India once again showed no stomach for a fight as they crumbled on a pitch that held no demons whatsoever. It was a performance that calls into question the application of the players and the cavalier way they are treating the honor and privilege of playing for the country. Time and again, they have got out playing the same shots and none of the batsmen seems eager to stay at the wicket. None of them is learning from the mistakes of the others and getting out in such a listless manner that if India have to lose, then it would be better to see a totally different set of players take the field in the Test series that starts next month.
The Indian bowlers had done a good job in restricting the South Africans to a score that invited a run rate of less than 5 runs an over and which on this pitch was not really a problem. True, the ball can do a bit more under the lights and when the wind picks up, but even those factors were not there to any great extent. Zaheer got his man once again, and it’s quite clear that the South African skipper is going through the horrors. The way he walked out of his crease even before Zaheer had bowled the ball, showed how confused he was and he will have to go back to the drawing board to start scoring runs again. Loots Bosman is another who moves so much in the crease that he has little idea where his off stump is. Kallis however is one of those players with a solid technique and good match temperament and he along with Herschelle Gibbs built a partnership that steadied the innings and that too at a fair clip. Cricket is a great leveler and Justin Kemp, who hammered the Indian attack for his first one-day century at Cape Town, was out to the first ball he faced here. Virender Sehwag used the fifth bowler’s overs well, distributing it between himself and Tendulkar, and with Anil Kumble being right on target as always, the overs bowled by the slower bowlers were more productive and restrictive than those by the seamers. Once again, it was Shaun Pollock who helped loosen the spinners’ stranglehold, and he and Gibbs took South Africa to a total that they would have been satisfied with but also wary of, because it wasn’t one that put pressure on the Indians.
Of course, the Indians on this tour have been masters at putting pressure on themselves and the shots that were played were eminently forgettable.
Gibbs’ was a mixed innings, for he went through periods of doubt but he hung in there grimly, knowing that it was important for the team to have him play till the end. In doing so, he showed that sometimes when a player is not in good touch, he has to change his game to suit the needs of his team.
Unfortunately, nobody from the Indian side seemed to have taken any notice. Jaffer once again flashed outside the off-stump before he was set and Sehwag played a casual shot to be caught brilliantly. Tendulkar was the only one who got a good ball, and since he is not in form, he is more tentative than usual. Then we had Karthik getting Kaif run-out and then trying to get out caught at third-man, flashing wildly outside the off stump to each and every rising delivery and finally succeeding and that too off the gentle medium pace of Justin Kemp. Dhoni hit some good shots but was simply not prepared to play a game where he could wait for the scoring opportunity. It’s this kind of approach that begs the question; are these players playing for their own pleasure or for the team? If a strokeplayer like Gibbs could play a subdued game, then why couldn’t the Indians? All it needed was a sensible approach and a decent start and the South Africans would have been under pressure. Instead, by trying to score at a run-a-ball when it was not needed, the Indians squandered a great opportunity to come close and worry the South Africans.
Irfan Pathan used the chance to do his case no harm, having been used intelligently by Sehwag with the ball earlier in the day. His performance and the bowling of Zaheer and Kumble and to a certain extent Sreesanth, were the only things that India got out of the game. By the time this appears in print, the Test team will have been selected and hopefully the selectors will have used the ax a lot more thoughtfully than the Indians have used the bats.
