India should forget blame game

At the end of the opening day's play at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, Roshan Mahanama, the match referee, pulled up Jacques Kallis for violating the spirit of cricket. The mean-spirited Kallis had brought the game into disrepute by having the temerity to bat for 124 balls on a 'green top' where he was supposed to run up the white flag of surrender, as thrillingly demonstrated by India in 109 minutes of pure entertainment in the morning. Instead of following that shining example, Kallis and co-accused, AB de Villiers, eked out 106 runs in 34.1 overs in the final session, with utter disregard for Twenty20 principles and techniques.

Delayed April 1 jokes aside, this was one of the most ignominious chapters in the history of Indian cricket. From 0 for 4 at Headingley [1952] to 42 all out [Lord's 1974], there have been a few, but seldom can there have been a capitulation as utterly spineless as this. The team that battled it out to a competitive total at the Wanderers in 2006 and beat Australia in Perth as recently as January had no answer at all when confronted by an Indian pitch that just so happened to have a smattering of grass on it.

At the end of the day, the same old tripe about home advantage and strengths was being dished out. Hang your heads in shame. If a little grass doesn't deter you in Nottingham, Johannesburg or Perth, why should it inhibit you so in Ahmedabad, especially when you've picked three pace bowlers for the XI? Why this mindset that Indian pitches should be as devoid of character as a Bollywood bimbo's face?

The tour of South Africa in 2006-07 should serve as an interesting reference point for today's play. At the Wanderers, Sourav Ganguly and VRV Singh got most of the plaudits for late defiance in India's first innings. But if you actually think back, the hard work was done much earlier, by the two best batsmen in the side. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid spent 25 overs repairing the early damage, and the 69 they added saw off the new-ball threat.

Take them out of the line-up, and rest aren't so hot when the ball's moving around a little. Tendulkar was missing in Ahmedabad and once Dravid's defiance was ended by the ball of the day from Dale Steyn, it was roll-over-and-play-dead time. There's no point blaming the tail - Steyn was that quick and that good - but what of the others who batted with utter disregard for the situation?

VVS Laxman could also claim that he got a great delivery but was it really clever to shoulder arms to the one wicket-taking ball that Makhaya Ntini produces consistently, the one that darts back in with the angle? What were Sehwag and Ganguly doing? What pinch-hitting stunt was Dhoni trying to pull off?

To be fair to him, Harbhajan Singh refused to blame the pitch for the batsmen's collective inadequacy when he came for the press conference later. Of course, there was a little movement early on, but that's precisely what the new ball's supposed to do on pitches prepared without the murder of Test cricket in mind. Had India batted through the opening hour losing just a wicket or two, a total of Wanderers proportions was easily possible. Instead, they lasted all of 120 balls, racing to 76 with the aid of 19 extras.

At Kingsmead in 1996, India had made 100 and 66 against Allan Donald and cohorts at their frightening best. That had been a truly spiteful pitch, with the ball thudding into the splice when it wasn't sending the batsmen on their way. Here, only RP Singh was caught fending the ball away from his face. Most of the others were embarrassed by the full ball and statuesque footwork. The stand-and-deliver tactics that worked a treat on a pathetic pitch at Chepauk were well and truly exposed on a strip that provided a terrific day of Test cricket - 299 runs and 14 wickets.

If the curator did indeed flout team orders and keep the grass, he deserves to be applauded. At Cape Town in January 2007, India were given a subcontinent special in the decisive match of the series. With Wasim Jaffer scoring a century, they dominated the opening exchanges, only to lose their nerve in the climactic stages. Instead of spitting the dummy over home advantage, South Africa soldiered on, with Graeme Smith to the fore in a magnificent five-wicket win.

Great teams take the pitch out of the equation, and those with aspirations of toppling Australia - who win in all conditions, across the world - should just quit whining and get on with it. Why do the hard yards though when blaming 'anti-national' curators is just so much easier? 

Comments

[Som]

Motera curator's fault lies not in retaining the grass on track but it's his lack of pragmatism. Keeping in mind that, traditionally, green has made the Indian batsmen see red, he should have painted the grass grey. It’s all in the mind of India's spoilt willowers and we have seen umpteen Paddy Uptons come and go.

My blog (www.gonewiththewindies.blogspot.com) has a light-hearted take on how India could have escaped the Motera mauling, do have a look.

[bunty]

basically rsa have outplayed india in 7 of 8 days of test cricket in this series, the only day that was india's day 3 at chepauk was really sehwags day; greenpark too with same team should be advantage rsa with chance of a draw the best scenario for india; on current form fitness best attack for greenpark conditions would be would be vrv, p kumar, bhajji, yusuf pathan (unfit kumble will be no 5 as captain) more likely though that yusuf pathan no chance and kaif or a truly fwd step badrinath play; other problem jaffer got 73 at chepauk, how does he make room for chopra though chopra more likely to give a good start vs rsa even if pacers bowling well on even slightly helpful wicket? laxman looked most fluent day 4 chepauk and today but averages only about 25 this series and may be most likely to be perhaps undeservedly axed for greenpark though today he has looked most fluent vs rsa pace this series apart from viru

[bunty]

ps- the references to gupte and pras concern green park tests
(they bowled india to wins elsewhere) only, (also kumar, tyagi, n zaidi green park first class matches)

[bunty]

will there be kolkutta 2000 encore? unlikely
worse news for india- kanpur again low slow (including turn) with uneven bounce days 4/5 batsman who dig themselves in first can negate the spin and score later;wheres badrinath? maybe even akash chopra (gambhir better bet in sri lanka vs murali)
tall pacers 140+ bowling in right areas will get some assistance though less than at ahmedabad,will anyone remember vrv? ask sudip tyagi about kanpur; few tall pacers 140 ish so their performances at ahmedabad etc get neglected but they do well in india despite our otherwise slow pitches; s trivedi has taken alot of domestic wickets at ahmedabad;
below 6ft right areas medium pacers with swing cut reverse swing also get wickets-ask p kumar, who could be useful, or zaidi; i believe in class but believe only ishant fits that bill perhaps, for the rest 'horses for courses' according to the wickets, based on immediate past form n fitness works for me;
jasu patel n kumble have had odd good performance at kanpur in unusual conditions but generally it was a pitch on which prasanna got more wickets than bedi chandra or venkat and gupte before him. do you see a gupte or prasanna around? and i dont recall gupte or prasanna doing well enough to win the test for india; a post monsoons early winter misty greentop once saw a young kapil get his swing going but only a brief seasonal window for that and not at this time.

[Tarun Y]

Dileep

Whats up with RP? He looks awful. He looks like he couldnt even buy a wicket right now!

Surely there have to be some big changes for the third and final test in Kanpur??

[The Pav]

I agree that the curator should not be blamed. It looks like a great test wicket. Something for the quicks early on, should settle down for the next few days. If it takes spin later on then it will have been one of the great wickets.

The danger is the game won't go long enough to prove the curator right.

In my opinion Harbajan Singh just proved what a cunning indidual he is with his comments. Nobody would blame him for batting failure & he knows this. He made the comments he did to get the reaction you gave, Dileep.

One question. What are the odds of the 3rd Test wicket being an absolute turner?

[bunty]

ahmedabad has always had something in it for tall pacers with 140+ pace; ask srinath; india missed injured ishant, inform but ignored vrv singh, and out of form munaf
especially as there was a tinge of green
but india had an inform and fit bowler vrv who shouldve taken advantage of the wicket too if selected
if it was the pitch y didnt sreesanth (turning as inconsistent as agarkar), rp (not really fit? y was he played at chennai n here?) or irfan (unfortunately remains unsuccessful in india, insufficient reverse swing and insufficient pace for slow indian wickets)exploit any help?
rsa bowlers succeeded not because of the pitch or tinge of green but because they had the height and pace and from day 4 of chennai test are bowling in the right areas
in fact spinners have not done consistently well at ahmedabad the wicket is slow with slow turn uneven bounce on last 2 days; spinners have succeeded at ahmedabad when batsmen have decided not to ocupy the wicket; batsmen who can occupy the crease can have an advantage over spinners as the pitch usually has slow, low turn for the main part
and were there any paying spectators? bcci should worry.

[Sundar Radhakrishnan]

Its got more to do with the mindset and application. Our batsmen expect Indian pitches to be stand and deliver types. How else can you explain how well we have done well abroad recently, but come a cropper in places like Mumbai against Eng, Bangalore vs Pak etc. Except for couple of home series recently (SL being notable exception and WI and last SA series to some extent) we have not lived up to the billing and have invariably fallen short. The application and willingness seen abroad is sadly lacking when playing in India. When a competitor like Kumble could motivate the team after Sydney to achieve a great victory, but sulk at slightest sign of grass (look at his press conference), it means india are going nowhere near Australia. Apart from Sachin and Dravid, other indian batters are technically inadequate but runs can be made, if they are prepared to guts it out. Indian have done reasonably well abroad, because they show purpose, intensity and guts it out (except for a couple of occasions recently in Pakistan and SA being the exceptions here). Sehwag is willing to play the percentage game in Australia, but not here. The other thing that was against India was the absence of Sachin. Even if he had scored 40-45 runs, seeing off the new ball, that would have allowed Dravid to settle and then lower order could have survived and got us to atleast 200 runs. I agree that it is not fair to jump on the team after one bad performance, but inconsistency has been a consistent bane of Indian cricket. If we continue to take two steps forward and one step backward, we can never be a top team in world cricket.

With the slew of test matches coming let us see if we atleast show potential to be true number two. For me our only claim to the second ranking is due to our competitiveness with Australia, but South Africa are a much better test team than us. We have not managed to dominate any middle and lower rung teams as they do and look at the number of drawn test matches involving India. Guts it out and second innings of this test match and that can be a good beginning. Surprised to see our fast bowlers fare so badly, after setting up so many of our victories recently.