da bwin： © CricInfo Let me begin by saying that, sadly, crowd invasions seems tobe an integral part of this West Indies tour of India
da poker： Erapalli Prasanna10-Nov-2002
© CricInfoLet me begin by saying that, sadly, crowd invasions seems tobe an integral part of this West Indies tour of India. Inthe second one-dayer, which West Indies won easily by sevenwickets, once again bad behaviour by the crowd ruinedthings. At one point so much rubbish was thrown on the ropesthat the fielders all had to gather in the centre of theground for their safety. This resulted in a considerabledelay and an over was even lost in the process.Crowd trouble apart, the second one-dayer produced a greatwin for the West Indians. Their plan of pitching the ballshort of a length and directing it to the rib cage area paidrich dividends when it came to getting rid of Sehwag early.The explosive opener, who is a compulsive strokemaker,pulled the ball straight to deep fine leg and got out injust the second over.Although the West Indians enjoyed early success, they couldnot cash in on it, as Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman battedwell. To start with the pair played within themselves, butthen opened up. It must be said, though, that two decisionswent against the visitors, both involving Laxman and thishelped India wrest the initiative from West Indies.The promotion of Harbhajan Singh has been a cause for quitea bit of talk and conjecture. I can only say that it givesme the impression that either the Indians are so confidentthat they can retrieve any situation or are just practicinga rotation policy in the batting line-up.Another point that bears mention is the wicket at Nagpur. Itwas much better than the one at Jamshedpur where the firstone-dayer was played. It was superb for batting and I mustgive the groundsman full marks on this count.Two partnerships – first between Ganguly and Laxman andlater on between Laxman and Dravid – helped the Indians putup 279, by all accounts a fighting total.Overall, the West Indies bowling was good despite the factthat they could not really pick up wickets at regularintervals. This was the only thing that came in the way ofthe West Indies implementing their game plan. Although theywere restrictive in the middle overs, and that is alright,taking wickets is the bottom line if a side has to be in thegame.Nowadays limited overs cricket is primarily loaded in thebatsman’s favour, but unless bowlers change their attitudefrom a negative approach to an attacking one, the game willalways remain a batsman’s game.To the end, West Indies played like champions. Inparticular, I am very impressed with Marlon Samuels. Hisstyle reminded me of some of the great West Indian batsmen Ibowled to in my time. He is always calm and collected at thewicket and this is an important thing for any batsman. Heseems to be very confident when playing Harbhajan andKumble, while on the other hand, the Indian spinners do notseem confident at all of bowling to Samuels!
© CricInfoWith Javagal Srinath not bowling well at all, compounded bythe fact that he has lost his pace and is bowling veryslowly, there is a problem at hand. I don’t know how Gangulyis going to handle this delicate situation. With our bowlingdepartment lacking in every angle, the Indian skipper andcoach John Wright need to come up with a quick-fix solution.Secondly, I have my doubts about whether Harbhajan’s arm isok. His bowling action seems to have changed and there isstrain at the time of delivery. For his part, Kumble is notthreatening and his bowling has become a little stereotyped.He has to vary his line and length and of course turn theball if he wants to continue succeeding.All said, having gone 2-0 down in this seven-match series,the Indians will have to do a lot of homework before thenext one-dayer in Rajkot.
