India made a valiant but belated attempt to win the first Test at Nagpur and in doing so salvaged some psychological advantage back from a game that was otherwise dominated by the visitors. Rahul Dravid candidly admitted that perhaps they could have given the rush a bit earlier than when they did and the result could well have been different and the match much closer than the way it ended. The loss of Virender Sehwag first thing in the morning after the overnight declaration by England would have meant that any thoughts of going for a win were to be considered only after the game was relatively safe. The big partnership between the skipper and Wasim Jaffer made sure that India could not possibly lose and so when Dravid was out, one saw Irfan Pathan being promoted ahead of a man who has got the highest number of runs in one day cricket and whose strike rate is not that of a slouch. It’s hard to think that in a similar situation the West Indies would drop Viv Richards down the order to send say a Roger Harper ahead and in spite of Pathan scoring 35 off only 25 deliveries the signal that was sent by demoting Tendulkar wasn’t a good one. The little champion when he came in to bat scored at a strike rate more than 100 runs per ball as if to show that he has not lost it. Then what about Harbhajan’s promotion above VVS Laxman and Mohammad Kaif who is an acknowledged one day specialist.
Yes we have seen Pathan’s promotion in one-dayers work in India but this changing of batting order was exactly the same thing that Ganguly was castigated for in Zimbabwe. Now it’s called experimentation but when the former skipper was doing it, it was called spreading panic. Guess it depends on what media relations one has.
No praise can be too high for Jaffer’s efforts in both innings. Here he was making a comeback to the team and he had to first make sure that he got enough runs for another chance. He had some anxious moments as he neared his first Test century but was also helped by the fact that it was Flintoff’s first Test as captain and so the unrelenting pressure and drying up of runs that an experienced skipper would have engineered wasn’t there to stop him getting to the landmark that is the dream of all school kids. He still needs to tighten up a bit and play a lot closer to his body than he does especially after getting to a half century when he clearly relaxes a bit.
The skipper’s solidity at the other end must surely have eased Jaffer’s nerves and the skipper almost caught up with him as the possibility of winning dawned on him. A reverse sweep attempt showed that India were considering a chase and immediately England were on the back foot and that’s where India got a lot of its lost points back.
Both teams go into the next Test with their heads high but England will feel and rightly too as they went in the game without their regular captain, vice-capatin and the sexiest cricketer in the world that they had, the moral win in this Test.
