BOMBAY, 31 October 2003 — It has become customary these days to put all the blame on the inanimate for the wrong animation of the players themselves. Yes, for both the drawn Tests, at Motera in Ahmedabad, and Mohali in Punjab, the pitch, at each center, was labeled as the villain-de-piece. The Indians, in particular, could not have found a more convenient camouflage for their abject failure to come good in the two-Test series against New Zealand, in which they were expectedly the favorites.
In the first Test, the Indian team had everything going its way from the time they won the toss. But midway through the match, the inherent weakness of the home team in their bowling department began to be exposed. It was a good, fighting performance that enabled New Zealand to first avert the follow-on and then salvage an honorable draw.
Not only was the four-man bowling attack found wanting in the act of dismissing the Kiwis twice, but the fact also remains that the bowlers were unimaginatively handled by skipper Ganguly. Long before the match had been made safe for the Kiwis by Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle, the Indian team had lost all sense of urgency. The diffident attitude was further accentuated by the strange decision of the captain to throw in the towel with still three overs left to be bowled. It is not rare to see four wickets tumbling in the last two or three overs of a match. Yet Ganguly surprisingly opted to call off play, with four New Zealand wickets standing between India and victory. Just that outside chance, even if it was on the brink of a miracle, should not have been allowed to pass.
His own colleagues were taken by surprise, as Tendulkar, who was turning the ball quite appreciably, stood for a moment at the bowling crease to start a new over. Needless to say, the Kiwis were so relieved that McMillan and Astle walked away with broad smiles. The long faces in the Indian dressing room showed out the players’ disappointment. If they were to do some serious heart-searching, along with coach John Wright, they would have realized the several mistakes that they committed, not the least being the slow batting of the first two days and the under-utilization of support bowlers.
If Kiwis were at the receiving end at Motera, the boot was on the other leg in the second Test at Mohali. Ganguly’s abscess on the left thigh turned out to be more serious than at first diagnosed and he was forced to sit out the match. Rahul Dravid, who took over the leadership, had a most disastrous start to his first Test as captain. He lost a most important toss and then dropped a sitter, off Mark Richardson, at first slip, in the third over of the day. Kiwis got off to a dream start posting a record opening stand with centuries from Richardson and Lou Vincent... Two more, Scott Styris and Craig McMillan, notched up centuries too. India had only one goal thereafter — to save the match. Following on 205 runs behind, they had an enormous scare when the big three, Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar, were back in the pavilion with just 18 runs on the board. Laxman saved the Indians the blushes. Quite clearly, the Kiwis had performed far beyond expectations. In the end the hunted had become the hunter. Had it not been for Laxman and opener Akash Chopra, the underdogs would have pulled off a sensational victory and won their first-ever Test series in India.
However, much may one say that limited-overs cricket is a different kettle of fish, India, the last World Cup finalists, find themselves low on confidence. There is more than just one worrying factor for them. Ganguly will definitely be missed. Then there is great concern over the terrible loss of form of Tendulkar. The biggest headache is the poor state of the bowling. Zaheer Khan is far from the great bowler that he was in the World Cup and the spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, despite the advantage of bowling on friendlier home wickets, have been completely out of depth so far.
There was a general belief that the Indian players were getting cheesed off due to excessive cricket.
