The Indians will have to do far better
The Indians have once again managed to get out of jail after making heavy weather of things at Cuttack
Woorkheri Raman
03-Dec-2000
The Indians have once again managed to get out of
jail after making heavy weather of things at
Cuttack. The victory was fashioned by mature
performances from the inexperienced but extremely
talented players like Hemang Badani and Vijay
Dahiya. These two came together at a time when
Zimbabwe had created quite a flutter in the
dressing room after grabbing the top order batsmen
in quick time. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly
once again put up a century partnership but their
form was not as fluent and authoritative as one is
accustomed to. Ganguly was scratchy in his effort
and of late he has been finding it difficult to
get his timing right. Then, of course it is not
easy for any batsmen to be at his best every time
he walks into bat.
Tendulkar did play his shots right from the word
go but the strike was not somehow rotated enough
to prevent irritation from creeping into his
batting. Eventually he became a victim of his own
impatience as well as the slow nature of the
pitch. Dirk Viljeon dismissed both the openers in
a jiffy but the Indian batting up suddenly slumped
with the loss of Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh.
Ritender Sodhi found out what international class
fielders are capable of, as he was the victim of a
direct hit. Anyway this will benefit him and the
sooner he learns the better for him.
The turning point for the Indians was the
partnership between Badani and Dahiya because they
scored runs at a very quick rate. Badani displayed
a very cool head keeping the scoreboard busy
without missing out on loose deliveries. Dahiya
had a very ordinary day with the keeping gloves
but he more than made up with some aggressive
batting. He timed the ball sweetly on a pitch that
was on the slower side and his cutting and driving
was a pleasure to watch. Badani realised that his
presence till the end was very vital and he
finished the game off in style in the company of
Agarkar. The mature effort earned Badani the man
of the match award and hopefully it is first of
many more to come.
Zimbabwe were probably a few runs short in the end
analysis but the Indians are at the moment are
riding on a fair share of luck. No team could have
hoped to win the game after dropping four or five
catches besides conceding a lot of runs by way of
some tardy effort on the field. Ganguly seems to
be aware of the shortcomings of his team but he
has to ensure that he leads by example rather than
pinpoint the culprits. It appears that his
concentration levels as a fielder are affected by
his captaincy. It is absolutely essential for the
Indians to field well collectively in order to pep
their bowlers up on placid tracks.
Stuart Carlisle and Alistair Campbell provided the
foundation for the Zimbabweans to put up a total
between 260 to 285 but they lost their way in the
middle overs. Andy Flower at last failed against
the hosts and it was Tendulkar again who got the
breakthrough. Venkatesh Prasad and Zaheer Khan
were the pick of the lot with Prasad showing that
he still is capable of delivering the goods.
Agarkar has not been able to maintain his
efficient economy rate and of late he is going for
a lot of runs. Sodhi bowled decently but still has
a long way to go before the team can think of
relying on him.
The Indians have to do far better than
they did at Cuttack, as the visiting side is a
very competitive one in the shorter version of the
game. The bowlers will tested severely as the
pitches are loaded in favour of batsmen at all the
venues these two sides are due to play.