da aviator aposta： There was a great hue and cry about the pitches in our country exactly ayear ago when the Indian team was faring badly in Australia
Woorkheri Raman06-Dec-2000There was a great hue and cry about the pitches in our country exactly ayear ago when the Indian team was faring badly in Australia. The pitch at theMotera Stadium at Ahmedabad was nothing to write home about as the top surfacejust kept coming off repeatedly. Ironically the curator at the Motera is amember of the pitches committee of the BCCI. Yet the score card of both thesides suggest that the pitch was one hell of a belter. One wonders whether thebatting needs to be complemented or the bowling deserves to be criticisedseverely. The Indians coasted to a convincing victory and everything will beforgiven and forgotten as a result.Saurav Ganguly dictated the course of the game from the outset despitelosing Sachin Tendulkar early on. His timing was as good as ever on a pitch,which was not a paradise for stroke play. Dravid played the second fiddle roleto perfection and watched his skipper unleash strokes all round the wicket.Travis Friend did work up good pace and accounted for Tendulkar with a peach ofa delivery. Tendulkar was surprised by not only the pace but also the bounceextracted by Friend.The second wicket partnership between Rahul Dravid and Ganguly virtuallysealed the fate of the visitors. It has to be mentioned that the visitors reallymade a mess of things with their innocuous attack. The lack of a reasonably goodspinner in their ranks was felt rather badly. The medium pace oriented attackwas also guilty of conceding too many extras by way of wides and no balls.The dropped chances compounded the misery of the Zimbabwean captain,Heath Streak. He could only watch Ganguly plunder his bowlers with his customaryelegance and pluck. The Indian skipper reached his century and he celebrated theoccasion with some explosive blows. Sunil Joshi made merry in the latter stagesof the innings hitting a few lusty blows. Anything above 250 was a stiff targeton a deteriorating surface and the Indians would have settled for that. But whatensued in the final ten overs was something incredible and this was one occasionthe hosts made the most of the slog.Chasing 300 plus successfully even on a firm pitch is not an everydayoccurrence, but the manner in which the visitors started their innings onlyreaffirmed the result. Marillier appeared like one who was in a hurry to getback into the dressing room for a shower. His repeated thrusts at thin airrubbed off on even Stuart Carlisle who is a batsman in the conventional mode.While Prasad brought Marillier’s misery to an end, Zaheer Khan with sheer pacebeat Carlisle. Alistair Campbell played some attractive shots and a big inningswas required from either Campbell or Andy Flower for Zimbabwe to make a match ofit. But the problem was going to be the spinners for the visitors and theintroduction of Tendulkar portended the things to come for Zimbabwe. Campbellwas dismissed in his first over and the purchase he obtained from the track putpaid to Zimbabwe’s hopes.Sridharan Sriram, who did an opportunity to bat, utilised the helpfulpitch to end up with three wickets. This would make the youngster feel muchbetter as he is under minute observation at the moment. He has to be encouraged,as Sodhi as yet cannot be termed as an all-rounder. With Robin Singh out of theside, Sriram appears the best bet to fill up the all-rounder’s slot.