Queensland coast to ten wicket victory
As expected, Queensland applied the finishing touches to a comfortable ten wicket win over India in the tour match between the teams at the 'Gabba in Brisbane on Monday
John Polack
29-Nov-1999
As expected, Queensland applied the finishing touches to a comfortable
ten wicket win over India in the tour match between the teams at the
'Gabba in Brisbane on Monday. Play on the fourth and final day of the
match spanned a period of just 95 minutes as Stuart Law (60*) and
Jimmy Maher (20*) took easy toll of an attack understandably lacking
in inspiration.
Whilst neither batsmen was necessarily all that impressive, there were
no real alarms at any stage for the Queenslanders and their pursuit of
the meagre 81 runs required for victory was relatively effortless in
its nature. Indeed, the only hint of a threat came in the form of a
heavy shower which forced the players from the field for 25 minutes
when the home team was placed at 0/58. Even though he was not
especially impressive and was repeatedly beaten by Venkatesh Prasad in
the course of one over in the middle of the innings, Law's decision to
promote himself to the unfamiliar opening role afforded him the sort
of valuable time in the middle that he has rarely enjoyed this season
and he set about polishing off the target without ever encountering
too much discomfort.
Together with a very sedate Maher, his work this morning capped off
just over three days of excellent cricket from the Bulls, a fine all
round batting and bowling exhibition allowing them to dictate the
terms of this match from early on Friday.
For as impressive as the Queenslanders proved, however, this was also
a decidedly mediocre beginning to India's tour. Whilst it should be
mentioned in their defence that this Queensland team is possibly the
strongest of all the State sides in Australia at present, there is
precious little about which to be positive for the tourists at the end
of this game.
Over the course of the match, only four of their batsmen were able to
exceed a score of 20 in either of their two innings. Aside from the
impressive double of VVS Laxman (113 & 73) and the masterful first
innings of captain Sachin Tendulkar (83), there was little application
evident in any of their players' displays at the batting crease. More
worryingly, perhaps, their performance with the bat on a pitch
offering a healthy quantity of pace and bounce was eerily reminiscent
of Pakistan's effort against the same opposition at the start of their
own tour of Australia less than a month ago.
Similarly, their bowling lacked penetration. Thirunavukarasu Kumaran
strove hard, finding a good measure of pace and moving the ball both
ways to press his claims for Test selection but he barely received any
support.
Fellow pacemen Debashish Mohanty and Prasad laboured for the most
part, although it should be said in mitigation that it is never easy
for a touring team's bowlers to find the correct line and length
immediately upon their arrival in Australia. Leg spinner Anil Kumble,
from whom big things are expected on this tour, was also disappointing
and any repetitions of his concession of 131 runs from 29 wicketless
overs through the remainder of the visit could well prove disastrous.