What the Indian papers said of side's defeat

Lynn McConnell

December 15, 2002

India's 10-wicket loss in the first National Bank Series Test has not gone down well at home.

Early reaction has condemned the highly-touted Indian batting line-up for failing to adapt to the conditions, which were not unreasonable.

Some of the newspaper reaction follows:

The Hindu: "Gone with the wind. That was the plight of the Indians in this windy city, following a batting performance that was deeply disappointing and shocking.

"When the first National Bank Test was still in the balance, a star-studded line-up got skittled out in 38.1 overs for 121, on a seaming track with bounce, that any visiting team should only expect to encounter in New Zealand.

"It was a display bereft of character, determination and application, and that which lacked the will to fight, especially after the bowlers, led by the lion-hearted Zaheer Khan, who registered his first five-wicket haul, had restricted New Zealand to 247, providing India more than a glimmer of hope.

"The opening Test of the National Bank series here at the Basin Reserve thus finished well inside three days on Saturday.

"With Stephen Fleming's men, requiring just 36 to take the lead in the series, openers Mark Richardson and Lou Vincent knocked off the runs without much fuss.

"With a sizable holiday crowd roaring in delight, Richardson cracked Ashish Nehra to the point boundary to make New Zealand's 300th Test a memorable one for the host."

And The Hindu columnist, former Indian opening batsman Kris Srikkanth said: "This was an atrocious batting performance, and I still cannot believe that we batted so poorly. Just goes to prove that we are extremely vulnerable when the ball seams and bounces.

"From the Indian display it becomes obvious that we have only two world-class batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who are capable of adapting to such pitches. There is far too much hype about the others.

"What's happening now is that, for purely commercial interests, the Indian side is being hyped up, and the expectation among the people becomes ridiculously high.

"All these ratings, there are so many of them now, have no meaning unless they are backed by matching performances by our cricketers when it counts.

"We tend to get carried away by performances at home; easily forgetting that the real test for any batsman is how he fares in conditions like that prevailed in Wellington."

Indian Express: "Repeating the same mistakes which spelt their doom in the first innings, India's formidable batting line-up crumbled for the second time in three days as the visitors crashed to a humiliating 10-wicket defeat against New Zealand in the first Test on Saturday.

"The Indians gave an extremely poor account of themselves as they managed to bat just 96.5 overs in two innings to suffer one of their worst defeats in recent times allowing the hosts to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

"After pace spearhead Zaheer Khan captured his first five-wicket haul to restrict New Zealand's first innings lead to 86 runs, the batsmen put in an appalling display to be bundled out for a paltry 121 in just 38.1 overs on a Basin Reserve pitch which had eased out considerably."

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