Turn turn turn

You have to go back almost four decades, to the Christmas Test at Chepauk in 1969, to find a game in which two Indian offspinners made such a dramatic impact. Erapalli Prasanna took 10 and Srinivas Venkataraghavan six in a game that lasted less than four days. Unfortunately for India, Australia had a handy offspinner of their own in Ashley Mallett and his 10 for 144, superbly supported by the tireless Graham McKenzie, inspired a famous 77-run victory that clinched the series.

Graeme Smith didn't have a Mallett to throw the ball to and that made all the difference in the final analysis on a pitch where batting was reduced to a lottery. The pace bowlers were dangerous enough with the extreme variation in bounce, but both Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag became unplayable on a surface where the ball pitching inevitably coincided with explosions of dirt and dust.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni deserves considerable credit too for being proactive with his captaincy. It was his first game in charge of the Test side, and pretty much every bowling change worked a treat. Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie once again gave South Africa a steady start, and it was Sreesanth's introduction that gave India a priceless opening before lunch. Erratic right through the series, Sreesanth chose the final day to bowl his best spell, exploiting the pitch perfectly to ask questions of the batsmen.

After the interval, Dhoni struck gold again. Smith and Jacques Kallis had doggedly wiped out the deficit and Dhoni soon realised that Piyush Chawla's wrist-spin wasn't the answer. After four ordinary overs that cost 18, he tossed the ball to Sehwag, and the impact was immediate.

Sehwag may only be a part-time option, but on this surface, he was turning it as prodigiously as Murali. Kallis popped one up to short leg, and when Smith was bowled moving too far across, a three-day result became a near certainty.

With Harbhajan chipping away at one end, India still needed to concentrate though, and Dhoni took another step off the beaten track to throw Ishant Sharma the ball with South Africa five down and only 41 to the good.

Again, the first ball did the trick. A vicious lifter was too good for Mark Boucher to evade, and when Morne Morkel's off stump was then sent cartwheeling, journalists could start thinking of night trains out of Kanpur.

An improvement on the comatose surface at Chepauk, the pitch here was hardly a great advertisement for Test cricket. It did make for seven gripping sessions though, and Mickey Arthur was honest enough to admit that South Africa too might have tried to make home advantage count had they been one down with one game to go.

South Africa have more reasons to be satisfied about the drawn series, and India have much to ponder before Australia and England arrive later in the year. You sense that the board doesn't know, or care, what the team's strengths are, and the work that the curators do will be watched with keen interest. At least there won't be any IPL piffle then to take the players' minds off what really matters.

Comments

[venkat reddy]

I think India should prepare more such square turners and stop being apologetic about it. Though South Africa are a good side they are not half as good against spin as they claim to be.If you claim to be a good player of spin then play spin in difficult conditions,not on flat tracks.I only hope that the Bcci makes more such dustbowls for Australia and England and not throw a sprinkling of grass on a wicket in the guise of'sporting tracks'.There are many things wrong with adminsitration in India,but on this count i am completely with the board and the players.Get ready Australia!

[vinit]

what appals me is that why is there a such a hue cry every time a track spins a bit more than expected.
You see matches played in New zealand, England where the ball swings as if it were spinning,there are pitches in australia where bounce is more than normal.When sub continental teams can go there and play a cricket match without complaining about "substandard" pitch ,why does the visiting teams to sub continent do that?
Unlike any other sports ,Every country brings uniqueness to the game of cricket.Lets just appreciate this fact and stop whining about the so called "sub standard" spinning track.

[RAVIKIRAN]

I don't blame on the pitch.the team which played spin better had won the match.but india was not impressive as they were in early 90s.but they are doing well in overseas in which no other past indian teams had done that.i reckon india will do better in near future. i hope visitors will defnetely play spin better may be due to improvement in there batting or due to lack of quality spinner in indian side.

[Dr.S.G.Subbuswamy]

It is sad that the Kanpur Test finished in 3 days. However it was not entirely a spinner's wicket. It gave a great deal of assistance to the taller fast bowlers( Dravid's wicket in the first innings, Boucher's in the second) and South Africa had two of those as opposed to India's one.
I would like to express my appreciation for the spirit in which South Africa played the series.

[Jay Patel]

Poor article. On a pitch which only suited one team due to the abundance of spinners - I did not really see much in the way of Dhoni's captaincy to indicate this was "his test". Again someone who is simply jumping on the Dhoni bandwagon - and will no doubt champion Dhoni's "yoof" policy - when in all seriousness it was again senior players that led the way in the batting. The bowlers just needed to drop the ball in the right areas and they did that.

As for Dhoni - if it wasn't for Ganguly - gis ridiculous swat shot that got him stumped about sums up his cricket style.

[gavin Smitsdrop]

India impressed me against Australia...against South Africa they looked like the old india, concerned more about the pitch turning than the quality of the opposition...pointless predictable third test.. offered opportunity to only one side...

[Ravi]

Wait a minute...How could it be such a bad pitch if one team makes 320 runs!
A bad pitch is one where teams struggle to make 150. Give credit where it is due - India won fair and square. Countless teams have been done in by greentops in New Zealand and trampolines in Perth. So give the tired whining a rest.

[The Pav]

DSINGH,

It is not self loathing that drove my comments but a love & desire of cricket. Particularly a wish to see test cricket survive.

Wickets like the 1st Test eliminate the battle between bat & ball. They are an exercise in boredom.

Wickets like the 3rd Test do much the same & the game is over in a trice. Might as well watch baseball

All aspects of the game should be on show. Why bother being a fast bowler if an offie going to open the bowling.

Whay does Australia produce fast men AND spinners? Was it just a fluke that both McGrath & Warne played at the same time? No. I believe a sensible pitch policy & character of administrators encourage cricketer to develop

Why should international teams bother turning up? The fix will be in if they look like winning.

As to Perth boasting about a 3 day finish. That was just chest beating in the aftermath of Sydney.

The WACA had a choice between the old tired wicket block & the renovated fast & bouncy block.

They chose the former. Probably as an act of appeasement and to ensure there was a fair test and look what a great game we had. By the way winning by 72 runs isn't ramming the oposition.

The fact of the matter is RSA had a clear moral victory and India was shamed!!!

[bunty]

actually it was an absorbing test though the pitch was poor it was not the worst ive seen or heard of or read of -i can recall a number of batsmen from earlier generations who wouldve fought better i believe; only 1 south african in 2nd innings and 2 indians (first innings) were out to unplayable balls; the others contributed to their dismissals through errors and unable either to graft well or to like ganguly or laxman play a natural game regardless; having said that i'm not sure making a kanpur type pitch is good for india and vs teams with better spinners than rsa could boomerang; but its good to see a variety of pitches n conditions-thats what test cricket is about and makes it special; ahmedabad wasnt such a bad pitch either but to call it 'regular' is surely incorrect; for most modern batsmen featherbeds as at chennai are par for the course with a few overs with the new ball and some (less than kanpur, ahmedabad) uneven bounce being the greatest and only concerns; well played india and dada but i felt steyn was the best candidate for player of the series and yes i think 1-1 at home isnt great; since rsa have overall the better of matches vs india they should be a better candidate than india for no 2 test status irrespective of the official rankings. the only thing theyve lacked is a quality spinner.

[Dsingh]

Pav,
While there may be some truth in what you said, but to say Indian cricket is a "disgrace" is such a pitiful self-loathing an Indian fan can get into. If the westerners say so, I understand....These days it is easy to buy some readership if you kick your national team or go out of your way to call the loosing team as bunch of fat egos,especially if it is an Indian Team. If Perth can boast of finishing matches inside 3 days (as the Oz boasted before getting rammed) then what is wrong in playing on square turners. Conditions were more favorable to South Africa than it was to India. And no I was not robbed. It made for intense cricket, unlike in Chennai.

[The Pav]

Unfortunately this test turned out as I predicted. Over in three days.

Cricket lovers have been robbed and cheated of what should have been an enthralling contest

Wickets in India are ridiculous. One where the bowlers can get a wicket then one where the ball goes square. The one which seemed like a reasonable wicket Indian batsmen rolled over, their bowlers failed and they got flogged.

Indian cricket is a disgrace. All this money & boasting about how they are the way forward yet the wickets they produce are as substandard as their stadiums and their sportmanship!