THE cricket stadium at Mohali is quite a majestic sight. "It's like playing cricket in a palace," remarked one visiting English journalist as he made his way past the securitymen and then stood admiring the mounted guards waiting to welcome the Governor.
It was a wonderful setting no doubt. The warmth of the sun was so soothing on that chilly morning and the scenic setting inside the stadium was just the motivation for the teams to dish out a spectacle. It was Test cricket all right but what a pity, the fare on display was such a let down.
The English team did not put up a fight. The Indian team was far superior and it did dominate the match. The home team was expected to emerge a comfortable winner and in the end it did - romping home by ten wickets.
Nothing went contrary to the script visualised by the home team. The spinners called the tune and once again the English batsmen danced to their doom. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh haunted the opposition all the way and some good show by Deep Dasgupta and debutant Tinu Yohannan augured well for Indian cricket.
Of course, there was the usual contribution from Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid but then they were not the innings the two would like to remember. Effective but not memorable.
For that matter, it was a Test match which never rose above mediocrity. The quality of English bowling was appalling and never really inspired any confidence in the visiting team. It was poor cricket overall even as the Indians worked towards erasing the bitter memories of the South African tour.
Even before the first ball was bowled, the great debate on the nature of the playing surface had begun at Mohali. The Indians were agitated at the sight of grass on the pitch. "Is the curator English?" asked one member of the Indian team in disgust.
Efforts were made to persuade Daljit Singh to make it a sporting pitch. In cricket circles, sporting pitch essentially means batting track and not necessarily a surface which would help the bowlers too. So this was not really a sporting pitch but it was a good pitch no doubt.
"I won't let anyone interfere with the pitch preparation," Daljit had thundered on the eve of the match. That he did not get influenced was a credit and he did have one quiet admirer I am sure in Yohannan, the gangling speedster, who was so glad to bowl on a pitch which helped him a little.
Yohannan got a wicket in his first over on debut and it was one of the key moments of this match. Mark Butcher knew nothing about the ball which he nicely edged into the slips. The strong and athletic Yohannan pounding down the pitch to celebrate his first Test victim was a big gain for India. Here was a bowler who bowled quick and was willing to channelise his aggression to the team's benefit.
Yohannan's success, two wickets in each innings, was as important as the lethal spell by Kumble. "I enjoyed bowling on that track," gushed Yohannan, who was able to make an impression on the Englishmen. "Looks very promising. It's nice to see someone who likes to fire the ball in," commented Mohinder Amarnath, a special invitee for the Test match.
The manner in which Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly helped Yohannan rid himself of the pressure was commendable. "They helped me a lot. Sachin and Sourav kept talking to me and reminded me every time that I had to just concentrate on my line and length. I wanted to bowl fast and I could have bowled better. But I am glad I could get a few wickets in my first match. I was tense initially but thanks to my teammates I was able to relax and bowl the way I wanted to," said Yohannan, a man too shy for a fast bowler, but full of aggression and enthusiasm. Indian cricket needs characters like this fast bowler from Kerala.
There was another impressive debutant for India in Sanjay Bangar, the determined all-rounder from Railways. At the start of the match, he sought out Sunil Gavaskar and touched his feet. "It was a moving gesture," said Gavaskar, who blessed the soft-spoken Bangar well.
It was unfortunate that Bangar suffered an injury as he sprinted and came up with a sliding stop. He continued with the pain and aggravated the injury, which meant that he had to forego his slot as an opener. "It was sad," said Bangar, who had worked hard to find a place in the Indian team. He did bat lower in the order and did enough to earn praise from the National selectors, who have marked him for a return in the one-day series against the Englishmen.
In the absence of Bangar, young Deep Dasgupta grabbed the chance to cement his place. A shaky wicketkeeper, he needed this innings to boost his confidence and all credit to this gutsy cricketer from Bengal. "I never lost my focus," he remarked and it reflected the determination of Dasgupta, who had volunteered to open in South Africa.
In his third Test, Dasgupta gave indications of what the team management can expect from him. "He's a wonderful team-man. I was sure that he would grab the chance and bat well," said Ganguly. The happiest man, of course, was National selector Ashok Malhotra. Having got the flak initially for backing Dasgupta only because he hailed from his State, Malhotra could afford to relax now, and have the last laugh as Dasgupta did not let him down.
The Englishmen had everything going for them despite an early loss on the first morning when Nasser Hussain and Marcus Trescothick belted the Indian attack. But Harbhajan Singh bowled his side into a strong position by claiming five wickets. It may not have been Harbhajan at his best but the off-spinner enjoyed it all. "It was a seaming track and it was not easy to bowl. There was little turn and that's why I enjoyed those five wickets. It was a good feeling to be among the wickets," remarked Harbhajan.
England was never in the match once it failed to post a decent total in the first innings. The Indians built on the advantage given by the bowlers and the job was well accomplished by Tendulkar, Dravid and Dasgupta, and then the bowlers took over to push the Englishmen to a defeat in just four days.
England tried defensive tactics but nothing worked. Hussain admitted his team's batting needed much improvement. Barring Graham Thorpe, no batsman really showed the discipline to counter the bowlers. Hussain was right when he pointed that not many in his team had faced Kumble before and possibly none had played Harbhajan. "It's both mental and technical," he said on England's failure to read Kumble and Harbhajan, who accounted for 15 wickets in the match.
There were not many classy moments in the match but as Ganguly said "a win is a win." True, it was a win which came as a boost for the Indians, known to excel in home conditions only, and a shot in the arm for the youngsters, especially Yohannan and Dasgupta, who showed the potential to last in the big league. For someone like Bangar, it was a fruitful experience. "It was good education," said Bangar.
A feature of the match was the top-class umpiring by S. Venkataraghavan and Steve Bucknor. They controlled the match superbly, making things easy for the match referee Denis Lindsay, who did not mind a little bit of chirping by the players. The right message for the teams to play the game aggressively but without harming the spirit of the game.
The Scores: England 238 (M.Trescothick 66, N.Hussain 85, Harbhajan 5-51) and 235 (M.Trescothick 46, G.Thorpe 62, M.Ramprakash 28, Kumble 6-81) lost to India 469 (Deep Dasgupta 100,Kumble 37, Dravid 86, Tendulkar 88, Ganguly 47, Laxman 28, Bangar 36, Hoggard 3-98, Dawson 4-134) and 5 for no loss.
WHEN Marcus Trescothick greeted him with a flurry of boundaries, Anil Kumble did, for a rare moment, look worried. Not many batsmen had treated him so harshly. Of course, Aravinda de Silva remains one batsman who dominated Kumble consistently but then the leg-spinner was known to recover soon and make his mark. At the cricket stadium in Mohali that cold morning, Trescothick began with an edged boundary and then settled into driving Kumble so fluently on either side of the wicket.
"I was trying a little too much," admitted Kumble, speaking to The Sportstar. "During that spell I did pitch the ball up too much and made it easy for the batsman. The ball was skidding a bit and that didn't worry the batsmen too. The ball came on nicely for him to play the drives." Kumble was understandably tense. He had bowled well in South Africa without much success and the home series against England was going to be demanding for the simple reason that conditions favoured his style. He wasted no time in letting the world know that he still had the skills to run through the opposition and the Man of the Match honours was a glowing testimony to his determination and ability to recover and adapt.
"I had to vary my pace. To tell you the truth, there was not much in the pitch for spinners but it was still good. I concentrated on keeping the batsmen guessing and then it was great to have Harbhajan at the other end,"said Kumble, his humility being reciprocated by the off-spinner too. "Anil bhai is a great motivator and I have learnt so much from him. It is so nice of him to say that I helped him but the fact is that we youngsters have been learning so much from him," said Harbhajan Singh.
Kumble said the six-wicket haul meant a lot to him. It helped him boost his confidence and it also silenced those who doubted his fitness. "It was important that I took some wickets. The comeback has not been easy because we did not win in South Africa. But let me tell you that I was satisfied with my bowling in South Africa. The shoulder injury had been shattering and I had worked hard at my comeback. In South Africa, I thought I improved with every session and was glad that I could bowl long spells. Bowling long spells was very important for me," he said.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly praised Kumble "he's a great bowler. I have been very impressed with his attitude towards the game. I know he's worked very hard and I also know he's capable of much better stuff. He's been a matchwinner all along and I was only expecting him to run through the opposition at Mohali."
Kumble finished with eight wickets in the match, the Man of the Match honours coming as an added incentive. For someone returning to international cricket after a shoulder injury, Kumble bowled quite accurately. He was able to throw the ball from the boundary and that was a good sign.
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