NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

Draw by mutual consent

There was, before this last day of the second Test began, just a faint hope in the air that both sides would try and make a match of it -- a hope that, in fact, brought a surprisingly large crowd to the ground.

About two overs into the day's play, that hope had died stillborn. And the rest of the day was spent going through the motions of Test cricket.

Inside those two overs, the attitude of both teams became apparent. Throughout this Test, the first two hours have yielded swing and seam movement to the pacemen. Today was no exception. Yet, with Srinath and Prasad operating, India began the day with two slips and, two overs later, had reduced that to one slip.

This, at a time when a team looking to square the series would have wanted to blast the remaining wickets out, then try and make a match of it with the bat -- after all, what was to lose?

For their part, the exaggerated defense of overnight not outs Nash and Cairns clearly indicated that an early declaration, to try and let the Kiwi bowlers use the conditions to take out a few Indian wickets and score more psychological points ahead of the ODIs, was not on.

What followed was a comedy of errors, missed chances, and the unedifying spectacle of both teams standing back, waiting for something to happen. What that something was, remained a mystery throughout.

The story of the day's play, for India, is exemplified in one Prasad delivery -- a lovely incutter after beating the bat with a few going the other way. The ball took the inner edge of Cairns' bat, then rolled gently onto the stumps and came to rest at its base -- without disturbing the bails. Those into face-reading, meanwhile, must have derived considerable amusement from the contortions on the visages of Srinath and Kumble as, time and again, they found the top and side edges of the bat, then grimaced in chagrin as the ball ballooned safely with no one in close to take.

Given this, there seems little point, really, in an exhaustive review of a wasted day. Wickets fell by happenstance, Cairns got his second Test century and, in the process, became yet another international batsman to bat himself back into form at the expense of the Indians, and the declaration, such as it was, finally came after the batsman wafted one from Kumble to long off, for Dravid -- who, earlier, had come up with a superb stop and return at mid off to get rid of Nash -- to take a well judged catch.

For the Indians at that stage, there was little left but match practise -- and the two most in need of it, Sidhu and Jadeja, missed out. Sidhu, yet again in this series, fished at a short straight ball outside off, edged, and was lucky to be let off at second slip. However, a short while later he was at it again, driving at a short wide ball outside off without the least sign of foot movement, to drag the ball off the inner edge back onto his stumps.

Jadeja's dismissal, too, was characteristic of the uncertainity he brings to the job of opening in Tests on bowler friendly tracks. While he looks very good driving through covers or playing off his pads, his defensive technique is characterised by uncertainity -- especially on and around the off stump line. Here, he walked into one in the slot, with a half push half drive that only managed to find the edge and go through to the keeper.

Dravid and Ganguly then got together for some batting practise, the former continuing where he had left off in the first innings, the latter shaking off the poor form of the recent past to come up with fluent knocks, adding to their haul of Test tons with some uninhibited strokeplay. Dravid, in the process, joined the elite band of those who made centuries in each innings.

In the final analysis, though, they might as well have all remained in the pavilion -- today was a non-event, by mutual consent of both sides.

Scoreboard