Support cast again found wanting

Once again the supporting cast were found wanting. Not surprisingly the makeshift opener MSKPrasad floundered, but the rest of the top order were all out to disappointing shots. VVS Laxman appears to lack self-confidence; he’s the type of player who doesn’t realise his potential. He also suffers from playing out of position in Test cricket, batting as an opener, whereas he bats in the middle order in first-class cricket.

Rahul Dravid is having one of those series where he fights hard for survival and then makes a mistake and is out. He did contribute to his own downfall at the SCG playing a half-hearted push outside off-stump and presenting a simple chance to an eager Ricky Ponting.

Most disappointing of all was Saurav Ganguly, seemingly surprised by a short-pitched ball from medium-pacer Greg Blewett. Blewett has now taken the studious left-hander’s wicket in successive Test innings, but the one at the SCG seemed to be a case of the batsman’s mind being elsewhere. This could also have been Laxman’s problem and to a lesser extent Dravid. There is definitely a case for all the batsmen apart fromTendulkar, to do a bit of mind-searching.

The Indian batsmen also need to look at where they are playing the bulk of their shots. Too many batsmen are trying to score behind the wicket, which is a strange policy as that is where the bulk of the fielders are situated. That is asking for trouble and trouble is what they all found, with the one exception being the skipper.

Tendulkar battled hard for his runs against some spirited and confident Australian bowling. Just when he appeared to be winning the battle, with two grand hook shots and a glorious straight drive all reaching the boundary, Tendulkar walked across his wicket and missed a Glenn McGrath off-cutter.This was a glorious sequence of deliveries with the champion batsman taking on the penetrative fast bowler, almost as though Tendulkar wanted to show his teammates in the dressing room that the Australian bowlers were human and not wearing red capes with a large red and yellow S on the chest.

Unfortunately for Tendulkar, it’s hard for thebatsman to win this contest when he is fighting a lone hand and that is the way the contest went at the SCG.

The Australians now have a fine attack, with Brett Lee chiming in to polish off the middle to late order players. Lee is a fast bowler with a good outswinger and if he survives the current purge on bowlers’ actions, he’ll take plenty more Test wickets and his percentage of top-order victims will increase. Lee’s presence in the team has made it harder for Shane Warne to collect wickets, a problem that plagued Ashley Mallett later in his career and Warne will need to be wary of becoming too frustrated.

That was about the only frustration for the Australians as they once again steamrolled the Indians to move into a strong position to win their seventh Test on the trot. The way they are playing at the moment I think they could win wearing their party hats from the New Year’s Eve celebration.