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India take Toronto series 2-1

Rahul Dravid said it best. Accepting the man of the match award for the final, Dravid said, "I thought lightning didn't strike twice in the same place, but today it almost did, though."

Lightning, in the form of Ricardo Powell, is going to strike a lot of teams around the world. That man is 20, and completely nerveless. His hitting is awesome -- more so because unlike contemporaries like Shahid Afridi and even Lance Klusener, this is not about mere power; Powell's shots are brilliant cricketing shots, the man has a superb eye for length, he picks it off the hand and is in position in a flash, picks the right ball to hit and then puts that enormous breadth of shoulder to optimum use.

I can't think of too many other international batsmen who, with their side down at 53/7 chasing 226, could still take the attack to the opposition and come within a toucher of actually winning the game for his side.

In the final analysis, though, India pulled off an 88 run win -- an emphatic result, akin to the first game of the series. And the way the young, largely experimental side played, in the way they held their nerve to pull off this win after being down while batting and again while facing the Powell onslaught, has interesting pointers for the future.

India made one change -- Kanitkar, who looks completely out of his depth, made way for Vinod Kambli. The West Indies retained the side that won game two of the series and Lara, winning the toss, opted for once to bowl first. No surprise there -- it had rained heavily during the rest day, heavy overnight dew had delayed start of play by 45 minutes, it all added up to a well-juiced pitch.

Predictably, India got off to a bad start, losing two inside the first ten overs. The dismissal of MSK Prasad was fortuitous -- the ball from Walsh seamed in off a length, Prasad kept his bat safely out of harm's way, the ball clipped the pad and a somewhat hesitant appeal for caught behind was promptly upheld by the umpire, Prasad looking justifiably aggrieved as he walked off.

If Prasad's dismissal was fortuitous, Ramesh's -- batting at number three, with Ganguly opting to bat at the top of the order this time -- was predictable. I know the argument advanced for Ramesh's static footwork is that he still gets a lot of runs against quicks. But that was on Indian tracks, where there is not much lateral movement. On any track with the least bit in it for seam bowlers, Ramesh is going to be a patsy for the one leaving him outside off, and yet again, without moving his feet, the opener managed to touch one through to the slip cordon.

Ganguly meanwhile took his own time to get off the blocks. But once he had got a feel for the conditions, he produced a controlled innings, stroking the ball very nicely, getting them right off the middle and taking quick singles to keep the board ticking over. His dismissal was somewhat against the run of play -- Dillon produced a ball on off, Ganguly shaped to play for the one leaving him and was taken completely by surprise when the ball jagged back off the seam and went through his defenses to take out the furniture.

Rahul Dravid had been held back till number five -- probably to ensure that at least one experienced batsman remained to guide the lower half of the Indian order. And the right hander, who has been enjoying a fine run in ODIs this year (5 centuries and counting), produced a trademark innings. He was quickly off the blocks, with two rasping square drives off Dillon followed by a superbly played on drive to midwicket, one of the hardest shots in the game to play. But then, he dropped anchor, and batted patiently through, obviously aiming to play through the innings.

Jacob Martin, meanwhile, made a bit of a mess of yet another international outing. The trouble with this lad is, he is completely clueless off the back foot. The Windies quicks are very quick to scent such weaknesses -- and right at the outset, they pushed him back with a series of deliveries pitching on the short side and rearing off the helpful deck. His confidence shaken, Martin -- who complicates his own problems by batting with a rather odd grip, top hand very high on the handle and bottom hand somewhere in the middle and facing the bowler -- went into a complete shell, his biggest problem being his inability to get the ball off the square.

If you check out the 'Manhattan' for the Indian innings, you'll find real estate was pretty cheap -- no skyscrapers in sight as India went from 10/1 in 5, to 24/2 in 10, 47/2 in 15, 65/3 in 20, 87/3 in 25, 107/3 in 30 and 121/4 in 35, 138/4 in 40.

However, there were two factors that India had going for it, provided there was someone around to take advantage. Brian Lara surprised with a rather bizarre handling of his bowlers. Opening with Walsh and King, he allowed the latter to bowl out his overs before bringing Collymore on -- and that, for starters, is inexplicable. Collymore is pretty much the same pace as King, and not giving him even a sniff of the new, shiny ball meant the quick bowler had to slip into a containing role halfway through the innings. Further, Lara kept holding his 5th bowler back, to the extent that this option -- comprising Adams, Gayle and Powell -- had as many as four overs to bowl at the death. It seemed strange that when Martin was static and Dravid dropping anchor, Lara didn't quickly get his 5th bowler out of the way.

Martin fell in a fashion that he had been threatening right through, walking into a push outside off to Walsh and touching through to the keeper. A bulk of his runs had come off edges and mishits, hardly the kind of innings that should inspire the selectors to see him as a prospect for, say, the tour of Australia.

In came Vinod Kambli, and to tell it like it is, looked an absolute horror at the outset of his innings. At his very best, Kambli has been suspect outside off to pace. Here, he seemed entirely lacking in confidence, and wasn't even making the effort to move into line, preferring to play well away from body. His luck held, though, as he kept missing the edge -- and rounding into the slog over phase, he suddenly threw caution to the winds, and his bat at everything, and produced some clean strikes to begin the process of upping the tempo.

At the other end, Dravid was patience personified. He has become very good at pacing his innings -- doesn't seem to be too bothered that his strike rate hovers around the 60 mark early on in his innings, contents himself with getting in and holding one end up. But as he rounded into the turn, he suddenly cut loose, first spanking Walsh straight back past the bowler, then cutting Dillon to the fence, and then going after Adams with two clinical forays down the wicket to lift over the straight field for successive sixes. The 77 he eventually got off 87 balls was as invaluable, from the Indian point of view, as the century he had scored in the Singapore final against the same opposition just a week ago, and he fell trying to keep the tempo up, when he opted to go over midwicket to a yorker length ball from Dillon, playing all over it and losing middle stump.

Robin at the death produced two clinical boundaries in a brief cameo on his 36th birthday, and India went through on 225/7 off 50 overs -- the highest total recorded in the tournament thus far.

For the West Indies, Dillon took five-for, but only the wickets of Ganguly and Dravid lent credit to the bowler. Walsh, again, was outstanding while Collymore bowled with surprising maturity in his new role of stock defensive bowler. The fifth bowler yet again proved a major worry for the Windies -- 65 runs coming off the ten overs bowled by Adams and Powell.

But the biggest worry was indiscipline. 36 extras and out of them, 16 wides and 14 no balls -- you don't turn in that kind of bowling performance on a helpful track without paying for it. Not only did it help India put up a defensible total, but it also meant that Windies, on the chase, went in knowing it had to do what no team had done in this tournament thus far, and that is score at over 4 an over through the full 50.

India needed a disciplined performance from its bowlers. The one thing it had going for it is that unlike the Windies quicks, the Indians rely more on seam and swing. The Windies bowlers needed the dewy, juiced-up pitch for much of their menace, and in fact seemed blunted as the innings wore on. But Mohanty and Prasad rely on seam and swing, and the conditions, especially the high humidity, was in their favour.

Interestingly, Ganguly (who won the man of the series award, yet again in Toronto, with Gavaskar as adjudicator specifically mentioning that his captaincy had played a big part in getting India the cup) opted to open with Mohanty against Campbell. In the first two games, Prasad had taken the new ball and on both occasions, the first ball had been short and wide and Campbell had smashed them for fours. Campbell loves to play square on both sides of the wicket off the back foot, but is a shade tentative when brought forward and made to drive. This perhaps influenced the choice of Mohanty and it paid dividends off the first ball of the West Indies innings when the bowler swung one in from outside off, the batsman shaped to drive at the full length, the movement found the edge onto pad and then onto the stumps and Windies were 0/1.

Prasad bowls well to left-handers (when they are not named Sanath Jayasuriya, that is) and here, he produced, in the very next over, a slanting delivery that pitched off and seamed rapidly away, Jacobs manging only to touch it to Dravid for the first of four very good slip catches.

Chris Gayle came ahead of Lara yet again. And pressure tactics did for the batsman. Against Mohanty, he produced an outstanding off drive, hit with perfect technique and impeccable timing. Ganguly at once took out second slip, and posted a very short cover. Mohanty kept his length full, Gayle drove, short cover stopped what should have been another four. This left Gayle no option but to try to go over the top, since his best shot was being blocked here (in fact, the off drive is the only shot we have seen from the left-hander in this series). seaming away from him, 6/2 Windies. gayle on strike, mohanty facing him. Mohanty kept it up, seamed it away, Gayle lashed at it, and short cover, Ganguly himself, had an easy take.

That brought Lara to the wicket, and Chanderpaul took the cue to get back into the hut thanks to a rank bad shot. It was a regulation Prasad delivery slanting across the left hander, Chanderpaul lashed a huge drive at it without really moving his foot across, and Dravid dived at second slip to hold a superb reflexive catch.

The dismissal of the day, though, was Chopra taking out Lara. As mentioned in an earlier report, Chopra's improvement from this Sri Lankan tour onwards has been amazing. Bobby Simpson, in fact, told us something that seems pertinent now, when he said that Chopra was a delight to have in England because he was tireless in the nets, delighted in plotting the dismissals of the Indian batsmen and then would meticulously report to Simpson about how he had bowled to each batsman, what weakness he had spotted, and suchlike.

Here, facing Lara, his confidence showed. And the ball he produced was a classic -- lots of loop, bringing the batsman forward. From that height, the ball bit the deck, turned, and jumped and Lara could do little more than push defensively at it for Dravid to hold another sharp chance at slip. Interestingly, for Lara, the Indians stayed on the attack, with a slip, a gully and a short cover for the uppish drive, and it is no secret that when he is ringed around by fielders, Lara either tries to dispell them with some big hitting, or cracks under the pressure.

Chopra then put himself in line for a hat trick when, bowling with four men round the bat, he produced a very good arm ball, deceiving Dillon into pushing defensively down the wrong line, to go past the bat, curve in and take out the off stump. 52/7 and the West Indies at that point seemed down and almost entirely out.

From then on, it was all Powell. Whenever the ball was on the stumps, Powell put his breadth of shoulders to brilliant effect, lifting clean into the long on region (six of his sixes came in that area). He also impressed in the way he shepherded Collymore. Of the first 63 runs of a partnership that eventually yielded 84, Collymore got 1. The rest was all Powell. He would patiently bat through the first four deliveries, looking for the one he could hit out of the ground. That done, he would work the single, giving his partner at most one ball to play out.

The Indians did well strategically, pushing the field back and inviting Powell to take an early single in each over, but Powell, even after hitting the ball all the way to the sweepers, just stood his ground, confident of his ability to the extent that he seemed to know the big one was just a ball or two away.

The Indians for their part lacked one thing -- a bowler who could bowl the yorker at will, the one ball the best of hitters can't get out of the ground (It is going to be interesting to see how Powell goes against Afridi and Akram, both of whom can produce a yorker on demand). Noticeably, Powell wasn't as sure when made to drive on the off, and at least thrice, mishits went in the air and landed short of fielders. But Powell adds to his big hitting prowess ice in his veins, and he shrugged off the mishaps and came within a toucher of hitting India out of the game. Chopra was the one who had always looked like taking him out, and in the end, that is how it happened -- a very tight over during which Chopra fired the ball in on a very full length brought Powell to the stage where he needed one off the last ball. This time, Chopra tossed it up around off and middle and turned it away from the right hander, Powell looked for the controlled push to the on side, was beaten by both turn and bounce, and Robin at a shortish midwicket dived forward to take a stunning catch.

That was in the 32rd over. 8 balls later, it was all over and India had nailed down an 88-run win, to win its first series of the year.

There was one heartwarming moment at the very end. Ganguly was called to the dais, and the trophy presented to him. Rather than take it in his hand, he stood there, took the mike and said, "I'd like the boys up here please". And he waved the entire team forward, had them lift the trophy while he stood by, underlining his little speech earlier about the way the team had played as a unit.

That is the kind of gesture that lifts a team, inspires players to play their hearts out. A rare quality, grace -- especially in moments of triumph.

Meanwhile, an interesting point for the selectors to note: in Singapore, India lacked only Srinath. Here, they were also missing Kumble and Dravid. And yet, the team here played with a unity and a sense of purpose that was missing in Singapore.

Perhaps it is time to send out a strong signal to all players, that from here on, reputations won't count, only performance will? That even the best of players can be dropped, and will be, if they are found lacking either in performance, or commitment, or both?

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