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India takes game one in Toronto

Prem Panicker

It's 4 am in India as I write this. And frankly, looking back on this game, the best descriptor I could come up with is - two teams did their damndest to lose the game, and in the end, Pakistan pipped India to the loser's post.

That might sound a shade harsh. A shade like "India-bashing", "not giving credit where due" and such.

But that - if you put emotionalism in the freezer for the duration - is pretty much what this game boiled down to. And having said that, it needs to be added that in the final analysis, India deserved the win because it got things right for more of the time than Pakistan did.

Here's what happened, taken from the top.

First up, the wicket. The Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling (some day, I need to find out just what Curling is, other than what happens to your hair when it's wet) Club has a Yorkshireman, Mike Corley, for curator. Last year, when the wickets in Toronto played fast and loose with the batsmen, Corley explained that he had been given very little time to prepare decent wickets. This time, he's had a year. And a week earlier, he said in a media briefing that he had imported soil from elsewhere, and that this time round, we were going to have a batting track.

Well, I don't know where Corley got this soil from, but he needs to put in for a refund - the wicket, even as early as day one, hour one, stood revealed as two-paced, the odd ball kicking high, the next one keeping low. Sometimes turning, sometimes not. And this, mind you, on day one. There are two pitches laid side by side, this one will have three games played on it - the first two, and then the final. And if the way the wicket played today is any indication, I'll be very, very surprised if any team goes any significant distance over the 240-run mark in this entire competition.

Not condemning the wicket mind you, because I see no reason why only wickets where batsmen can blindly belt the ball around should be termed good one day tracks - this one helps bowlers, makes the batsmen work for their runs, and I reckon the games to come are going to be pretty close either way - which, at least to my mind, is a lot better than watching the guy in the sixth tier of the gallery over long off fielding more balls than the fielders do.

The game got underway half an hour behind schedule - and for that, I reckon, the umpires and organisers deserve some applause. Heavy overnight dew meant the outfield was somewhat wet, and the wicket itself fully "juiced up". Under those conditions, the team bowling first would have had far too much of an advantage in the first few overs, so the organisers figured on delaying the start, letting the sun drink up some of the dew, and level the playing field for both sides somewhat. A great decision, that - you really don't want a game to be decided in the first ten overs, do you now?

In the event, Pakistan won the toss - and in the first ten overs, its bowlers - especially the two younger ones, Mohammad Akram and Azhar Mahmood - did their level best to throw away the advantage. Akram, in particular, bowled a good 10 wides in just one over and even there, I reckon, he was lucky to get away with a couple of wides that weren't called. That effectively negated the good work of the experienced Aqib Jaaved, and meant that in conditions inimical to strokeplay, India got to 31 in the 10th over without losing a wicket - the key here being the fact that all ten wickets were standing. For when you win the toss and elect to bowl first in helpful conditions, the least you expect your bowlers to do is take a wicket or two to get the ball rolling.

Javed succeeded because, thanks to his experience, he knew to keep the ball right up to the bat and let the movement off the seam do his work for him. Akram and to a lesser extent, Mahmood failed - in the initial spell, which is what we are talking of here - because they got carried away and tried to do far too much, with the result that if the ball wasn't seaming a mile down the leg side, it was seaming two miles down off.

The Indian openers batted in contrasting styles. Tendulkar, for once, looked far less than convincing - every indication was that he had come out expecting the ball to come on nicely, and was rather surprised by the two-paced track he found himself on. As for Ganguly, he looked solid whenever ball did meet the bat - but given that of the first 13 wides, 12 were when he was on strike, he rarely if ever got a good chance to lay bat on ball in the early overs.

Predictably, then, the more settled Ganguly was the first to go - and he got done more by the wicket than anything else. Akram, returning for a second spell after being wayward (a polite way of phrasing it, given that on one occasion, he pitched the ball outside the playing surface) in his first spell of three overs, suddenly and for no visible reason made one climb steeply off good length, on middle stump. Ganguly, taken by surprise, could do no more than fend it off - into the hands of Afridi at square leg, to depart for 17 off 41 deliveries with three fours, India's score then being 52.

Tendulkar meanwhile was just about getting into his stride, beginning to middle the ball and looking a lot more comfortable out there, when he hit upon one of those silly modes of dismissal he is all too prone to. Azhar Mahmood pitched one a shade short of good length - Tendulkar swivelled around alright, but picked the hook instead of the pull, to a ball not short enough for the shot, and topedged it down Akram's throat at deep and wide fine leg to depart for 17 off 54 with two fours, India at the time 52/2.

Dravid, in contrast, looked in easy touch, getting his placements right and stroking singles easily while Azhar looked hell bent on getting his eye in for a long haul. But having done all the hard work, Dravid then threw it all away when he aimed a cut at one from Afridi not quite wide enough of off for the shot - the ball jumped more than he expected and, off the bottom of the blade, went to point where Ijaz Ahmed plucked a very good catch to send back Dravid for 23 off 41, India's score at the time being 85/3.

By then, it was pretty obvious that this was not going to be a slam-bang kind of game - and Ajay Jadeja, the newly appointed vice captain, and Mohammad Azharuddin tailored their game to suit the occasion, playing with their heads well down, getting singles through good placing and superb running and totally eschewing anything in the nature of forcing strokes. A score around the 220 mark looked a good target to set - but India seemed way short of that score when it went into the 39th over on 130/3. Which was when Jadeja again underlined why he is rated by the experts as one of the most dangerous one day batsmen in the game. With no warning that the change in gears was coming, he went down the track to Afridi and swung him high, hard and handsome over extra cover and, a ball later, repeated the stroke, only straighter this time, to clear the mid off fence by the proverbial mile. And in the next over, the 40th of the innings, he leant rather lazily back to a good length ball from Akram, waited for it to come on to bat and then slammed it straight back, up and over the bowler for yet another six. And when Saqlain came on in the 42nd over for his regular spell at the death, a nicely timed flat-bat hit over midwicket produced six number four - before Jadeja, off the next ball, attempted a sweep over backward square only to miscue to Akram fielding on the fence, departing for a well made 49 off 54 balls with one four and four sixes that not only gave the Indian innings the momentum it needed, but in the final analysis earned him the man of the match award as well.

India was 176/4 at that stage. With just eight overs to go, Robin Singh had no option but to hit out at everything - which he did to the tune of 16 off 15 balls, before stepping back to make room for a clout over cover, only to be deceived by Saqlain's arm ball and find his middle stump pegged back, India 199/5.

From that point on, it was as if India intended to demonstrate just how weak its tail really was. Saba Karim, in the side ahead of Mongia given his reputation for being able to hit the ball, attempted to step away from the stumps and hit Aqib Javed, in the 49th over, through covers. Only, Karim had done his stepping-away act before Javed was even halfway through his runup - and you don't telegraph your punch quite so clearly to a bowler of Javed's experience. The yorker was inevitable, and crashed into the base of Karim's off stump to send him back for 3 off 5, India 202/6.

Javed then produced a brilliant piece of bowling. Chauhan was greeted with a superb, searing bouncer that rocked the tailender onto his heels. Sure, it got called a no-ball, but sometimes, a no-ball is an acceptable penalty if the result is unsettling a batsman at a crucial point - and Javed proved how when, off the very next ball, he produced another magnificient yorker to which Chauhan, apparently apprehensive of another short lifter, had no clue. India 203/7.

Azharuddin had all along played with superb composure, picking up where he left off in Sri Lanka. Finding himself rapidly running out of partners, however, he jumped down the track to Saqlain attempting a big hit in the last over of the innings, missed completely as the bowler skilfully angled it away from him down the off, and was stumped by half the length of the pitch - having, however, produced a lovely innings of 52 off 87 without a single four.

Kuruvilla promptly slogged Saqlain straight up in the air and down square leg's throat, Harvinder Singh did the same again two balls later, and India were all out for 208 off the last ball of the 50th over. Which means, essentially, that after the fall of Robin Singh, India lost five wickets, in other words the lower half of the lineup, in 12 balls for 9 runs.

Maybe India does not have genuine all-rounders just yet. But it is high time that the management made it clear to the lower order batsmen that they are expected to contribute with the bat. Not, perhaps, twenties and thirties - but five wickets going down in 12 balls off some of the most ungainly heaves and hoiks seen on a cricket field is pretty pathetic stuff - and this kind of habit, when India is chasing, is precisely why the side has found itself on the losing end in too many close games of late.

For Pakistan, Saqlain Mushtaq - with yet another brilliant return of 10-0-45-5 - was the key bowler, as he so often has been in recent times. The thing with him is that he attacks, whether in the middle or at the very end. Not for him "restrictive bowling" of the defensive sort - he prefers to restrict by taking wickets, and in recent times, has increasingly become the bowler Pakistan looks to at the death. Aaqib Javed with a spell of 10-3-39-2 gave him good support as did Azhar Mahmood 10-1-28-1. Akram was wayward in the beginning, but returned with his head screwed on right in subsequent spells to turn in final figures of 9-1-41-1 - which, given that he had sent down 10 wides in just one over, was very good going.

The real key to the result, though, lay in the extras - 29 of them, 22 wides and 3 no balls, meant that Pakistan effectively bowled 4 overs more, and gave away 25 runs as well. And to rub it in, they failed to finish their allotted 50 overs in time, which meant that they got only 49 overs to get to the target. This kind of waywardness is lethal at any time - in a low scoring game, doubly so, as witness the margin of defeat being a mere 20 runs.

Much has been made of the "inexperience" of the Indian bowling. But one point seems to have escaped a lot of the pundits - namely, that at the very least, India here was going into the game with 11 players, as against the nine and a half they fielded for the most part in Sri Lanka. There, Anil Kumble had lost it pretty totally - his poor bowling form in fact impacting adversely even on his fielding, and utility to the side as vice captain. And Prasad was for the major part of the tour merely half fit and struggling.

Here, then, India took the field with 11 players - and it showed. Debashish Mohanty, grabbing his chance with both hands, produced a peach of a ball in the fourth over, angled across the left hander, pitching just short on line with the off stump and then straightening to beat Saeed Anwar (2 off 4) all ends up and wreck his middle stump, Pakistan 4/1. And immediately after, Kuruvilla made one seam away late, Ramiz Raja's drive on the up only ended up catching the outer edge for Azhar to take the first of his four catches in the slips, and Pakistan were 6/2 in 5 overs, and given the nature of the pitch, in deep trouble.

It could so easily have been 13/3 a short while after if Azharuddin had clung to a low, but by slip-fielding standards, simple chance at second slip off Kuruvilla when a tentative Ijaz Ahmed prodded at yet another peach of a leg-cutter. But for one, the man who ranks second only to Allan Border in the number of ODI catches held got the ball in his hands and out again.

Inzamam ul Haq, meanwhile, showed every indication that he wasn't destined for a long tenure. I am not sure just what has prompted his change of style - but here, he has gotten into the habit of holding his bat raised as the bowler takes his delivery stride, and then walking (the movement is too marked, and decisive, to be termed a shuffle) across to his off stump. With the result that against the advice of every coaching manual ever written, he is mobile, not motionless, at the time of delivery. Kuruvilla exploited the technical flaw when he produced one from close to the stumps, seaming just fractionally away but kicking up from a shade short of good length. Inzy, cramped for space and with his bat raised to half mast, had no option but to pat it to Jadeja at point, to depart for 13 off 32 with two fours, and Pakistan at that stage 32/3.

Sending in Shahid Afridi at that point, ahead of the hugely experienced Salim Malik, was a rather startling error in strategy. 32/3 is when you try to consolidate - not send in a big hitting strokeplayer to tan the cover off the ball. Afridi, however, knows no other way to bat, and his desire to hit at everything saw him slash at a ball from debutant Harvinder Singh, outside off and leaving him further, to give Azharuddin his second catch of the innings, Afridi going for 13 off 20 and Pakistan 57/4.

It was left to tthe family firm of Ijaz and Malik, brothers-in-law, to repair the damage. And they seemed to be doing just that, batting with sane solidity and not taking the least risk, when Harvinder's wayward bowling - like Akram, the young debutant appeared to get carried away, pitching far too short and giving away too many free hits to the batsmen, or going wide and getting called - forced Tendulkar, for once, to throw the ball to Ganguly.

He may not be the fastest thing this side of Allan Donald, but Ganguly has the knack of keeping the ball to the line required - and when he found that his captain had given him a slip, he alternated the gentle inswinger on off stump with the leg cutter leaving the batsman late - and Ijaz Ahmed made the fatal mistake of mistaking the one going away for the one he thought was coming in, only to get the outer edge of his flashing blade and Azharuddin promptly made amends, taking a far more difficult catch than the one he had put down, off the same batsman, earlier - Ijaz departing for 24 off 47 with three fours, and Pakistan 82/5.

An over later, Ganguly struck again - and again, the ball that did the damage was the leg cutter. This time, he pitched it on a driving length and Moin Khan, always ready for a belt, drove at it only to find the ball, at Ganguly's pace, wasn't coming on to the bat. The movement away, what's more, took the outer edge for Robin at extra cover to take a good overhead catch, Moin Khan gone for nought off seven, Pakistan 84/6.

Azhar Mahmood is a more than decent hand with the bat, but on this occasion the pressure proved too much for him and, when Harvinder came back for a second spell, he tried to flash outside off and Azharuddin pouched number four, to send Mahmood back for 9 off 18 and Pakistan 107/7.

And then followed the best phase of the Pakistan innings, and the worst phase of the Indian bowling. With the batting side down and, almost, out, one would have expected Sachin Tendulkar to concentrate on wiping out the tail quick. But for once, he opted to push his fielders back to the line, saving the fours - though, to give him due credit, Sachin did keep one slip (two for Mohanty and Kuruvilla) right through the innings) - rather than keep them in the circle and cut off the singles. Surely, at that stage, neither Saqlain nor Malik were going to go for the old heave-ho - so the sensible ploy was to cut off the singles and turn the screws even tighter.

Maybe it is true what they say - when a team loses constantly, it gets to a point where it is almost afraid of winning. And the result was that Saqlain - who has applied himself, in exemplary fashion, into becoming a good all round cricketer, superb in the field, very handy with the bat, and close to brilliant with the ball - and Malik, batting sensibly, took the score along to 171 before the latter, who till that point in time looked capable of taking the game away from India single handed, made the first of two mistakes that were to cost Pakistan the match. Saqlain patted one straight to Ajay Jadeja at short extra cover, Malik at the non-striker's end, ignoring his partner's frantic calls of NO! put his head down and charged the length of the pitch, and Saqlain was finally forced to jog along to the other end in a voluntary sacrifice of his wicket, going for 29 off 44 with two good fours and Pakistan losing its eighth wicket for 171.

Even then, it looked to be Pakistan that had the game sewn up - for the ask, thanks to some superb strokeplay by Malik following Saqlain's departure, had got to 21 off 29 balls. All that was required was some deft placing and running of singles - and given the steadily climbing Pakistan total, the Indian bowling and fielding had acquired defensive overtones. So just why Malik, too classical a player to bring off the ungainly slog, chose to stick his foot a mile down the wicket and lash out at Harvinder for the ball to take the outer edge and spiral to backward point, where Chauhan judged the catch well, is a mystery. In the event, Malik went for 64 off 87 with four fours, Pakistan were 188/9 and, a ball later, 188 all out when Tendulkar at short mid on capitalised on yet another mixup to catch Aqib Javed comfortably out of his ground, and seal India's 20-run win in the first game.

The pick of the bowlers were the two opening quicks - Kuruvilla (8-2-27-2) and Mohanty (7-0-22-1) both bowled with fire and aggression and, more importantly, to the line and field the captain had indicated for them. Robin Singh had another of his crucial spells with the ball, bowling his 10 overs unchanged for just 35 runs, while Ganguly did himself proud (and, hopefully, wiped out his captain's amnesia) with a crucial spell of 7-0-27-2). Chauhan, funnily enough, got a bowl only in the 38th over of the innings - then again, perhaps it was not quite that 'funny', given how well the medium pacers did on this track. Debutant Harvinder Singh was the sole exception to an outstanding bowling display, proving too wayward - pitching either too short, too full or too wide for the most part - to really impress. The thing, though, was that it seemed that every now and again he would bowl one pretty much in the corridor of uncertainity - and that one ball in 10 would produce a wicket, wide the three he took, off 8.2 overs, for 44 runs. He is pretty quick when he wants to be and, now that his first-match nerves are behind him, should hopefully settle into a more decent line and length from here on.

A couple of other aspects need mentioning - and in fact, both can be summed up by one word: aggression.

India, for once in a very long while, took the field bristling. Mohanty set the tone when he kindly pointed the way to the pavilion in case Anwar couldn't find it himself, after blasting one through the left-hander's defences. Robin Singh was given a lip by Salim Malik, and promptly responded with two lifters, the second of which jammed Malik's fingers against the bat handle and had the batsmen summoning the physio for running repairs, the fielders came racing in, gee-ed each other up and flung themselves around. And the captain - who in recent times has, in the very first over, preferred to go in with a field of just one slip up close, even when defending scores in excess of 250, swung this time to the other extreme with a totally aggressive field placing till the Saqlain-Malik stand happened. So much so that for Mohanty, bowling with his tail right up, Tendulkar at one point had two slips, a gully and a short square leg - which would qualify as aggressive even in a Test match situation, let alone a one day game. And the results were there to be seen, in the palpable pressure the Pak batting lineup came under.

As I wrap this up, I find two thoughts nagging at me. The first is, what exactly sparked this sudden rediscovery of his earlier aggressive outlook, on the part of Tendulkar?

And, more importantly in context of the four games left to play, is this a one-off? Or the first sign of a change in attitude to a far more healthier, more positive one?

We will know soon enough, won't we? When the two teams go head to head in game two, Sunday 1900 IST?

See you then.

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