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India canter to 8-wicket win

If someone were to tell me that Saurav Ganguly had bought a slice of the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club and turned it into a summer home, I'd believe him implicitly -- the guy can't seem to put a foot wrong at the venue.

For starters, he certainly read the pitch better than the television experts -- who, before the game, indicated that it was nice and hard and, given that there was no cloud overhead and not much sub-surface moisture either (this bit courtesy Geoffrey Boycott and his car keys), the team winning the toss would want to bat first.

Ganguly won the toss and promptly inserted, saying that he thought his seamers would be able to use the conditions quite nicely. Lara said he would have batted first had he won the toss.

Both teams showed a lot of changes. The Windies went in without Adams, and Dillon, bringing in left handed batsman Chris Gayle, Adrian Griffith at the top of the order and seamer Correy Colleymore. India, without Kumble (axed for form), Srinath (resting at his own request), Tendulkar (treating a bad back) and Jadeja (treating a torn thigh muscle) brought in Jacob Martin, reverted to MSK Prasad behind the stumps, and took Kanitkar into the lineup as well.

The lineup gave the side lots of bowling options -- four regulars, plus Kanitkar, plus Robin, plus Ganguly and, if need be, Ramesh.

And the Indian seamers responded with a superb opening spell that effectively put the West Indies behind the eight ball inside the first 15 overs. One statistic is revealing: Prasad had a first spell of 6-0-17-0 and Mohanty went even better, coming up with 6-2-15-1. And that kind of thing always has an effect on the batting side -- more so when the change bowlers, Robin Singh and Nikhil Chopra, kept the pressure up with tight line by the one, and attacking off spin bowling by the other (5-1-12-1 Chopra in ihs first spell).

What added to the pressure was some interesting captaincy by Ganguly. He seems to have a penchant for flat out attack. Throughout the game, there was at least one slip in place. Each time a new batsman came in, the close catchers were enhanced to two, sometimes three. But most importantly, the field was kept well inside the circle. Both Tendulkar and Azharuddin have the habit of pushing the fielders back to the edge of the circle and this lets batsmen, even when new to the crease, take the pressure off by pushing off the square and running with the shots, the steady accumulation of singles meaning that the board keeps ticking over and thus putting the pressure on the bowling side. Here Ganguly, even when faced by strokeplayers like Lara and Powell, kept the field up, denied singles, and forced batsmen to take risks.

Debashish Mohanty has this happy knack of picking wickets early and it was he who started the slide, pushing Adrian Griffith onto the back foot with one slightly short, that seamed back in very late around line of off, the movement beating the push, taking the edge and crashing into the stumps.

Chopra then teamed with MSK Prasad to produce a superb dismissal off Chanderpaul. The offie, attacking with a slip and short square leg, floated one up, with some nice loop, got the ball to bite and bounce off the deck. Chanderpaul, generally a good player of spin bowling, lunged forward trying to paddle, was beaten by the flight and bounce and Prasad did great work to effect the stumping. He had to take the ball above the shoulder to his left, and bring it back onto the stumps before the batsman could push his foot back into the crease, and he did it smartly enough to have Chanderpaul walking without even waiting for the umpire.

Chris Gayle was the next to go, courtesy Robin Singh. While the opening bowlers and Chopra attacked, Robin used the conditions well, slowing down his pace, keeping the ball from coming on to the bat, and ensuring that run-scoring was next to impossible. This, coupled with the lack of easy singles on offer, meant that the batsmen were forced to try harder. Gayle stood tall to a ball around the off line, trying to force off the back foot, but only got the inner edge to one that seamed in a touch and went on to crash into his stumps.

Brian Lara sought to counter attack. Ganguly helped things along by keeping his leg side cordon within the circle, with no sweeper back on the line at long on and midwicket, Lara's two favoured areas early on. And Robin's pace, or lack of it, did the rest -- the Windies captain looked to go over long on, the ball didn't come on to the bat, the shot was played too early and Lara only managed to put it high in the air and down the throat of mid on.

57/4 in the 23rd over was disaster in the making, and Ricardo Powell walked out to the crease. On the evidence of Singapore, the man is lethal when you pitch short to him, a touch iffy if the ball is three quarter and moving around near off stump. Ganguly apparently remembered Singapore, for the moment Powell walked out, Mohanty was brought back on -- and the seamer responded with two brilliant overs, in the first of which he turned Powell inside out and beat him four times on the trot with swing and seam around off.

The pressure was released by the one bad over Robin Singh bowled on the day -- three successive deliveries short and wide of off being crashed for boundaries by Campbell to take the West Indies to 74/4 at the halfway stage.

Then Prasad took over from Mohanty and promptly lost his head. Having twice beaten Powell outside off with patented leg cutters, Prasad for some reason imagined he could bounce the batsman out. Followed a stream of short pitched deliveries, and Powell put spectators at risk with some clinical big-hitting. Robin Singh, quickly brought back on, returned sanity to the proceedings by going back to that line outside off, seaming one away and having Powell aiming a huge hit at it. The intention was to clear the field over cover, but the seam movement meant the ball took the toe, not the middle of the bat -- and Jacob Martin, who on the evidence is a fielder with nice soft hands and a still head when tracking catches in the outfield, came in off the line at cover to hold a very well judged catch. Powell scored 37 off 34 and barring one classic straight six, the rest of the runs came gift-wrapped courtesy some bad bowling by Prasad, who went for 21 in his two overs to the batsman.

Prasad -- MSK, not Venkatesh -- who seemed to have shaken off the nerves of Sri Lanka, then produced an outstanding effort to take out Campbell. The batsman had throughout his patchy but gritty innings embarassed Mohanty, Prasad and Chopra with the number of times he was beaten around off, fidgetted against some tight bowling by Joshi, finally went dancing down trying to get the ball off the square, played for turn whereas what he got was the arm ball, and managed only to edge onto his pad. Prasad, staying low to the ground behind the sticks (which is the difference between a regular keeper and a part-timer like, say, Dravid) showed great presence of mind to dive forward, grab the ball from Campbell's bootlaces and break the stumps.

With the tail exposed, the Indians attacked with slip, silly point and short leg, a refreshing change from earlier instances when the field would, once the 15 overs were up, scatter as far as they could within the playing area. And the pressure continued to tell on the batsmen. Joshi kept tossing them up and turning them away from Bryan, who after being beaten a couple of times figured the only way to go was go right back and play as late as he could. Joshi at once pushed an arm ball through quicker and fuller, Bryan stayed back, played for turn that wasn't there, and was trapped plumb in front.

Chopra, who on the day turned in his best ever figures, then returned to take out Jacobs, the last of the recognised batsmen, with a beauty. Again, it was flighted, there was loop enough on the top spinner to confuse the batsman and Jacobs, looking to whip off his pads, was beaten in flight and trapped bang in front.

The Indians were by now operating in platoon system. Back came Mohanty, and took out King with a ball swinging from outside leg to leg stump, then darting back in further. King tried to lift over midwicket, the ball moved in enough to defeat the shot, and the batsman managed only a leading edge to give square leg a simple take.

Courtney Walsh is your quintessential tailender. And Prasad didn't waste too much time, inducing him to slash a leg cutter to cover to end the West Indies innings for 163 -- at least 90 shy of a defensible total on this track.

For India, Chopra and Mohanty were the pick of the bowlers. Robin bowled very well barring the one aberrant over to Campbell, and Prasad was controlled again barring his momentary loss of reason when faced with Powell. Joshi as always was immaculate in control, and the effort was backed up by good, thoughtful field setting. Most impressive though was the fact that the fielders stayed up throughout, attacking the ball, cutting down the singles almost completely and applying tremendous pressure on the batting side.

India sprang a surprise when it opted to open with MSK Prasad and Ramesh. Whyfor? The only reason I could think of was, with Ganguly, Ramesh and Dravid coming in in that order, it would mean Kanitkar, after a long lay off, and Martin on debut, being exposed early. Whereas by pushing Prasad up the order, Ganguly stretched his batting lineup just that little bit longer.

Lara too sprang a surprise. His need was for quick wickets, and Walsh is his best bowler. So he promptly banished Walsh to the outfield, kept just one slip in place, and tossed the ball to Colleymore and Bryan. And Prasad promptly took three fours off edges into the slips and down to third man to get India off the blocks in a hurry.

Prasad in fact appeared to have one of those freak bats that are all edges and no middle. The Windies bowlers helped things along with some indisciplined work, producing 14 wides and two no balls and adding to the misery by drifting to leg too often for comfort. And India, at the end of 10 overs, had made 50 -- as good a start as you want when chasing a smallish 164.

Prasad finally slapped a wide ball, seaming wider, to point. And then Lara got Walsh into action (interestingly, the crowd had been yelling for Walsh to bowl right from the start, but apparently the sound didnt carry to the Windies captain) and the veteran promptly produced a lethal spell, including a ball out of hell that took out Dravid.

Walsh against Dravid was focussing on swinging wide of the crease and angling the ball in to off, the batsman for his part moving into line and defending. Out of nowhere, Walsh swung close to the stumps, cocked his wrist and put his shoulder into a ball bowled at something like the pace he had in his heyday. The ball hit a length, and kicked high, then seamed away late. Dravid was good enough to spot the danger and drop his wrists -- but even that defensive technique was not good enough to keep the ball from feathering the edge through to the keeper.

Walsh then produced a similar ball to Ganguly, and the Indian captain was saved only by the fact that unlike Dravid, he hadn't moved into line of the ball -- one of those rare occasions when not getting into line is actually a boon.

However, with his partners in arms drifting all over the place, Walsh was fighting a lone battle. And India, having got off to a good start, was under no pressure -- after the first ten overs, they needed only 114 runs in 40 overs which meant they could just bide their time, wait for the loose balls, and put them away.

Ramesh's innings was an odd mix of static-footed slashes and silken touch play especially off his hips and pads. Ganguly for his part took a few to judge the pitch, then eased into flowing strokes, his innings most noticeable for some swift running between wickets -- and, of course, for the trademark dance down the track to get under Gayle's off spin and ease him over the straight field for one of those effortless-seaming sixes.

Ganguly picked up yet another Man of the Match on Toronto soil -- and thanks to an early finish to the game, is probably hunting up the nearest real estate agent looking to buy up the ground he revels on.

The win has put the Windies on the back foot, as they now need to win the next two to take the title. Meanwhile, what impact this result has had on the morale of a largely experimental Indian outfit will be seen tomorrow, when the two sides match up again.

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