A ritual without sun (12 June 1999)

12 June 1999

A ritual without sun

Trevor Chesterfield

Nottingham - From Dunedin to Delhi the weather conditions have a certain similarity which makes even those at Trent Bridge seemed less foreign than you would expect on a day when the climate was a mix bag. So was the Indian batting in this World Cup Super six match.

Although the pleasure of a Sachin Tendulkar innings of promise, with its classic imprint of style with brushes of elegance was soon terminated, it was a generally disappointing show and Adam Parore's wicketkeeping was as untidy as some of the strokeplay. Not at all the sort from which an eventual total of 251 would evolve to set New Zealand a challenging target.

And if Tendulkar, the idol of every Indian schoolboy from Mumbai to Birmingham, did disappoint Ajay Jadeja, the captain in waiting at least made up for Tendulkar's moment of foolishness. After all, there is always going to be the element of risk when going too far forward, and offering Dion Nash, the bowler, the rare sight of three stumps.

It happened though. The game also caught up with Nash when he bowled as scruffy as Parore's show behind the stumps: five wides and three no balls was not a good return; little wonder he was the most expensive of the Kiwi bowlers. On a pitch offering some sideways movement and bounce at times the bowlers did not put it in the right place.

At times they did not put in any place at all with 10 wides contributing to an exorbitant number of extra balls which had to be bowled: no captain should suffer such nightmares as 23 extra deliveries for the batsmen to face and free hits at that.

After all, 3.5 overs in an horrendous number of bowling misdemeanours. Little wonder India managed to score 251. It is a wonder they did not make more capital out of the New Zealand errors although it is hard not to imagine umpires David Shepherd an Darrell Hair thinking of dashing off a note at lunch complaining to the umpires' association about unfair practice of having to wave their arms around too much. It also leaves you with the impression that semaphore signalling was not their forte during their days in the sea scouts.

If Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly also failed to impress with their normally fluent strokeplay and some of the elegance you normally expect was missing at least Jadeja did not mislead India's followers. A top-innings score of 76 off 102 balls with some touches of smash and grab and flamboyance as well lifted the team's followers.

It has not been a happy World Cup for them. Losing Tendulkar for a few days as a result of his father's untimely death and then falling to Zimbabwe had made them emotionally vulnerable at a crucial time of the tournament. Even Mohammad Azharuddin, in what is his last World Cup performances, looked insecure; and this despite two healthy cover-drives which had that old flash of class.

Robin Singh also reached the upper 20s but like the weak, watery sun leaving an etching of some quality, he too disappeared through a smart bit of fielding which ran him out.

As for the rest, it was not a session to remember: there have been better this World Cup, some more memorable than overs.