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Warne hysteria grips Indian batsmen

Prem Panicker

Military strategists say that the difference between brilliance, and a blunder, is hairline-thin.

Proof of that came today, courtesy the Indian batting lineup. It was apparently, from the 13th over of the day when Shane Warne came on to bowl to a roar from the Madras crowd, that the home team had decided, in course of their pre-match strategy sessions, not to allow the blonde leggie to dominate.

From the outset, the Indian openers went after the bowler -- Mongia preferring to flat bat him over the infield on the on, Sidhu opting to hit him square on the off and interspersing that with a towering six over mid on.

But the brilliance of that calculated ploy crossed over into blunder-territory almost without the team being aware of it. Result -- from a healthy 122/0, India finished up on 232/5 and even that was possible only through a sixth wicket stand between Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. In the process, they threw away at least three of the five wickets to fall, which on a batting track like this one ranks as criminal carelessness.

Here is the how of it:

The pitch, to begin at the beginning, was flat, hard, brown, and dry as a Brittania biscuit. The few cracks visible were hairline fractures of the hard crust. Thus, any analysis of what could happen over the next four days needs to take into account not only the pitch as it stands, but the weather in Madras.

In a word, it is blistering hot, and the humidity is in the high eighties. What this means is that each passing day dries up whatever moisture exists beneath the surface. And the drier the pitch gets, the more dusty, crumbly, it becomes. What we are saying here is that it should become a bit of a turner by day three -- the only question is whether the pitch will slow down at the same time, because if it does, then the turn will be easier to cope with.

My reading? It will slow down, yes, but not to the extent of negating the turn. Thus, playing spin on days four and five should take some doing.

India, thus, got their equations right by opting for five bowlers. In the pace department, the selection committee opted to give Harvinder Singh his first cap, rather than persist with Mohanty. The key however is the spinners -- all three of them, Kumble, Raju and Chauhan, are playing, and I would see Kumble's role as tight, containing bowling at one end while the other two attack at the other.

Australia opted for two spinners and two quicks -- not bad, except that Gavin Robertson is not up to the standard an offie bowling to sub-continental batsmen would need, so that is essentially just three bowlers, plus a rookie. Not, I would think, enough to bowl India out twice, and cheap at that.

Taylor called the toss wrong, and Azhar didn't have an instant's hesitation in batting first -- the obvious thing to do.

And Mongia and Sidhu did the team proud by getting it off to a good start. Sidhu is by temperament shaky at the outset, and this day's outing was no better than the norm. Mongia, for his part, was, well, effective at the expense of any pretensions to elegance.

What helped both batsmen settle in was the fact that Paul Reiffel and Michael Kasprowicz wasted the new ball thoroughly. 13 runs in the first ten overs sounds good -- but the low rate of scoring owed to the fact that the deliveries dished up were of three kinds: short and harmlessly over the batsmen's heads (Kapra being the worst offender in this department), wide of off, or drifting way down leg. Throughout the opening spell, I didn't see either bowl exploit that corridor of uncertainity -- the just short of good length delivery around off stump, which leaves the batsman confused about how to play it.

Then the spinners came on, and both batsmen went berserk. Mongia repeatedly went on his knee to blast Warne through the legside, while Sidhu used his feet to superb effect, hoisting both Robertson and Warne for sixes, besides a series of handsome drives and cuts square of the wicket on the off.

India, thus, looked good going in to lunch at 86/0, Sidhu on 52 and Mongia on 29, with 28 overs having been bowled. Which, given that the first 10 produced just 13, meant that India had score 73 in the remaining 18 overs and that was really good going.

Post-lunch play promised to be conducted on pretty much the same lines, with Warne's first ball of the second session being contemptuously lifted for four over midwicket by Mongia -- the prelude to a blitz that saw 12 runs in that one over alone.

But adrenalin is a funny thing -- you get a bit too much of it and it blinds you. Mongia, who by then was in overdrive, got a short lifter from Kapra he could have left alone without any fuss, but opted instead to try and hit over the slips, taking advantage of the absence of a third man. The ball climbed that fraction too much, and Mongia got the edge where he had aimed for the middle of the bat, Healy jumped to pull the chance down and India 122/1.

The next wicket owed to sensational fielding. Sidhu all along had been using his feet to neutralise Shane Warne, getting to the pitch of the ball to either hit through the line, or defend by smothering the turn. On this occasion, he got where he wanted to be, played the defensive push -- only to see Mark Waugh, at silly point, anticipating, moving incredibly swiftly to his right to pick up and flick an underarm throw back onto the stumps before the batsman could regain his crease. That was pure presence of mind allied to electric reflexes.

Then came the first of two instances of rank idiocy. So much has been made of how this series is about Warne versus Tendulkar. Which, while on the subject, is not true -- the series is actually about the abilities, or lack of them, of the two bowling sides to bowl out strong opposing batting lineups, and as far as the Indian line up is concerned, Tendulkar is merely one among the five who can cope with Warne.

Anyways, this whole thing appeared to have got to Tendulkar, making him forget that it was day one of the first Test of a three Test series, and dominance is over time. Here, Sachin looked like he wanted to send Warne back to Australia by the late evening flight. Thus, ball one -- the first ball he received, mind you -- was smashed through mid off for four. Ball two and three were defended to. Tendulkar then decided that was enough, and threw everything and the kitchen sink at ball four, in an attempt to clear the stadium somewhere over extra cover. The ball, however, was not tossed up enough for the lofted drive, the shortness of length allied to some turn got the edge and Taylor, at slip, held an electric chance, over his head and to his right, to reduce India to 130/3. And Tendulkar went to a ball that did not, any way you look at it, deserve a wicket.

Azhar batted well, blasting anything that erred in line and length, but strangely, his normally fluent wristwork didn't seem to work too well on the day. With Dravid dropping anchor at one end, the two took India to tea at 157/3 in 57 overs, and things looked good, still, for the home side.

Both batsmen appeared calm and in control after tea, but Warne's re-entry into the attack signalled mistake number two. The ball was short, outside off and spinning further away and Azhar, with no movement of his feet, aimed a slash at it. The bottom end of the bat met ball, and propelled it straight to Paul Reiffel at point, and yet another batsman had perished in a rather misguided attempt to show Warne who the boss was. India 186/4.

The funny thing about it is that both of Warne's wickets came to balls that didn't deserve them -- and the corollary was that if the batsmen concerned had only tempered their aggression with some sense, Warne would indeed have been totally dominated on the day. As it stands, the runs the Indians took off him are offset by the two prize wickets against his name -- so who really won the battle here?

Saurav Ganguly, I thought, was a shade unfortunate. He was way forward to a ball from Robertson that pitched middle and off and hit front pad. The ball was turning, the line was already tending to off, the batsman was forward -- given that, the odds were it would have missed off. One of those appeals where the benefit is automatically given to the batsman, but umpire George Sharp decided otherwise. Bad decision? Not really, but the batsman can count himself distinctly unlucky on that one. India 195/5.

From there on, Dravid and Kumble played without any fuss, not losing their cool, taking runs where available and defending as needed. In the process, they showed up the attack -- including Warne -- as pretty innocuous on what remains a good batting surface, taking India to 232/5 at the end of day one.

Given the conditions, given the opening stand, given the bowling -- in which none of the four regular bowlers, plus Mark and Steve Waugh, showed any penetration for any stretch of time -- the home team should have finished a good 30 runs, at least, further along and at least two wickets less lost. And in that sense, the only bottomline for today's play is that India had its chance to really grind Australia down, and blew it through rank carelessness.

Not that all is lost for the home side -- the new ball, which Taylor will probably take first thing tomorrow morning (it was not claimed today, the Aussie skipper preferring to bowl all 90 with the old ball), will, given Reiffel and Kapra's lack of penetration, probably help the not out batsmen to settle down again. After which, if they keep their heads and go for accumulation rather than downright aggression, a score above 350 is not impossible to get, more so given that Dravid, the most level-headed of the Indian batsmen, is still out there.

This, I know, sounds like I'm saying it is up to the Indian batsmen how much they score from here on. Which in turn discounts the Aussie bowlers as a force. But on this track, on day two, given that the dry weather hasn't had enough time to really do anything to the pitch, that is precisely the case -- the Indians will, I suspect, have themselves to thank, or blame, for what they achieve tomorrow.

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