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Azhar, Jadeja go down with flags flying

Prem Panicker

Sri Lanka 302/4 in 50 overs. India 300/7 in 50 overs. And a mere two runs seperating the two sides at the end of 100 overs of thrill a minute cricket that had more turnarounds, especially in the second phase, than the proverbial pretzel.

This game is one for the books.

It is also one for Sachin Tendulkar's homework book. As Jadeja and Azharuddin mounted a fightback the likes of which have not been seen in recent times in Indian cricket, the Indian captain took up stance on the player's balcony, and did not move an inch till the entire drama had ended. And if that long, suspenseful vigil taught him one lesson he has needed to learn for some time now, then this defeat could prove more rewarding to the Indian team than a victory would have, even.

That lesson is this - Sachin Tendulkar is without doubt a contemporary great. But he has slipped into the habit of thinking that the team begins and ends with him. That attitude was there in his pronouncement, at the end of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club, that "We gave up after I got out". That attitude, too, was there on view today, at the Premadasa, when India partly through bad cricket, partly through bad luck, lost three wickets and found itself 61/3.

With Azhar coming out to join him - and Azhar, remember, was batting in good touch on this tour - what Sachin needed to do, more so because India were at that time going at 6.3 per over - was just settle down for the long grind. However, he appeared to have figured that as usual, his batsmen were going to let him down, that India's best hope was if he blindly blazed away and did it on his own. The result - a false stroke, and India were 64/4.

I wonder if, at the end of the game, Sachin looked at the two runs that stood between his side and a long awaited win and played the mental game of "what if"? What if he had stayed on and played the kind of innings Jadeja and Azharuddin played? What if he had not succumbed, yet again, to despair and given up the game before it was even ten overs old? What if...?

This game reiterated the lessons of Durban. Of the Wankhede in Mumbai. Of Chennai. Sachin is wrong to believe that the batting begins and ends with him. If he learns to trust his fellow players, if he frees himself of the needless pressure of imagining that he is carrying the cross of Indian cricket on his lonesome, then perhaps he will free himself to bat the way only he can. And his fellow batsmen, too, will begin flowering in their own way. For one thing is sure - to make someone grow, you have to trust that person.

Here, Sachin has to trust his batsmen. And when he feels the pressure mount on him, he has to tell himself that he is not all alone out there.

The game itself had plenty to interest the connoisseur. India - taking into account the softness and relative slow pace of the Premadasa track, went in with Chauhan replacing Mohanty in the lineup, while Robin Singh came in for Sidhu. And on winning the toss, elected to field first - Sachin Tendulkar again opting to get whatever he could out of the early morning moisture on the track.

To give him due credit, he tried. Rajesh Chauhan was given the ball for the very first over - and the Indian off spinner bowled a superlative first four overs, concentrating on going wide of the crease, around the wicket, to Jayasuriya in particular and angling the ball on a full length and into off and middle stumps, cramping the batsman for room and not allowing him the free hits to off and leg he loves early in his innings.

The ploy would have worked even better if Chauhan had support from the other end - but Kuruvilla was yet again at his wayward best. And Jayasuriya, figuring that he wasn't going to let the bowlers get on top of him, started out, from the sixth over on, to demonstrate yet another facet of his batsmanship - one that, for want of any other adjective, can only be called the cave-man method.

Generally a classy, stylish batsman who relies on eye, judgement and timing more than brute power, Jayasuriya here gripped his bat like a club and started hitting and kept hitting, the muscles in those forearms standing out with the effort he put into each thump. True, they didn't all go along the ground - in fact, quite a few were mishits. But each shot was hit with such power that even the mishits sailed above the heads of the fielders - and once he got his eye in, he went after Chauhan as well, walking down to crack him time and again to the mid on and mid off boundaries.

Tendulkar could have pulled it back if, the moment he saw Kuruvilla was getting wayward, he had pulled him off and introduced either Prasad or Ganguly - preferably the latter, for at his much gentler pace and given his accuracy, he could have been harder to hit - the ball. But one of the Indian captain's problems is that once he gets an idea into his head, you need TNT to blast it out of there -, and here he had two ideas, one that Kuruvilla and Chauhan were the best combination and the other, more longstanding one, that Ganguly can't bowl.

So India, after checking Lanka at the outset, allowed it to get away to yet another blisterning start - Jayasuriya doing all the damage while Marvan Atapattu took his own time to settle down. By the time Prasad bowled a yorker that slipped under Jayasuriya's pre-determined heave and pegged back off stump, Lanka had galloped off to 91 in the 14th over, and Jayasuriya's own contribution was 73 off 52 balls with 10 fours and two sixes. (Lanka 91/1).

Ranatunga revealed his cricketing brain by upping Mahanama ahead of Aravinda D'Silva in the order. Aravinda hasn't exactly been in his usual form in the Asia Cup, while Mahanama was going in with the confidence of a double hundred in his last outing at this venue - and from ball one, the veteran batsman showed his rediscovered confidence and classical touch as he took over the onus of run scoring, working the ball well into the gaps, running hard to convert ones into twos, and when the ball was in the slot, hitting hard for the lines.

India contributed to the mayhem, unfortunately, by getting its thinking cap skewed. Throughout the partnership, both Mahanama and Atapattu were looking at working the singles. India, for some reason, figured they might hit over the top - bad reckoning, given that both are classical players, not really given to risky lofted shots. Thus, the fielders were pushed right back on the line - and the batsmen profited, for they could get a single by just pushing straight to the fielder, and if they pushed wide of a fielder and ran hard, the two was on.

The two thus put on 108 runs for the second wicket before Mahanama in one of his rare bad moments tried a clumsy slog at Robin Singh, who had been bowling a tight, restrictive line, only to put the ball straight up and down Jadeja's throat at mid off. (Mahanama caught Jadeja bowled Singh 53 off 58, three fours and one six, Lanka 199/2).

In came Aravinda D'Silva and while not in pristine touch, he is too classy a player to be kept tied down. Two power packed thumps off Chauhan through mid on for fours came late in the innings - till that point, he concentrated on working singles around and using the gaps in the field to good advantage, while the increasingly assured Atapattu took on the onus of scoring. Again, it was a clumsy heave off a well disguised slower ball from Prasad that did for Aravinda, but by then, Lanka were well into the slog overs, and galloping along nicely, thank you very much. (Aravinda caught Kumble bowled Prasad 34 off 34 with two fours, SL 279/3).

Atapattu came of age, finally, in this innings - too often he has got 50s without converting them into big scores, either through rashness, or over-cautiousness. Today, he was cautious without ever being bogged down, and in his innings, demonstrated the truth of the cricketing saying that if you want to get runs, you have to be out in the middle, not sitting back in the hut (a truth that was later to be underlined, as brilliantly, by Azharuddin and Jadeja). Atapattu's innings had it all - patient accumulation in the beginning, increasingly fluent strokeplay in the middle and acceleration right at the end, before Singh's throw caught him out of his ground. (Atapattu run out 118 off 153 balls with seven fours).

Ranatunga with 8 off 9 balls, and Tillekeratne, whose only contribution was to come in for the last ball of the innings and run two to a stroke by his captain, saw Sri Lanka through to a sizeable, but by no means impossible, score of 302/4 in the 50 overs allotted.

For India, the best of the bowling was done by Chauhan, who ended up with the unflattering figures of 10-0-64-0 (figures that negate his impressive spell at the top of the innings), Robin Singh (superbly ecomical in the middle overs using the old virtues of line and length to return figures of 9-0-44-1) and Prasad (9-0-50-2). Tendulkar bowled himself for five overs and went for 28, but Saurav Ganguly continued his overlong absence from the bowling crease - a factor that is now assuming worrying proportions, for a side that laments the lack of an all rounder cannot afford to have a decent bowler patrolling in the deep without turning his arm over even once.

India began its reply in style, with Ganguly and Tendulkar not only hitting through the line hard and often - the former, in particular, playing some fluid flicks off his pads to the on side for fours - but also running the singles hard and racing away to a score of 58 at the end of the seventh over. And from that point, madness reigned - without, it must be added, discernible method.

The fun began with Sachin Tendulkar hitting hard to the right of coverpoint and taking off, with the stroke, for the single. Ganguly responded, took four steps down the crease, and then stood stock still for a long heartbeat. Finding his captain had no intention of going back, he then ambled over to the other end well after the stumps had been broken. On his way back, Ganguly was glaring at his captain - but if the young left-hander takes a long hard look at the replay, he will perhaps realise that his was the error - the elementary one of hesitating after first setting off for a run. (Ganguly run out 31 off 27 with four fours, India 58/1).

The Indian think tank had been, for the last couple of days, talking of promoting Robin Singh to pinch hit. As a strategy, it could work as well as any other - but the way this think tank operates has more than a touch of the little child about it. A child so pleased to have thought of something, that it feels obliged to tell the world about it. Considering that we in India knew Robin was going to come in at three, Ranatunga out there certainly knew it as well - and the minute Robin walked out, he had his left arm bowlers keep the line just outside off, which meant Robin couldn't hit, he had to do something to at least take the single, the 'something' he tried was to open the bat face to one from Vaas very close to off and sliding away, and Lanka D'Silva, whose keeping was not up there with the best today, snaffled it gratefully. (Robin Singh caught Lanka D'Silva bowled Vaas 1/4, India 59/2). And as he walked off, a lot of us were left wondering if Sachin and Madan Lal had heard of a boxing idiom called 'telegraphing one's punch', and would, when next a brainwave struck them, have the good sense to keep their mouths shut about it.

Rahul Dravid began by driving the first ball he faced fluently past point for a single. And just a while later, bad luck struck, in spades. Sachin Tendulkar played as straight a drive at Sajeewa D'Silva as you want to see, the bowler stuck a foot out, the ball - and this needed three action replays to confirm - just fractionally brushed the cuff of his trouser, and thudded into the stumps at the non striker's end with Dravid a fraction out of his ground. As unfortunate a way to get out as any, and Dravid, now prolonging his slump on this tour, must be suddenly waking up to intimations of his own mortality. (Dravid run out 1/1, India 61/3).

If the first wicket fell to bad cricket, the second to bad strategy and the third to bad luck, then wicket number four was the result of bad attitude. Tendulkar, having seen three wickets go down in rapid succession, ignored the fact that India were ahead of the run rate, that he had as partner a batsman in supreme touch on this tour, and that there were over 40 overs to go at that stage. Like a petulant child, he just stood in his crease and swiped at Vaas, outer edging the ball up, up, and down again into Murali's safe hands at point. (Tendulkar caught Murali bowled Vaas 27 off 28 with three fours, India 64/4).

Jadeja and Azhar then got together - and reminded us that cliches become cliches only because they are truths in the first place. Nothing is over till the last ball is bowled? You got it, brother - India had gone from 58/0 in seven overs to 83/4 in 15. And the next wicket was not to fall till the pair had added 223 runs, both had completed their centuries, and the side was within striking distance of the target.

What I liked best about this partnership was the fact that it stuck to the basics. Very slow to start with - Jadeja in particular kept finding the fielder with his shots and pushes alike, and got bogged down while Azhar, at the other end, worked his usual magic with his wrists to get singles at will despite umpteen field adjustments - the two slowly kept pushing the score along, taking the runs when available, not losing their heads despite tight bowling and brilliant ground fielding.

Between the 20 to the 30 over mark, the singles began coming faster as both batsmen increasingly settled down, and in 30 overs, India had got to 166/4, Jadeja overcoming a dull start to race ahead of Azhar to his fifty, and as his timing returned, interspersing textbook pushes with innovative dabs and paddles and sweeps that, taken with Azhar's more laid back elegance, suddenly had Ranatunga looking rather thoughtful.

I think Lanka also paid a small price, here, for writing off this pair too early. There was about them a marked lack of concern in the early stages of this partnership - in fact, 'relaxed playfulness' best described their attitude, with Jayasuriya on one occasion, off a Jadeja flick to fine leg, actually walking down to retrieve the ball from backward square leg, letting the batsmen take two where there was just the one.

But with 133 to make in 20 and both batsmen looking increasingly set, Lanka suddenly woke up to the fact that it had a bit of a battle going on out there. And simultaneously, Ranatunga realised he had a problem. While his four frontline bowlers had done their stuff well, the fifth bowler - Jayasuriya - for once just couldn't get it right, going for 25 runs off his first three overs. And that is where the Lankan strength showed through, as Aravinda at one end, and Ranatunga at the other, bowled through the crucial 'fifth bowler's quota'. True, they gave away six, seven runs an over - but neither batsmen could really get after them, more so as the fielders tightened up their act. The batsmen, meanwhile, stepped up a gear or three in their running between wickets - and in any event, these two would by any yardstick figure as the fastest movers between wickets in this lineup. India thus moved smoothly on to 226/4 at the end of 40 overs, which meant that the asking rate in the slog overs was just 7.7 per over - nothing a good over or two couldn't bring down.

The trouble was, India didn't get too many bad overs - with Muralitharan, and the fast and accurate Dharmasena, bowling in tandem, the run rate was pegged back down, with each over producing around six runs - which meant that given they needed 7-plus per over, each over under it pushed the ask higher.

Jadeja finally stepped out to cart Murali up and over midwicket, hitting with the turn, to register his 100 with a six off the last ball of the 43rd over - a stroke that also brought up the Indian 250, and turned the pressure back on the fielding side. And when Vaas came back and went for eight in the 45th over - singles off four balls, twos off two, brilliant running on each occasion defeating the slanted angle across the right handers - India actually looked to be pulling ahead, and the packed stadium went into a deathly hush. India 266/4 in 45. And then Dharmasena brought the pendulum swinging round again, with a superb 46th over in which he concentrated on bowling well wide of the crease, spearing the ball full into the blockhole at his briskest pace, and keeping both batsmen pegged down to give just four in the over.

Over number 47, Vaas again concentrated on angling the ball wide of the batsmen, but little dabs and brisk running, culminated by a blazing drive through extra cover off the last ball, by Azhar, got 9 in the over and India on to 278/4. Off the first ball of the next over - which had, for want of options - Sajeewa D'Silva was getting too much stick to risk - to be entrusted to Jayasuriya, Azhar got to his 100 to continue a dream run on this tour. Nine runs came in the over and India, after 48, were 287/4, two overs to go, 16 runs to get, and blood pressures in the stadium and elsewhere rising dangerously high.

I will always maintain that Vaas has the best disguised slower ball in the business, bar none. With Jadeja and Azhar needing just a run a ball, Vaas began over number number 49 with a beaut of a slower ball, Jadeja played too early, and Vaas gleefully took the return catch. (Jadeja 119 off 120 with eight fours and a six, India 287/5).

Mongia came in and India moved on to 294/5 at the end of the penultimate over. Jayasuriya to bowl the last over - Ranatunga figuring a slower bowler was less risky than a medium pacer whose pace just might be used against him - and Mongia, off ball one, got himself run out in a desperate bid to give Azhar the strike. Chauhan came in, took a single off the second ball, Azhar took a single off ball three, and a heave by Chauhan ended up as an easy catch to Mahanama, to reduce India to 296/7.

The batsmen had however changed ends while that one was in the air, and Azhar found himself on strike with two balls to face, and seven runs to get. A flick through midwicket, a desperate diving stop on the line, and two more. India needing five off the last ball. Azhar down the track, lifting - only for the sweeper at midwicket to get back in the action, another desperate stop, and just the two, to have India end its innings on the level 300, Azhar walking back after having played a gallant knock of 111 off 118 balls with just five fours and a good 40 overs worth of incredibly electric wristwork and brilliant running.

A masterful innings in a lost cause - but sometimes, boys who stand on burning decks end up getting all the kudos, don't they?