A morale-boosting win
© CricInfo The odds must have been heavily stacked against India when they were 141/4 - Sachin Tendulkar (1) among the men dismissed - in the 28th over while chasing an imposing target of 272
Erapalli Prasanna
30-Jun-2002
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I have always admired the grit and determination of Dravid, and
on Saturday at Lord's, he batted like a man in complete control,
pacing his innings very well and sealing the win with a flourish.
It was so good to see the experience of Dravid and the exuberance
of Yuvraj Singh combining so well to put together the matchwinning unbeaten 131-run partnership for the fifth wicket. After
all, it is partnerships that make a huge difference when chasing
a big total.
Perhaps, the English were a bit complacent after their victory
over Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge the other day. They seemed to have
under-estimated the strength of the Indian batting.
Nasser Hussain's strategy of batting first must have been to put
the psychological pressure on the tourists after piling on a big
score. This was a good idea given the fact that he has only a
second-string pace attack after both Darren Gough and Andy
Caddick were rendered hors de combat.
The plan seemed to be working to perfection, with the two openers
Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight batting confidently and
scoring ever so freely. The Indian tour selection committee
played into their hands by playing just two fast bowlers.
I was shocked to see Ashish Nehra dropped from the squad. Nehra
is one bowler who has the ability to swing the ball both ways and
to have sacrificed him to play an extra batsman was a big
mistake.
Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar were all over the place with the new
ball and the only way India could have got a breakthrough at that
early stage was through a run out - and that was exactly what
happened. Agarkar, it might be observed, is a much better bowler
with the old ball when he can generate reverse swing. It will be
prudent to look back to the fact that England could only score 29
runs off the final five overs, when Zaheer Khan and Agarkar
bowled exceptionally well. That made a huge difference to the
target India were finally asked to chase.
England definitely were guilty of not driving home their early
advantage. Andrew Flintoff, Hussain and Graham Thorpe were all
guilty of throwing their wickets away. England finished with 271,
which clearly looked to be about 20-25 runs less than what they
could have scored on a belter of a track. And the limited bowling
options at their disposal meant that they had to pay a heavy
price for it in the afternoon.
Virender Sehwag is a batsman in form and the English bowlers must
have already noted that fact. The way he eased into playing the
strokes was a sheer joy to watch. Ganguly also complemented the
young dashing batsman well and runs kept flowing at a rapid pace.
The English attack was made to look very ordinary indeed as
Lord's witnessed one of the best exhibitions of stroke-making.
Ashley Giles showed the pundits that the spinners have a pivotal
role to play in limited-overs cricket. The basic principle for
any spinner is to get the ball to turn in the first place; one
needs to only look at the success of Muttiah Muralitharan and
Shane Warne to accept this fact. Giles got the ball to grip and
turn on a flat track; he used the bowlers' footmarks cleverly to
his advantage. Apart from his first and last over of his tenovers-spell, Giles had a very good evening with the ball.
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I am very pleased that the Indians did not end up grabbing defeat
from the jaws of victory on this occasion. I should commend both
Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid for their brilliant performance,
which ensured that India got off to a winning start to the triseries campaign. The smiles that broke out on the Lord's balcony
at the end of the evening were pointers to the fact that the
morale is quite high in the Indian camp after this magnificent
victory.