams for consequtive boundaries, and the runs came fast and furious... till Cronje, who at his gentle pace was getting huge reverse swing, opened Kumble up with a ball outside off stump that swerved late, darted in on pitching, and pegged back the stumps.

Aashish Kapoor came in... watched while Tendulkar blazed away... and watched as the Indian skipper, seemingly in an almighty rush to make up for the time he lost yesterday, went the aerial route once too often and gave a simple catch off Adams to mid off, the ball going high off the bottom edge of the flailing bat. Yesterday, the Indian skipper had taken all of 151 balls to make 43, today he added a further 18 runs off just 22 balls...

Srinath lasted for precisely the time it took for Adams to bowl a straight ball on the leg stump - which the batsman, trying to turn to leg against the turn without even taking the time to read the ball, pushed back down the wicket for Adams to dive behind the back of the non-striker and pull off a great catch.

And finally Kapoor, who looked in good touch, figured that Prasad could not be trusted to keep him company - so he lashed out at Adams, and gave Symcox a simple catch on the line and the bowler his sixth wicket.

As we mentioned yesterday, Adams showed great heart in coming back after a pasting in his first four overs and bowled a steady line and length, getting some turn on the wicket - but then, it must be added that each of his six victims was guilty, in some measure, of complicity in his own dismissal.

In the event, Adams ended with a haul of 6/55, and with this confidence behind him, could be quite a handful in the coming weeks.

Having been shot out for 237, one expected India to be looking for wickets right from the first over - but strangely, Sachin Tendulkar veered more towards defense, keeping just two slips and a wide gully in place though Srinath and Prasad, in the early overs, got swing and seam movement and consistently troubled both Kirsten and Hudson.

The two South African openers, with a 200-plus partnership behind them at Calcutta, failed to recapture that form and, for the most part, looked unsure of whether to play on the front foot, or back. The first over of Prasad saw Kirsten driving at the bowler, playing early to the slower one and popping back a simple return catch which Prasad, bending rather lazily in his follow through, grassed.

The first four scoring shots were all fours - and all streaky ones. Twice the edge went precisely where a third slip would have been. And it began to look as if India would pay for that fielding lapse, as it did in Calcutta.

In came Kumble - and Hudson, who in this series has made a habit of getting out LBW, went back to the flipper for another textbook dismissal.

That brought to the wicket Herschelle Gibbs - the free-stroking batsman who, in little over a day and half of batting time, had hammered the India A attack to the tune of 371 runs. One of the bowlers he hit out of the attack then was Aashish Kapoor. One of the things you do not do, when the bowler is getting sharp turn and the ball is keeping low, is draw back and try to cut. But that is what Gibbs did - and back went his middle stump. Another dismissal that is hard to credit to the wicket, though Kapoor did contribute by bowling a very good line, flighting the ball right up and getting good turn.

Darryl Cullinan is another player who is reputed to be a strokeplayer. And he was coming off a blazing century in the second innings at Calcutta. On the day, though, he made little effort to play himself in, getting carried away by a sweetly timed on drive off Kumble. Cullinan figured that since Kumble wasn't spinning the ball much anyway, he could go back and force through midwicket - in the event, the ball spun and took the outer edge for Azhar to fling himself forward and take a great catch at slip.

Before that, however, Kirsten, who after that let off seemed to be making an effort to play himself in and had begun to look in ominous form, jabbed at Kapoor's off spinner pitching on the left hander's off stump and leaving the bat. The sharp edge was flying to the left of silly point when Raman lunged sideways and pulled off a great reflex catch, getting rid of the only batsman who looked to be getting on top of the bowling.

Tendulkar has got into the habit of ignoring his pacemen, especially Srinath, after the initial spell. It happened again here, until the Indian skipper suddenly remembered that there was a fast bowler lurking way out in the deep, and recalled him to the crease after tea. And as at Ahmedabad, Srinath again struck hard and often. Getting enormous reverse swing, mixing it up with huge breakbacks, he kept both McMillan and Cronje on tenterhooks - and in the second over of his second spell, produced a ball that swung in late, pitched, then seamed through McMillan's defence to send the leg stump cartwheeling.

Cronje, for some reason, seemed in this innings hell bent on dancing down to Kumble - something that, given the height and slanted angle at which the bowler delivers, given too his pace and lack of flight, is always risky and very very rarely attempted. Cronje got it right once and blasted Kumble for a four, but then tried the same shot a while later with disastrous results. One of Kumble's strengths is that he invariably spots the charge and drops the ball short - this time, the leggie fired it in at the advancing batsman's pads, forcing the involuntary scoop for VVS Laxman, substituting for Saurav Ganguly who was off with a twisted ankle, to hold comfortably at mid on.

Richardson had presumably been watching while Gibbs perished, trying to cut from off the stumps. Yet he tried it to both Kumble and Srinath in quick succession. The first time, the inner edge hit the ground in front of the stumps and bounced over. Off Srinath, the identical inner edge slammed into the stumps, as the ball darted in off the seam.

Lance Klusener is reputed to be one of the up and coming all-rounders, and on the day he decided to hit his way out of trouble. Srinath, always a handful when bowling to a left-hander, pitched one on off stump and moved it away a fraction, Klusener lashed a drive, the ball gliding off the bat face and rocketing past point where Dravid, reacting in a split second, flung himself to his left to come up with the ball in both hands while the camera, and all eyes, were panning to the boundary.

Next to go was Fanie De Villiers - who, like Symcox at the other end, appeared to have forgotten his batsmanship at Ahmedabad. For some reason, the lanky fast bowler alternated between padding up irrespective of line and length, or going down on his knee to swipe at everything with little to show for it. Interestingly, the umpire at one end was David Shepherd - the man who, last week, had consistently given LBW decisions in the Australia-West Indies game when the ball looked headed for the stumps and the batsman just thrust his front foot way out without offering a stroke. Fanie did it again here, sticking his left foot down the track and padding up to Kumble, who asked for and got the decision - leaving us wondering why the batsman, who in Ahmedabad on a track that spun more and kept lower had rarely if ever used his pads and ended up making 60-plus runs, couldn't remember that lesson here.

Symcox, too, departed from his Ahmedabad mode, swiping at everything and riding his luck with a serious of unsightly heaves and one magnificiently struck six over mid on. Until Joshi held one back, forcing the mistimed drive. The ball was however struck hard, Joshi failed to hold the low, stinging return chance - and the ball ricocheted onto the non-striker's stumps to catch last man Paul Adams out of his ground.

South Africa, at one stage three for 120, had lost its last six wickets for the addition of a mere 55 runs.

For India, Srinath was the star - unplayable with the new ball, and totally mesmerising with the old. Kapoor, coming back into the side, showed in course of a brief eight over spell the folly of leaving him out for the first two Tests. Kumble was his usual self, relying on radar accuracy and speed, rather than turn and flight, to prise batsmen out while bowling 27 overs - a shade too much, one felt, given that of the other two spinners, one had bowled a mere eight, the other 7.3.

Mention must be made of the fielding - Raman and Dravid, at silly point and short-leg, combining with Azhar in the slip, were outstanding on a day when, barring the return catch Prasad dropped off Kirsten, nothing went by that should have been stopped or caught. And a review of the innings shows that those three fielders, with an outstanding catch apiece, were really the key to the South African collapse.

In the event, South Africa had fallen 60 runs behind the Indian total - and well though the Indians bowled and fielded, it must be admitted that the tourists contributed, to a considerable extent, to their own downfall.

India needed to play out four overs - and end the day with all wickets intact.

In the event, they failed to do that, suffering a blow in the very first over. Fanie De Villiers was bowling a much fuller length than in the first innings and Raman, who a ball earlier had caressed an attempted yorker through cover for two, was taken by surprise by one that swung in late and caught him plumb in front.

That was a blow for India - Raman had looked very impressive in his first innings, and could have been the man to play another strokeful innings on this wicket. But in the event, he owed his wicket to a very good ball from a class bowler - one of the very few batsmen dismissed today who could say that.

Mongia and nightwatchman Anil Kumble batted out the remaining three overs, to take India in at the end of the second day on 7/1 - 67 runs ahead, with nine second innings wickets intact.

The key to this puzzle, now, is time - there are all of three days left and given the increasing tendency of the pitch to keep low and turn while, thanks to the atmosphere and stiff cross breeze, the quicks are able to get swing both conventional and reverse, a target of 300, 350 runs could be a match winning one. Which means that India can afford to bat till at least an hour past lunch on the fourth day - nine hours in total - to get that kind of a target up on the board.

On this wicket, runs can be got by batsmen who are prepared to play smooth, flowing strokes rather than the apprehension-laced defensive jabs. For the South Africans, Fanie De Villiers with his ability to reverse swing in these conditions, and Symcox and Adams both of whom can get bounce and turn here, will need to bowl at their best to put the Indians under pressure.

Predictions are risky in this game, especially on a track like this. But after the largely inexplicable collapse of the visitors' batting lineup today, the temptation is to stick one's neck out and say that the chances are good for the home side to take the series 2-1 with a win here.

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