When was the last time you saw the first session of a Test match where the ball hardly ever went past the bat? Even when the Australian duo of Langer and Hayden were batting at their best, there used to be a fair amount of playing and missing but here at the Eden Gardens the ball met the middle of the bat just about every time and there was not much of appealing for leg-before wickets either as the ball did not hit the pads too much. It was as flawless an exhibition of batting that one can ever hope to see and it came with such elegance that it was hard to take one’s eyes off the action on the field.
While Wasim Jaffer just leaned into the drives and flicked the ball off his pads as if he was brushing a speck of dust from his trousers, at the other end Rahul Dravid was showing the batmaker’s name to the despairing bowlers with such an air of solidity that it was a surprise when he was finally out.
Of course, it may not have been a correct decision for that was the only way the Pakistanis looked like getting a wicket. Imagine also the feeling when having got rid of the ‘wall’, the Pakistanis looked toward the pavilion and saw Sachin Tendulkar coming out to bat. It must have been a feeling akin to jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
The little champion was straightaway off the blocks and for once Wasim Jaffer looked to be wanting to watch from the other end rather than do the scoring himself. That was the effect Viv Richards also used to have on as accomplished a batsman like Gordon Greenidge who as soon as the master blaster came in to bat would either go into a shell or try to outdo Richards and get himself out. Jaffer, of course, has played a fair bit of cricket with Tendulkar for Mumbai, so he may have been the admiring partner at the other end but continued to play scintillating shots himself that brought forth generous applause from the little champion.
It was heady stuff and some of the shots especially off the backfoot through the covers by Jaffer need to be preserved on tape and shown to budding youngsters as a coaching guide. He is normally a slow starter and his footwork takes a bit of time to untangle but not here. He was into the shot and position so quickly that he neutralized any early moisture advantage that the Eden Gardens has traditionally and such was his dominance that Pakistan lost its way before half a dozen overs were bowled. They had got Dinesh Karthik, who is still in the one-day frame of mind, early but that was the last of the success by the bowlers till Kaneria got a wrong one through Tendulkar’s gate.
This has to be the weakest bowling attack of Pakistan since 1983 and with Akhtar looking sick and Tanvir finding Test cricket different from the one-day game, all that the batsmen had to do was to ensure they did not get overconfident and try something silly and make a mistake doing so.
Jaffer has a habit of making big hundreds and he looks poised for a double and more, and the CAB administrators would have heaved a greater sigh of relief than the Pakistani bowlers when the umpires called off play with Ganguly still batting. That should ensure a bigger crowd at the Edens and what a reception Jaffer will get when he gets to the double hundred for there’s nothing better than a standing ovation from the Eden Garden’s crowd.
