India got out of jail today and for all those of us who thought we had finished drinking from the cup of sorrows, well, the hangover continues. India were ordinary, only rescued towards the end by a combination of grit and vitality, normally resident in one person but happily spread out over two fine cricketers today.
One of the reasons a lot of us have been optimistic about Dhoni (optimistic, not wildly adoring!) is that he seems to have a sensible head on his shoulders. He can be swashbuckling but, on days like these, when his dancing feet were immobilised, he can play the responsible, calculated innings. He looks good at number three because he doesn’t waste time, can hit on the rise against the quicker bowlers and if the spinners come on in the power plays he can go over the top. But in conditions like these, it might be asking too much of him, especially if India have to bat second.
I particularly liked his willingness to play second fiddle to the fitter man. Once Dinesh Kaarthick had got his eye in, and his bat in the same plane as the ball, he took charge and Dhoni let him, content to knock the singles, aware that this was what he was really capable of with his bothersome hamstring. It helped that the Bangladesh spinners bowled poorly at him.
They were flat and one-dimensional and he could play them from his crease without having to stretch. A quality spinner would have tossed one invitingly at him, only to fall a foot short, and then push him onto the back foot as Anil Kumble did so beautifully against Salim Mailk at Delhi when he got all 10.
Kaarthick played a mature innings, a good sign for someone who has married so young! Till he opened the innings in the Test at Capetown he had struck me as someone who was talented but to whom patience hadn’t yet paid too many visits. He was twitchy, a jack-in-the-box and you just got the impression that like another of his kind from Chennai, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, he was in search of the exotic. But that morning in Capetown he showed us another dimension to his cricket and that has happily remained.
Attitude always shines through and I remember being first impressed by Kaarthick when he came on as a substitute fielder and ran his life out in the outfield. It suggested that he wanted to be in the game and to that extent he and Dhoni have much in common. It is just as well that at the moment both earn a place in the side for their batting because India could do with both.
However, there was much to be concerned about. India looked heavy, leaden footed and antique in the field. Maybe it was the heat because, like good hosts, Bangladesh returned the compliment with some in the deep looking they were on the last leg of a 10,000-metre race. Powar, Munaf and Zaheer are three slow legs too many and Sehwag resembles them with each passing day.
You can’t play with only two fleet-footed fielders, especially if one of them is the reserve wicket keeper! Robin Singh has much to do. At the moment, the idea of the fielder being the sixth bowler seems distant.
Hopefully Sehwag will make the best of the many opportunities coming his way. After 171 games he averages 31 and is a very canny merchant of hope. I’m sure he will be aware that if he was Uthappa, he would be disappointed at having to sit out.
India continue to search for something new from Sehwag. Maybe he has it.
Having said that we have to ask who benefits from playing this series in May. True, endurance is a feature of sport, but everything has its season. And this is not the season for cricket. It can only get hotter. And sport is not labour.
Source:IndianExpress
