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Kiwis rub it in at Hamilton

It's a Test that India has to win, this third and last one in the series against New Zealand, if it wants to come out with honours even after going one down at Wellington.

Given that, some of the thinking was a shade hard to understand. For one thing, given the problems India has had putting up a decent opening partnership and providing a platform for the middle order, VVS Laxman - the only one of three openers in the touring party with some good runs to his name -- continued to sit out.

As did Debashish Mohanty, whose movement off the seam could have complimented the Srinath-Prasad duo - instead, the cop turned cricketer Robin Singh Junior got his first cap. Another player left on the bench was Sunil Joshi, whose left arm spin could have provided the foil to the flippers and top spinners of Anil Kumble. Last time we looked, the book says you have to bowl the other side out twice, for less than you can score yourself, to win a Test - and aggressive bowling options seemed at a premium in the starting lineup.

New Zealand made the expected change, the left handed Roger Twose coming in for the injured Nathan Astle, but otherwise sticking to the lineup that had won at Wellington. Interesting, the use of two spinners - indicating that this wicket, which started out as a rock hard surface with a fine layer of grass, could turn a bit as the game progressed. If that does happen, India find itself without appropriate arsenal.

The experts in the television commentary box didn't seem too enamoured of Azharuddin's decision to field after winning his, what's this, 14th?, toss on the trot. A defensive move, was how it was characterised, aimed more at shielding a shaky opening pair from the ravages of the Kiwi bowlers on the first morning, than in actually pressing hard.

That opinion seemed way off base about two minutes into the game as Srinath struck, twice, in his very first over. His second ball of the day was a beauty, pitching middle and off, squaring Mathew Bell up and seaming away to feather the edge for Mongia to take with ease. Two deliveries later, the bowler made one kick from a length good enough to draw Stephen Fleming forward in defence, the ball taking the bat around the maker's label for Rahul Dravid to do the good deed at short square leg.

0/2 in the first over, seemed a reprise of what the Kiwis did to the Indians in the second Test. On that occasion, once Doull had started the slide, the Kiwis were in a position to maintain the pressure thanks to outstanding catching and ground fielding. India - as skipper Mohammad Azharuddin commented rather bitterly after the defeat in the previous Test - is not as well endowed in those departments, and the difference showed here as Mathew Horne and Roger Twose produced a 95 run partnership for the third wicket and, in the process, kept India from crashing through the batting lineup.

The problem lay in the fact that India just did not have specialist fielders for the close catching positions. This time round, Azhar had Dravid - electric at short square - manning that position from the outset. But it was in the slips that he had his problems - barring himself, the Indian team has none who can field there with any sense of belonging. Tendulkar is the other regular slip in the side, but he is still nursing that chipped bone in the little finger, and continued to patrol the outfield.

With the result that Ganguly, Jadeja, Prasad and, for a while, even Javagal Srinath fielded in the slips. And half chance after chance went begging - as early as the 6th over, Prasad produced a lovely away-seamer to take the left handed Twose's edge, the ball stayed in the air as it clinically split the difference between Jadeja at second slip and Ganguly at third. Other chances went to waste because, as inexperienced and unsure fielders will, the non-regular slip fielders tended to stay too far back, resulting in edges dropping too short to clutch. Of the pair, Twose seemed too tentative for comfort, in his comeback innings, and predictably settled into the anchor role while Horne, looking in good touch, actively looked for the runs with some fine shots, especially square on either side of the wicket. During this period, India's lack of bowling options stood out in stark relief - Srinath and Prasad bowled penetrating spells, but once they were taken off, neither Kumble, who bowled just the one over before lunch, or Robin Singh Junior, who tended to bowl too short, and on both sides of the wicket, could make much of an impression. Azhar was forced to bring on Ganguly as early as the second hour of the game, and while the part time medium pacer got some seam movement off the track, his pace was at its best suited to tie one end down - which, without an attacking option at the other end, wasn't going to do it for India.

The teams went in for lunch with the Black Caps on 59/2.

Nothing really changed all that much, after the break. At one end, Twose continued to grind away. At the other, Horne got increasingly dominant - particularly against Robin Singh, who pitched short too often and got punished, with a flurry of boundaries signalling that the game was poised to take a different turn.

Prasad replaced him, getting his leg cutters moving well and, at one point, had figures of 18 runs off 12 overs, while Srinath at the other end ran the gamut of grimaces as edges dropped short or flew over the close in fielders.

Srinath finally produced another breakthrough, hitting the deck to make one climb outside off. Horne, who appeared intent to hit the quick bowler out of the attack, went for an injudicious pull, and only managed an inner edge that dragged the ball down onto the stumps. The 95-run partnership, after the first two went down for nought, hauled the home team out of jail - though Horne needed to plead guilty of having given it all away when he looked to have the measure of the bowling.

Craig McMillan looked shaky at the start and both Srinath and Robin Singh - the latter, brought back for another try, bowling a far fuller line and finally finding some movement - had him playing and missing in a fashion that should have raised Indian hopes sky high. The batsman, true to his nature, decided that counter attack was the only option - and began throwing everything and the kitchen sink around, in spectacular if, at times, unconvincing fashion.

If you had to pick out one over to symbolise the Indian effort on the day, I would pick one that Saurav Ganguly bowled during this session. Four times, McMillan lashed wildly at away swingers - each time, putting it just wide of or above the fielders in the slip-gully cordon, and finding the fence each time. And mixed in between them were four no balls.

The purists might question those buccaneering tactics, the sheer recklessness of the McMillan's initial moments at the crease. Hardly, the argument would go, the right attitude for day one of a Test match, with the side not out of the woods. However, from the batsman's point of view, he was completely at sea during that initial tenure, his dismissal looked as imminent as the next ball, and he figured the only way out of jail was to bash the walls down.

To his credit, McMillan did it with superb flair. Once he got a few in the middle, he was all over the Indian bowling in a spectacular assault that treated spin and pace alike with absolute contempt - never exemplified better than when Azharuddin, frantic to halt the flow of runs, brought back Mr Economy, Anil Kumble. McMillan promptly went on one knee, picked the ball for length and carted it over square leg, taking it from off and making a spectator, who held the hit, richer by 1200 dollars. The applause must have sounded to the batsman like a request for an encore - an over later, it was bye bye ball again.

Kumble finally got a measure of revenge when McMillan went for it again, this time aiming for the spot over midwicket. In a limited sense, this was a planned wicket - the bowler and captain had just dropped a man back at deep backward square, daring McMillan to go for it again, so the batsman changed his aim a shade. And hit too early, getting a top edge for Prasad, running from slip with the ball coming over his shoulder, to judge and hold a good one.

McMillan went just 8 short of his century, having taken just 103 balls for his 92, with 12 fours and those two big sixes. When he came in, the Kiwis had consumed 38 overs and managed just 95 for the loss of 3. When he left, 160 more had been added in just 37 more overs, give or take a ball. What this innings did was put the Kiwis in the driver's seat, with runs in the bank and all the time in the world for the latter batsmen to push for a big score that could pressure the Indian batting lineup.

The lesser noticed impact of the McMillan blitz would be its impact on Roger Twose. Till McMillan began blazing away in full form after tea, Twose never really looked at home on his comeback to international cricket. But McMillan made batting look so very easy, that even Twose flowered in his company and began playing strokes as well.

Interestingly, once McMillan left and Parore, who hasn't been in the best of form of late, came out and began pushing around, Twose climbed back into his shell, reverting to his anchor mode but looking a whole heap more comfortable in it than he had earlier. His continued tenure would have meant that the Kiwi strokeplayers, like Nash and Cairns, would have had the freedom of going for their shots at the other end.

Venkatesh Prasad finally took out the obdurate opener late in the day, bowling with the second new ball and producing a beauty of a leg cutter to the left hander that feathered the edge for the ever-alert Mongia to hold well - interestingly, the umpire didn't give the decision until the batsman himself began walking away, though the dge was very very palpable.

Paul Wiseman, doing the night shift for the second Test running, survived - just - till close to take the Kiwis home at the end of day one, on a strong position having made 283/5, with batting remaining in the form of Parore, Nash and Cairns, not to mention Vettori.

For India, the usual problems. Inserting the opposition, then finding the bowling unable to break through. 11 men on the field, and yet the catches kept going to ground while the fielders dived too early or too late. And, unless the fielding and catching improve miraculously overnight, the prospect of another long grind in the field tomorrow, and a sizeable total to face at the end of all that trouble.

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