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Proteas take opener by 10 wickets

During the recent one day matchup between the two sides on Indian soil, India won 3 and South Africa two. The two defeats, in skipper Saurav Ganguly's words, didn't bother him too much -- "We played good cricket, we had our winning chances in both games we lost, so that's okay with me, the important thing is to play good cricket and we are doing that now," was his summation.

In the lung opener at Sharjah today, though, there was no such consolation. Bowled out for 164, then unable to take a single wicket as SA cruised to the target in just 29.2 overs, India suffered as comprehensive defeat as you could imagine, and there was never any point when the side seemed to have a glimmer of a chance in the game.

So the hard work has to start all over again -- with two defeats in two games, India have to recoup its mental strength. And quick -- because tomorrow, without much rest, they go against a rested, refreshed Pakistan side.

So what went wrong today? Not the pitch, which was as benign as Sharjah pitches normally are. Not the toss, which India won, and opted for first strike. Not the team, because India brought back its first eleven going into this game.

So what's left? I suspect from the way they played, that they went in to bat with a preconceived notion that they needed to play strokes from the get-go. And failed to really suss out the conditions before attempting to implement that gameplan, with the result that they found themselves, as early as the 17th over, down five and going under for the count.

The adjustment they failed to make was to the batting conditions. Unlike in India, here the ball did not bounce quite as much, but skidded on to the batsman a touch more. Further, the odd ball slowed down off the deck, the South African bowlers helping things along with clever use of the slower ball. And the Indians fell right into the trap.

Shaun Pollock started the slide when he pitched a ball just on off, seaming in late. Sachin, who was shaping to play on the on, was defeated by the movement, and bowled through the gate as he played fractionally around the line.

Saurav Ganguly slammed a return catch at Kallis with such power that the athletic bowler just couldn't hold on. With that life under his belt, the Indian captain opened out in a flurry of shots, mostly through the off cordon, and looked to be continuing the form he has been in of late. However, he has increasingly shown a penchant for stepping away from his stumps and lifting over the off cordon, or dancing down the track to the quick bowlers and lifting over the on side field. The latter shot, tried when there was no real need to, accounted for him as he slapped a slower ball from Kallis, after a little waltz down the track, straight to mid on.

Dravid fell the Tendulkar way. Kallis bowled a slightly slower off cutter, Dravid shaped to play to leg, played all round the line and the ball thudded off the pad onto the stumps.

Joshi, promoted as a pinch hitter, made a pretty good fist of it, playing some very pretty shots, and batting himself into good touch. Of the wickets thus far, he alone had the excuse of falling to a good wicket-taking delivery -- Ntini, coming back to international cricket after a year-plus of off-field trauma, produced a lovely inswinging yorker that thudded into the base of Joshi's off stump.

Mohammad Azharuddin, on a pitch tailormade for his tensile wrists, seemed like a young -- well, relatively young -- man in a hurry. He slashed, and the ball took the edge and flew past the slips for a four. Undettered, he slashed again, two balls later, and this time, managed to find the edge to the keeper. So make that four out of the first five wickets out through indiscretion.

Saba Karim looked in good touch in India, but here, he failed to open his account. Again, the skiddy nature of the pitch apparently didn't register on the batsman's consciousness -- to the third ball he received, Karim tried to force one from just outside off, the ball skidded on quicker than he figured it would, took the thick inner edge, and went back onto his stumps.

An action replay followed, with Agarkar, next up, dragging a delivery from Ntini back onto his stumps, to a pretty identical delivery to the Karim dismissal.

And when Kumble to a well disguised slower ball from Elworthy got pad, then bat to present the bowler with a simple return take, India had lost 9 wickets inside the 28th over, for just 102 on the board.

It was left to Jadeja and Srinath to restore sense, and some sensibility, to proceedings with a fine 62 run partnership for the last wicket. Both batsmen played the conditions exactly right -- they waited on the wall, they guided rather than forced, they worked it around and waited for the bowler to err before trying the big shots. It was a thoughtful, controlled partnership, and Srinath -- as he has done at times -- made you sigh at the thought of ability wasted. When he wants to, he can play in line, defend well, and attack with vigour -- his straight hitting today was of the topmost calibre. The tragedy, in his case, is that he doesn't seem to want to do this often enough. At the other end, Jadeja played with his experience, and cricketing savvy, backing him, sheltering Srinath in the initial phase, talking him through the early overs, and gradually letting his partner have his head as he found Srinath gaining in confidence.

Srinath's innings ended when he tried to pull a short ball from Boje over the on side field, only to mishit and pick out midwicket.

India had 164 on the tins -- a far too inadequate total on this wicket. For South Africa, all the quick men bowled well, Elworthy being the pick of the bowlers. As he himself said while picking up his man of the match cheque, it came as a relief that he didn't have to bowl the new ball to Tendulkar and Ganguly, both of whom appear to fancy themselves against him. Coming in with a slightly older ball, against batsmen not yet settled, he bowled a full line and forced the mistakes. Ntini, coming back after a long layoff, was equally impressive with his control.

The South African chase proved a competely one sided affair, and yet again, Srinath's form -- more accurately, the lack of it -- played a pivotal role. In the last two games, he's gone for 55+ in his ten. Worse, he has bowled some awful first spells, and that has had a domino effect on the rest of the bowling. Agarkar is more of an attacking bowler, and works best when the other end is nailed down tight. With Srinath going big time early, Agarkar found himself throttling back and trying to play a more defensive role -- which doesn't suit his style of bowling. Further, it brings Kumble into the attack earlier than ideal, and imposes on Kumble a defensive role right from the outset.

To defend a small total, you need your lead bowler to fire early -- that didn't happen, and from that point on (South Africa went to 30 in the first five overs), the game was effectively over. The South African bowlers worked in tandem -- first Pollock and Kallis, then Elworthy and Ntini. For India, pressure at one end was constantly being released at the other, and that kind of performance doesn't cut much ice at this rarefied level of the game.

If you want to play the game of second guessing, you'd say that Ganguly could have held Srinath back at the outset, and slowed things down by using himself, or Robin, in the initial overs.

Kirsten played as Kirsten plays -- the steady, remorseless accumulator, content to chip and nudge and prod and push, waiting with the patience of the spider for the odd ball outside off, or down the leg side, to take full, ruthless, toll of.

Gibbs, meanwhile, played to his own laws. An aggressor by nature, he has this knack of utter unpredictability, allied to a marauder's instinct to try and hit every delivery away for runs. One over illustrates his batting style. Facing Kumble, he took a flipper on off, and played it behind square on the on, to race two. The next ball, in the identical slot, was defended in copybook style. A ball later, to yet another flipper on off, Gibbs came waltzing down the track, got under it and hoisted it onto the stadium roof. Three identical deliveries, three different responses -- and no way of predicting which response will come when.

Equally impressive was the very evident determination on the part of both batsmen to finish off the job themselves. Blazing along at 92/0 after 15 overs, the temptation would have been to continue to blast away. Yet, when the field was spread, they changed gears a touch, focussed more on running between wickets, and methodically guided their side to a ten wicket win, in yet another impressive opening partnership. Increasingly, they are settling into the ideal combination, of ice cold accumulator and hotblooded shotmaker, and their opening partnerships are taking the pressure off the South African middle order.

All told, it was a comprehensive performance by the Proteas, and should give them the confidence to turn it on as the competition progresses.

Meanwhile, what of India's mindset? While the South Africans were cruising, Barry Richards in the TV commentary box was asked what he thought the Indians should do to bounce back from here. His response was, "You can't sit up all night wondering why and how you lost, not after a game like this. What you need to do is tell yourself that you are entitled to one bad day in the office, that you have got it out of the way early, and can now settle down to play good cricket again."

And what does Ganguly think? His post match comment, when asked if this was a disheartening defeat, was, "We've played very good cricket the last five games, I guess when you do that, an off day is going to come along, we've got it out of the way now and can get focussed for the remainder of the competition."

Which sounds like just the right attitude. "We didn't bat too well, and equally imprtant, we have to make sure when we bowl that we don't bowl both sides of the wicket in the early overs."

Fair call. Easy enough to make -- what is of interest is whether they can translate this into performance, when inside 24 hours they take on Pakistan in game two of the Sharjah series.

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