By Gaurang - 26 Aug '02
August 26 2002

If in the first match at Lords the Indian players showed up in T-shirts and ties, they certainly pulled their wardrobe together in this match. Gone are the days of T-shirts and ties.

They showed up in Tuxedos, Tails, and Top Hats at that most English of venues, Leeds, where the ball was seaming and there was cloud cover for most of the game. They truly showed the Brits how to dress up in their own back yard.

They played vintage Test Cricket. What I mean by that is, they played cricket as it must have been played in the glory days of Jack Hobbs and Wally Hammond..

Back to basics

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They showed that they were going back to the basics, from even before the game.

They picked a varied attack, one left arm quick, one right arm quick, one right arm medium pacer, one off spinner and one leg spinner, and plenty of dibbly dobbly options. In other words, a really balanced attack.

A high-risk decision pays off

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Next they won the toss and decided to bat, even though in 8 out of 12 recent matches here, the side batting first has not reached 230!

Then they displayed true TEST match batting. Sanjay Bangar batted for exactly 5 hours for his 68. Playing and missing, edging and ducking, but never giving in. The most valuable 68 he has ever made.

Guiding him through at the other end was the master of the art of batting attrition, Rahul "The Wall" Dravid... Of course "The Wall" was not all granite blocks, there were a few turrets from which high calibre cannons were ready to blast any weakness from the opposition.

Once the base was established, the much vaunted Middle Order (incidently they all average more overseas than at home, but have NEVER clicked together) built a Fort like score that resembled the mighty Pratap Gadh, virtually imposible for enemy infantry to scale.

Fireworks in the Dark

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The final phases of building that score were also an example of old fashioned cricket. The umpires offered India the light but Ganguly continued to bat even when five bulbs of the light meter were lit up (incidentally England in a similar position in the second test match took the shelter of the dressing rooms when none of the bulbs were lit up and the light offered was much brighter.)

Hussain seeking to make India pay for the decision to bat on, had his new ball bowlers, especially the tall and akward Tudor and the equally tall Caddick bowl a short pitched line to the Indian batsmen. What followed was batting mayhem which seldom if ever has been seen in Test matches.

Without restrictions on fielders, bowlers, bouncers (the umpires stood by mute when the English bowlers continued to bowl round the wicket bouncer after bouncer to packed leg side fields), wides (much more lenient interpretations in Tests), and in very murky conditions, India BLASTED the clueless English fast bowlers (which except for Gough was its PREMIERE attack with Caddick and Tudor and Hoggard all back in the side) for 96 runs from 66 balls.

Ganguly showed that he is truly a SELFLESS leader, when despite having missed a century in the previous test (possibly two considering the dodgy decision he got in the first innings) he took on the challenge.

He made room for himself by moving away to the leg side and then flat batted (baseball style) the bowlers for boundaries where they least expected it. In murky conditions with a brand new ball this was truly batting in the mould of Victor Trumper and C.K. Nayadu.

Tendulkar for once was outshone by his partner. This happens rarely, and when Hussain was forced to ask Giles to bowl with a ball that was hardly a dozen overs old, to slow the pace of the innings, the opposite occurred. Sachin and Sourav smashed Ashley for 23 runs from one over that read 6,6,4,1(should have been 6 if not mistimed)2, 4.

The mayhem continued unabated until on what turned out to be the last ball of the day when Ganguly's amazing onslaught ended the way it could have at any time, bowled going for another monster hit over bowler Tudor's head.

Hussain waves the white flag

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Hussain had had enough and raised the white flag when he appealed for the light because the batsmen were "endangering the fielders". How the fielders were physically endangered was hard to understand as none were near the bat and most were on the fence. The only damage they were likely to suffer was to their egos as the ball would be hard to see in the murk and pass them to the boundary. Additionally a new batsman, Laxman, was at the crease, so a braver captain would have tried to take a few more wickets that very evening and peg back the Indians.

The next day after a bit more mayhem and butter fingered fielding by England, it was India's turn with the ball and again they played TRADITIONAL cricket.

Fiery fare from the quickies

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Steaming in with the new ball, Ajit Agarkar, was at least 10 mph quicker than when he was the 3rd seamer. And unlike the English seamers the Indians assisted by their lesser height and greater intelligence, bowled a fuller length and let the ball do the talking (unlike all the English fast bowlers and particularly unlike one English bowler who let his mouth do the talking while his bowling rarely appeared anything more than apologetic.)

Zaheer Khan too showed that he is now truly the SPEARHEAD of the attack and bowled with fire and heart, but not much luck with the umpires and otherwise. However the variety and depth in the attack meant that luck was a nice option, but was not strictly necessary. And with the Spin Duo of Kumble and Harbhajan finally in tandem the follow-on was duly imposed.

Unlike the Lankans who also had England following on in a match this summer and then seeing England bat to safety on a placid pitch, India had no such problems as the pitch continued to offer support to bowlers and India's attack was a balanced Test match attack, unlike Sri Lanka's which missed the magical Murali.

A true indication of the balance of the attack was that during the final burst at the end of the fourth day, when Hussain and his veteran keeper, Stewart, the only English batsmen to offer a real fight, were battling hard, Zaheer Khan, India's spearhead, had bowled only about a dozen overs that day. Nothing more than a nice warm-up for a fast bowler at Test match level.

Wrapping it up

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The way India attacked and wrapped up the game on the final morning once again showed the virtues of doing the basics right, including 6 excellent catches by the one batsman who failed with the bat, Sehwag.

The English attack when it actually tried to "attack" the Indian batting has been found to be woefully inadequate. For a while in India and early in this series, they succeeded in frustrating the Indians who with their success in the T-shirt version of the game were caught with a mismatched cricketing wardrobe, especially at Lords (where shirt and ties are usually prevalant in the audience). But the Indians have now adjusted, and played their finest black-tie and tails cricket (where the audience looked like the nearest mental hospital had just been emptied).

On to the Oval!

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Now India return to the scene of their first great triumph in Blighty, The Oval. And whether the track is hard, fast and true, or bouncy and conducive to spin, or just a flat out batting beauty, they are likely to be once again in their finest threads. And the support in the Stands is likely to include plenty of turbans, kurtas, shalwars, and possibly the occasional sari, along with a healthy splash of Saffron, White and Green.