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India wins second Test

Having reduced New Zealand to 17/3 at close on the third morning, India obviously began day four looking to shut the Kiwi innings down entirely.

And Harbajan Singh began the process in his first over of the morning -- after one from Kumble -- when with four men round the bat (slip, gully, silly point and short square -- though given the way the ball was turning sharply in and given that the Kiwis are hardly likely to start swinging for the lines, a leg slip, which Fleming employed for Wiseman, would seem indicated as reinforcement) he tossed one up outside off stump, the ball spun in, took the inner edge onto Spearman's pad and Tendulkar standing at slip had an easy take.

India in fact got its close catching act better organised once Tendulkar took over at slip, freeing Rahul Dravid to stand at short square for the off spinner and silly point for Kumble. The leg spinner, who like Harbajan had four round the bat, then had Astle playing into his hands when he induced the batsman into a tentative push, half cock forward with bat in front of the pad, for the ball to take the thick inner edge to short square leg. Bharadwaj, who in the first innings was guilty of standing way too deep in that position, did much better this time round, standing right up and staying low, to get his fingers under the ball for the catch that reduced the Kiwis to 33/5.

Craig McMillan has a chip-fracture on the index finger of his right hand, and this brought Parore ahead of him in the lineup. And the Kiwi fightback began at that point.

Fleming and Parore batted in a fashion that put earlier dismissals in the right perspective. Both batsmen were either fully forward or fully back, depending on length. Bat and pad came together in defense, unlike the bat in front of pad technique adopted by Astle among others. And both batsmen focussed on stroking the ball smoothly rather than play the dead defensive shot, which meant they could keep picking singles and rotating strike, in the process putting bowlers off their rhythm.

One very interesting aspect of this phase was the way Parore tackled Kumble. The Kiwi keeper, in my book, rates as the best player of spin and here, he seemed to have figured out that the best way to play Kumble was to treat him as an off spinner. Kumble in this innings has been bowling googlies rather more often than normal. And this has been getting batsmen in trouble -- ask Dion Nash, bowled by the wrong one turning in and going past his pad to take out leg stump, last evening.

Parore this morning began playing inside the line of the ball. What this meant was that when the orthodox flipper or the occasional leg break came along, Parore covered up and let it either strike bat and pad, or spin past his off stump. And when Kumble bowled the googly, the fact that Parore was playing a little bit inside the line meant that when the ball curled in, his defense was perfectly in place. Very interesting technique, that.

The Parore-Fleming display put some of the things being said about this pitch in perspectie. This morning, for instance, Geoffrey Boycott was seen on television, pointing to the wide cracks and the areas on the pitch that had crumbled altogether, and saying that you could grow potatoes on it.

Perhaps you could -- I'll need to check that with an agricultural expert. However, a point needs to be made -- cracks on the pitch are not exactly an unknown phenomenon, nor are they limited to the sub-continent. For instance, last year, on day one of a Test at either Perth or Melbourne (off hand, I don't remember which venue it was), Ian Chappell on the first morning was seen slipping his fingers into a huge crack around the good length spot, and talking of the technical problems it could throw up for batsmen.

Maybe it is time Test teams -- and come to think of it, commentators as well -- thought back to the time of uncovered pitches, where rain and sun beat down on the track in equal measure and produced real 'stickies'. During those days, you didn't see batsmen taking one horrified look and running for cover -- they drew on their technical reserves to play as the conditions demanded (immediate instances that come to mind are an innings of 90+ by Vishwanath on a Madras minefield, or a brilliant display by Sunny Gavaskar in Bangalore against Pakistan).

Today's batsmen, though, seem to be increasingly pampered by groundstaff who produce sleeping beauties, and have as a result lost both the technique, and the nerve, you need to survive on a dodgy pitch. But that points to a deficiency, I would think, in the modern batsman, who would much rather blame the pitch for his woes than work on the defensive technique he needs to survive testing conditions.

The Fleming-Parore partnership was threatening to put the Kiwis right back into the game -- given the conditions, even a target of 150 can really test the team batting last here -- when Harbajan struck again. The off spinner had been bowling superbly all morning, using flight, loop and the width of the crease to add an edge to the turn he was getting and increase the problems for the batsmen. Here, he went close to the stumps, tossed one right up around off and Fleming, for once in what, till then, was an innings of sheer class, made the mistake of pushing at it with bat in front of pad. The edge was inevitable and Dravid, standing very close at silly point, did the rest.

When Craig McMillan walked out at the fall of his skipper's wicket, the Kiwis were effectively minus three for the loss of 6 wickets. Careful batting by both Parore and McMillan, and a willingness to stroke the ball freely when the bowlers erred even fractionally in line and length, took the Kiwis through to 99/6 at lunch, the morning session yielding 82 runs, for the loss of three wickets, in 30 overs.

Kumble and Harbajan did the bulk of the bowling this morning. Both were tight and controlled -- but as the batsmen dug themselves in, the bowlers appeared to lose their confidence a bit, and that is a problem Tendulkar will have to cope with in the second session.

Rather strangely, Joshi was underbowled and Srinath did not get a single over this morning -- his deliveries, exploding off a crumbling pitch, could be a weapon India could have used judiciously, especially against Fleming who has, in the recent past, fallen to the quick bowler quite often. India got its act right in the field in the first session, taking everything that came their way -- the bowlers will need to tighten further in the post-lunch session to ensure the Kiwis don't post anything around the 125, 150 mark for India to chase in the final innings -- even those few runs, on this track, will take some making.

The second session began with Craig McMillan in particular looking to go positive, to counter the spinners. And it seemed to be working -- the close cordon was quickly reduced from four to three, then to the mandatory two, and the Kiwis had pulled off a psychological little victory there.

The turnaround seemed complete when McMillan picked the short one from Kumble early and smashed him over midwicket for a huge six. The next ball, again the flipper, bowled from wide of the crease, landed on middle. McMillan lunged to play to leg, and was rapped on the outside of the front pad. On the positive side from the bowler's point of view, the batsman was not fully forward. On the flip side, the strike was on the outside of the pad, the bowler had bowled from wide of the crease which would suggest that the straight line would probably take the ball past leg stump. The umpire gave the decision, where he should have been giving the benefit to the batsman. And that proved unfortunate from the New Zealand point of view, McMillan having, despite his fractured finger, looked very good, completely unfazed by either the spinners, or the cracks in the track, during his 55 minute tenure in the middle.

Srinath, who was underutilised in this innings, took the ball for a very brief spell and immediately clean bowled Parore with a no ball, but it was obvious that Tendulkar had pinned his gameplan on the spinners, and on Kumble in particular.

Chris Cairns walked out and yet again, Tendulkar responded by immediately bringing on Joshi. Predictably, the batsman went after the left arm spinner, and a very curious dismissal followed. Joshi beat Cairns in flight, the ball went past the bat, Prasad stayed admirably low to the ground and collected, then made a mess of the stumps.

The third umpire was called in to adjudicate. And on the replay, it was seen that as the ball curved past the batsman, Joshi had in fact straightened it with the arm, the ball going through to just brush the outside of off stump and dislodge the bail. Further, Prasad had made a clean collection and taken out the stumps, so Cairns was in double jeopardy here, bowled and, to remove all doubt, stumped as well.

Now for the curious bit. What if Prasad had not collected the ball cleanly? Or Cairns had put the bat back in time, and the umpire on the field had not seen the need to call the third umpire into play?

One thing for sure, the bail dropping, the stumping, everything happened in a flash and there was no way either Prasad, or even the umpire, could have noticed the bail being disturbed before the stumping attempt. And the third umpire is not, as per the rules, permitted to adjudicate on a 'bowled' decision. So, theoretically, if the take had been less than clean, or the umpire hadn't called for the third umpire, the batsman would have been allowed to stay on, since no one was 'appealing' for a bowled decision anyway, and the umpires, both straight and square, certainly hadn't spotted that one.

I wonder if the rule makers were watching? The technology is now in place -- how much longer will it take to do the sensible thing, and write into the rule books a codicil to the effect that if the third umpire spots a blatant error, or a dismissal unnoticed by the on-field umpires, he can press the red light?

Kumble was taken off after his 26th over, in order to switch him around to the other end. His replacement was Harbajan, and immediately, the offie floated one in, with some drift, to Parore, the batsman saw the ball hang in the air and flashed into the sweep, found that he had fatally misread the length, which was too full, and saw the ball richochet off his pad onto the stumps. While he lasted, Parore had played with perfect technique, and in the process, showed his seniors in the Kiwi batting lineup that if you have the right technique, and play the ball rather than the imagined terrors of the track, you can survive and make runs here.

Kumble predictably came back at the other end and took out Wiseman with the prescription flipper on a full length on off. India had pulled it all back, allowing New Zealand a lead of just 81. For the bowling side, Kumble in a long, sustained spell, got it right on the kind of track he revels in, and ended with a six wicket haul. Harbajan and Joshi bowled very well in support, and the fielders took everything that came their way, to create an added edge for the bowling.

India came out for its second innings, and first up, you were left wondering about some words and phrases contained in the ICC Code of Conduct. Often, we hear of Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan players being pulled up, even fined, for 'excessive appealing', 'gesticulating', 'behaving in a manner that brings the game into disrepute'.

Within the first ten overs of the Indian innings, the following happened: After bowling the first ball of the innings, Cairns walked deliberately right up to Ramesh, stood there and gave him a prolonged mouthful.

An over later, as Cairns started his run up, Gandhi spotted movement behind the bowler's arm and drew away from his stumps. Cairns continued his run in, and bowled one bang onto middle stump -- and then rubbed the point in with some more natter.

Nash got Tendulkar to drive on the up, the ball fell a good three feet short of point, and the bowler then strolled over to tell Tendulkar what he thought of his batting technique (Tendulkar being the combative kind he is, promptly responded by demonstrating said technique with an immaculate cover drive off the next ball, but that apart...).

And until Vettori and Wiseman came on in tandem, that was the pattern -- pretty ordinary bowling, lots of chatter. I wonder -- does 'disrepute' have different connotations for different sides? Are some sides exempt from the provisions of the code of conduct, and someone forgot to tell the rest of us?

To get back to the match, Ramesh creamed a fluid four through the off side, then, with Cairns going round the wicket, played one of his 'sorry, pal, I was kinda sleeping for a bit, there' kind of shots, airily waving the bat at a ball pitching off, playing down the wrong line altogether with bat well away from pad, and letting it go through the gate to take out off stump.

Rahul Dravid got one pitching off and middle, lunged into a legside flick, and looked a touch startled -- with some justification -- when Nash's appeal was upheld by the umpire. (Incidentally, the decision against McMillan, and this one against Dravid, were both given by A V Jayaprakash, so that at least evened out the books and probably caused certain anti-umpire columnists to kind of rein in their enthusiasm a touch).

At one end, Gandhi dropped anchor. That was all he had to do, really, as Tendulkar -- who must have been feeling a touch irritated at being suckered into that first innings dismissal -- proceeded to give an object lesson on how 'terrible' this track actually was. Seam and spin alike disappeared as the batsman cut loose with a stream of crashing cuts, cover drives on the up, and inch perfect sweeps to fine leg to make a complete mockery of much of the dour, defensive stuff we had seen till then.

Gandhi, circumspect till that point, then got into the act as well, waltzing out to Wiseman to smash him through long on, then rocking back to square cut Vettori to the point fence. And the opener in fact finished it off with a straight hit off Vettori, to complete an eight wicket win with over a day in hand. And the lesson was well and truly driven home -- if you can use your feet, and know how to play strokes to spin, the terrors of the crumbling track are largely an illusion.

The 82 came off just 18.2 overs, and with the win, Tendulkar snapped a nine-Test drawing streak -- and the huge smile on his face as he walked off was eloquent of his relief.

Tailpiece: The practise of carrying readers' mails is hereby suspended. We will shortly bring back our Forum section -- at which point, readers can post whatever thoughts they have for the edification of their fellows. This column will henceforth stick to on-field matters alone. Thanks, all, for the feedback.

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