India's makeshift openers come good - and create problems

Prem Panicker

Briefly told, the story of the second and last day of the fourth Test at Antigua runs thus: the West Indies, resuming from their overnight score, went on to 333 for nine declared, the declaration coming not because skipper Courtney Walsh figured on letting the Indians have a turn with the bat, but because Franklyn Rose is down with a flu and unable to bat.

India, beginning its first innings after lunch, then went on to 212 for two wickets before the curtain finally came down on this exercise in futility. Laxman made 56, Jadeja made 96 before being needlessly run out in a bid to get closer to what could have been a first Test ton, Dravid batted with his usual composure to be undefeated on 37 and Sunil Joshi, sent in because the captain didn't see much point in going out there for the last half hour of play, was undefeated on 10.

But even the most pointless exercise has, if you give it a good hard look, its share of gains and losses - and this two-day Test at Antigua is no exception.

In the report of the first day's play, we discussed the Lara hundred as one of the gains - and speculated on the possibility of the havoc a determined, in-form Lara can create for India, not only in the fifth Test at the Bourda, in Georgetown, Guyana but also in the four one-dayers to follow.

The story of day two, I am afraid, has to begin with an entry in the debit side of India's ledger. And the entry relates to the bowling. Time after time in this series - in fact, in this season - India's bowlers have skimmed through the top half of rival batting orders, only to stand by and watch as the late middle order, and the tail, more than doubled the runs made by the earlier batsmen.

It happened again here. India's bowlers, on a placid pitch, had the first four Windies batsmen back in the hut for 82, the Windies recovered to 224 thanks to Lara. But from that stage, Windies had again slumped to 252 for 7 - so what was the Indian bowling about, letting the next two wickets (remember that Rose, a pretty decent hand with the bat, did not play at all) add another 81 runs?

Ambrose got to his landmark of 1000 Test runs, with some clean, clinical batting. That makes him the third West Indian, after Sir Garfield Sobers and Malcolm Marshall, to do the double of 1000 Test runs and 100 Test wickets.

What is interesting about the tall Antiguan's batting in this series is that he has, unlike in the past, not relied on the schoolboy slog to get his runs. Rather, he displays application and unexpected amounts of concentration, plays right through the line of everything, and looks a totally committed player out there.

Well as Ambrose has batted, though, I am afraid part of the blame for his - and the tail's, in general - continued success has to go to India's bowlers and leadership. Come the tail, Tendulkar tosses the ball to his frontline bowlers, then hangs around hoping they will do the job for him - a hope that is yet to fructify, in four Tests in the Caribbean.

Such a ploy had a greater chance of working if Srinath formed part of the attack - but that's an "if" it doesn't pay to think about now. Tendulkar and Madan Lal need to do some backroom stuff, think about their resources a bit, and figure how, once they have the Windies batting under the hammer, they are going to go about finishing the job.

One solution is the non-regular bowler. For instance, when Ambrose batted, he time after time stuck that long leg of his down the pitch, and with a free swing of his arms, played through the line of the ball, irrespective of whether the bowler was Prasad, Kuruvilla or Kumble. This was when I would have expected a Ganguly to be tried again - he bowls a very slow pace which is harder for the tailenders to hit, he gets gentle inswing which, for the left hander, is the ball leaving the bat and therefore, increasing the possibility of the outer edge. Another bowler who could have been tried, for the same reason, is VVS Laxman - the lad gives the ball a good tweak, bowls high arm, gets bounce and does spin the ball a bit. An over or three of his bowling, tried against the tail, is always a good ploy when the frontline bowlers fail to do the job - but thus far, the Indian think tank hasn't tried either Ganguly, or Laxman, at the death.

Having detailed a minus, it is time to pass on to a plus. Consider the situation before the game: VVS Laxman was due for the axe, Ajay Jadeja was being given the opener's job simply because there was nobody else. And what happens? Jadeja and Laxman open together - against probably the most hostile spell that Ambrose has bowled in this series thus far. And not only survive nine torrid overs of the Antiguan ace as he sought for the five wickets that will take him to the 300-mark, but also put on 97 for the first wicket - the highest opening partnership for either side, thus far.

Of the two, I frankly liked Laxman for the job. Jadeja was rather nervy and hesitant, and not always behind the line, to the bowling - in fact, he was going on 17 off 83 balls before Carl Hooper came on and gave him a few free hits. Laxman, by contrast, was moving easily onto either front or back foot, he got behind the line to almost all deliveries and barring a couple of instances where he played with bat away from body at deliveries outside off, he looked very much in control of the situation. Also, Laxman got his placements right, rotated the strike well and got his runs at a fair clip.

Another plus is the final score - 212/2 is good, by any yardstick. True, in the session after tea, Carl Hooper, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul and Stuart Williams between them sent down 29 overs. But it pays to keep in mind the fact that before that, Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop bowled 40 overs between them and believe me, they were really trying.

This increasing solidity of the batting lineup is a definite plus - and in fact has been a feature of the series thus far. Look at the previous three Tests - on every single occasion, India got the first innings lead (79 runs in the first Test, 140 in the second, 21 in the third). In the process, the side topped the four hundred mark twice. In fact, the Indian batting lineup failed only once - in the crucial second innings of Barbados.

This new-found stability of the Indian batting (remember that in South Africa, the problem for the touring side was that it never managed to match the home side with the bat) could still play a crucial part at Guyana. The Bourda has never been a real fast track, but in recent times it has changed so much, that it is now almost un-Caribbean in its character. After the wicket was relayed, only one four day game was played on it - a Red Stripe game between Guyana and Barbados. And the home side employed just two fast bowlers, and as many as four spinners, to win that game.

It is this wicket - a grassless, slow track that affords turn by day three - on which India will play the final Test, come April 17, knowing that it needs to win in order to level the series. It is too early to speculate about the composition of the side - a lot will depend on how some of the marginal players perform in the upcoming four day game against Guyana between April 11-14. But that India will rely on spin is already a given - and given a fair performance by young Noel David in the practise game, I suspect he could just be the key to mending the touring side's fortunes in the final Test.

Meanwhile, I'll end this note with a conundrum the Indian management must be pondering over pretty hard. That Navjot Singh Sidhu will return to the side for the fifth Test is obvious, right? So who opens with him - Laxman, or Jadeja?

Laxman weathered the early pace blitz better than Jadeja did. On the other hand, Jadeja displayed enormous grit in hanging on in there, despite his obvious technical deficiencies - and once the ball got older and the bowlers began to flag, he milked the situation to post a good 96 runs, while Laxman, having done all the hard work, threw away his opportunity to post a good score.

So which of the two do you prefer for the number one slot?

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