NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

It's tit for tat, at Hyderabad

India 376/2, Tendulkar 186 not out, Dravid 153 defeat New Zealand, all out 202 in 33.1 overs, by 174 runs

My colleague and resident statistician Mohandas Menon must, about now, be drawing up the comprehensive list of records made and broken at Hyderabad, in the second match of the 5-game ODI series now on between India and New Zealand.

And given the nature of the match that was played out on a pitch that was just a shade less placid than the one on which the first game was played, Mohan will probably have his work cut out for him.

Out of the mass of figures, though, there are just two items that for me are significant. The first relates to Rahul Dravid. Remember him? The guy Kishen Rungta, around this time last year, was insisting couldn't play one day cricket? The guy a section of the fans, at least, were crucifying as a 'blocker' who had no business being in the Indian team?

Twice this year, an Indian pairing has broken the world record for the biggest partnership for any wicket -- and the common factor, both times, has been Rahul Dravid. True, on the first occasion, during the World Cup at Taunton, Saurav Ganguly stole the limelight with a knock of 183 -- and then said during the presentation ceremony that it was Dravid's initial aggression that helped him shake off his own jitters and settle down. Here again, it is Tendulkar who outscored Dravid at the end -- but again, those who watched the game will agree that it was Dravid who made it possible.

Makes you wonder if Kishore Rungta was watching -- and, at this point in time, has any regrets for the enormous pressure he and his fellow selectors put on Dravid when they dropped him, then went out of their way to trash him in the media.

The second statistic that was significant on the day was this -- for the first time in his career, Sachin Tendulkar actually batted out the full 50 overs. Think back to 1984 -- the second ODI of the India-New Zealand series, at Auckland. In the previous game, Jadeja and Sidhu had opened. For the second game, Sidhu was dropped and, at his own request, Tendulkar was upped to the top of the order.

What he produced was a blazing 82 off 49 balls (by way of aside, an interesting oddity about that innings was that he went from 81 to 82 with a single -- and that was the first and, as it turned out, only single he took in that innings) -- and from that point on, the pundits have been asking themselves, and each other, what would be possible if Tendulkar ever bats out the full 50 overs.

This is his 137th innings as an opener. And for the first time, he goes the distance. And becomes the highest individual scorer among Indians in ODIs. And only a brilliant final over from Cairns stops what seemed a certain assault on the 194 that stands, to the name of Saeed Anwar, as the highest individual innings in ODIs.

Earlier on this tour, when Tendulkar for the first time went past the 200 mark in Tests, a few experts, including Martin Crowe and Danny Morrison, were saying that this could be a turning point in his career. You've got to wonder if that is true about this innings as well, you've got to wonder whether this would have given Tendulkar a taste of what is possible if he applies himself.

To get back to the Indian innings, New Zealand saw one ray of light, early on, when a firm drive by Tendulkar brushed Shayne O'Connor's fingertips and crashed into the ground with Saurav Ganguly out of his crease. From then on, the bat ruled, while bowlers were reduced to trying to match each other in making moues of frustration.

The two played innings of striking contrasts. Tendulkar started out a touch hesitant -- the Ganguly run out seemed to dampen his spirits for a bit -- and initially, settled down to rotate strike with well placed singles, only occasionally opening his shoulders and going for power-play. Dravid, by contrast, looked positive from the get-go and, on the day, the highlight was easily his onside play. His on drives, flicks and pulls are always the best facet of his game -- but even by the standards he has set himself up, today's was an outstanding display (interestingly, 76 of his 100 runs came on the onside).

In recent times, there have been two noticeable areas where his one day play has improved out of all recognition. The first is in the way he has learnt to play the ball down soft and look for the short single. And the second relates to the way Dravid, always the classicist, has increasingly allowed himself to experiment, to lift the ball off the deck. Two shots played today are worth mentioning in this context -- the first came when Cairns tried a slower ball around off stump and Dravid, who was shaping to drive, spotted the change of pace, checked himself, then just flicked his wrists at it to lift the ball over long off for a six that went a surprising distance given the lack of effort involved. And the second came during the frenetic end-overs slog, when Cairns opened an over with what seemed a perfectly pitched yorker, only to see Dravid step a half-pace to leg, make a bit of room, flex at the knee to get 'under' the ball, and lift straight and true for six -- easily the shot of the morning.

The sheer dominance of the bat is best told through the progression: India going from 25/1 in 5, through 59/1 in 10, 81/1 in 15, 109/1 in 20, 142/1 in 25, 172/1 in 30, 202/1 in 35, 243/1 in 40 and 302/1 in 45. While on this, with wickets in hand and two batsmen well set in the middle, India managed 133 runs off the last 10 overs, another record (incidentally, the previous highest for the last ten overs was when India scored 128 at Taunton against Sri Lanka).

Tendulkar meanwhile played an innings of contrasts. There was initially a very visible determination to bat on and not give it up -- and with it came a willingness to throttle back his aggression, hit only when the bowlers erred in line and length, meanwhile clipping the ball around the park for singles and twos to keep the momentum going and pacing his innings to a nicety. It was after the innings rounded into the slog (by which time he had got to his 100, off 105 balls) that he opened out -- and from that point on, it was a massacre as power, placement and innovation came together in a dazzling display.

Perhaps the only time in the innings when the bowling side almost pulled one back was when Dravid, batting 77 and seeming to have lost concentration for a moment, casually swatted Vettori back for the bowler to drop a reasonably simple return catch. From then on, the innings was about figures... a necklace of records strung studded with scintillating strokeplay.

The 200 of the partnership came off 216 balls. In the 37th over, with India on 214/1, a cover drive on the up produced a boundary for Sachin Tendulkar and, with it, his 24th ODI century (8 boundaries and a six at that point and, significantly, 37 singles and 13 twos).

In the 39th over, Dravid punched one on the on to bring up his 7th ODI hundred (the competition with Ganguly continues, with both batsmen level again) off 123 balls, with 14 fours.

The acceleration began around that phase -- thus, the 300 partnership came off just 275 balls. A single in the 47th over too Dravid to his personal best in ODIs. Four fours on the trot in that over, off the hapless Chris Drum, took Tendulkar past his own personal best, and to the first 150 of his career (the last in that sequence of fours also broke the Dravid-Ganguly record for highest partnership in ODIs).

The next over was bowled by Cairns, and Dravid reached the first 150 of his own career (off 149 balls, 15 fours, 2 sixes). A visibly tired pull (by then, the batsman had begun to limp a bit as well) saw him hole out to midwicket off the last ball of the same over, after doing more than his bit in a new world record stand of 331 runs.

With Jadeja visibly egging his captain on, the 49th over, from Drum, produced mayhem unlimited. The fun began with a smashing four through cover. Then came a flick off the pads, to fine leg. The fourth ball -- a no ball -- was clubbed over long on for six. The ball was rebowled -- and disappeared for another six, in the same direction. For the next ball, Sachin went a foot outside off, altered the line and flicked it square on the on for a four to go past Kapil Dev's 175. And then celebrated with another 4 off the last ball, taking 28 off that over.

Chris Cairns then produced a beauty of a final over, to contain the slaughter somewhat. Superb line, and the perfect length, right up inside the blockhole, meant that while Tendulkar did manage to go past Ganguly as the highest individual scorer for India, there was no room whatsoever for any big hitting. And the Indian innings finally ended with the score on 376/2 (another record, India's highest till date being the 373/6 it had posted during the World Cup, against Lanka).

Defending 350-plus doesn't take strategic skills of a particularly high order -- all the Indians had to do was bowl line and length, keep the boundary hits down, and let pressure do their work for them.

And that is how it turned out. Right from the start, the Kiwis were scoring faster than the Indians -- but keeping that kind of momentum going entailed a very high degree of risk. And the wickets predictably tumbled.

The first of them came in the 4th over, when Craig Spearman, who had batted brilliantly the other day to power the Kiwis to that winning total, whacked at a slower one from Prasad on off, looking to clear mid on but only finding Tendulkar in that position.

Nathan Astle, whose century anchored the winning Kiwi effort in the first game, followed his partner immediately thereafter, when he tried to pull a ball from Srinath not in the slot for the shot, and holed out to Jadeja at midwicket.

Both wickets fell to the Kiwi need for boundaries. Number three, that of the free-scoring Twose, fell to indecision -- Chopra, brought in for the 10th over, produced an arm ball first up, Twose hesitated between front foot and back, and was beaten by the ball pushed through quicker, to be trapped plumb in front.

Fleming kept throwing his bat -- or trying to -- at everything that came his way, and inevitably mishit a Kumble flipper for Srinath to make a lot of ground at wide long off and hold with seeming ease.

Around this point, Sachin Tendulkar went off the field with a niggling muscle strain (Dravid, who was seen limping towards the end of his innings, was already off the field) after indicating that Ganguly, named vice captain for the Australian tour, would lead in his absence (Jadeja is not having too good a year, is he? First, his captaincy ambitions blow a fuse, now his one day vice-captaincy is also taken away from him).

Bharadwaj was brought on, and Ganguly was seen asking him to go round the stumps and bowl the cramping line on leg, with five on the on side. In the 18th over Parore, who had till that point justified his promotion in the batting order, looked visibly frustrated by the tactic and tried to give the bowler the charge. He however signalled his intentions too early, and the bowler responded by firing one down the leg side. The umpire called wide, but by then, Prasad, anticipating superbly, had gone to leg, gloved the ball and dived onto the stumps to effect the stumping. (A missed high five during the ensuing celebrations saw Prasad whacking Bharadwaj in the groin with his gloved hand, the bowler collapsing in a heap as a result while some of us speculated whether this was another record -- both batsman and bowler stumped off the same ball?!)

Cairns by then was in the position of needing to do the impossible and do it on his lonesome. In an attempt to get as much strike as he could, he dashed down for a non-existent single, in the very next over, Bharadwaj at backward point sending in the throw for Prasad to take the bails off and catch Cairns out of his ground.

Ganguly's instinct always seems to be to attack. Indian skippers in the past, with runs on the board, have preferred to force wins by defending the boundaries and letting the batsmen make the mistakes. Here, shortly after taking over, Ganguly brought in first one, then two close in fielders, brought most of his other fielders inside the circle and challenged the batsmen to try and go for their shots. The bowlers bowled a tight line, the big shots weren't forthcoming, and the slide continued.

Daniel Vettori was next to go when he drove one to cover and took off. By the time he was sent back, Srinath had run in, picked up, and fired a throw back to hit the stumps and catch Vettori out of his ground.

26th over, and the shambolic procession touched a new high -- low? -- when Shayne O'Connor raced down the track for a single that didn't exist anywhere except in his imagination, and again Srinath, this time from mid off, ran around to field the Styris push, picked up and fired in a throw to the bowler to reduce the Kiwis to 9 down.

Some over-enthusiastic throwing prevented India from taking out number ten within the next six deliveries -- on two occasions, comical calling had the batsmen stranded only for the fielders to throw wide on both occasions. Similarly, some wild, exuberant bowling by both Kumble and Chopra yielded some easy runs for the last pair and ensured that India wouldn't join the other five teams that have thus far registered 200+ winning margins.

Scott Styris provided the only bit of resistance after the fall of Parore, batting with refreshing abandon. Venkatesh Prasad teamed up with his wicket-keeper namesake to end the resistance, when he produced a leg cutter to take the edge of Styris's bat for MSK Prasad to dive to his right and take well, to end the 46 run last wicket partnership (the highest of the innings) and give India a win by 174 runs.

Another record, incidentally -- India's highest winning margin thus far has been 157 -- earlier this year, against Sri Lanka, at Taunton.

And all this talk of records reminds you of a funny incident from the annals of the Times (the British version). Apparently, after reading a match report laced by a plethora of records, a reader wrote in: Dear Sir: At home, I have a black viny disc with groves on it and a hole in the middle. Is that a record?

Scoreboard