Indians made the most of the slog overs
There was a great hue and cry about the pitches in our country exactly a year ago when the Indian team was faring badly in Australia
Woorkheri Raman
06-Dec-2000
There was a great hue and cry about the pitches in our country exactly a
year ago when the Indian team was faring badly in Australia. The pitch at the
Motera Stadium at Ahmedabad was nothing to write home about as the top surface
just kept coming off repeatedly. Ironically the curator at the Motera is a
member of the pitches committee of the BCCI. Yet the score card of both the
sides suggest that the pitch was one hell of a belter. One wonders whether the
batting needs to be complemented or the bowling deserves to be criticised
severely. The Indians coasted to a convincing victory and everything will be
forgiven and forgotten as a result.
Saurav Ganguly dictated the course of the game from the outset despite
losing Sachin Tendulkar early on. His timing was as good as ever on a pitch,
which was not a paradise for stroke play. Dravid played the second fiddle role
to perfection and watched his skipper unleash strokes all round the wicket.
Travis Friend did work up good pace and accounted for Tendulkar with a peach of
a delivery. Tendulkar was surprised by not only the pace but also the bounce
extracted by Friend.
The second wicket partnership between Rahul Dravid and Ganguly virtually
sealed the fate of the visitors. It has to be mentioned that the visitors really
made a mess of things with their innocuous attack. The lack of a reasonably good
spinner in their ranks was felt rather badly. The medium pace oriented attack
was also guilty of conceding too many extras by way of wides and no balls.
The dropped chances compounded the misery of the Zimbabwean captain,
Heath Streak. He could only watch Ganguly plunder his bowlers with his customary
elegance and pluck. The Indian skipper reached his century and he celebrated the
occasion with some explosive blows. Sunil Joshi made merry in the latter stages
of the innings hitting a few lusty blows. Anything above 250 was a stiff target
on a deteriorating surface and the Indians would have settled for that. But what
ensued in the final ten overs was something incredible and this was one occasion
the hosts made the most of the slog.
Chasing 300 plus successfully even on a firm pitch is not an everyday
occurrence, but the manner in which the visitors started their innings only
reaffirmed the result. Marillier appeared like one who was in a hurry to get
back into the dressing room for a shower. His repeated thrusts at thin air
rubbed off on even Stuart Carlisle who is a batsman in the conventional mode.
While Prasad brought Marillier's misery to an end, Zaheer Khan with sheer pace
beat Carlisle. Alistair Campbell played some attractive shots and a big innings
was required from either Campbell or Andy Flower for Zimbabwe to make a match of
it. But the problem was going to be the spinners for the visitors and the
introduction of Tendulkar portended the things to come for Zimbabwe. Campbell
was dismissed in his first over and the purchase he obtained from the track put
paid to Zimbabwe's hopes.
Sridharan Sriram, who did an opportunity to bat, utilised the helpful
pitch to end up with three wickets. This would make the youngster feel much
better as he is under minute observation at the moment. He has to be encouraged,
as Sodhi as yet cannot be termed as an all-rounder. With Robin Singh out of the
side, Sriram appears the best bet to fill up the all-rounder's slot.