India’s tour-opening draw against Sussex was marked by the familiar inability to finish off the tail and win the match
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in London11-Jul-2007
The Indian team missed the incisiveness of Zaheer Khan against Sussex © Cricinfo Ltd
It’s often said that successful cricket teams need a bulldog spirit butIndia’s problem has always been the doberman strategy: They’ve been unable to snip off the opposition’s tail. InAntigua last year West Indies’ No.10 and Jack hung on gamely to drawthe first Test; a few weeks earlier at Nagpur, England’s lower orderfrustrated them; in March 2005, Pakistan held on for a fighting draw at Mohali and India were a fewwickets away from clinching the Sydney Test in 2004, a win whichwould have soured Steve Waugh’s grand farewell party.And it’s now happened at Hove, where Sussex’s tail thwarted them inthe twilight and hung on grimly for a draw. Admittedly this wasn’t theirfirst-choice bowling line-up – Zaheer Khan’s presence might have produceda win – and they were up against the county champions, a side who would nodoubt have faced similar challenges in the past. Also, India’s bowlingline-up was expected to be the weaker suit, what with half their attacktotalling 14 Tests between them, and this was after all the first four-daygame of the tour.The failure to finish off games has dogged them for years, however, and it’shigh time something was done about it. Wasim Akram once said thebest way to bowl to tailenders is either scare them with short balls orscare them with yorkers. Anil Kumble’s fast, spearing yorkers used to dothe trick in the ’90s, at home at least, but that delivery seems to havegone into extinction since his shoulder operation in 2001.Sreesanth doesn’t possess a lethal yorker or a menacing bouncer – thoughhe can be good with the in-between length – and RPSingh’s strength is conventional swing, and not reverse. Ranadeb Bose andIshant Sharma don’t come with any devastating weapons and Ramesh Powar, ifat all he gets a game, is someone who relies more on prising out wicketswith flight and drift.That leaves Zaheer, who can summon the deadly yorker, and helpedWorcestershire clinch several matches last season. He’s the mostexperienced of the faster men and it’s on him that the burden of actuallysealing a match will fall.He’s expected to play against England A at Chelmsford, as is Sharmainstead of Bose, and it will provide a hint of what to expect in the firstTest at Lord’s. Zaheer needs to get the early wickets, no doubt about it,but it’s his ability to nail the tail that will be more vital.India’s batting seemed in fine health on the first two days until cracksstarted appearing on the fourth. Wasim Jaffer failed in both the innings and, though that can happen to any batsman, the worrying part was the manner of his dismissals. He was late in getting forward both times – as he has done in the past – and perished as a result. Gautam Gambhir grabbed the opportunity with a solid half-century in the first innings and, coupled with Jaffer’s failure, raised the question of whether he would be sent out to open with Dinesh Karthik at Lord’s.The other question involved the No 7 position, for which the competition appears to be between Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni failed twice and Yuvraj didn’t convert the starts he got. But if Dhoni fails in the next tour game as well and even if Yuvraj scores, will India saddle Karthik with both opening and keeping? The next tour game should settle the opening and the No 7 spots.Yet India will take comfort from the fact that they’ve already managed morepractice than West Indies, the tourists in the first half of the summer.The men from the Caribbean went into the first Test at Lord’s with just48.4 overs of batting practice and rain even ruined their out-doortraining sessions.India are expected to play their first choice XI in the three-day game atChelmsford – Sharma is expected to play and it could eventually be a tossup between him and Bose for Lord’s – and it’s their last chance to get allthe bearings in place.
