The bat-a-thon continues

At times on a second day when 318 runs were scored, you could almost imagine that the game was being played out on the East Coast Road up just up the coast, such was the nature of the pitch. The six wickets that India picked up, four of them in a rush after tea as South Africa went for quick runs, should fool no one.

At no stage was there a genuine contest between bat and ball, with even stalwarts like Anil Kumble and the exciting Dale Steyn being treated with scant respect by batsmen who could afford to plonk the front foot forward and drive through the line. When some of the best bowlers in the game are made to look like second-rate trundlers, it's probably time for those that sanction these type of pitches to do a bit of soul-searching.

None of that though should detract from what was a wonderful exhibition of batsmanship from Hashim Amla. Nervous and perhaps a little out of his depth on his debut at the Eden Gardens just over three years ago, Amla's career thus far has been largely defined by his three centuries against New Zealand.

At Chepauk, in conditions ideal for picking off runs, he barely put a foot wrong until the impetuous charge up the pitch that cost him his wicket and the chance to become the first individual to score a double-hundred in a match between these two countries.

Amla drove and cut beautifully, and the wristy flourishes on the legside left you in no doubt as to where his ancestors came from [Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat]. Growing up in Tongaat, a few kilometres north of Durban, he grew up idolising Jonty Rhodes. By the time he was finishing school, he was the country's U-19 captain and soon after, the provincial job also came his way.

Perhaps it was too much too soon because he faded from view after a couple of disastrous outings against England. The technique though was stubbornly persisted with, and his faith in his methods was vindicated by an innings in which he was equally at ease against both pace and spin.

India's fielding had been below average on the opening day and it descended to village-idiot variety as the second afternoon wore on, with fours being leaked between legs by the younger members of the side. Ambitions of the number one ranking will remain a mere pipedream as long as the outfielding is so shoddy, and Gary Kirsten has a proper job on his hands to try and get his charges to field even half as well as the side he once represented with such distinction.

Harbhajan Singh eventually finished with a five-for, mopping up the tail, but the 164 runs he conceded are a more accurate reflection of the way he bowled. Apart from Kumble at times, no bowler managed to exert any degree of control over the batsmen, with four-ball being thrown around like confetti. Of the 540 that South Africa made, an astonishing 324 came from fours alone, with Steyn contributing the most eye-catching one - an audacious reverse-slog off Harbhajan that sped to the fence at cover.

Apart from the odd frustrated shout, the fans never turned against the side though, screaming themselves hoarse for every wicket, even when it came with well over 500 on the board. And there was more to cheer in a final passage of play that saw Virender Sehwag saunter to 52 against a three-man pace attack whose sting was quickly drawn by an unresponsive pitch.

The openers have provided the perfect start, and India now need to bat big tomorrow to ensure that the final two days don't become an exercise in nervous nail-biting. The baking heat may yet cause rapid deterioration over the final two days, but for the moment this is still a pitch on which you could drive all the way to Pondicherry. Whether that does Test cricket any favours is another matter altogether.

Comments

[Sundar Radhakrishnan]

The curators may not be the ones to be mainly blamed here. I think it is more due to the mindset of our captains. None of our captains want even a tinge of grass. A sporting wicket needs to have a little bit of grass covering, so that it will help seamers initially before bringing the spinners into the game by 4th and 5th day. But the curators are forced to shave off the grass so that India does not loose its supposed home advantage, if opposing fast bowlers were to expolit the conditions initially. Remember the hue and cry raised over Nagpur and even Mohali, when Dion Nash decimated us. Since we are shaving off the grass completely, the only way to get a result is for a wicket to be underprepared like Mumbai against Aussies. This is especially true when playing against anyone except Australia, because they too are content with a draw. BCCI does not seem to care. Look at the scoring rate in test matches in India. The other thing for BCCI is these pitches mean 5 days of cricket and ad revenues for TV. Anyways Test cricket is watched by only hardcore fans (it gets a average TVR of 1.5 or so, if I am correct).

There are couple of things that can be done. One is push the start to 10 AM from 9.30 AM atleast for the first couple of days, so that even if there is a little bit of grass covering, advantage is less. Other thing that may happen later is once Kumble retires we will be forced to have sporting wickets. By that time Bhaji would have bowled himself out of the team and we would not have 2 spinners to play. Nobody is asking for green tops, atleast wickets like the original Chepauk or pitches in Sydeny or Wanderers would do. It has become extremely boring to watch the test matches in India (Srilanka is not far behind) and I think in the era of high results in Test matches, we would easily have the most percentage of drawn test matches. This is much worse than even watching India lose, as there is no contest.

[Homer]

Now comes the fun part - the longest the Proteas were out on the field (versus Pakistan and Bangladesh) was in the second innings of the Lahore test in which Pakistan made 316 in 107 overs. The most overs Paul Harris bowled was in that innings ( 40).

If the pitch continues to behave the way it has for the remaining 3 days, South Africa will definitely spend more time on the field than they have in their previous two subcontinental sojourns.

India has already done better ( in terms of run rate) than Pakistan and Bangladesh in the little time that we have been at the crease.

If India does not lose a wicket by lunch tomorrow ( or heavens forbid, till tea), Graeme Smith will have a real problem on his hands with damage control.

And given that there are back to back to back Tests, Smith then has to face the prospect of conserving his bowlers while at the same time trying to gain any advantage over India.

If India overtake the Proteas total, the Proteas bowlers will be on the back foot going into Ahmedabad. So will Smith.

So, in the context of this match and in the wider context of the series, the bat-a-thon may not be such a bad thing after all.

And as Adelaide circa 2006 showed, anything can happen over the last day and a half :)

Cheers