The rain can mean different things to different people. For a team that is about to lose a Test match, it can be a godsend, which allows them to save the Test and live to fight another day. In the one-day context, it can mean a sudden change in the equation if the rains have come in the middle of a game, and if rains have caused the match to start late and be a reduced-overs contest, then too it can give a lesser team a better chance of surprising the stronger team.
At Chittagong though, it deprived India of going for a 3-0 win, which is what their aim would have been after Bangladesh bundled them out of the World Cup. To Bangladesh, it meant a lost opportunity to pull one back and save face after the huge expectations from their fans, though with so many of their top players being on the sick-list, they were struggling to put 11 men on the field.
India would have also loved to have given another chance to Virender Sehwag to see if he has learned anything at all from his wayward ways, as also to see how Uthappa would adjust after seeing Dhoni and Gambhir do that and play a risk-free game and still maintain a healthy scoring rate. Sehwag seemed to have done all the right things since the early return home from the World Cup. He looked trimmer than before and had spent a lot of time practicing with his club team. That showed in the crisp manner in which he hit the ball in both the one-dayers, but his modes of dismissal indicated that where it counts at the international level, which is in the temperament stakes, he had learned nothing at all.
When a player tries to hit every ball for a four or a six without giving a care about his wicket and what his team expects of him, then that attitude betrays a lack of team-spirit and is just not on. If Dhoni and Gambhir could play a waiting game and still score at a run-a-ball, then why can’t Sehwag also do the same?
If the selectors show any more leniency, then it would be fair to ask them why such leniency is not given to others. The same is the case with Dinesh Mongia. If ever a player has got chances beyond the usual, it is the left-hander, who has made more comebacks than even Jimmy Amarnath. But then, Jimmy grabbed the chances and went on to become one of India’s top players in both versions of the game. Its time to look ahead now toward building a team for the 2011 World Cup and let Mongia score tons of runs in county cricket, which is about the same standard as our Plate Group Ranji Trophy matches.
The most exciting thing about the one-day series was Piyush Chawla. I have to confess I was worried that in the limited-overs game, he would try and bowl flatter and thus lose his most effective weapon, which is flight and loop. He didn’t do that, but showed what a good temperament he had by giving the ball air and luring the batsmen out of his crease, and even when a stumping was missed, he just turned and walked back to his mark and got the batsman in the same fashion next ball. The one quality that separates the Australians from other teams is how they don’t make a drama over a missed opportunity by their teammates. The bowlers just walk back to the mark and bowl the next ball, for they know that mistakes can happen from the best and most experienced too. Young Chawla showed that quality and though its early days yet, one hopes that he will stick to that even as he plays more for India.
The one-day series was a success for India, as was to be expected inspite of the loss in the World Cup, and it didn’t really help solve any of the problem areas for the team. Ganguly and Tendulkar will come in for Sehwag and Mongia in the batting department for the next one-day series after their rest period, and the only area where India have gained is in finding that young Chawla has his heart in the right place.
