Tags:
Journalism of Courage
New Delhi, November 18: Saurav Ganguly couldn’t meet Zaheer Khan in the eye. After a hand shake, a pat on the back and a few words of consolation Zaheer was obviously a hurt young man, facing the first major disappointment in his two-month-old international career.
Walking out with the team after the tea interval, Ganguly caught the sight of Zaheer again. Glancing over his left shoulder, the skipper watched the left-arm seamer, the entire country had been raving about till this morning, run in and bowl at full steam in the make-shift nets in a faraway corner at the Kotla.
As ball after ball kept crashing into the wall behind the nets, Zaheer’s frustration at being dropped for the Test was all too apparent. Oh, Ganguly missed him like anything on the field. The fastest Indian bowler was making tea and dusting the kit bags for his teammates when he could very easily have pushed Zimbabwe, 15 for two at one stage and 155 for five another time, into further doom. Instead, when they were dragging their tired bodies off the field in the evening, Zimbabwe still had five first-innings wicket standing and, with a close-of-play score of 232, the vistors had a cup each of nice evening tea before boarding the team bus on their way back to the hotel.
The Indians did exactly the opposite they had promised. Despite the mask of aggression they had been sporting, India opted for another specialist batsman at No 6 as a cushion for the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly himself in the middle order. The safety-first tactics meant the steering wheel could slip away from their hands, whenever Javagal Srinath would tire.
That’s precisely how the game went on the opening day.
Since India, skipper Ganguly felt, under-utilised a five-man bowling attack at Dhaka last week, four should be more than enough here. God knows what prompted the Indian reasoning but there must be a lot happening behind the scenes as Ganguly had himself asked for an off-spinner. “Zimbabwe are packed with left-handers so the need for one,” he had said.
But you had two left-arm spinners bowling instead! The 50-somethings Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar must have very nearly taken out their worn-out spikes seing Sunil Joshi and Murli Kartik struggle for 39 overs, bowling just one wicket-deserving delivery between them. Goel and Shivalkar could never fit in the India XI as Bishan Bedi’s verstality didn’t allow for a second left-armer in the same team. But, the way Kartik bowled today, fastish and shorn of variety, the two must be cursing their own luck.
Now, what’s going on? Will someone ask those who decide on the playing XIs now? Is the skipper not satisfied with off-spinner Sarandeep Singh, the selectors picked up to be played here?
It seemed to be a good toss for India to lose. There definitely was movement, both in the air and off-the-pitch for seamers initially, and Zimbabwe lost Grant Flower to Srinath’s inswing while the other opener Gavin Rennie was let off by slip-fielder Sadagoppan Ramesh off Ajit Agarkar. All this when there wasn’t a run on the board!
Rennie did fall, rather soon and Srinath, who was impressive in all the three spells he bowled today, seemed to be doing the job of a tin-cutter, slicing through the top of a can. Only, there was nobody to match him in effort and class. Stuart Carlisle was a revelation then. He picked up deliveries to play or leave and very soon he was timing his strokes through the gaps. Again, not surprisingly though, India’s fielders were in a magnanimous mood. There were a few fumbles and Carlisle, who was mostly playing his strokes on the up, and experienced Alistair Campbell, who became the third Zimbabwean to reach the 2000-Test runs mark were becoming increasingly menacing. Both cracked fifties before Tendulkar, of all bowlers, broke their 120-run stand.
Scoreboard
ZIMBABWE (1st Innings): Grant Flower b Srinath (19min, 15balls) 0
Gavin Rennie c Dahiya b Srinath (41m, 28b, 2×4)….13
Stuart Carlisle c Joshi b Tendulkar (207m, 156b, 10×4) 58
Alistair Campbell c Laxman b Srinath (210m, 154b, 9×4, 1×6) 70
Andy Flower batting (140m, 95b, 7×4, 1×6) ….55
Guy Whittal c Dravid b Joshi (6m, 7b) ….0
Heath Streak batting (103m, 84b, 3×4 )….25
Extras: (b2, lb6, nb2, w1) 11
Total: (for five wkts in 90 overs, 366 minutes) 232
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (G Flower), 2-15 (Rennie), 3-135 (Carlisle), 4-154 (Campbell), 5-155 (Whittal)
Bowling: Srinath 16-6-39-3, Agarkar 20-9-46-0, Ganguly 3-0-19-0, Joshi 24-7-58-1, Tendulkar 12-3-34-1, Kartik 15-4-28-0
