Holder keeps India at bay on day one

Prem Panicker

When Courtney Walsh, on winning the toss on day one of the second Cable and Wireless Test at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad, did not make up his mind what he wanted to do but preferred to go back to the pavilion and consult his colleagues, a lot of heads were being scratched out there.

WG Grace said it best: "If you win the toss, bat. If you are in doubt, think long and hard - and then bat."

Ultimately, that is what Walsh decided to do - and straight up, that decision drew some debate. Why, was the question exercising everyone, didn't Walsh with four quicks put India in and go for them on a first day wicket?

In the event, Walsh could well have read the wicket better than all those Doubting Pundits. Kumble - by popular acclaim a non-turner of the ball - got the ball to do enough off the pitch right through day one to make facing him in the fourth innings not a proposition one would look forward to with any degree of equanimity. And by batting first, Walsh certainly blocked the possibility of going in last on a turner.

So what's a day-one turner doing in the Windies anyways? If this had been India, the cry of pitch doctoring would have gone up again. Here, however, the state of the wicket can be put down, perhaps, to the fact that a few months back, the groundstaff sliced the top five inches off and relaid it. And since then, the two or three Red Stripe games played on it have never lasted the full distance of four days and, more to the point, it is the spinners who have tended to dominate.

As it turned out, the wicket produced for this Test is pretty hard on the surface, with patches of dried grass rolled in. Pace bowlers are pretty apt to finding a bit of the sting taken out of the deliveries, but there certainly looks to be more bounce and lateral movement in it for them than there was in Jamaica in the previous outing.

The West Indies made one change, the unfit Ian Bishop making way for M V Dillon - by repute a tearaway quick in the best West Indies tradition. India, for its part, preferred to go in with an unchanged lineup, so it was Prasad and Kuruvilla bowling to Campbell and Williams, as the curtain went up.

In the second Test at Newlands, in SA, recently, Prasad contracted a fever and bowled very little in the second innings. And since then, he has looked visibly tired out there, and a mere shadow of what he was over the previous six months.

Here again, he tended to take his role as main strike bowler - conferred on him by default, following the injury to Srinath - rather too seriously, and tried a shade too hard, in the initial overs. The result - every over of his first spell of four brought its quota of balls outside off or overpitched on the stumps, and Campbell and Williams took him to the cleaners with some stylish drives and cuts.

Out of evil, the axiom goes, cometh good - and given Prasad's wayward bowling, Kumble found himself coming in to the attack a good few overs earlier than he himself would have expected. The Indian leggie, after a disastrous tour of South Africa, has been discussing his bowling with everyone who would listen, and before the start of this game spent time with former India star Subhash Gupte, now settled here in Trinidad.

One obvious result of all this consultation is that both at Jamaica and here, Kumble has begun tossing the ball up more, and giving it a tweak on the way over. Earlier, he would spear the ball in fast and flat, permitting batsmen to play him like a medium pacer. From the first innings at Jamaica on, however, he has reverted to genuine leg spin, and has in consequence looked a totally different bowler altogether.

In his first over, he induced Stuart Williams (18 off 27 with four fours) to push forward at one on middle stump and turning away. The bat was in front of pad, the edge onto pad was inevitable and Dravid snapped it up at short square to reduce Windies to 26/1.

Campbell had started off with a confident off driven four off Prasad, but from then on, he faced Abey Kuruvilla most of the time. And Kuruvilla, picking up where he left off at Jamaica, bowled an immaculate line on off and middle, moving the ball just enough off the seam, either way, to have the batsman guessing. Kuruvilla has lost yards of pace since his heyday in the early 1990s, but he has made up with immaculate control and a thoughtful style of bowling that has earned him kudos from even the likes of Michael Holding, on the Star Sports commentary box. And again today, Kuruvilla did just what was required, shutting one end up and keeping the batsmen tentative.

Perhaps the pressure got to Campbell (8 off 37 with one four). For in Kumble's second over, he leaned forward to try and play to leg, looking for the top spinner. In the event, it was the genuine leg break he got, the turn resulting in taking the leading edge for Prasad to hold with ease at short cover, and Windies 29/2.

That brought Brian Lara and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul to the crease. But if Lara had been brilliant at Jamaica, here in front of his home crowd he was totally tentative. In his first over - Kumble's third - he drove at a flighted one without getting to the pitch and Kuruvilla, at mid off, reacted a fraction late, managed to get both hands under the ball but spilled a straightforward chance.

Lara also seemed to be suffering some ailment - midway through his brief innings, he sat down on the ground, and physio Dennis White had to run out with some medication for the star southpaw.

Whatever the reason, Lara was a shadow of his former self, and Joshi did the damage shortly before lunch, when he came on to bowl. In Jamaica, Lara had mauled Joshi, whose tendency to flight the ball right up opens him up to the possibility of batsmen using their feet and hitting him over the top. To his credit, however, the left-arm spinner didn't allow the memory to worry him - the ball was given all the air in the world, Lara (14 off 51 with one four) drove, looking to go over mid off, the ball was too full and leaving the bat on pitching, and Azhar at first slip dived to his right to make a difficult chance look ridiculously simple. Windies 59/3.

With the home side going in to lunch at 61/3, India had the upper hand and Walsh, for his part, must have spent a few moments wondering if he had by chance blundered. But heck, if spinners had taken three wickets in the first session of the first day and, in the process, got genuine albeit slow turn off the track, the prospect of not having to play them on day five must have helped the Windies captain digest his lunch that shade easier.

Post lunch, Carl Hooper began proceedings by dancing down to one tossed up by Joshi, and hitting clean and high over mid off for a six. That signalled a shower - and though the interruption lasted for just a few minutes, further showers were to punctuate the rest of the day's play at irritatingly regular intervals.

With Hooper, though circumspect, looking in good touch, Chanderpaul began to blossom. Essentially, the Windies number three is a grafter, with the glide off the pads and the push through midwicket as his bread and butter shots. His strength is that he is aware of his strengths and plays to them, his weakness lies in a slightly suspect technique when playing shots outside off, thanks to a tendency to indeterminate footwork and a penchant for playing with bat away from body. Tendulkar, who throughout the morning kept ringing in the bowling and fielding changes as the situation demanded and looked unusually sharp in the field, brought on Prasad for a second spell and the bowler obliged with some clever bowling. A few balls slanted across the left-hander had Chanderpaul (42 off 82 with four fours and a six) getting used to coming forward and pushing on the off. And then Prasad produced the off cutter, the extra movement off the seam produced the nick, and Mongia held with characteristic lack of fuss. Windies 99/4.

Roland Holder must have been feeling immense pressure - after all, he has been on the fringes of Test selection for some years now and when he did finally get a look in, it was at the expense of Jimmy Adams, a guy with a 50+ average in Tests. Holder did nothing to justify his inclusion in his debut outing at Jamaica, and here too he seemed to be feeling the pressure considerably.

Before he had got into double figures, Kumble straightened one and hurried it through, the ball rapped him on the back pad, Holder was bang in front of middle stump - but umpire Steve Randell figured there was some margin for doubt, and gave benefit of said doubt to the batsman.

Hooper (40 off 85 with one four and one six) meanwhile played with characteristic lack of fuss, getting his runs through deft placements till his own cleverness got the better of him. Kumble had been consistently tossing the ball up right through his long spell. And besides turn off the wicket, what this meant that his length was consistently fuller than when he bowls the flat line. This full length in turn makes strokes like the cut rather dicey, but Hooper decided to try a fancy late cut at one just outside off. It was the top spinner, hurrying through, surprising the batsman with bounce and pace, and Hooper feathered the edge.

Just how Azhar, standing very close at first slip, took it we will never know. Mongia was moving towards off and covering the line of the ball, so Azhar was totally unsighted and had no means of knowing the snick was coming till it crossed the keeper. And yet the fielder, who was moving to his right at first, checked, dived low to his left and picked up a blinder - again, with the consummate ease that makes one first wonder whether it was a straightforward catch after all. Windies 149/5.

Junior Murray (11 off 24 with two fours) had apparently decided that he wasn't hanging around. A few hefty heaves at Joshi, who obliged by flighting the ball right up into the slot, apparently got him thinking he could do the same to Kumble. The leggie, who as always when he gets a wicket early on goes on to bowl superbly, promptly pitched one shorter, held it back, and calmly stood waiting for the inevitable return catch off the drive played too early. Windies 169/6.

And then followed some rather surprising stuff, as Joshi who had, till then, bowled with intelligence, over-flighted to no apparent purpose. Curtley Ambrose was at the wicket, the need was for the screws to be really turned tight, but Joshi in the space of just two overs undid all his earlier hard work, giving away something like 27 runs in just 12 balls and taking the pressure right off. Surprisingly, given that it was the spinners who had bowled India into a commanding position, given too that he had till then been very aggressive in his field placings, Tendulkar chose not to surround Ambrose with the mandatory ring of close catchers, relying on just a slip and a silly point while leaving the leg side vacant. And Ambrose took advantage, calmly patting everything out into that vacant bit of country, and keeping his end up while an increasingly assured Holder took complete charge.

Ambrose, too, could count himself lucky that umpire Randell has his own interpretation of what constitutes LBW - and this time, the sufferer who saw the ball strike the pad in front of middle stump and the batsman survive the appeal, was Prasad.

It was only after the last of the rain interruptions that Ambrose (16 off 55 with two fours) who, after his initial slog at Joshi, had settled into defending everything that came his way, made a mistake. Kumble flighted one, Ambrose poked at it, and Dravid at short square took a lovely reflex catch off bat-pad to reduce Windies to 220/7.

Rose came in - and promptly got the benefit of one of those doubts that Randell seems peculiarly prone to. In the event, he survived - and even swung one from Joshi right over midwicket for a huge six - to take Windies through to close of play with the score at 239/7 off 89 overs, one over having been taken off due to stoppage of play.

At the close, Rose was batting 13 off 29 balls with a six and a four, and Holder was on 71 off 146 with six fours - an innings of class and, more importantly, of character. Holder not only vanquished his initial nerves, but settled into playing a mature, responsible innings that, in context of the relative failures of his senior colleagues, is worth many more than the 71 runs he has against his name. Consider that when Hooper left the Windies score was on 149, then Holder has added a further 90 with just Murray, Ambrose and now Rose for company.

The Indians, to their credit, kept their cool in the field and didn't let either the initial successes, or Holder's later obduracy, affect their concentration. True, one catch went down, but otherwise the fielding side let almost nothing go by and for once looked good out there. And one reason for this could be that over the last two days, the Indians have practised very little, preferring to rest as much as possible. Tiredness has done much to dull the mental edge of this side, and today the Indians didn't seem quite as tired as usual.

Kumble (34-7-95-5) was easily the pick of the bowlers, bowling unchanged from before lunch to almost the close barring interruptions for rain and tea and such. What amazes me is how, time after time, Kumble suddenly discovers in himself an ability to flight the ball, make it jump and turn, and gets wickets in plenty (this, you will remember, is his second five wicket haul in the last three innings). And then, for no apparent reason, he will revert to bowling flat and fast and totally ineffective. Maybe he needs to videograph performances like today's, and spend a good half hour before start of each day's play looking at himself in action? Sort of like that "Every day in every way I am getting better and better" incantation they advise the underconfident to start the day with?

If Kumble topped the charts, Kuruvilla (17-9-29-0) was a very close second. The figures speak for his accuracy and control - and when you have a bowler bowling that tight a line in a low scoring game, the pressure it puts on the opposing bowlers can be well imagined.

Joshi (18-2-63-1) always impresses as a big hearted bowler prepared to flight the ball and buy his wickets, in the style of the classical left-arm spinners. Sort of like Bedi who, on getting carted over the fence, would applaud the batsman and toss the next one further up. But Joshi also blots his own copybook by taking his tendency to flight to illogical extremes - during his spell here, a good few deliveries were flighted so high, and so full, the ball must have got blue in the face from lack of oxygen. And that was not particularly clever of him. What he needs, if he is to make his flight work for him, is work on the loop - flight is dangerous only when allied to a loop that confuses the batsman and makes him unsure of where exactly the ball will pitch, and that was Bedi's forte. Joshi could benefit, I guess, from some time spent with that modern master of the art of left arm spin.

As for Prasad (20-6-48-1), he was wayward to begin with, giving away 27 in his first four overs. But once he spent some time out in the country and got his head back together again, he like Kuruvilla was immaculate in line and length, and distinctly unlucky to see a clever piece of bowling go unrewarded when Randell shook a negative head at a very good LBW shout.

Which brings us to the subject of those three LBW appeals. Some umpires - the recently retired Dicky Bird comes to mind - have this tendency to negate appeals even when, on occasion, the ball looks to be set to fracture middle stump. For all I know, Randell is one of that number. True, the LBW law is clear in itself, but like most things in cricket it is left to interpretation by the umpire. And I guess there will be no quarrels if Randell is consistent in his decisions, through all five days of the game. And that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, everything seems set for a fascinating second day's play, on a wicket taking increasing spin and the West Indies going in with a four-man pace line up. True, the Windies quicks are much faster than Prasad and Kuruvilla - remains to be seen just what they will make of this wicket. And, for that matter, just how the Indians, who have recently been tempered on the considerably faster wickets in RSA, cope with the challenge.

One thing is for sure - India is not likely, in the remaining three Tests, to find a wicket, and conditions, as conducive to a bid for victory as this one. Bat with application, put a decent lead on the board after wrapping up the remaining Windies batsmen, and on a track where the spin will be even more pronounced by midday of day three, anything is possible.

But there's this - "application" has been a bit of an Achilles Heel for this side, thus far, hasn't it?