Cricket India

Things panned out the way they were expected to. The pitch at Dambulla was soft, assisted seam movement, yielded spin and was not a great ad for one-day cricket. Dravid, winning the toss, in a rather dubious decision, decided to bat and India straightaway found itself in trouble. The Sri Lankan pacers with their pace hesistating to go beyond 120k, managed to bowl good line and length and made the ball wobble about a bit. And that was enough to bring suspicion in the minds of Indian batsmen.
There was a stage of recovery led by Dravid and aided by debutant Venugopala Rao and useful contributions from Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan took India past the 200 mark. Which may have been an awesome target if India had held on to the catches that came their way. They bowled well, ably supported by their fielders but the crucial lapses allowed the match to slip away from India's
grasp. Of course no sense in taking away from Jayasurya the credit for the turnaround. Even with the discomfort of his injury, he got stuck to his job and provided the solidity Sri Lanka needed at that stage of the game.
When India was 120-plus for six, with Dravid gone, Attapattu instead of going in for the kill brought in his fifth and sixth bowlers to breeze through the fifth bowler's quota. What a bonus it proved to be for India as India would have found the going very difficult against a reintroduced Murali and Meharoof or Lokuhettige. I am not making any resizing of the Indian total but things would have much
more comfortable for the Sri Lankans when they batted even though the lapse was for three or four overs only.
Venugopala Rao looks a defensive player who got a great opportunity on his debut. It seems to be seen how he responds to the challenge of quickening the run gathering. Poor Suresh Raina, what a brutal ball he got! That 'doosra from Murali spun like Warne's legbreak! The batting lineup obviously has an unsettled look at least at this time of this season. Dhoni opening, Yuvaraj coming one drop, followed by Kaif, a lot of adjustments for the team as a whole and for the players also. It is likely that there will be some shuffling in the match against west Indies. There of course is no harm in experimenting especially when a couple of top stars are missing from the lineup. And there is no better time for such probing of form and adaptability than at the beginning of the season, especially with a weak third team allowing this freedom.
Dravid may be a believer in batting first. Probably his personality is better suited to that or his reading of the team's ability to chase forces him to be a little weary of asking the rival to bat first. You can't be sure which is the right way of doing things. Should you act strictly according to the external conditions or
should you draw from the reserve of your collection of impressions? Dravid is too experienced a player to do such things casually. Allow him some time to settle and we will know how the sharp brain works.

The diplomatic decision of Albie Sachs to reduce Sourav Ganguly's ban to four games from six should come as a great relief to the Indian camp. It may have taken a weight off Ganguly's heart as a stringent interpretation of the law would have made things a little bit dicey for the southpaw. Four more matches in the shade of the pavilion means he would have been able to play only in the final of
the tri-series which begins in Srilanka tomorrow. Quite a few factors -his history of a suspect form, a few hard-to-ignore performances by some juniors, eager to make the most of the opportunities that come their way- may have made it difficult for him to stage a comeback. His lack of form is his own problem. That
itself is a mugful for anyone. But the ban came because he was trying do something extra for the team and in the process could not keep pace with the clock. He had to undergo the punishment in his capacity as the captain. A six-match ban at this back-to-the-nets stage must have proved an avoidable distraction to Ganguly. Now if all goes well he will get two second round matches-one against SriLanka and West Indies each- and probably the final also. And it could put the wings back to his career which has taken a nosedive recently. Good luck to him.

Now about the tri-series and India's chances. Every body knows that India has never done consistently well against Srilanka, that too on their soil. Murali had always been able to trouble Indian batsmen both in the tests and ODIs. And things may not be much different this time also, especially with Ganguly struggling and the only successful batsman against Srilanka, Tendulkar not playing. Both left handers and right handers have fumbled against Murali. And you can't expect the newcomers to do well where the veterans have
regularly failed. It is here that Greg Chappell faces his first challenge, in his ability to equip his wards to go beyond the hesitant methods onto a battling mood. There is a limit to the coach's efficiency. Whatever strategy he formulates, that has to be implemented by the players out there in the middle. And that brings into play the limits of their cricketing skills and mental
preparedness for adversity. If Indian batsmen make a spirited effort to minimize the damage that Muralidharan can do, that is all you can ask of them. Because Muralidharan even without the advantages he gets from the lenient interpretation of the rulebook, is a great bowler, perhaps one of the greatest. Though Srilanka is India's main problem, it may be foolish to ignore the West Indians. They may be short of experience and perhaps a bit on talent also but in a one-day framework, a good spell or a rapidfire innings could make a crucial change to the fortunes of a game. To that extent the series wears an open look with India having its nose in front as a contender
for a birth in the final.

For Rahul Dravid, this series does not mean much as a test of his leadership qualities. Against the background of Srilanka's expected better showing, any improvement on the previous shows would satisfy most. But not reaching the final whatever be the reasons would almost certainly force him to hand over the reigns back to his former skipper.

The tremendous build up to the Ashes series, has after just five days of action, fizzled out into the routine whining and the continuation of the now-boring Australian domination. But the beginning was great. Lord's test began with a bang. The hosts living upto their new-found fame of a world beater, skittled out the strong Aussie batting lineup for a sub-200 score, raising the vision of an
emphatic victory. But the Australians especially,the Pegion, had different ideas. Bowling an excellent line and making the ball rip back with great cruelty, McGrath played cat and mouse with the reputed English batting which thought it could do without the solidity of Graham Thorpe. At the end of the very first day, it was clear that all talk of the emergence of a new leader in world cricket was a trifle too early. The opening day-especially the first two sessions of play- alone allowed the English team to match the rivals. From then on, it was the Australians all the way.

The Lords pitch was not exactly an ally of the batsman. In fact the ball often kept low and on occasions reared up like the cliched cobra. Life while not unbearable at the crease, was not very comfortable during the early part of the test. But the Australians showed that they had the versatility to adapt to various demands made on their cricketing skills. And that won the day for them. The English even before their last wicket fell, began to look around for reasons for their feeble performance. Why Thorpe was not opted in? Though Peitersen dropped three vital catches which could have made life a little more livable for the English, could not be blamed for the defeat because he alone stood upto the rival bowling attack. His fifties were all that England had to show in the batting department. But then, why not Ian Bell? Thorpe could have been played for Bell. As if Thorpe could have found the vital formula for a much improved show!
Of course England is not yet out of the picture. They are definitely a strong team both in batting and bowling and with a little discipline and inspiration can still make life a little more difficult for the men from Down Under. But they certainly will have to do much better in their fielding department. It was an appalling fielding display by them. And quite tellingly, the Australians held on to each and every chance that came their way, both sitters and stunners.
It takes quite a lot to become a leader and much more to remain a leader. Australia has shown that they have it in them at least for now. England has four more tests to prove that Lord's was an aberration. Then the series could get the much anticipated pre-series thrill back.

Today is a red letter day for international cricket. An unusually tough battle for the Ashes is to be fought from today. For the
last eighteen years or so, the Urn had been with Australia, all
the feeble atttempts by the pathetically weak English
combinations getting frustrated by the invincible Aussies. You
can imagine how deep the wounds are when you realise that the present Australian team does not have a single player who was
in an Ashes-losing team. Many an Ashes dream has died a quick
death. The English had almost lost the art of dreaming when
several factors combined together to put an unbelievably strong English team in place. The Australians even without losing any
of their greatness, are now forced to talk of the tricks up
their sleeves to check the onward march of this very good
English team.
To be fair to both teams, one has to admit that there is not much
to choose between these two teams now ie at the start of the series. Both teams have strong batting lineups. One advantage Australia always had was the inherent aggression that often
bailed them out of dicey situations. English teams
traditionally have no such claims to make but the present team
has two wonderfully endowed batsmen who can tear any bowling
attacks to shreds and lead England
singlehandedly to victory. Flintoff and Peitersen. These two
very rarely seen specimens in modern cricket can destroy any
pre-series advantage that Australia possesses.
In the bowling department also. they are evenly matched.
Australia has an established pace attack which has systematically destroyed many a strong batting lineup with disdain. Led by the legendary Glen McGrath, the Aussy pace has been riding roughshod over almost all oppositions. Now it seems they have met their
match. The pace brigade of Steve Harmison, Mathew Hoggard and
Simon Jones, aided by Flintoff is a mighty weapon by any standard. But Australia has one thing that England does not have. And that
may tilt the series in their favor. Shane Warne. Arguably the greatest spinner the game has ever seen, Warne can either play
the role of the wrecker-in-chief or effectively support his team's pace battery, providing no respite to the poor batsmen. What may stand between either of these teams and the Ashes, besides Warne, is character, the mental toughness to stand up to the volcano-type pressure such a series is bound to build up. We know the Aussies have it in tons. They have shown it on several occasions. But the English have a very different way of handling pressure. Whenever
the dice would go against them, they
would run for cover and try to believe in the sob stories they themselves dish out. And it is nothing new. The Urn itself was a product of such childish whining. It could really be difficult to get rid of old habits that easily. So, if England can match the Australians in this attitude game, they have a very good chance of having a fond look at the Urn at close quarters after almost two
decades.