Indian middle order is strong, but can be brittle at times
The psychological advantage the Indians had over the South Africans was annulled ruthlessly by the Springboks in the lung opener of the Coca-Cola Championship at Sharjah
Woorkheri Raman
23-Mar-2000
The psychological advantage the Indians had over the South Africans
was annulled ruthlessly by the Springboks in the lung opener of the
Coca-Cola Championship at Sharjah. The only positive thing for the
Indians was Ganguly winning the toss. After that it was a sort of a
nightmare with wickets falling like nine pins on a placid pitch. The
South Africans never let go of the initiative after breaking through
early in the innings.
Pollock beat Tendulkar with an inswinger to castle the little master
and not many would have thought that that was beginning of the end for
the Indians. Ganguly started off well before Kallis accounted for him
and with Dravid perishing early, the Indians were straight away
looking down the barrel. The idea of once again promoting Joshi is
debatable but he did what he was sent out for by smashing a few quick
runs. The Indian middle order is strong, yet at the same time can be
brittle at times.
The middle collapse started with the dismissal of the most experienced
campaigner Azharuddin, who played a loose shot. Elworthy and Ntini,
sensing that there was a good chance of running through the Indian
line-up, bowled with magnificent discipline. Ntini stuck to a line
just outside the off stump while Elworthy bowled straight to pick up
his wickets. Elworthy trapped Robin Singh and shortly after that Karim
chopped one on to his stumps. Jadeja was left to bat with the lower
order batsman and he tried his best to achieve some respectability to
the Indian total.
He looked well and truly in control throughout his innings and finally
it was Srinath who spent some time with him at the crease. The last
wicket partnership took the Indians past the 150 mark and in the end
the Indians were a million runs short to make a match out of
it. Cronje would have hardly expected the Indians to crumble as they
did and quite naturally he would not complain about it either. His
bowlers did a fantastic job under trying conditions and the reputed
Indian batsmen have only themselves to blame.
Gibbs and Kirsten might fancy their chances against the Indian attack
at their worst since they have been feasting themselves in the last
few weeks. Srinath once again gives the impression that he is not
enjoying the one-dayers as much as he should with the end result being
that his reputation is gradually being dented. Agarkar bowled well
within himself and none of the bowlers were able to get a wicket
against their names but that would have hardly mattered. At one stage
the only interest left was to see which of the openers would gallop
towards the century mark. Eventually neither of them got anywhere
close to it and the Indians left their supporters in Sharjah to go
home after witnessing a lacklustre performance.
The Indians take on their arch rivals Pakistan in their next encounter
and it will be a high-powered needle game. Needless to say, Ganguly
and his boys have to win this game to feel reasonably good about their
chances in the tournament. It will not be impossible to beat the
Pakistanis as their morale is also at low ebb, but the Indians have to
raise their game by at least a few notches.