Azhar on fire as India fights back
Prem Panicker
Phew! After the insanity of day two, order was restored again as the Eden Gardens wicket, on day three of the ongoing Test India versus South Africa, turned back into a batsman's paradise.
As on the previous two days, figures suffice to sum up the story. 76.1 overs were bowled before play was called off ahead of schedule due to failing light. In that time, 337 runs were scored, inclusive of 50 boundaries and a six. And a mere four wickets fell, despite the best efforts of as many as 10 bowlers.
The batting gods were smiling again.
In fact, said gods did more than smile during the morning session - they chortled with glee as Mohammad Azharuddin - who retired after a brief stint the previous day, thanks to a combination of fever and a painful rap on the elbow - caught fire and came up with perhaps the most sensational Test innings in recent memory.
Azhar, in any event, is as at home at Calcutta's Eden as Adam was in the Biblical one - five Test outings before this far have produced three centuries, including his hundred on debut, and a 50. But the one he got today was easily the most memorable of them all - a knock of scintillant, savage brutality that left scars on the advertisement hoardings and sore hands among a houseful crowd that clapped itself silly.
And here's how it all happened...
The Indian innings
Coming in to resume at the overnight score of 152 for six with Srinath on 9 and Anil Kumble on 24, India's objective was to avert the follow on.
South Africa's goal, meanwhile, was to blast the Indians out, then put them in again and try to press for an innings win.
Trouble was, the SA bowlers took the word blast a shade too seriously - they figured that pace, and a profusion of short pitched deliveries, would do the job for them.
That was mistake two. Mistake one, of course, had been committed before the game had even begun, when the SA think tank decided to leave out Fanie De Villiers in favour of Lance Klusener - ignoring the fact that the former has always looked both dangerous and economical, while Klusener has consistently got the stick, each time he bowled to the Indian batsmen on this tour.
The two mistakes, together, cost South Africa dear when Srinath departed, inner edging a Donald lifter on to his stumps, and Azharuddin came out to resume his interrupted innings.
The SA think tank had obviously been busy overnight - for the former Indian skipper was immediately greeted by a bouncer.
One can almost see the message flashing on the famed laptop: 'Azhar suspect against short rising balls. Stop. Pepper him with bouncers till he chickens out and fends one away into the close catchers' pocket. Stop. Blast him out. Stop.'
Trouble being, this is not the kind of wicket where the short rising ball is going to bother anyone - least of all, the likes of Azharuddin who, given reasonably favourable conditions for batting, are capable of producing innings of stunning strokeplay.
The message should have been clear in the very fourth ball he faced, when Donald bounced and Azhar, standing tall, pulled fiercely to the fence. Clearer still when Klusener, in the next over, found Azhar take a lifting delivery on off stump and smash it back past the bowler, hitting on the rise.
The logical ploy was to have kept the ball on a fuller length. But no - the short pitched stuff kept coming, and disappearing as both Azhar and Kumble, the latter playing with an authority batsmen higher up in the hierarchy would have envied, went for their shots.
And the worst sufferer was Klusener - the bowler who, Cronje believed, would give him the cutting edge Fanie De Villiers supposedly lacked. This morning, Klusener bowled six overs. And went for 41 runs. In fact, his sixth over of the day was a classic - a single off the first ball, Azhar takes the second from outside off, hits on the rise and finds the mid off boundary, the third ball is again short and hammered over the top of mid on for a four, the fourth is on fuller length and flicked to the midwicket fence with incredible timing, the fifth is again picked on the rise and hammered between midwicket and mid on, and the sixth smashed, yet again, into the same gap.
Donald was no happier, his 9.2 overs on the day costing him 41 runs as both Azhar and Kumble hammered an incredible 156 runs off just 26 overs in the session till lunch.
Azhar's innings - 109 from 77 deliveries inclusive of 18 fours and a six - will in particular be spoken off for years to come, whenever spectacular batting displays are being debated. His innings on the day had it all - perfect footwork, immaculate timing, superb placement and power that was stupefying in its brutality.
Spare a thought, though, for Kumble - the Indian vice captain has noticeably been working on his batting, each successive innings proving better than the previous one. And today he outdid himself, playing with the panache of a seasoned batsman as he stroked the ball to all parts of the ballpark. True, one outer edge was spilled by Hudson in the slips - but then, many a better batsman has benefitted from such largesse...
And this fact - that Kumble (and even Srinath, who defended dourly for 44 deliveries before succumbing) are taking their batting seriously is a good sign, long term... if these two get the confidence that they can play proper cricketing strokes and get runs, it firms up the Indian batting order and provides yet another buffer against collapses.
In the event, India were all out for 329 shortly after lunch, Adams grabbing a couple of quick wickets and Kumble, in a bid to keep Hirwani away from Donald, failing to make his ground on a risky second run. This left South Africa with a lead of 99 runs on the first innings - not quite as much as was thought possible at one time.
The South African innings
Srinath has never bowled as well, and as consistently, as he has in this series - with, it must be added, so very little to show for it.
However, Srinath's opening spell in the SA second innings, in course of which he gave Hudson a hard rap on the thumb with one kicking up off a length, makes things all the more interesting for the second half of this series, when India goes to SA. The obvious possibility was that SA would prepare fast, bouncy tracks for the Indian batsmen, and let Donald, De Villiers, and possibly Shaun Pollock loose on them. But if Srinath bowls the way he has, with back up from Venkatesh Prasad and, possibly, D Ganesh and/or David Johnson, then that little ploy just could backfire, and badly at that.
Meanwhile, SA's obvious move in the second innings would be to get runs, as many of them and as fast as possible, before looking to declare with enough time on hand to bowl the Indians out again.
Question being, how many runs? Including the lead, a target of 425-odd for the Indian second innings, with the home side being asked to bat say sometime after tea tomorrow, seems about right from a South African point of view - any less, and India could resort to options like sending in a pinch hitter early to strike a few, bring the target within attainable distance, and then going for the runs; any more, and SA might take so long getting there that there is no time to bowl the opposition out again.
A delicate balancing act called for here, and given the number of times Srinath in particular beat the bat, it did look for a moment as though SA just might find the tables turned on them. In the event, though, barring the retirement of Hudson after that painful blow and the dismissal of debutant Herschelle Gibbs, fending off a kicker from Srinath for Dravid, at silly point, to bring off a spectacular diving catch, the SA batsmen did well to bat with fluency and a sense of urgency to get them to 160 for one at close.
Interestingly, when the umpires called play off today for light, Cronje did not seem quite as hot and bothered as he was when it happened yesterday, with the Indian tail-enders on strike... just thought I'd mention it here, is all, no points sought to be made.
Cullinan did get a life, when a ball from Hirwani went from bat onto boot, then via the pad to silly point. The umpire figured the ball had hit the ground and disallowed the appeal, at a time when Cullinan was on 15. The free stroking batsman, now on 60 with 9 fours, will now perhaps feel a bit better about those two unjust LBW appeals that went against him, once in Ahmedabad and now here in the first innings.
So there we have it, an interesting position at the end of the third day, SA leading by 259 runs with nine wickets in hand.
The early morning pitch offers some assistance to the bowlers, so the equation is whether Srinath, Prasad and Kumble can use that advantage to prise out a few early wickets, or whether the SA batsmen will continue in this form, powering their side to a total lead of 425, 450 runs and still be able to insert India well before close of play tomorrow.
And when making computations about what kind of target India will find difficult to chase, one fact will need to be kept in mind. Of the three days of play so far, the batsmen played well on two days. On both those days, very few wickets fell (just two on day one, and four today). And on both occasions, 300-plus runs were made, on this electric outfield and easy batting track.
Just a thought worth holding at the back of your mind, as you speculate on what SA will be looking to get tomorrow...
Scoreboard:
South Africa 1st innings R B 4 6
AC Hudson b Prasad 146 244 24 0
G Kirsten b Srinath 102 170 14 0
HH Gibbs lbw b Prasad 31 112 7 0
DJ Cullinan lbw b Prasad 43 85 7 0
WJ Cronje c Mongia b Srinath 4 18 1 0
BM McMillan lbw b Prasad 0 2 0 0
DJ Richardson not out 35 58 4 0
L Klusener b Prasad 10 21 1 0
PL Symcox b Prasad 13 20 0 1
AA Donald c VVS Laxman b Kumble 0 3 0 0
PR Adams b Kumble 4 8 0 0
Extras (b 6, lb 25, nb 9) 40
Total (all out, 121.1 overs) 428
Fall of Wickets: 1-236 (Kirsten), 2-296 (Hudson), 3-346 (Gibbs),
4-361 (Cronje), 5-362 (BM McMillan), 6-363 (Cullinan),
7-379 (Klusener), 8-421 (Symcox), 9-422 (Donald),
10-428 (Adams).
Bowling O M R W
Srinath 37 7 107 2
Prasad 35 6 104 6
Joshi 12 1 48 0
Ganguly 3 1 10 0
Kumble 20.1 1 78 2
Hirwani 14 2 51 0
India 1st innings R B 4 6
NR Mongia run out (Gibbs) 35 68 5 0
R Dravid c Hudson b McMillan 31 48 5 0
SC Ganguly b McMillan 6 17 1 0
SR Tendulkar b Donald 18 62 3 0
MA Azharuddin c & b Adams 109 77 18 1
VVS Laxman b Donald 14 35 2 0
SB Joshi run out (Donald) 4 9 1 0
J Srinath b Donald 11 44 1 0
A Kumble run out (Gibbs) 88 124 13 0
BKV Prasad c Richardson b Adams 1 10 0 0
ND Hirwani not out 0 2 0 0
Extras (lb 5, nb 7) 12
Total (all out, 81.2 overs) 329
Fall of Wickets: 1-68 (Dravid), 2-71 (Mongia), 3-77 (Ganguly),
4-114 (VVS Laxman), 5-119 (Tendulkar), 6-119 (Joshi),
7-161 (Srinath), 8-322 (Azharauddin), 9-324 (Prasad),
10-329 (Kumble).
Bowling O M R W
Donald 21.2 3 72 3
Klusener 14 1 75 0
Adams 13 1 69 2
McMillan 16 4 52 2
Cronje 6 3 13 0
Symcox 11 1 43 0
South Africa 2nd innings R B 4 6
AC Hudson retired 6 28 1 0
G Kirsten not out 82 119 12 0
HH Gibbs c Dravid b Srinath 9 12 2 0
DJ Cullinan not out 60 111 9 0
Extras (lb 3, nb 1) 4
Total (1 wicket, 44.5 overs) 161
Fall of Wicket: 1-39 (Gibbs).
Bowling O M R W
Srinath 12 1 45 1
Prasad 12.5 0 47 0
Kumble 10 2 27 0
Hirwani 6 1 19 0
Joshi 4 0 18 0
Score card source : Cricinfo
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