Lara ton marks pointless Test at Antigua

Prem Panicker

The fourth Test of the Cable and Wireless series at Antigua that will, on Tuesday, go into its second and final day (how strange that sounds!) may be totally devalued by the three days lost to rain - but make no mistake, the West Indies have already gained something from it.

It could, of course, be merely my imagination - but is Brian Charles Lara something of a changed man, more so after his first foray - a successful one, at that - as captain of the West Indies side in the previous Test?

A few weeks ago, when Michael Holding was asked what he thought of Brian Lara as captain of the West Indies, the great fast bowler was unequivocal. No, said Holding flat out - Lara is a great batsman, perhaps one of the greatest ever, but his temperament as a person is suspect, he is too flighty, too uncaring of his team members, and such do not make good captains.

Well, Lara got a chance to make his point in Barbados, and he did it to very good effect indeed - his marshalling of bowlers and his field settings were thoughtful, intelligent and, in the final analysis, one of the major factors that guided Windies to that dramatic win.

And that brings us to Antigua - a Test in which no one, not the players, the spectators or even the two boards, seem particularly interested. No one, that is, except Lara.

When he came out to bat on Monday, on the ground where, three years back, he had hit up that world record 375 against England, one expected him to blaze away at the bowling, hit a few fours and things, and then depart, out bored.

Lara, though, seemed to have other ideas - he took 25 deliveries to play himself in, obviously fighting to concentrate in a game that had no competitive interest. And when he started timing the ball and middling it, he stepped up a few gears - and suddenly, the handful of spectators were treated to vintage Lara. Finding the gaps with unerring precision, playing every shot in the book (a couple of delicate late cuts off Kumble deserved a houseful audience and a better occasion), he got to a century (103 off 178 deliveries with 11 fours and one six) before becoming the fifth man out, feathering an edge to Mongia off a Prasad away-cutter.

That century - Lara's first ever against India and one that breaks what is, for him, a run of mediocre scores, could have repercussions in Guyana. Put simply, a Lara in form, and among the runs, is bad news to any side in the world.

The other gain for the Windies was a competent 56 from Roland Holder. Bit of an enigma, that guy - when he plays strokes, he looks typically Caribbean in technique and approach. And yet, there are times when he tends to poke around with static feet and hesitant bat - a concomittant, perhaps, of not being too sure of his place in the side. Three failures on the trot, after a superb 91 in the first innings of the second Test, should have been preying on his mind. To his credit, though, he applied himself very well here, kept Lara company in a partnership of 142, and in the process scored 56 off 103 with four fours and a six before Kumble got him edging to Mongia.

Earlier, Carl Hooper (26 off 41 with two fours and a six) looked his usual lazy, yet immaculate self, revelling in a wicket on which there was nothing much for the bowlers, and was just beginning to time his strokes to ominous perfection when his besetting weakness, boredom, got the better of him and he gave Azharuddin yet another opportunity to display his lightning reflexes in the slips, off Joshi.

At stumps, the West Indies were 252 for 7 in 89.4 overs, the game ending two balls before schedule when Bishop (17 off 65 with three fours) gave Rahul Dravid a bat-pad catch off Joshi.

For India, Kumble was easily the pick of the bowlers. His figures - 31-12-66-2 - were parsimonious as always, but what impressed was that unlike his usual mode of operation, here he allowed the ball to come through more easily off the back of the hand, looping and dipping sharply en route to the batsman. In fact, the most interesting part of an otherwise dull day was the long duel between Kumble and Lara, the master batsman playing Kumble with enormous concentration and perfect technique while the bowler, for his part, kept him quiet and watchful with a lovely line and frequent variations.

Prasad (19-4-43-1) was his usual self, tidy, probing and very impressive especially when he got his trademark leg-cutters working to beat the bat outside off. Kuruvilla (17-1-50-1) was, by contrast, not quite as impressive here as he has been in the first three Tests - making one wonder whether the bowler had some problem motivating himself in a no-account match. Joshi (19.4-6-64-2) for his part looked good whenever he gave the ball a tweak - but it is high time someone told the left-arm spinner that flight alone is little use unless he learns to loop the ball and keep the batsman guessing. As it is, when Joshi tosses it up, the ball hangs up there like a zeppelin, giving the batsman all the time in the world to come to the pitch and give it a hefty thump.

So there we have it, the situation in the fourth Test with just one day (90 overs) left to play on Tuesday. No real need for ifs, buts and maybes, is there? For India, the obvious task will be to try and get the last three wickets out so their own batsman can get some pressure-free time out there in the middle on what is a nice track to bat on. And that tenure at the wicket, I suspect, will be especially important to a certain VVS Laxman - on the verge of being dropped, the Hyderabad batsman sneaked back in only because of a virus infection that laid Sidhu low. This is the best chance he will get to force the team management to give him the extended run in his unaccustomed role of opener, and for the sake of the Indian team, one hopes he makes the best of it.

Earlier report