Two days of absorbing action in Calcutta has left the second Test in an absorbing state. India first and then Pakistan seized the initiative on the second. India lost their way in the last quarter of an hour of the first day’s play after having dominated the Pakistan attack right from the word ‘Play’.
The loss of centurion Rahul Dravid in the final over of the day was a big blow, for Dravid is the kind of batsman who is simply not satisfied with just a ton but is always looking for the double ton and more. It meant that Pakistan had a chance of having a go at the lower order of the Indian batting with the second new ball. And they did just that, along with a judicious use of the spinners, who captured four out of the six wickets that fell on the first day.
Sehwag began as if he was continuing from Mohali and was stroking the boundaries either side of the wicket as he pleased. The Pakistanis had tried the short-ball theory against him on the third day of the Mohali Test and thought they had seen a chink there, but the short-ball if well directed will cause even the best organized batsman problems.
Bodyline showed that the greatest middle-order batsman in the world, Don Bradman also was not entirely comfortable, but with the bouncers restricted to only two in one over in recent times, no batsman will ever be bothered too much by it. Sehwag simply got under the ball and the odd one that he had to play he did so comfortably. He took personal interest in Kaneria’s figures being spoiled. But just like there’s one bowler who gets under a batsman’s skin or one batsman who gets under a bowler’s skin, Sehwag finds Afridi too much to take or maybe he doesn’t rate him at all. So instead of playing him on merits, Sehwag tries to smash him out of the ground. He tried that in the Platinum Jubilee game at Calcutta and perished and even here he lost out on a century by trying to hit him against the spin with Pakistan captain, Inzamam taking a fine running catch.
Like Afridi, there’s Flintoff who batsmen want to smash, not just to score off and who thus sometimes gets wickets to ordinary deliveries as the batsmen try to hit the cover off the ball. Ian Botham was another who got some wickets like that in the past.
On the flip side, bowlers who don’t think much of a batsman try to bounce them all the time and get caned in the bargain. Whatever it was, Sehwag missed out on yet another century at the Eden (he got 88 against South Africa a few months ago) and he would have seen what he missed from the ovation Dravid got when he got to his century. It is indeed a special feeling to get a ton at the Eden Gardens with a full house in attendance and it does take a batsman a long time to come down to earth after the cheering of the crowd.
Dravid knew he had a century for the taking at Mohali but had got out to a loose shot and here he brought all his concentration to the fore and along with it unfurling a range of shots that was breathtaking for the precision with which he bisected the fielders.
The back-foot forcing shot wide of mid-on is not an easy shot to play but it was with this shot that he got to his century, the ball speeding away to the boundary. Having him at the other end certainly helped Tendulkar who had a watchful beginning and as Dravid was middling everything, the little champion also got more positive. His dismissal after reaching a half-century as also Ganguly’s was disappointing for the Eden Gardens’ crowd though they did get to see history being made when Tendulkar got his 10,000th run in Test cricket.
The next day it was the turn of the Pakistani batsmen, especially Younis Khan and Yousuf Youhana, to make merry. And their fluid batting made the Indian attack look ordinary.
