New-look India win easily
Prem Panicker
On a website, I noticed this headline for the preview of today's curtain-raiser in the ICC knockout tournament, featuring India against hosts Kenya: "India start out favourites against Kenya," it read.
Not too sure if the headline was ironic, or a terse commentary on how the mindset has changed in recent times, with regard to a chronically underperforming Indian XI -- I mean, would you have even bothered to reckon the odds or name the favourites in this game, a couple of years ago?
Even accounting for the "glorious uncertainities of cricket" -- that favourite cover-your-butt cliche so beloved of cricket pundits -- it was hard to see any result to this game other than an India win. Flat track, lightning quick outfield, a modest (and that is putting it in as complimentary a fashion as possible) Kenyan attack, it all added up to some very simple arithmetic.
The real points of interest were in the combination India put in the field, after the selectorial long knives were duly wielded on some scam-touched players. Okay, to be politically correct and toe the BCCI line, the likes of Azharuddin, Nayan Mongia and Ajay Jadeja were dropped for form and in order to pursue a policy of building a young team -- but the presence in the side of Robin Singh knocks the 'youth' theory on its edge and as for form, it is rather hard to see where the justification came in. Anyways -- there is an official reason for their ouster, and then there is the real reason -- that the government pretty much told the BCCI that if certain players were named, the team wouldn't get approval to go to Kenya -- and that is pretty much par for the course where Indian cricket is concerned.
India fielded a new look side, with Zahir Khan coming in for Srinath (rested at his own request), Kambli for Azharuddin, Vijay Dahiya for Nayan Mongia and Yuvraj Singh for Ajay Jadeja.
Bowling first on winning the toss made sense -- not that there was much in the pitch to exploit, but because Ganguly thus got an opportunity to let his bowlers, easily the weakest link in the side, have an extended outing.
Zahir Khan, bowling the first over, impressed. The left armer has a good physique, bowls off an easy 30-yard run up, and generates most of his pace through nice acceleration at the end, and a nifty little leap just prior to delivery. Importantly -- and in a manner that reminds you of Chaminda Vaas -- he seems to be able to move the ball in from line of off, which gives him the perfect left-handed seam bowler's angle, across the batsman and then back in off the seam. There were no signs yet of his having consistent seam movement away from the batsman, but it would be too early to sign a verdict on that one.
Kenya were quite simply outgunned in the field. Kennedy Otieno got the crowd going with a fast and furious start, but once Agarkar held one back a touch and seamed it in a shade to get the leading edge to mid on as the batsman tried to clear the field on the leg, it was tough going for the Kenyans. 35/1 in 10 and 85/3 in 20 was not the kind of start any team needs on a pitch where (it will probably get slower, and the ask will become lower, in time) at this early stage, 250 is at best a competitive total.
Venkatesh Prasad, bowling first change behind Khan and Agarkar (the latter, it needs mentioning, bowled well within himself today -- lots of swing and seam away from the right-handers, but very rarely did the bowler attempt to touch his top pace, timed around the 91k mark), seems to have gotten even slower since we last saw him. That lack of pace, plus a propensity to pitch short, is likely to hurt the Indians in the tougher game(s) to follow.
Kumble ensured that the Kenyans didn't get away from the fielding side when, brought in after two ordinary Prasad overs, the leg spinner just back from his county stint turned one sharply away from a full length to take number three batsman Kamande's outer edge for Dravid to take a sharp chance at slip. Kamande, we are told, opens for Nairobi Gymkhana, but on the evidence of his performance today, doesn't have the nous to cope with seam bowling of any quality. Kumble struck again in the 19th over when he went a touch wide, speared one in on the off and middle angle and hustled the dangerous Steve Tikolo into error. Tikolo went back instead of forward, and was beaten for pace to be trapped in front.
Ravindu Shah and Maurice Odumbe stitched together a pretty neat partnership from there no, without ever looking likely to dominate the bowling. Shah never does, preferring to play anchor, and Odumbe, after looking for and failing to find some big hits early on, settled down to just move the scoring along. (103/3 in 30, 148/4 in 40).
Points worth mentioning during this phase of the innings are, one, that Yuvraj Singh (who, it must be mentioned, is in the side as a hard-hitting batsman who can bowl a bit) is not a real factor with his left arm orthodox spin, bowling too flat and not getting either variety or turn and, two, that given the Indian bowling's rather depleted look once Kumble, Agarkar and Zahir were off the firing line, a question needs to be asked about Robin Singh. Is he not bowling because he does not want to? If that is the case, then the question becomes -- is he worth his place in the side for batting and fielding alone? On the other hand, if it is the captain who does not have faith in Robin's bowling, then it is up to the coach to tell Ganguly that India is not so rich in bowling resources, in this playing eleven, for one bowler who has till not so long ago bowled a decent five, six overs per innings to be ignored entirely.
As long as Shah and Odumbe were going with the flow of the game, the score inched along. Once they attempted to try and dominate, it all came unstuck. Shah got the edge to a bouncy leg break from Kumble in the 39th over, after a patient 50, Odumbe got to his own fifty cracking another Prasad short-pitcher square on the off, but off the next ball, made the mistake of trying to lift a ball of full length to leg and was trapped in front as he played around the line.
In the final overs, what was worth noting was Zahir Khan. This is just a first outing for him, and therefore any definitive judgement will need to wait -- but if he can do what he did today, then India could have found the opening partner for Srinath and, more importantly, a bowler willing and able to bowl yorkers at the death. Two beauties, quickish in pace and swinging in very late, crashed into the base of off stump of Mohammad Sheikh and, two balls later, Hitesh Modi. In his final over, Zahir also showed that he has learnt to vary pace, producing a slow off spinner out of the blue to tempt Martin Suji into an early hit, the ball finding midwicket to end Kenya's 50 overs on 208/9. Kenya got to that figure only through the exertions of Thomas Odoyo, who alone showed the ability to hit through the line the Indian bowlers bowled, and produced a very nice cameo of 35 off 34 to bring about some decency to the batting side's total.
The Indian keeper needs mention, by virtue of being another debutant -- and the best description of his calm, reasonably competent glove-work is that he is Mongia without the mouth. Nothing flamboyant, but no real danger signals either.
The last time Sachin Tendulkar faced this Kenyan attack, if I recall right, was in the World Cup.Where Tendulkar, riding the emotionalism of his sudden return to India following the demise of his father, and his as sudden return to England with his team in the doldrums, caned the attack for a century that was more about emotion than aesthetics. This time round, after a five month layoff, it was rust that was visible on the batsman who, after a fine-ish start with two fours through the off cordon, seemed to have some difficulty coming to terms with his own timing. Unlike Ganguly and Dravid, to name just two Indian players who will just bat through such a patch, Tendulkar tends to get fidgety when the ball is not going off the middle of his bat. That was the case here, and the fidgets more than any clever bowling saw him first shape to drive, then check, at a ball bowled from wide of the crease and angled in to off, taking it on the pad and walking to the upraised finger after a less than impressive 25 off 35.
Kenya's pace men -- Odoyo and the two Sujis -- didn't seem to bother Ganguly. But yet, the Indian skipper was far from his best frame of mind, and that makes you wonder if he is still grumpy over his Lancashire odyssey. Thus far, the only public comment he has made has been: "It is over, let's not talk about it", but the word coming out of the county circuit is that Lancashire's delight in seeing the last of Ganguly is matched only by Ganguly's own relief at being done with a stint that had more than its share of heartburn. Whatever the reason -- unlike Tendulkar, Ganguly certainly doesn't suffer from rust on his bat, given that he has been playing right through the off season -- he seemed out of sorts out there, and way below his best touch. Sandeep Patil, who coaches Kenya and who has been living in Nairobi long enough to qualify for citizenship, appears to have taught his wards to bowl off side and pack the area with four in the arc from point to mid off, to check Ganguly's strokeplay.
The trouble for Kenya though was always going to be its depth, or lack thereof, in bowling. Once the three opening seamers were off, the hosts didn't have anything left to throw at the Indians. Given this, Ganguly gradually batted himself back into form and, towards the second half of his innings, began finding the footwork to come down to medium pace (Onyango) and spin (Sheikh) alike, and the elevation and timing on his favourite lofted drives on either side of the park. Dravid, meanwhile, played as he always does -- calm, controlled, and unhurried. Which is fine against Kenya chasing 209, what needs seeing is whether Dravid can translate the confidence of a good outing for Kent in the English season into a more dominating style of play against Australia on Saturday.
India, which started with a very slow first 50 off 84 balls and the first hundred only marginally quicker, off 158 balls, then stepped on it thanks largely to Ganguly's renewed form, and made the third 50 of its innings off just 44. Looking to keep that momentum going, Ganguly (66 off 101) fell, going down the track but missing the line to be stumped.
But Kambli, with 39 off 33, (his fielding in the morning left a lot to be desired) showed that his touch with the bat at least was prime, with some blazing drives on both sides of the wicket. And Dravid (68 off 87) picked it up towards the end of his innings with some clean hitting through the leg-side, to power India to the target.
Overall, it's like the pundits say -- this was not India at its very best and brightest, but when you are coming out of a long break, a win, any win, is good to go. An axiom that holds even truer for India, which is coming not merely off a break, but through considerable chaos. Trick, though, is to get it all together in time for the big one -- Super Saturday, versus the Aussies. Based entirely on performance on the day, one can think of at least one change that needs to be made in the lineup -- to wit, Venkatesh Prasad to sit that one out, Ganguly to play third seamer with Robin pitching in, and Sunil Joshi to come in with his left arm spin.
Postscript: We've been getting a lot of mails wondering why we are not live. Blame that old chestnut -- technical difficulties. Shifting from Olympics back to cricket took just that touch longer than we figured on, but we will be live here on in, beginning with tomorrow's game between Sri Lanka and the West Indies, on through the rest of the tournament.
Mail Cricket Editor
