The Surfer

[In Ahmedabad] Ojha and Ashwin were too hard to handle for the English. Then, Dhoni had plan number 2. With England on the ropes, Dhoni was uncoiling the knock-out punch. So for the second Test, Dhoni attempted the old trick and ordered the good old carpet to be brought out. It was the one on which the English men had so famously slipped in 1993. Back then, the spinners Anil Kumble, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan had helped India register a 3-0 win over the Graham Gooch-led side. This time, Dhoni anticipated the same from Ojha, Ashwin and Harbhajan.

With scores levelled at 1-1, Dhoni would be worried but wiser. The bounce and turn had worked for Kumble and Co., but not for the present day spin-trio. Besides, the batting line-up didn't have many like Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, who could handle the turning ball on a tricky track in the second innings. In the Tests ahead, Dhoni will have to figure out a new template for his talented bowlers and promising batsmen. And for that he needs to be at the helm, despite the losses, and the likes of Ojha and Ashwin in the squad. Calm and continuity can see India emerge from the crisis that usually occurs during periods of transition.

The guys who field there have a different mindset from the others. Some guys won't go there and will always say, 'I'll go to fine-leg". Those who have the right mindset to stand in those positions are the ones you work on. That means that as a coach you don't have to work too much on the mental aspect with them. When you get hit, you've got to get back straight on the hook and be prepared to take another blow. That's the tough part of fielding there.

Ojha has to try and get Cook driving. He has to bowl very full and outside off-stump. He has to try and bowl him out back through the gate or get him to nick one to the slip with the one that goes straight. He has to back it up by pushing in one wide so that Cook has to stretch to get there. But by and large, he has to keep it full and wide and get him to drive.

I actually got quite emotional the closer I got to a hundred. I didn't think about it much until I got to 94 and then it hit me. I've always dreamed of getting a test hundred for South Africa and especially against Australia. I tried not to think about it, but it was difficult and I think I had goose bumps for about 15 minutes.

You spend your whole career thinking about how you will react if and when it happens. But when I got to a hundred, I actually didn't really know how to celebrate and that was why it probably looked quite low-key. Also, I knew that there was still a lot of hard work to be done.

At the Pujaras, it was lights out by 9 pm. If Rina had pending work, she would get up after everyone was asleep and quietly complete it. For years she did not go to even see a navratri garba, a big occasion in Gujarat. If relatives called to say they were in town and asked Rina to meet them in the evening, she would refuse because Cheteshwar would have practice in the morning.

Arvind's other non-negotiable rule for those wanting to raise champions concerns diet. "There should be no fast food at home," he says. "Food has to be healthy. My wife handled that. She ensured there was coconut water for Cheteshwar every time he came back from practice. These are small things but in the long run they pay. He batted eight-nine hours [8 hours, 33 minutes] in this innings. We are vegetarian. Where did he get the stamina from?"

It was as if there were two different games on two different pitches. In one, the batsmen groped and missed or edged, especially at Ojha; in the other, Cook played steadily forwards to scotch the spin, while Pietersen scored either a boundary or a single, whichever he pleased, as when Ojha turned a ball from over the wicket across Pietersen, who waved it over extra cover with his wand.

As worrying as the mounting list of failures has been the manner of them. New Zealand's pace trio of Doug Bracewell, Tim Southee and Trent Boult all had him bowled in the first series of the season, and Panesar repeated the dose in this game. There have been three leg-befores as well.

We've all seen these guys at various levels of cricket. They will defend impeccably over after over before tapping a single, wangling a two, and occasionally - shock! horror! - pinching a four. There is a serene industriousness about them, worker ants who ferry grains of rice. They will reach thirty before you have even started paying them any attention. Once they're set they may - if the planets are properly aligned - offer you a chance. If you miss - as England did on the first day in Mumbai - you're in trouble.

"I think you'll find that's out," quickly said former Aussie skipper Lawry, as admirably clear-cut an assertion as you could wish for from an on-air commentator. "He's stood on his stumps; he was reeling away."

But his companion behind the mike at the time - doyen of all the Channel Niners, Richie Benaud - offered a dissenting view.

Once he reached his double hundred and there was a phase when I felt that Viru was relaxing a little bit and had lost his concentration. I went and told him, "Something big can happen if you cross this stage, so don't lose your concentration now." He didn't and scored the first triple-century by an Indian.

The Indian opening batsman, once, after playing a first-class game, drove overnight by road just in time to reach for an office match the next morning. His logic was simple --- If he doesn't play office games, the company will lose matches, they will stop recruiting in future and many other cricketers will not have jobs. Sehwag, offered a job in an oil company, said he would take it only after all other cricketers in probation would be made permanent, because he didn't want anyone to suffer because of him.

I expected India to win in India, but I did hope that the response to the poor touring record would have been more creative than to deny England practice against spin bowling in the lead-up match and then confront them with spin on a dust bowl. I would be surprised if this was M.S. Dhoni's idea. The Dhoni I knew would have taken a more global, long-term view which envisioned India strong at home and very competitive away.

You can argue that it would be boring if Test cricket were to be played on the same kind of pitches all over the world. This is very true, and the point that I am trying to make here is not one that advocates uniformity of playing surfaces. Every country has its own special flavour and a true cricket fan should love to savour it. Yet, it is one thing to celebrate difference; quite another to turn desperation into a timely gift and prepare conspicuously bad pitches for Test cricket so that the home team might profit from it.