NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

Indians battle with the bat

At the end of day three at the Basin Reserve, the second Test between India and New Zealand couldn’t be more evenly poised if it tried.

At close, India had wiped off what, in context of the pitch, was a sizeable lead, losing three wickets in the process. The tourists, though, had two things going for it at stumps – both Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly looked in increasingly ominous touch and, more to the point, the last session saw the ball turn appreciably for both Wiseman and Vettori – which means that if India can press on and build a lead around the 250-275 mark with about an hour to go for close tomorrow, they should fancy their chances of turning on the squeeze.

The morning session most definitely belonged to the two overnight not outs, Daniel Vettori and Dion Nash, as they put together New Zealand’s best ever partnership for the 8th wicket. Alarmingly, not only did they look absolutely untroubled by pace and spin alike, but the Indian heads were visibly dropping as the partnership wore on, and it did begin to look like the two could bat on as long as they had a mind to.

Vettori did come in for a bit of a rough ride at the hands of Srinath, who was particularly hostile against the left-hander – Nash, however, spotted his teenage partner’s problem and began shielding him from the Indian quick. And from that point, it was as the Kiwis all the way, till sheer desperation forced Azhar to toss the ball to Sachin Tendulkar.

A chance that didn’t go to Azhar’s hand at slip in the first over signalled things to come and, an over later, Tendulkar pitched a gentle off break on Vettori’s leg stump, the batsman moved too far across to try and flick for runs, was beaten for the slight turn, and bowled.

The Kiwis went in to lunch at 346/8, and immediately thereafter, Tendulkar bowled a wrong one to Wiseman, slightly wide of off, the tailender launched a drive at it and only managed to drag it back on. And almost immediately thereafter, a Kumble flipper trapped Doull in front, hastening through off the pitch with the batsman offering no shot. The Kiwis thus ended 144 runs ahead in the first innings – a sizeable lead, made possible largely due to a superb exhibition of concentration and application by Dion Nash, distinctly unlucky to be stranded on 89.

For India, till Tendulkar’s arrival at the crease, it was as if the bowlers and fielders had lost the plot somewhat. The bowling was without a plan, the fielding lethargic, the entire air that of a team hoping for something to go their way, rather than actively trying to make things happen.

Facing a 144 deficit must have looked doubly daunting given the unsettled nature of the opening pair. In the second essay, Jadeja attempted to hit his way out of trouble, essaying uncharacteristic pulls and finally fell when he tried the shot once too often, trying to get a ball not all that short through the midwicket region, missing completely and walking away to the death rattle of the stumps.

Sidhu seemed equally shaky, in tune with a record that gives him a 40+ average overall, but just over 28 in Tests abroad. On domestic wickets, where he can stick his front foot out a long way, he looks a different player to the one that, here, seemed for the most part, to have lead in his boots. Just around the corner from tea, Sidhu exploded into sudden action when he danced down twice on the trot to waft Vettori back over his head for trademark sixes.

India went in to the tea break at 74/1, and in the first over after the break, lost a second when Doull got one on a full length on middle and off, Sidhu hesitated between the forward movement and going back, and ended up rapped plumb in front.

Rahul Dravid, at the other end, looked to be setting up his stall for a long and typically obdurate innings. On the plus side, his judgement of line and length remained spot on, and he never looked in any trouble against the pacemen. On the minus side, with both Dravid and Sidhu strangely reluctant to go for the singles, often turning down each other’s calls, the scoreboard stayed static for way too long – 6 successive maidens at one stage.

Paul Wiseman’s advent turned the game – the first ball from the offie pitched way outside off and turned a long long way to cramp Dravid and almost had him playing on, the second ball too turned like a top, so Dravid, looking seemingly to upset the bowler, went waltzing out to ball three, aiming to hit him high over midwicket, was beaten in the flight, and bowled. A very uncharacteristic, and unwise, attempt at that stage – the bowler was just into his first over, Dravid really didn’t need to hit him off his line and length without first settling against him.

That brought Tendulkar to the wicket to partner Ganguly, who yet again had been promoted two places in the batting order to number four. Craig McMillan greeted Tendulkar with a bouncer war of sorts, consistently short-pitching and once even being noballed for exceeding his quota of the short stuff in that over – and added some spice to the proceedings by giving the batsman a bit of a lip at the same time.

That produced the inevitable glare from Tendulkar – and punishment for poor Wiseman, who, in the next over, found himself first lofted over midwicket for a four, then slammed over mid off for a huge six. Tendulkar, in fact, seemed in aggressive mode, not checking his strokeplay despite the occasional close calls when the ball did too much.

At the other end, Ganguly started a bit hesitantly, but by close had settled down to stroking the ball with ominous fluency. More importantly, given the turn the ball has been taking towards the end of the day’s play, his footwork, like Tendulkar’s, was spot on as he came down the wicket – all of which opens up prospects for an interesting morning session of play tomorrow.

For New Zealand, the performances will need to come from the spinners – a tall ask given the fluency with which the likes of Tendulkar, Azhar and Ganguly handle the slow stuff. The pacemen, particularly Doull, looked a shadow of themselves with the wicket easing off and nulling any appreciable movement off the seam.

So it will have to be the spinners, Vettori and Wiseman, against the Indian middle order. For the Kiwis, the obvious goal would be to try for quick wickets, keep India down to a low total. For the Indians, a delicate balancing act between getting to a sizeable lead (and on this track, with its increasing turn, 275 will be a heller to get on the last day) in reasonably quick time, leaving the Kiwis with perhaps an hour of batting at the fag end of day four, and all day on day five to survive against Kumble, Harbajan and, on today’s showing, Tendulkar.

Scoreboard