India through to Asia Cup final
Prem Panicker
Set to make 131 in 20.5 overs at a rate of 6.6 per over if it wanted to make the final of the Asia Cup, Saturday, against hosts Sri Lanka, India got there off the last ball of the 15th over, with 9 wickets standing.
And as India coasted home, a guest on our live commentary-cum-chat commented: "Big deal, look what Indian cricket has come to, we are celebrating a win over Bangladesh!"
There's a phrase for this: give a dog a bad name, and hang him.
The media, or sections thereof, took care of the first, having over the past few months successfully created the impression that this Indian team, or the bulk of the members thereof, are on the take, that most matches featuring India are fixed, and that cricket has moved out of the playing fields and into the bookmaker's hands.
And the fans, apparently, are well set to complete the operation and hang the team. Lose? Sure, so what else is new? Win? Oh! Big deal!
In the prevailing climate, if India had failed to get into the final -- and it pays to remember that after the first outing against Lanka, India has never gone out there without the rain playing tricks - then tthat would have given some cause for self-congratulations. See? Told you so! India couldn't even make the finals!!
Oh well - in one day and age, we raised people up. Today, we pull people down. The elevation, in earlier times, was often blind, often had no direct corelation to intrinsic worth. The desecration, today, follows similar lines.
Does all this mean that the Indian cricket team achieved something remarkable on the day? No! For the outcome -- wind and weather permitting -- was a foregone conclusion, the more so when Tendulkar duly won the toss and inserted the opposition.
With India going in with just three regular bowlers, Bangladesh's faint hope of making a match of this depended on how they played the first 14 overs (a delayed start having reduced the game to 48 overs a side, the field restrictions would be removed one over ahead of schedule). However, Venkatesh Prasad shut the door on that one with a clinical spell of seam and swing bowling in conditions helpful to both. Mixing inswingers, leg cutters and straighter ones cleverly, Prasad had both openers hesitant and unsure of which way the ball was going next, and his first spell of 6-1-5-1 was evidence of both accuracy and control.
Interestingly, Kuruvilla -- who, when Prasad was flagging at the fag end of the previous season, bowled with both intelligence and control -- appeared yet again to have lost his spark plug. On a wicket where the thinking medium pacer would bowl within himself, keep the ball up to the bat and let the conditions do the rest, Kuruvilla swung between the short-pitched and over-pitched deliveries, and duly got hit about. However, both he and Prasad got a wicket each in their first spell -- Kuruvilla when Naimur Rehman played all over a straight ball and Prasad when, after three straight delivieries to the promoted pinch-hitter Minajhul Abedin, produced the leg cutter to take the edge to the keeper -- and from there on, all that Kumble and the part-time bowlers had to do was bowl line and length and choke the Bangladesh batsmen. Which they did, with some alert fielding in unstable underfoot conditions helping to keep the lid on it.
Athar Ali Khan is easily the find for Bangladesh -- tall, classical, elegant, and a most attractive driver both sides of the wicket. He made only one error in yet another compact innings when, off Tendulkar's first ball, he attempted to play acrossthe line without judging the bowler's pace and was trapped plumb in front.
Minajul Islam didn't do enough to justify his billing as one of Bangladesh's better batsmen, his innings of 30 being at best patchy. An eyebrow-raising umpiring goof in the 19th over, when Islam touched a ball into Karim's hands and the umpire looked unmoved, almost ended with both bowler Ganguly and keeper Karim getting yet another fine for excessive appealing -- and had me wondering if it wasn't time to maybe introduce fines for umpires as well, if only to force them to concentrate more and do their job better. I mean, it wasn't as if the edge was faint or the catch doubtful, so...
Anyway -- Bangladesh, with the bat, steadily lost its way in the middle, Robin Singh helped things along with his best one day spell yet, bowling well within himself and doing just enough by way of keeping the ball up and moving it off the seam to have the inexperienced Bangladesh batsmen in trouble.
What continues to be a worry -- more so going into the final against Sri Lanka's star-studded batting line up -- is Anil Kumble's bowling form. A year ago, this is exactly the sort of batting line-up Kumble would have had for breakfast. On the day, however, he continued his penchant for bowling straight and fast, with absolutely no variation whatsoever -- unless the odd ball spearing down leg side could be called 'variation'. Against Bangladesh, the fast flipper on off and middle produced the odd alarums and an economical 10-over spell -- but the same bowling, one cannot help but think, will come easy to the strokehappy Lankans.
In the event, the rains came down with Bangladesh on 130/8 in 43 overs, and it was decided to terminate the innings right there, take lunch and have the Indians begin the chase as soon as play was possible. And for India, the point was to get to the target not in the possible 43 overs, but in 20 overs, to get a run rate of 6.6 and thus get into the final ahead of Pakistan.
There never was any doubt about the outcome, really -- if only because the Bangladesh bowlers lacked the experience for this kind of cricket. When chasing a run rate of 6 plus, the batting side comes under pressure only if bowlers can produce the tight, steady, run-denying line and length. Which, throughout this competition, Bangladesh has been consistently unable to do -- a couple of good balls are followed by some deliveries that err in length and line.
The advantage India had going in to bat was that there was no room for ambiguity whatsoever - its players knew that they had to get runs at a rapid clip right from the first ball, and that is pretty much what happened. Tendulkar blazed away in typical fashion, but given that the ball, thanks to rain, came slower onto the bat and also travelled less quickly through the outfield, he had the mortification of seeing a lot of his hits either misfire, or be blocked or retrieved by the fielders well inside the line. And in the event, it was the slowness of the pitch that did for him, as he knelt to sweep Hasibul Hussain and saw the ball pass him well after he had completed the stroke, to crash into middle stump.
Ganguly faced a similar problem at the start, with his drives, crisp as always, going straight to the field. A bit of thought later, the batsman changed tack, began coming down the track and converting deliveries into half volleys that he hit over the top of the infield - twice clearing the fence, the other eight times finding the ropes, to take the man of the match award for his 73 off 52 deliveries.
What interested me was the promotion of Mohammad Azharuddin to the number three slot, ahead of both Dravid and Sidhu. If this signals a growing confidence on the part of the coach and the captain in the right hander, nothing could be better. For Azhar, on the evidence thus far, looks to have got his confidence and, more importantly, his touch, back -- and having him come in at number three gives him the opportunity to play the long, match-winning innings he is capable of when on song.
The flip side, of course, is that this means Dravid and, if picked, Sidhu come in at four and five -- that is, into the middle to late overs. And both the above batsmen are the kind who take time to settle down, which could mean a slump in the scoring rate just when the batting side cannot afford to flag. A thought for the team to ponder over during the strategy sessions between now and Saturday, when they take on hosts Sri Lanka in the final. For sure as shooting, the final - weather permitting - is one game that will be one with the bat.
In parting, an oddity -- this is the fourth time India and Bangladesh have played each other in the Asia Cup, the earlier instances being in 1988, 1990 and 1995. And this is also the fourth time that India have won by nine wickets -- a statistical quirk, for those who get their jollies out of such things.
Tailpiece: The national selectors today postponed selection of the replacements to the India squad for the upcoming Tests and ODIs against Sri Lanka by two days, at the specific request of captain Sachin Tendulkar and coach Madan Lal.
BCCI secretary J Y Lele said the team management's decision was taken after India stormed into the Asia Cup final. Tendulkar and Madan Lal wanted the two additional players picked, and required changes made to the existing squad, only after Saturday's final.
Lele informed the media that in order to avoid the trouble and expense of calling the selectors for another meeting, chairman of selectors Ramakant Desai had been empowered to make the selections.
As it stands now, the team will be picked on Saturday. If rains push the final into the reserve day, then it will be picked on Sunday.
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