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Ganguly rules with bat and ball as India goes 2-1 up

India for once showed that it could, when the need arose, hold its nerve and pull it back even when the game seemed to be running away from them. Ganguly did it, first, with the bat. And then the Indian bowlers, especially Ganguly, Chopra, Kumble and Bharadwaj, fought back after the Kiwis toyed with the new look opening attack of Mohanty and Agarkar.

Equally significant was the fact that at the Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior, the Kiwi bowlers finally found their line and length.

In the first two games, they had gone for over 300 runs per innings. And in the process, seemed incapable of bowling one side of the wicket, thus increasing the problems for Stephen Fleming when it came to field setting. Today, for a change, they got their basics right on yet another flat batting track -- the three quarter length, the packed off side field, the line just around off or outside.

It worked. And how. India batted first on winning the toss -- a move you might quarrel with, given that India was putting an inexperienced bowling attack in the field, and thus would logically have been better off playing to their strength, bowling first, seeing what the Kiwis could do against their attack and then letting the strong, in form batting lineup do the job on the chase (sure, the Indians stuffed up chasing in the first game -- but you need to remember that even there, they went past 300 and, what is more, at two different points in the game found themselves in a position to force the win).

Tendulkar was probably bargaining on putting up so many runs on the board that the Kiwis would be shut out of the game entirely in the second half. As it turned out, though, the Kiwi bowlers started brilliantly, bowling the perfect line and length, with the field packed for their line, and shut the fluent Indian openers down completely. In the first two games, there were too many four-balls -- here, to the chagrin of the Indians, there were too few.

One statistic alone is enough to indicate how well the Kiwis bowled. With Sachin looking for his shots right from the get-go, it still took him 20 deliveries to get off the mark, and his innings of 1 run off 23 balls was a tribute to thoughtful bowling backed up by superb ground fielding. Sheer frustration brought about his downfall -- unable to get the ball away on the off side, Tendulkar went for a heave to the less tenanted legside off Chris Drum. The bowler, who had been mauled the other day, was bang on target today (5-1-12-1 in his first spell), the ball in question was outside off seaming further away, Tendulkar got the toe of his bat to it and was easily taken at first slip.

Rahul Dravid shaped well initially, playing pretty much the short of the match when he leaned lazily back to a ball that was none too short, reduced the length with adroit footwork, then played an elegant back foot ondrive to leave the field standing. However, run-scoring was by this point an attritive process and, in a bid to turn it around, Dravid went for an uncharacteristic attempt to lift over the offside field, the loosely held bat turning in his hands on impact and producing a simple catch for mid off.

Nikhil Chopra at four? The skipper was probably looking to him to hit a few hard ones, shake the bowling side up a bit and ease the pressure on the batting side by hitting the Kiwis off their line. The way Chopra played, though, it was as if no one had told him what was expected of him -- rather than try for the big hits, he either defended or clinically stroked singles, and that meant that the pressure only mounted on Ganguly since the onus was thus on him to keep the board ticking over.

Having wasted time, and overs, playing a rather inexplicable brand of cricket, Chopra then threw it away when he gave Astle the charge, aiming an ugly hoik at a fullish length ball from the bowler seaming in a touch, played all over it, and was bowled.

Chopra's 15 runs had taken him 32 balls, negating the idea behind his promotion. Equally to the point, having come in to bat in the 19th over, he held his ground for 10 overs and, in the process, used up time that could have been better utilised by the more recognised batsmen.

Jadeja, like Tendulkar and Dravid before him, found himself unable to make much headway against the Kiwi bowlers. (So why, it might be asked, should Chopra have been expected to do better? The point, with Chopra, is that he was not sent out to play the bowling strictly on merit -- if that were the case, why promote him? He was, rather, sent out to slog, hit across the line if necessary, try and disrupt a bowling side that appeared to have got its act perfectly together). An attempted forcing shot without going either fully forward or back saw him put the ball up in the air for the bowler, Astle, to dive and hold on the second attempt.

It is time someone spoke to Vijay Bharadwaj. The lad is obviously talented -- however, he appears to have a tendency to let the situation get to him. In the first match, when he needed to stay there and give Jadeja support, he tried to play hero and holed out attempting to lift over the straight field. Here, he pushed to mid on, put his head down and ran bull-like to the other end without checking where the ball was going or, even, what his partner was doing -- as it happened, the ball went to the left of Styris at mid on, the fielder raced around, collected and, finding both batsmen at the bowler's end, threw to the keeper to catch Bharadwaj out of his ground.

The progression till that point in time read thus: 8/0 in 5; 30/1 in 10; 48/1 in 15; 64/2 in 20; 82/2 in 25; 108/3 in 30; 129/3 in 35; 143/5 in 39 (when Bharadwaj fell) and 147/5 in 40 going into the slog).

From that point on, two batsmen with experience and cool cricketing heads took charge. Ganguly, unlike his colleagues, had apparently no trouble timing the ball on this pitch or finding the gaps. From the outset, thus, he had been stroking steadily, keeping his end going and looking in ominous form even as wickets fell at the other end. Once Robin Singh settled down, Ganguly took complete charge -- a blazing on drive followed by a quickly taken single bringing up his 8th ODI century in the 44th, and signalling the start of as innovative an assault on a bowling side as we have seen in a long while.

Generally, innovation is a word used for Tendulkar's batsmanship -- the likes of Ganguly and Dravid are deemed more technical, less inclined to experiment with their batting. In that context, the final phase of Ganguly's innings was an eye-opener of startling proportions, almost Javed Miandad-esque in terms of sheer cheek.

A Cairns yorker in the 48th over, thus, saw Ganguly take a late, large step away from his leg, make room, bend low to get under the ball and casually flick it over long on for a startling six. In the next over, he again made room, this time moving to off to change the line of the ball and taking it off his pads, lifting high to long on where the fielder, surprised by the power on the shot, put it over the line after getting both hands to it. In that same over, another yorker on middle stump saw Ganguly move outside off, exposing his stumps entirely and flicking late to find the fence at fine leg. it was electric stuff from the southpaw, a blazing end to an innings of character.

At the other end, Robin Singh produced the kind of cameo he comes up with when he gets to bat in the slog. Deliberate nudges into gaps for singles, hard running between wickets and, whenever the occasion offered for him to free his arms and shoulders, swinging high, wide and handsome to the on side for three big sixes.

The two added 114 runs in the last ten overs in a partnership that put India right back into the game, giving the home side a fighting 261 to defend.

Like the Kiwi bowlers, the openers came out with the right idea -- at one end, Spearman dropped anchor, at the other, Astle went after the bowling right from the start, never allowing either Agarkar, or Mohanty, to settle. Agarkar in his comeback innings looked a shadow of the player he was before a spate of injuries put him out of the team -- absolutely straight bowling, with no movement in the air or off the deck, and just the right length for the batsmen to get on the front foot and hit through the line. He seems fit enough -- but a long way from being anywhere close to his best.

At the other end, Mohanty started off very well, bowling a full length, making the ball move around both in the air and off the seam. However, when Astle in a calculated move danced down to lift him over the infield to the boundary, then repeated the shot, Mohanty's nerve broke and he began straying to leg.

Astle was in superb form. His century in the first game was one of dogged defence -- here, free-flowing strokeplay characterised his innings as he set himself to go either fully forward or back and hit hard through the line. Spearman at the other end looked good till Chopra came on and beat him twice running with the arm ball going past his off stump -- the resulting tension and nerves forced him into a push, bat away from body, at the next ball, the edge flying to Tendulkar at slip only for the Indian skipper to put it down.

Dravid, however, repaired the damage with a good catch off Chopra not too long after that let off. Adam Parore was brought up the order and, simultaneously, Saurav Ganguly took the ball as the other Indian bowlers seemed incapable of stemming the smooth flow of runs.

Ganguly is the kind of guy you want to see bowl at least five, six overs per match, in little spells. His forte is accuracy, starting off on a line just outside off, seaming it in late to off and middle so that the batsman has little option but to push back down the track. His accuracy halted the run-scoring and Parore, frustrated by his inability to get him off the square, gave Ganguly the charge, flailing wildly in an attempt to clear the leg side field, only to play all over it and lose middle stump.

Astle and Fleming got together at that stage, but Ganguly in tandem with first Chopra, then Bharadwaj, swung the game back India's way at this point with tight bowling. The progression stats tells the tale here: Kiwis 18/0 in 5; 51/0 in 10; 78/0 in 15 (India 48/1); 98/0in 20; 121/2 in 25; 136/2 in 30; 164/2 in 35.

What this did was push up the ask rate. After 15 overs, the Kiwis needed to go at 5.19; after 20, the ask was 5.46; at the 30 over mark, thanks largely to the exertions of Ganguly with good support from Bharadwaj and Chopra, it had gone up to 6.30 and after 35, it was up to 6.53.

This meant that the Kiwis were in a hole twice over -- for one thing, the ask was going up, for another, they were heading into that phase of the game where the Indians, Ganguly and Robin to give them names, had taken the game away with the bat.

Tendulkar timed his bowling changes just right, bringing back Kumble and Chopra in tandem as the pressure mounted. And the bowlers delivered. Kumble settled into a stream of flippers, bowling them as fast and as full as he possibly could. Inability to drive forced Astle, three short of what would have been a deserved 100, into a premeditated paddle -- the ball however was too flat and too full for the shot, Astle played over it and lost middle stump.

That was in the 37th. Off the first ball of the 38th, Chopra made it a double strike with a floated topspinner around line of off, Fleming went back trying to flick to leg, the increased pace the ball made off the deck meant that Fleming missed with the shot and was trapped bang in front. Chopra, in fact, went on to make that over a wicket maiden, and the pressure began mounting on the batting side going into the slog.

The Kiwis were 179/4 in 40 -- the ask at that point being 8.3.

Tendulkar made a huge gamble in the 42nd, bringing back Agarkar at a point when Chopra had 2 left, Kumble had 3, Ganguly 2 and Bharadwaj 6. It was just a matter of who would hold their nerve -- and as it happened, it was Twose who lost it. Cairns, off the last ball, pushed on the on. Twose took off. Agarkar raced around, picked the ball, raced back to the stumps and midway, realised that he couldn't beat the batsman, quickly transferred the ball to his left and flicked it onto the stumps on the run to produce an extraordinary run out -- and, in the process, put the Kiwis further behind the gun.

Tendulkar opted to hold back Chopra and Kumble for a bit longer, bringing back Bharadwaj. Who, on the day, bowled with a lot of intelligence, pitching a very full length, not letting the batsman either come down to him or get under the ball for the needed elevation to clear the field. Cairns was the next to succumb to the pressure -- unable to get the offie away, he went after Agarkar in the 44th, slogging hard only to see the ball flaring off the bat for Kumble, on the line at coverpoint, to take a superbly judged catch as the ball swirled in at him from out of the crowd. That over almost saw another wicket as Harris tried to run one down to third man, got the edge and Prasad, diving to his left, got a glove to it but failed to cling on.

By this point, the Indians were getting everything right. The bowlers were on length and line, the fielding was on its toes, Tendulkar appeared to have the situation firmly under control and the Kiwis were, with every passing ball, falling further behind. Needing boundaries (at the 45 over mark the Kiwis had failed to find the boundary in the last 72 balls faced), all the Kiwis could get were singles, and at the 45 over mark, the game was all but over with the Kiwis on 205/6 after 45, needing 58 off the next 30 deliveries to win. The Indians had managed 76 off the last five, but it needs remembering that this effort was powered by a batsman past his century and timing to perfection, partnered by one of the coolest heads in the side. The Kiwis, in contrast, were losing wickets, the run-scoring momentum was lost, and from there on, the writing was on the wall.

Harris and Styris -- the latter in particular -- pulled it back somewhat in the 47th, taking a six and a four off Bharadwaj. But Agarkar showed that if nothing else, his knack of firing in yorkers at will at the death hadn't deserted him. A fine 48th over nailed it down for the Indians, and Kumble coming in for the 49th pushed a quick flipper through Styris as the batsman went for the heave, and took out middle stump.

23 needed off the last over, Chopra bowling (interestingly, Chopra, Kumble and Ganguly all ended up with overs to spare), and the off-spinner floated an arm ball in at Alex Tait, beating the attempted swing to on and knocking back leg and middle. Despite a last ball four as Chopra with the game won tossed it right up, India still won by 14 runs and went 2-1 up in the series. From which point, you have to back the home side to win -- it is very difficult to see this Kiwi side, obviously short of confidence and form, winning two on the trot from here.

The win was, to use a cliche, a team effort -- Tendulkar led thoughtfully, the spinners played their bit to perfection, Ganguly weighed in with an effort that made him a cert for the man of the match, and the fielders, barring two instances of laziness, kept the pressure up.

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