Nothing succeeds like success

This was a disappointing cricket match at the Goodyear Park, Bloemfontein. Kenya were completely outplayed by a resurgent Indian side, riding on the wave of a convincing win against the heavyweight South Africa at the Centurion.

Kenya had lost the match much before it started, for they came in without any kind of a game plan or strategy. The decision to bat first must have been done with the hope that they can put up a decent total. The uneven bounce of the wicket upset their confidence and the attempts to hit their way out of trouble, made things more difficult for their comfort.

It is in such difficult times that you need batsmen to dig deep and play sensibly. Kenyans showed no such trait of applying themselves, they went about trying to blast their way out of this quagmire by playing across the line, a recipe for disaster, which many inexperienced team falls for.

What else can I say? It was an abject surrender of a side, which did not have any self-belief. At times the Kenyans looked like that they were in a hurry to get over with the match. Kenya clearly lacks it in them to make an impression at the highest level; overall it was a pathetic performance by the minnows from Africa.

Having said that; let me not take anything away from the Indians. They did what best they could do to keep the momentum going. The win against South Africa seems to have instilled a lot of confidence in this young team. Nothing succeeds like success and I think Sourav Ganguly and John Wright deserve to be commended after this wonderful turnaround of fortunes in the African continent.

The present team management has shown a lot of faith in the abilities of one man, Ajit Agarkar. There was no doubt in my mind that Agarkar will have to deliver the goods in South Africa. The young man has done well so far in all the three outings and has looked the most potent of the bowlers.

It was heartening to see Agarkar realise the importance of bowling a good line and length on a pitch with uneven bounce. The benefits were there to be seen, four wickets! This should have boosted his morale for the games to come.

On the contrary, Javagal Srinath, with so much experience under his belt, bowled a disappointing line. The two wickets he got, though, were purely on line and length. Anil Kumble is always a dangerous bowler on such a wicket. He looked sharp enough and the three wickets he picked will help him a lot during this tour.

I think that the Indians used this opportunity to give Virender Sehwag and Deep Dasgupta a chance to get used to the South African batting conditions. The two batsmen played well to take India to a most convincing win and also to show the depth of the Indian batting.

This was not a game that one will want to remember for a long time. It failed to throw a challenge to the resources of the Indian side and it turned out to be a dismal one-sided affair.