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Proteas in a spin against India

To cut a long story short, India defeated South Africa with conviction, getting to the small target of 118 before the innings had reached the halfway stage, for the loss of just the two openers. And in the process, they bowled out South Africa for their second lowest total ever in ODIs.

You've got to take a moment to wonder just what is going on behind the scenes in South African cricket -- a thought sparked by news that Hansie Cronje has just announced that he is giving up the captaincy and heading off to coach Glamorgan next season. Now this is a guy who has a record of 86 wins and just 29 defeats, including this one, in 119 outings as captain -- so you would expect, a, that he would lead a while longer since he doesnt seem over the hill yet, and b, that even if he wanted to quit, South Africa would want him involved with the national team at some level to take advantage of all that expertise.

Coming back to business for the first time after the World Cup heartbreak, the Proteas have a new coach in Graham Ford who, though he hasn't played any top flight cricket, is being seen as the right successor to Bob Woolmer, mainly because Ford has been Woolmer's right hand man for some years now.

Before getting into the match details, a thought about the ground. The curator, after seeing the ball turn on day one, decided to flood it with water in a bid to try and change its character a bit. Which argues an amateur approach -- a pitch can't be turned overnight from a spinning track to a batsman's paradise, it just doesn't happen. What does happen is there is some moisture at the start which gives seamers a bit of an advantage, and then it dries down and starts turning all over again.

One thing though -- I heard some television commentators saying this pitch wasn't good for one day cricket, because spin bowlers dominated. And this I don't hold with. For instance, when in England the ball helped seamers and run-making was difficult, I didn't hear anyone suggesting that was a bad thing. So why is it that only when the track turns, everyone gets alarmed? Since when is playing pace on a helpful seaming track good, but playing spin on a turning track is not? If the track was crumbling, yes, you can understand the grouse -- but this was a hard pitch, it didn't crumble, it just helped spinners, so why the grouse?

Could it be that it is the Asian nations who play spin well and also have quality spinners, while the white nations rely more on pace, fumble against spin and ergo, anything that suits them is good, what doesn't suit ain't?

No, not trying to raise racist issues, merely wondering why this spin bogey keeps cropping up.

Hansie Cronje won the toss and opted for first strike. His argument was that the ball would turn more in the second innings -- which does beg the question why SA opted to go in with just one spinner in Derek Crookes, leaving out Paul Adams who definitely rates ahead of Crookes as a tweaker.

India and SA both had a debutant apiece, Dipenaar opening in place of Kirsten while Vijay Bharadwaj came in for Jacob Martin -- obviously, Bharadwaj being preferred because his part-time off spin (he rarely bowls regularly for Karnataka though his six wicket haul in the final of the Ranji Trophy did make the difference to the ultimate outcome) would give the Indians another option on a helpful track.

Much is going to be made -- quite rightly, too -- of how the Indian spinners bowled. However, it needs mentioning that the seamers did more than their bit on a pitch that didn't give them any help (to underline that, check out the figures for the much quicker Pollock, Klusener and Kallis later in the day). For one thing, the bowling was disciplined, no wides, no no balls throughout the innings. For another, both Mohanty and Prasad bowled to their field, gave away next to nothing and ensured that SA got off the blocks slowly, 11/0 in 5, 32/0 in 9.

Dipenaar comes across as a hot prospect when playing seam -- his footwork is very assured, his timing impeccable, and he is easily behind the line to pretty much anything you throw at him.

Given the nature of the track, Jadeja brought Joshi in as early as over number ten. The first ball, to Herschelle Gibbs, was a startler -- tossed up, pitching off and turning dramatically away. Gibbs looked startled. Next ball, same line, but held back a bit, didn't turn as much -- and Gibbs, with bat at half mast and looking for that sharp turn, managed only to push at it for Dravid, at slip, to anticipate superbly and dive to hold a blinder.

Dravid of late has been practising slip-catching a lot, that showed in Toronto and here, too, he was to take two superb catches in that position. Which means the Indian captain can finally stop experimenting, putting the likes of Venkatesh Prasad in that key position and watching chances go down.

But while on practise, what merits mentioning is Sunil Joshi. While the Indian team was in England for the World Cup, Joshi went to Delhi. On his own initiative, he called up Bishen Singh Bedi and asked for help and Bedi immediately invited him over. For 20 days, Joshi stayed in Delhi as Bedi's guest, spending long hours watching tapes of Bedi bowling, then going into the nets with the ace left arm spinner watching him, and re-learning the art all over again. Bedi worked hard on Joshi, teaching him the intricacies of flight, perfecting the arm ball (which today, Joshi used to brilliant effect) and, most importantly, teaching him how to cope with a batsman prepared to use his feet (you will recall that in the past, Joshi has tended to crack when a batsman set out to attack him).

Back to the game and with that first wicket, the game turned full circle. Mark Boucher looked completely at sea against Joshi, and in a transparent bid to get to the other end, pushed straight to mid off and took off. Robin Singh, fielding in that position, typified an outstanding performance by India in the field today, attacking the ball and rifling the throw back to the batsman's end, hitting the stumps direct and catching Boucher stranded at the other end of the pitch.

Kallis came in and by then, the Indians were attacking for all they were worth, with a slip, silly point, gully for the new man. Chopra joined his spinning mate in the 15th over. These two are developing into a nice combination -- when left handers are on strike, Chopra is the aggressor, flighting, looping the ball, turning it away and looking for the edge, while Joshi settles down to the tight line. When it is right handers, they switch roles, Chopra floating them around off and turning it in with a packed off field, buttoning things down while Joshi attacks, turning the ball away from the right hander. The combination, which has been working well in the last three tournaments, raises an interesting question -- where does Kumble, who even on such tracks prefers to rely on the flat, quick flippers, fit in to the matrix?

Dipenaar was the next to go. Assured as he looked against pace, his tenure against Joshi was pure misery. One over was symbolic. Joshi tossed one up on off, the batsman tried to sweep, the ball turned and beat the shot. Next ball, outside off, Dipenaar leant back and tried to cut, was beaten by the arm ball hurrying quickly through. Ball three, an attempt to come down the track and drive, beaten for turn and lucky to get his toe back in before Prasad whipped off the bails. Dipenaar by this point was all at sea, and Joshi finished off the job by coming closer to the stumps and pitching one on off, tempting the hoik against the line. Dipenaar fell for it, swung lustily, was beaten by the loop on the ball and found that he had misread the arm ball again, the ball hurrying straight through to take out off stump.

Hansie Cronje is rated the best player of spin in the SA side, but he didn't get a chance to settle in. Interestingly, the Indians opted to crowd him, putting three close catchers round the bat, bringing the rest of the field inside the circle and challenging the batsman to try and go over the top. Cronje danced down a couple of times, but both Chopra and Joshi were bowling superbly by that point. Chopra in fact was distinctly unlucky -- in the 26th over, Kallis who by then was completely static, tried to break out with a huge swipe at Chopra, only to mishit completely, get the ball on his glove for an easy take by Prasad behind the sticks -- only, the umpire remained unmoved.

Joshi, after an eight over spell that read 8-5-4-3, had been replaced by Bharadwaj. He is a tall lad, bowls with a bustling action, very high arm, tending to spear the ball through pretty quick and flat, only flighting the odd one by way of variety. What was interesting about his bowling today is that after two overs, he suddenly switched things around, and went round the wicket. From that direction, he was angling the ball across and away from the right hander, then turning it back in -- which meant that though there were two offies operating in tandem, each posed different problems for the batsmen.

Jadeja used his bowlers very well, using Joshi in one extended spell when he saw how effective he was, rotating the others rapidly, switching their ends constantly and mixing things up, not letting any batsman settle against any one bowler.

When he needed to, he also brought Prasad back on for a quick spell, just to change the tempo a bit, and the medium pacer responded with a stream of slow leg cutters, almost like a leg break bowler, helping to button things down. The tale is best told through the run-progression: 11/0 in 5, 32/1 in 10, 39/2 in 15, 44/3 in 20, 50/4 in 25, 63/4 in 30, 82/4 in 35, 92/7 in 40, 106/7 in 45...

South Africa appeared to be looking at keeping wickets in tact, with both Benkenstein and Kallis just pushing the ball around the square in the middle overs. The plan was probably to save wickets for a slog, but between overs 35-40, Joshi and Chopra teamed up for another spell to deny that particular plan. Chopra started it, with a floater that held back on pitching, Benkenstein misread it and pushed back down the track, the ball looped in the air and looked to be dying on the bowler when he flung himself forward to hold a lovely return catch (another example of what hard work does -- when Chopra began, he was rated the worst fielder in the side, now he regularly fields at short cover and brings off superb diving stops).

Immediately after that strike, Joshi came back on. Rhodes, feeling the pressure of three men round the bat, in the 38th over yet, decided to try and hit the bowler off his length -- first ball, a reverse sweep, the ball turned and the shot went straight to point, an easy take. Same over, Joshi with slip, gully, silly point and very short cover to Shaun Pollock, made one jump and turn away, Pollock was looking for the forcing shot off the back foot, the ball took the edge and again, Dravid at slip was back in business making a tough catch look easy. That was two strikes in his 9th over, and SA were well and truly back in jail.

Joshi then bowled an interesting final over to Klusener, who repeatedly kept looking to hit him out on the on side and as often, failed to guage the flight and turn and ended up taking the ball on pads and body.

Kallis, given the benefit early in his innings, was static at one end. To his credit, he held that one end up. However, where he failed was that he just couldn't manage to work the ball away, especially when Klusener joined him. Too often, Kallis took four, five balls, then got the single and left Klusener with just one ball to face. And finally, he gave Bharadwaj his first international wicket, when he woke from a spell of slumber, tried to slog one over midwicket and only found the fielder in that region.

With Joshi finishing his spell, Chopra came back and Crookes went dancing down to lift him over long on for a clean six. The next ball was pushed through quicker and the bowler hit the deck harder, the batsman tried to swing over midwicket and managed only to glove it for the keeper to take. And later in that same over, with Steve Elworthy on strike and a slip, gully, silly point and short square in place, Chopra tossed one up on off, turned it in and Elworthy, pushing in defense, managed only to get edge onto pad for Jadeja at silly point to dive forward and take a beauty, ending the SA innings on 117 and leaving Klusener stranded on 7 off 23 deliveries -- the powerful left hander looking rather out of sorts on a track where the ball didn't come on enough to facilitate his brand of strokeplay.

All this begs the question -- was it the pitch, the bowling, or did SA make things difficult for themselves by staying inside their crease to play spin? The pitch, as pointed out, did turn -- but if the scoreboard raises visions of one of those unpredictable minefields, forget it -- if you can play spin, then this pitch had no terrors. The bowling was good -- Joshi was outstanding, a quality spell of left arm spin; Chopra continued to display the confidence and control that has characterised him in recent outings; Bharadwaj settled easily into his support spinner's role, focussing on containment and buttoning one end up, and both seamers bowled with control and discipline.

But what really made a difference today was India's outcricket -- other than one sloppy effort by Prasad that saw a single turned into a four (the first four, incidentally, in 152 deliveries after the 8th over) -- the Indians were electric. To an extent that surprises any regular follower of their efforts. They flung themselves about, they backed up well to the throws from the outfield, they attacked the ball right through -- to such an extent where the South Africans cut down the quick singles altogether, where in recent times you find batsmen playing straight to the fielder and sauntering singles. This lack of singles was the real killer for the Proteas, since it meant the batsmen couldn't rotate strike, and the bowlers could keep the pressure right on and attack all the time. And add to this the fact that they caught superbly, four catches being right out of the top draw.

One thing is for sure -- the Indians can field when they want to. Whether they will "want to" often enough is a question only those 11 players know the answer to -- what is evident though is that when they do choose to apply themselves, they look a very good side out there.

If the Indian seamers got the side off to a good start with controlled bowling, the South African opening bowlers gave the game away inside the first ten overs. There were wides, long hops, short stuff on either side of the wicket, and Ramesh and Ganguly made merry with a stream of boundaries on either side of the wicket. A flick square on the on by Ramesh, a punched on drive off the toes by Ganguly were the standouts as India raced to 38 in 5m 72/0 in 10 and 99/1 in 15.

That wicket was that of Ramesh. Today, the southpaw moved his feet well, coming onto the front foot quickly, playing right off the middle and timing everything like a swiss chronometer. It was in attempting to smash Derek Crookes out of the ground that he failed, not getting to the pitch and ending up hitting high in the air and down the throat of mid on.

However, before that he had played a lovely square cut and a flowing off drive off the off spinner, while at the other end, Ganguly waltzed down to lift Crookes over cover, then eased him through the off cordon and swung one around to square leg for boundaries. Clearly, Crookes was not in the same league as Chopra or even Bharadwaj in using a helpful track -- and besides, the Indians refused to stay inside the crease to him.

Ganguly too left in the same fashion as Ramesh, going down the track once too often and mishitting Crookes to give the outfielder on the on side a simple take.

Bharadwaj in his debut outing with the bat however played with calm asurance. It is too early to tell, but from what little we saw today, Bharadwaj plays confidently off the front foot, doesnt hesitate to go back and get in line when the ball is pitched short, and uses his feet quite well to spin (there was a nice little waltz down the wicket to Crookes, for a four over long on). Remains to be seen how he plays quality pace on a seaming track, but he does seem to have the temperament, which with his bowling makes him a prospect to keep an eye on.

Dravid finished things off with one of his trademark off drives off the hapless Crookes, and India had pulled off the win inside of 23 overs.

A wakeup call, this, for South Africa -- they've had a longish layoff, having played no competitive cricket since the World Cup. It will be interesting to see how the team responds over the rest of this tournament -- more so because the conditions here are not the kind SA is best equipped to deal with.

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