Sourav Ganguly is getting better as a captain with every
passing day and his record is beginning to reflect it too
Erapalli Prasanna04-Jul-2005Sourav Ganguly is getting better as a captain with every
passing day and his record is beginning to reflect it too.
The Indian skipper’s 12th win in 28 Tests at the helm was
scripted by his main trump cards on home soil – his
spinners.
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After winning a good toss, Ganguly wisely decided to bat
first on a newly laid track. The ever-confident Virender
Sehwag was at hand to ensure that his team got off to a
strong start. The more I see of the dashing opener, the more
I am convinced that he is the most refreshing thing to have
happened to Indian cricket in recent times. He never seems
to be saddled by any unwanted burden and always gives full
rein to his naturally aggressive instincts.I thought Pedro Collins bowled a good spell on the opening
day. He was bowling the odd heavy ball, and getting a few to
bounce rather nastily. It was one of these quick bouncers
that smashed into the back of Sehwag’s helmet. This is what
the Windies fast bowlers have been most renowned for –
hostility. I must add that Mervyn Dillon, though, cut a
sorry figure; he was too keen on bowling well within
himself. Dillon and the rest of the West Indies fast bowlers
failed to apply any pressure on Sehwag and gave him enough
width to play his trademark strokes through the off side.Sehwag’s partner Sanjay Bangar is also coming along nicely
as an opening batsman. It is always good to have a batsman,
who puts a high price on his wicket and will do his utmost
to stick around and take the sheen off the new ball. With
Sehwag blazing away at one end, Bangar certainly makes for
an ideal foil. Each of the 201 runs that the duo put on for
the first wicket bears testimony to the strength of their
newly-forged partnership. I sincerely hope that the
selectors give these two openers a good run.The other batsman to come up with a standout performance was
Rahul Dravid. By scoring his fourth consecutive Test
hundred, the Indian vice-captain yet again underscored his
importance in this Indian team. The moment he retired hurt,
the rest of the Indian batting fell apart.Moving on to the West Indies, I just can’t find anything
positive to say about their performance. With the exception
of Chanderpaul’s batting, everything about their cricket was
at best mediocre. If they continue to bowl, bat and catch in
this fashion, they’d even struggle to get the better of
Bangladesh in their next series.Their woeful catching was what appalled me the most; no team
can afford to drop so many crucial catches. This from a team
that is in India with a fielding coach! As for the batting,
I feel the current team is sorely missing the spark and the
confidence that the presence of great batsmen like Gordon
Greenidge and Viv Richards could have provided.When it came to the Indian efforts in the field, Parthiv
Patel’s performance behind the wickets during the two West
Indian innings gave me a lot of heart. The young man was not
troubled one whit by the prospect of keeping to either
Kumble or Harbhajan and his glove-work was confident and
virtually impeccable. This does augur well for Indian
cricket.Moving on to the bowling, I felt that Harbhajan Singh did
not bowl all that well in the West Indies first innings,
being yet again guilty of bowling flat and quick. That said
he was quick to correct his mistakes in the next innings,
bowling much more slowly and getting the ball to turn a lot.
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Zaheer Khan was the other Indian bowler to make an
impression. The left-arm quick has come on by leaps and
bounds, and these days he can be seen charging in to bowl. I
think he deserves a five-for in Tests now and I am confident
that he will claim that soon.Bangar also drew my attention when he rattled Ramnaresh
Sarwan with a few bouncers. The medium-pacer was generating
more pace than Srinath, which suggests that he could
actually share the new ball with Zaheer Khan. Given the
nature of tracks in Chennai and Kolkata, it would be a good
idea to go along with this combination and replace Srinath
with the young leg-spinner Amit Mishra. It is always best to
play to one’s strengths, and in India’s case it is our spin
bowling.All said the beleagured West Indies team is, in my opinion,
not in any position to salvage anything out of this series.
Their weakness as a side places Sourav Ganguly’s men in the
enviable position of recording India’s first clean sweep
over the West Indies by winning the Chennai and Kolkata
Tests. I for one would dearly love to see the Indian juggernaut
roll on.
