A Historic Test Victory

December 18 2006, a day to remember and cherish for the people of India. A historic test win, the first one in South African soil!!

Who would have thought India can post a win? No one even dared to dream an Indian win against the formidable South African side. Not many gave India a chance of winning a test match in the African soil. All one expected was India to timidly surrender 3-0, especially after South African white wash in the one-dayers.

Rahul Dravid won the toss for the first time on this tour and took a brave decision to bat first on a bouncy pitch. It really showed the confidence he had in his team and gave a warning signal to the opposition that they are ready for the challenge.

On the fourth day, some accurate bowling from Zaheer Khan who managed to trap Boucher in front of the wicket gave India an early break through. But some energized batting by Pollock and solid occupation of the crease by Prince looked like they might pull of a miracle. There came Kumble, a man who have bowled India to so many victories, yet again came to the party, rattling the South African lower order giving India an emphatic 123 run victory.

In spite of the delayed start due to rain, the Indians didn’t loose their focus and managed to put up a decent total of 156 for 5 at the end of first days play. Thanks to a good partnership between Dravid and Sachin. But the man who anchored the Indian innings was the comeback man Sourav Ganguly. One was able to witness his inevitable determination and self belief in his 101 ball knock, helping the team to post a good competitive total on the board. His innings was well supported by Laxman who was involved in a valuable partnership of 46 runs with Sourav before getting out on the last ball of the day’s play.

The wickets started tumbling at one end the next day as the South African bowlers made inroads at the start of play. But some hard slogging by VRV Singh with Sourav at the other end saw India reach 249.

A pleasing sight was to see Sourav playing comfortably; a flawless batting display, moving his feet well and facing deliveries right on the middle of the bat. His timing was simply superb and to see him hitting those trade mark cover drives from the sweet part of the blade only confirmed that he is all set to play a long stint for the country. His determination and relaxed approach was evident from the statement he made before the test match, “In the last 10 months I understood that cricket in not the only thing in my life.” One was also got to see a few glimpses of his destructive batting that made him bowlers’ nightmare in earlier days of his career, when he positioned himself to pulled a short of good length delivery outside the off stump form Makhaya Ntini for a six!!

A year back people complained about his ability to play short pitched balls. And to all those who still think so, here is some interesting stats for you. Combining both the innings he faced 28 short pitch stuff, piled on 25 runs out of it, which shows his confidence. Team India coach Chappell is in all praise for Dada said, “He was a mentally different batsman to the one dropped from the side 10 months ago. He's got a will and a desire to play for India that is very strong; it showed through in Potch and in this Test."

When whole of India was all praise for the Bengal Tiger, it was the young pro from the land of Gods who steeled the show. Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan scythe through the South African batting line-up, whose wickets started falling like nine pins. The surprising part was to see South African batsmen had no clue of how to survive in their own conditions.

Sreesanth’s impressive bowling performance, especially his seam position, the line of delivery and the control he had throughout the test match was praised even by greats like Allan Donald and Wasim Akram who where present there as tv commentators. To my knowledge I don’t remember such a penetrating pace bowling performance from any Indian team of past. This shattered the African hopes and enlightened a new hope among Indians of winning the test match.

After taking165 runs lead in the first innings, Indian top order once again collapsed, Laxman and Sourav had to do the repair work, piled on runs at good pace taking India to 110 for 4 form 25 overs. The beauty of this partnership was they didn’t fail to hammer the loose deliveries, scoring 51 runs from just 61 balls with 10 boundaries. They were cool and composed and theirs being a left – right combination further troubled the bowlers to get their line right.

Having said this, the partnership that helped to extend the lead to 400 was the one between Laxman (73) and Zaheer Khan (37). They added 70 runs for the 8^th wicket which actually delivered the knock-out punch. Zaheer’s display with the bat was a sensible innings and the enormous patience he showed is something that should be appreciated.

Both perishing in the same Ntini over, one thought the entertainment and the fight was over. But it wasn’t; Nel bowled a short of length delivery to Sreesanth who completely missed it, the ball whooshing above the stumps leading to exchange of words between them with Nel saying “show me the heart!” One wonders what will be Sreesanth’s reply and to everyone’s surprise he moved out of his leg stump, came down the ground and hit the ball above the bowler’s head for a straight six!!! It didn’t stop there; he started celebrating with his jig, a typical Kerala flavor. And it came as no surprise that his sister is an actor, his brother-in-law a singer and Sreesanth a professional dancer himself.

Yet another impressive point to note down was Rahul Dravid, the skipper, making right field settings and bowling changes keeping the opposition batsman under check all the time.

On the other hand South Africans have to rethink about their strategy. They where really handicapped in their bowling department having no variety. They missed the trick in not playing Paul Adams, the lone spinner in the squad. There was no variety within their pace attack too, with just pace and bounce being their only weapon. Shaun Pollock was the only stand out bowler for them tacking 7 wickets in the match, ending up with 401 test victims. To make the matter worse Dayle Steyn pulled his muscle after bowling just 10.1 overs.

In the South African 2^nd innings Zaheer was right on the button inviting Gibbs for a tempted cover drive getting the outside edge, a catch well taken by Sachin at first slip in the only over that was bowled before lunch. Their batting was a complete disaster with Smith playing an aloof short away from the body, a superb catch taken by Sehwag at point, with Prince alone showing some resistance in both the innings.

Indian players showed lots of patience and didn’t get carried away with temptation of a sighing victory. Instead they were very focused on their job on the 4^th day and completed the formalities.

For Team India, a test match win will be bigger than the one day series doing a world of good. This will induce a big transformation in their approach, especially after a lean patch for the last six months. Indian players are full of beans, celebrating one of the most significant achievements of Indian cricket. It will be interesting to see, how South Africans will respond to the challenge. This win can well change the course of the series and will even be a great one, if India can pull a series win.

Tigers to Fight at Bull Ring

With just few hours away from the start of the first test match between India and South Africa, the men in blue are yet to find out solutions for the ‘n’ number of questions lying before them.

They are now in a pathetic situation where they have lost track of where they are and how to proceed further. With world cup just a few months away, the team management is now facing a huge challenge ahead of them and this test series will certainly play a significant role in terms of preparation and selection.

It is not often that Indians have managed to win a tour match, so the resounding win against the fairly competitive Rest of South Africa side should lift the spirits in the Indian camp.

The attack looks like it can deliver goods. Zaheer Khan is in prime from after shortening his run-up and is able to trouble the South African top order consistently. He has provided India with break through whenever necessary throughout this tour. With Sreesanth and VRV Singh being included in the playing eleven it is very clear that Indians want to have some raw pace in their bowling line up. Who knows VRV Singh might be the trump card for the Indians!

Above all, ‘man of commitment’ Kumble can be very handy. When the odds are against him, when people had ruled out the hopes of him being successful abroad, he had proved that he can be devastating by finishing the series as the highest wicket-taker with 24 wickets in just 3 tests that he played against Australia in 2003-04.

What India needs is a gallant performance form one of their players which can lift the morale of the side and can set the tone for the rest of the series. Yes, it is something similar to what had happened in Australia two years back where Sourav Ganguly played one of the best knocks of his career to take India to a competitive total of 409. What that innings did was it induced confidence among players which resulted in all of them performing well throughout the series. This enabled India to score the first win in 22 years down under!!

More importantly the top order needs to fire. This is one of the most vital areas in test cricket. Both Shewag and Jaffer are looking out of sorts but now its time for them to deliver. Their form with the bat is going to be crucial. The return of Rahul Dravid is a welcome sign for the team. He has been the backbone of the Indian batting for a decade now and whenever he performs India have done well and went on to win matches.

The return of veterans like Sourav and Laxman will bolster the India batting and now it looks like a solid batting line-up at least on paper. If India can put a good fighting total on the board then this series may come alive.

The bottom line - Players performing will definitely catch the selector’s eye and will get their tickets booked for West Indies.

The Return of "The Prince of Kolkata"

Indian cricket has taken a full circle in a span of just 10 months when the national selection committee headed by Dilip Vengsarkar announced the name of former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly in the team for the three tests series against South Africa.

Yes, the man who once was popularly known as “Dada” by his boys for his commanding leadership qualities; the man who took Indian cricket form zero to hero is all set to grace the field with his trade mark cover drives and lofted sixes over the long on boundary.

The Indian team under the partnership of rahul dravid and greg chappell has now taken the back seat with their follies of still pursuing with youngsters in the name of experiment has now back fired. With the world cup around the corner and to see the team still struggling to find the right composition is something every Indian will loose sleep.

In a country like India where cricket is a religion, the team’s performance is always under the scanner. They are given the god’s status when they win matches and when thay lose thay are under the microscope of criticism from all quarters, right from the boys in schools to the boys in parliament.

Sourav’s last appearance for India in a test match was at Karachi against Pakistan earlier this year and in an ODI was against New Zealand at Harare last year. His return came in from no where with his name making the news just a week before the team was announced in Delhi.

His century in the Duleep trophy against north zone came at the right time and his valiant 43 runs in the second innings and a match haul of 5 wickets against Punjab in the Ranji trophy match caught the nation’s attention. Then his return was scripted on the ‘wall’.

One should not forget that it was Sourav who took charge as captain when there was no single brave heart including Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble to come forward and accept the captaincy after Indian cricket was rocked by match fixing scandals.

His first significant move as a captain came in the selection committee meeting where he demanded the selection of Harbajan Singh in the Indian team for the test matches against the Aussies when Anil Kumble was injured. He in fact threatened the board that he will pull out of captaincy if he is not given the team he wants. Even before that he pumped in young blood when players like Shewag, Yuvraj, Zaheer and wicket keeper Dahiya made into the team for the ICC knock-out tournament in Nairobi in the year 2000.

One can’t forget the incident where he played with the Australian captain Steve Waugh’s psyche in the Kolkata test match where he made Waugh to wait for the toss for nearly 15 minutes. He encouraged youngsters and made them perform which was clearly evident when we won the series 2-1 from a hopeless situation. And by this time he had already earned respect from the cricketing community all over the world.

He had the vision for team India. This was evident in the team’s performances in Natwest trophy, World cup 2003, in the tour down under and the historic tour of Pakistan in 2004 and also was the highlights of his captaincy.

Many felt he couldn't play the bouncer while others adored him saying that he was God on the off-side; some criticized his lack of athleticism, others took immense pride in his ability to inspire a side. In short, during his term at the helm Indian cricket was filled with fascinating dramas but at the same time no one can dispute the fact that he is India’s most successful captain ever.

To say the least he fall prey to politics within the cricket board. Since then he was under the dark clouds which was apparent in the blue billion ad where he says, “I am Sourav Ganguly, hope u remember me…”

According to me and many former cricketing greats Sourav deserves a resounding farewell for all that he has done to Indian cricket, something similar to Steve Waugh’s farewell party. And now that he have got the chance to prove, he should make sure that his bat do the talking.

Team’s dismal performances for such a long time have made the selectors to look back to the experienced hands of Kumble, Laxman, Zaheer and Sourav. With all making a comeback to the national side one can only say the Indian cricket has reached the point where it all began a year ago.