A NatWest final reprise at Ahmedabad

Erapalli Prasanna

November 16, 2002

© Reuters

In my last column, I had mentioned the logical options that are available to a captain on winning the toss. If the Indian captain opted to field first, he must have believed either than his bowlers could restrict the West Indies to a gettable target or that his batsmen were capable of chasing down even the tallest scores. At the Motera, Ganguly would have had an additional factor on his mind - the dew that would undoubtedly make bowling difficult in the second half of the match.

Chris Gayle, at the moment, is in terrific form. One may look askance at his footwork, but the clean strikes from his bat can only be admired. He is yet another batsman in world cricket who believes in straddling the crease with a wide stance, enabling him to be flexible enough to pull a short delivery or drive a full one. This approach is a real problem for the bowlers, as they hard-pressed to get the length right.

Gayle scored a fabulous 140 on the day, but one must not forget Ramnaresh Sarwan. The latter yet again got so near yet so far to his first international hundred, but he played like a champion nevertheless, consolidating Gayle's frenzied start with a responsible, mature innings and helping the West Indies post an imposing target of 325 for India to chase.

India lost Virender Sehwag early, and sensing that the run-rate needed to be boosted right away, Ganguly played some excellent shots to up the tempo. Unfortunately he was caught behind trying to flick one down the legside to the fine leg fence. It was then up to VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid to play responsible knocks to steady the Indian innings, which they did very well indeed.

It was that partnership that brought hope back into the Indian innings. Dravid in particular, playing the anchor to perfection and holding down the fort at one end, was extraordinary, pacing his innings to perfection and letting the other batsmen play around him. Sanjay Bangar also came up with a gem of an innings, a deep contrast to his usually dour approach in Test cricket.

The West Indians, in my opinion, lost their hold on this series ever since they allowed Ganguly and Sehwag to smash the ball into oblivion at Rajkot. Their bowling at Ahmedabad was indisciplined, to say the least; the numerous wides and no-balls are mute testimony to that fact.

But nevertheless, the 649 runs scored in the match only highlights how closely fought the match was, and that there was little to choose from in the batting departments of the two teams. With the series at two-all, where the rubber will go from here is anybody's guess.

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