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Ganguly continues dream run, India 401/5 at close

Weatherwise, it was a bright and sunny day at the Vidharbha Cricket Association stadium in Baroda. Cricketwise, ditto.

Rahul Dravid and Navjot Singh Sidhu resumed at the overnight score of 134/1 and almost from ball one, appeared intent on going for their strokes. However, what really caught the attention was one essential difference in the way the Indians batted here, as opposed to Mohali.

There, the attitude was, defend unless the ball really invites harsh treatment. Here, the thinking seemed to be, keep trying to play strokes, keep attacking, and defend only when you must.

Equally important, the singles were constantly sought, and often taken. This kept the strike rotating, kept the bowlers from being able to fall into a containing line and length, and most important, allowed both batsmen to get a rhythm going in their play.

Such an attitude was going to cost wickets, sure -- but it would also keep the game moving forward, rather than freeze it into immobility as had happened at Mohali on day three and most of day four.

Another interesting development of the morning came at the end of the first hour. India by then had progressed by 46 runs, and were looking to step on it. Predictably, Ranatunga brought on Jayanta Silva, waved the bulk of his fielders to the onside, and the bowler began bowling over the wicket, outside leg, to the right handed batsmen. Ball three of the first over of that spell, about two feet outside leg, and umpire Cyril Mitchley promptly called "Wide".

A firm and, in my mind, a brilliant decision. As per the rules, the call of wide in Tests is left to the discretion of the umpires -- and here, an umpire was making a pretty strong statement that balls way out of reach of batsmen were not acceptable.

This in turn forced Jayanta Silva to bowl closer to leg stump. And when Sidhu danced down and lifted him back down the track for a superb four and, a little later, Dravid came down the track and played two classical ondrives off successive deliveries to the fence, that was pretty much the end of leg-theory as a tactic for the day.

Aggression did for Sidhu, however, when Vaas dug one in short and the batsman went for the hook. Sidhu is a good puller of the ball but when he hooks, the stroke is actually more of a gentle waft at the ball, rather than a full-blooded, whiplash-type stroke. The trouble with those is that you are hitting up from under. An over earlier, a similar stroke put the ball in the air but over the fielder's head -- and this time, Ranatunga had pushed deep backward square just right to take the catch.

That brought Sachin Tendulkar to the wicket. Harsha Bhogle, in the ESPN commentary box, choose his arrival to make a little point. Of late, much has been said, more written, about the "dramatic slump in Tendulkar's form with the bat" -- in fact, judging by the emails I get, there is even a growing body of opinion that believes the Indian captain is over the hill as a batsman, and should be dropped from the side.

So, Harsha produces Tendulkar's statistics for the current year -- in which, as fellow commentator Geoffrey Boycott was quick to point out, India has played all except the last Test on foreign soil, some of them against the fastest bowling going: 11 Tests, 15 innings, 834 runs, three fifties, three centuries. And most significantly, an average, for the current season, of 64.1 -- which is about 12 points higher than his lifetime average.

Speaks of the expectations India has of the man, I guess, that with that kind of record for the year, the general perception is that he is failing.

Interestingly -- and this is admittedly an aside -- while live with our commentary, I tried making a similar point. And was asked, by one of the gentlemen who were logged in then, whether I was related to Tendulkar's in-laws. So now I am a bit in two minds -- am I prone to use Tendulkar as my punching bag, as, I am told, is the view of members of a certain newsgroup? Or am I Tendulkar's staunchest supporter?

Never mind, back to the cricket. Ball two, Tendulkar down the track to Muralitharan, playing a perfectly timed inside out drive straight back over the bowler's head. Six. Ball four, down the track, covering the turn, and a trademark extra-cover drive for four.

Apparently, the gameplan was to step on the accelerator. And then came one of those bizarre dismissals that earlier, Rahul Dravid was specialising in (remember the caught and bowled via the shin guard of silly point?, and the run out with the ball flicking the trouser leg of the bowler en route to stumps?). Here, Pushpakumara angled one across Tendulkar, who stepped inside the line to flick to fine leg. The stroke missed, the batsman being too far inside the line. The ball was headed outside leg, when it hit the projecting underside of the thigh pad and changed direction to crash into leg stump.

I wonder what Tendulkar, under fire for his batting and captaincy both, was thinking on that long walk back?

At lunch, India had added 92 runs off 29 overs.

Post lunch, Azharuddin and Dravid carried on, in a style identical to that practised in the morning. Azhar's wristy play makes it, at all times, very difficult to set fields to him or bowl a set line. Dravid, meanwhile, was visibly tentative when he came out to bat yesterday. But as the ball began to find middle of the bat, it was like you could almost see the confidence coming back -- and nothing typified it more than those two ondrives, and a little waltz down the track to take Muralitharan's flighted delivery on the half volley and lift easily over mid on.

Incidentally, those strokes, and a couple of superb flicks to midwicket by Azhar, meant that Ranatunga, who in the previous Test had allowed 136 overs to be bowled with one ball, using his spinners to slow the batting down to a standstill, was forced to go for the new ball the minute it became due.

And paradoxically, it was the seam bowlers who struck again. Pushpakumara bounced, Dravid -- who is very quick to play the pull and hook to anything short -- went for the hook, not budgetting for the extra bounce the new ball would have, and the shot went in the air to backward square leg, on the boundary line, for just that shot.

The number three, batting himself back into prime form here, gesticulated angrily all the way back to the pavilion, obviously upset with himself for missing out on a century yet again. But to his credit, he did not allow the imminence of that approaching personal milestone to push him on the defensive at a time when the team's collective gameplan was obviously to keep the board moving along steadily.

A while later, Azhar too succumbed to pace -- or rather the slower ball. It looked like the batsman, who unlike in the first game looked in very good touch here and who, on the day, interspersed his trademark flicks through leg with some extremely delicate touch play on the off side, lost concentration for a bit. In the event, he just tentatively pushed a pad at a ball that was dead straight on middle stump, not even making an attempt to play the ball, and was ruled LBW.

That was it, as far as the Lankans were concerned. Kumble, mixing his pet cover drives with sound defence and a grim determination to hang on, and Saurav Ganguly, batting with the confidence of a dream run behind him and seeming to be in sublime touch, added 98 runs without being seperated at the end of the day.

When a Kumara Dharmasena is involved in such a stand with say an Aravinda, we lament that the Indian bowlers are unable to break through the tail. Just a passing thought.

When we had, at the end of the England tour, visited Ganguly's residence for a live chat, he told us in casual conversation that his only cricketing idol was David Gower of England. Increasingly, his driving through off in particular is approaching, in its effortless timing, the silken elegance that characterised England's arguably most stylish batsman of the modern era. What is remarkable about his batting is that it is totally without effort -- no power, no punch, no straining biceps and taut forearms. Just a lazy leaning of the body, either forward or back, a seemingly casual stroke through the line, and the ball glides across the turf leaving the field -- and at one time, Ranatunga had a point, a cover, an extra cover and a mid off in place -- standing.

The Lankan spinners, on the day, looked totally ineffective. Not that the ball was not turning -- it was. But because this time round, the Indians unlike at Mohali did not play them with their feet cemented to the crease. And the minute they began using their feet to get to the pitch, the spinners looked like they were running out of ideas. And Muralitharan, for the second game on the trot, went for over 100 runs, and nothing to show for it in the right hand column.

The two medium pacers, however, bowled very well on the day. Pushpakumara is the kind of aggressive bowler who is always liable to prove expensive -- but he has the knack of taking wickets, and gives the captain the option of attacking with him at one end while checking runs at the other. Vaas, meanwhile, learnt from his mistake and pitched the ball further up and on or around off stump, making the batsman play and using the bouncer as a very effective weapon to keep the batsmen from coming predeterminedly onto the front foot.

The rate of run-scoring dipped appreciably in the post-tea session -- and every indication was that the batsmen played a shade slower under instructions from the captain and coach.

Which leads one to wonder what the Indian game plan could be for the rest of the Test.

There are three days still to play. More accurately, since "days" have, as a measure, yielded place to overs, there are 90 x 3 = 270 overs yet to go in this game.

I suspect that the Indian think tank plans to take another 20, 25 of those overs, tomorrow morning, to go flat out and bring the score as close to 500 as it can. That will mean that Sri Lanka's first target becomes 300 to avoid following on -- and gives Tendulkar something on the board, to set attacking fields to without bothering too much about the flow of runs.

It is a good enough ploy -- with two variables to keep an eye out for. One is the fact that Ranatunga, as savvy as they come, will probably get his bowlers to bowl their overs as slowly as possible in the morning. After all, he knows he doesn't have to bowl all day, so it is not his responsibility to complete the quota of 90 overs. By bowling slow, he consumes time and keeps the Indian batsmen in the middle that much longer.

The other variable is rain -- it is fine to talk of 270 overs, but what if the weather prevents that many from being bowled? That is something the Indian think tank will need to consider very seriously, when timing their declaration.

All of which brings it down to the question of what the pitch will do. One thing for sure -- it will take turn. But increasingly, it looks like it will be a slow turner, as opposed to one of vicious, unpredictable pace and bounce. And if that is the case, the chances of the Indian spinners crashing through the Lankan lineup is pretty bleak -- after all, if the Indian batsmen can use their feet, so too can the opposition. The only way the spinners are going to make a mark here is if the pitch begins to crumble by day four.

Else, their role at best will be one of containment, wickets coming through patience and perseverance -- which, in turn, means that by the end of this game, we might find reason to regret not having played the third seamer.

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