There were two very close cricketing results on Sunday and both came at crucial times for their country’s supporters, just when these supporters were beginning to lose faith in their teams. At Edgbaston, Birmingham, England kept their nerve and beat Australia by 2 runs to level the series and keep the series alive. If they had lost then the Ashes would have been lost too for it would have required a superhuman effort to win the remaining three Tests to win the series. Now with McGrath still doubtful, England can realistically hope to go on to do better and maybe even win the series.
In Colombo, India carved out a narrow win over West Indies to enter the finals. All experiments were kept on hold as India played what will be the team for the finals too. They began shakily with the loss of Sehwag and Laxman, both brilliant stroke players but who also take some time to get their footwork going. When in form, the lack of footwork doesn’t matter, but when struggling for runs and thus mentally not too confident, the messages from the brain to the hands and feet are slower and consequently the feet are not always in the prime position. Earlier Ganguly, was struck a painful blow on his left forearm, which is unusual, for in his case, it is not the hand that faces the ball. When the smaller thigh pads were brought in for the inside leg and not the front leg, there were eyebrows raised as it is pretty rare to get hit on the inside leg, but those mini thigh pads are used by just about everyone now apart from the Australian top order and Tendulkar and Lara, and maybe there will now be an inner forearm guard as well.
Those early wickets brought in Yuvraj and Kaif together and it also gave them plenty of overs to bat. The left-hander looked in good touch as soon as he came in to bat and was hitting the ball sweetly off the middle of his bat. The enforced rest due to injury definitely worked, for he looked rejuvenated. As usual, both ran superbly between the wickets and the sharp West Indian fielding started to wilt under the pressure of constantly being beaten for runs. The throwing started to get wilder which allowed for the extra runs and when that happens, it upsets the rhythm of the bowlers. West Indies also had a new captain in Joseph with Chanderpaul injured, and his inexperience made him use a spinner for the final overs instead of a pacer. Spin is ‘rozi roti’ for the Indians and Dhoni helped himself to two big sixes and India was thus able to score 20 more than they would have expected.
In the final analysis, it was those runs that made the difference just as the last wicket partnership for England between Flintoff and Simon Jones made the Australians chase 30 more than they should have. Kaif too like Yuvraj came good just when questions were being asked as to why they are considered untouchables for dropping. Now of course, they get at least another dozen innings before anybody raises their voice again. The West Indian innings owed much to Norton who played some fine shots and it was his partnership with Ramdin the wicketkeeper that gave the Windies some hope. Both are young, but the manner in which they have played showed that if they keep their feet on the guard they have a long international career ahead of them.
Anil Kumble, finally given a chance, showed that when he is bowling, not many can take liberties with him. His pinpoint accuracy made the inexperienced West Indian batsmen looked leaden-footed. Ashish Nehra also came to the party with wickets at important times and his final overs were absolutely spot-on when the batsmen were looking for the big shots.
India won’t and shouldn’t be bothered about the margin of victory against a second string West Indian team. They are in the finals and capable of beating the hosts for the title.
