India crash to second successive defeat

Prem Panicker

Going in to the final days play with India on 52/3 and still needing 375 to win in 90 overs, two comments, from two different people, kept reverberating in my mind.

The first was from Mohinder Amarnath, shortly before play began. When asked if he thought India could play out 90 overs on the day, Jimmy said, Why? They only have to play one ball, which is all any bowler, even Donald, can bowl at a time, they don't have to play all 90 overs at a time.

There is a lesson there, from the man whose application, determination and concentration in the toughest of circumstances were legendary in cricketing circles. And the lesson is this, that even the hardest of tasks need be tackled only one step at a time.

The other comment came in course of a conversation with a friend. We were discussing, before play began, the viability of a chase for 427 - unprecedented in cricketing annals.

But then, when we look for precedent, we need to remember this - that it is only recently that the rules were amended to ensure that the bowling sides finished a full quota of 90 overs per playing day. So the task ahead of India was, in real terms, to score 375 runs off 90 overs.

Break that up a bit. Does 140 off 40 overs sound too much of a task on this wicket? Obviously not, right? Such a total would have been easily attainable in singles, with the batsmen concentrating on taking it easy, their priority being to avoid loss of wickets.

Then, from there on, look at this equation - 235 runs off 50 overs. Keeping in mind, moreover, that by then, you are looking at a tired bunch of bowlers. Sound impossible? On a wicket where, on the third day, Tendulkar and Azharuddin blasted a matter of 222 runs off just 39 overs, scoring 105 off those with 21 boundaries in 60 minutes?

Sure, it can be argued that such innings - characterised by former SA great Mike Proctor as probably the greatest display of batting he had ever seen - are hard to duplicate in such quick succession. But if you look at that equation again, you realise that that sort of strokeplay was not required - Sachin and Azhar could play at half throttle and still get there.

The point is, mindset. We continue to have this hangup that the minute a target is set above 400 for the last day of play, we term it impossible. And yet think nothing of such run chases in the one dayers we play so routinely.

Games are not won unless a team actively seeks a win. And I suspect that in the final analysis, that is where India failed at Newlands - they drifted in the field, then vacillated with the bat. And, in the final analysis, lost their second Test on the trot.

Ironically, a similar situation had prevailed at Calcutta not so long ago. Again, ideal conditions for India's batsmen to rewrite history. Again, abject surrender.

Why? The question keeps coming up, but there are no readymade answers available.

A brief recap of the day, perhaps, will help find them.

India came in at 52/3 with Saurav Ganguly batting on 11, Sachin Tendulkar batting 6.

What the two need to do was cruise quietly along. First see off Donald's opening spell, take singles when possible so that the scoreboard did not stagnate and the bowlers dominate, then look to step up just a pace once the Donald burst was over, and look to go in to lunch without loss of wickets, and scoring at around 3, 3.5 runs to the over.

Tendulkar showed in the first innings that when he plays his natural game, tempering his strokeplay with just that element of caution, he is unstoppable. Here, the caution went by the board - and therein lay the problem. A pull to a ball outside off stump is dicey enough at the best of times, more so in the early part of the morning when the ball is hard, the bowlers fresh, the batsman yet to settle into rhythm. Yet the pull is what Tendulkar picked to play at a short lifter from McMillan outside off stump, the extra bounce as the fresh bowler bent his back in only his second over induced the top edge, and Klusener ran round from mid off to take a well-judged catch.

Mohammad Azharuddin is developing into the maverick genius of Indian cricket - the player who comes out looking to play his shots and, once he gets one or two of them in the middle of the blade, destroys opposition bowlers. One such player in a side is a must, because it is the mavericks who pull off incredible performances, it is their unpredictability no rival side can bargain for.

But then there is this - gameplans should be fluid. Before coming in to bat, the skipper should have budgeted for his own early dismissal, not because he expects to go early, but because the possibility does exist and must be provided for. Thus, the instruction should have been for Laxman also to be padded up, and to come in ahead of Azhar in the event of the loss of an early wicket.

Azhar, after all, is a totally uninhibited strokeplayer, but the need of the morning was to preserve wickets. Therefore, the sensible ploy would have been Laxman when Sachin's wicket went quickly, holding back Azhar while Ganguly and Laxman played out the time to lunch. In the event, though, Azhar it was who came in. First ball, a fierce drive, Cronje fielded at cover and indicated that the pace of the stroke had almost taken his fingers off. Second ball, the drive through extra cover for two. Third ball, the bat face opening on the drive for Hudson to take the edge at third slip, and India 61/5, and down, almost out, before the spectators had settled in.

Saurav Ganguly looked very good out there this morning. Timing his drives well through the off and, when the bowlers bowled at his body and legs, playing off the pads for singles. His great problem, though, has been an eagerness to drive at everything outside off. Pollock bowled one in that region, Ganguly drove, four. Pollock bowled another, this one slightly more up to the bat, Ganguly drove at it again without budgeting for the changed length, and was taken well by Richardson.

Anil Kumble produced a dour display to take India in to lunch with no further loss, in company of V V S Laxman. The latter, for his part, looked his usual edgy self for the first two, three overs, then settled down to playing with calm competence and no unwanted flourishes.

Post lunch, matters moved quickly. Anil Kumble drove at a full pitch from Adams - the little spinner seems to have a knack of taking wickets off his worst deliveries, while the good ones end up giving the batsmen heart attacks but without success - Kumble drove, the ball feathered the edge and went just above Richardson's bootlaces. How the keeper, standing right up, got down in time to take that one, even he may not be able to say. But take it he did, and back went Kumble.

Out came Ganesh, looking quite cool in the face of Donald's fire. Too cool, in fact, for he was not content to defend against the quick, but chose to play strokes as well. A couple of drives were well fielded in the cover, so Ganesh decided to cut - always a dangerous stroke when Donald's line is close to off stump, for the bowler has the knack of either straightening the ball, or bringing it back, without perceptible change of action. In the event, this was the one that came in a shade, cramping Ganesh for room and forcing him to inner edge onto the stumps.

Out came Prasad, and treated everyone to a display of debonair ease as he first played the lofted straight drive, then the pull, to get fours off Adams. The little spinner, though, had the last laugh when Prasad jumped down the track, missed the line, and gave 37-year-old Dave Richardson his first stumping in Test cricket.

Rather remarkable statistics, that, actually - I mean, Richardson's got 100-plus catches behind the stumps standing to the SA quicks, but not a stumping in there, make of that what you will.

Meanwhile Srinath, with a fracture to the index finger of his left hand, did not come in to bat. It is not yet clear how serious the injury is, and whether he will be fit to play at the Wanderers when the third Test begins on January 16. In the event, the innings ended with Prasad's dismissal, and Laxman, who had again played a nice, steady innings, found himself short of someone who would hang around there with him.

South Africa had won the second Test by 282 runs. And Brian McMillan (103 not out in the first innings, 59 not out in the second, two wickets and his usual quota of catches) was named man of the match, and rightly so because in both innings, it was the big all-rounder who, just when things seemed poised to go either way, swung the game decisively in favour of his side.

Sounds a bit hard on Allan Donald, though - this morning, he looked as though he was nauseous, appeared in real discomfort, and yet steamed in and bowled at a good 145 kmph, producing a burst of brilliant deliveries one after another. In fact, it could be argued that it was Donald's fire that prompted Tendulkar to go after McMillan at the other end, as the easier target, and ended in his dismissal.

MOM awards can't be given to teams - if they could, then another contender would have been the South African fielding side. For more than with bat and ball, it was in the field that the gulf between these two sides widens. While the SA fielders give nothing away (sure, they dropped four catches in the Indian first innings, but they also produced blinders of the kind that only they can take, Bacher's catch to dismiss Tendulkar being the kind of take that is seen maybe once a decade, if that), the Indians are more generous than Santa Claus, not only spilling chances but going on to allow the batsmen runs where there are none. If the pressure went off the Sa batting in both innings when they were in trouble, it was the Indian lethargy in the field that was to blame.

There was, too, that extraordinary burst of brilliance from Azhar and Tendulkar on day three, not to mention Kirsten's and Klusener's efforts with the bat. But in the event, Big Mac deserved the honour the most, and got it too in a good piece of judging.

So there we have it, the story of the day.

Do we write this side off now? Order the hangman out, sign the mass death warrants?

I'd prefer to wait a day, maybe two, before even beginning to think of that. Much will depend, for instance, on whether or no this team stays unchanged, or the selectors in their belated wisdom fly out reinforcements. Much, too, will depend on whether or no Srinath is fit to bowl in the third Test.

And when these and other matters become clearer is, perhaps, time enough to answer that question.

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