Fine fast bowling by Jerome Taylor who captured his first five wickets in Tests and a pitch with uncertain bounce helped reduce India’s batsmen to jumping jack in the box and give the hosts West Indies a big advantage. Mind you, with the pitch playing in this manner even India’s bowlers can turn the screws on the West Indies batsmen and make life miserable for them too. One thing is certain and that is barring weather interference, this match will have a result. It is when teams batting first go on to bat till after lunch on the second day that the chances of a result reduce considerably if the team batting second also occupies the crease for four or more sessions after that. In fact India did well to get to 200 after their regular batsmen barring the exceptional Dravid hopped around without making any impression whatsoever. The odd ball kept low and then there were deliveries, which had a tennis ball like bounce, but whenever the faster bowlers banged one in short, it came at a good pace and climbed on to the batsman quite nicely.
What is noticeable in modern day batsmen is that with the preponderance of one-day cricket and the restrictions on the bouncers there are not too many, who can play off the backfoot. So when there is a bit of bounce they are invariably caught in no man’s land, neither forward nor back and so find it tough to negotiate the bounce. Also one-day cricket does not help in playing with a loose bottom hand where the impact of the ball can be taken away and there’s a good chance of the ball lobbing but not carrying to the men behind the wicket.
Dravid is the one man who can bat off the backfoot too and he played the bouncing ball quite easily. The one thing he has to watch out for, is his balance as he is falling too much toward the off-side on occasions and thus ends up playing straight deliveries across his front pads. He was quick to seize on the loose deliveries and drove quite beautifully. But for his innings India may have been dismissed for an embarrassingly low total. India also need to thank Anil Kumble who has batted with great courage and common sense in this series and has helped boost India’s total on just about every Test match in this series. Yuvraj and Kaif in particular looked completely out of place on this pitch and Kaif’s legendary luck did not work this time though as usual he did get a reprieve early in his innings.
With Sehwag being consumed in the first over itself India did not get the blazing start that he provided in both innings of the previous Test. Jaffer too went early and that put enormous pressure on Laxman and Dravid. India benefited by Lara’s reluctance to post a third man, as lots of deliveries went there and that could have saved the West Indies at least 30 to 50 runs if a fielder had been stationed there. Modern day fast bowlers keep a mid-off maybe because of the restrictions on the bouncers which make them bowl a much fuller length than say twenty something years back. Perhaps the mid-off being put at third man will not only stop the unnecessary runs and reduce the frustration from the bowlers but may also get wickets if the bowlers are getting some swing and tempting the batsmen to try and drive towards the vacant mid-off position. India certainly are down but definitely not out and they have to come out on a positive note to ensure they can bounce back with the uneven bounce that this pitch has.
