The best form of defence

When Virender Sehwag had faced 30 balls in the second innings of the second Test match against Australia, an interesting graphic was flashed on the TV screen. At that point in time Sehwag had scored 22 runs, with only 3 balls having been left alone, and a further three that had been defended. The remaining 24 balls had been replied to with an attacking shot. A clear indicator of the fact that India was on the move, aggressive intent fully apparent. While the folks on TV were raving about Sehwag's attacking nature, the telling thing for me was this - at that point in time, Gautam Gambhir had played 36 balls, and was batting on 26. The Indian opening duo is not chalk and cheese when it comes to scoring. Gambhir is just as fast as Sehwag. However, their styles are enormously different. While Sehwag keeps his back foot anchored, preferring to stay beside the ball to give it a big thump, Gambhir walks across the stumps (reminiscent of Justin Langer) and shimmies to the pitch of the ball when needed.

Together the duo took the game further away from Australia, abetted by some curiously impotent captaincy by Ricky Ponting. When Brett Lee is charging in for the first ball of the innings and there is just one slip fielder with 4 men guarding the boundary it is obvious that damage control is foremost on the captain's mind. Ponting's thought was that if you dried up the boundaries, Sehwag would get impatient and get out. What he does not understand (or seems unwilling to believe) is that Sehwag gets antsy only if runs are not being scored by him. He is happy enough to milk single after single until he gets a chance to clear his shoulders and give the ball a fearsome thumping.

Australia began the day needing Michael Hussey to score big once again. Ishant Sharma made sure that did not happen. After multiple edges that fell short of the slip cordon, Sharma snared Hussey for 54, and the Indian's sensed a chance to wrap things up quickly. Into the cauldron stepped Shane Watson. He picked up four boundaries to an untenanted third man region early in his innings (I wish the Indians would keep a 3rd man for the entire innings without removing a slip fielder) and was very still at the crease, defending stoutly and putting away anything full or short of length. Playing in the IPL, where he was the Man of the Series, has given Watson immense confidence and he rode that to the tune of career-best 78 runs. Yet another batsman whose career-best is against India. He should have been out on 39 but for umpire Rudy Koertzen's largesse. The first ball of a new spell from Sharma thudded into Watson's pad just above the ankle in front of the stumps but Koertzen was unimpressed. On TV, Brendon Julian dryly remarked that Koertzen had gotten it right since the ball was clearly going to miss the leg and the off-stump! That's how plumb that was. Koertzen has made some egregious mistakes in the series and it is a matter of time before a howler will cause some furore. At least he has been an equal opportunity offender so far, unlike Steve Bucknor, impartially affecting both teams.

The day belonged, however, to another layer who has used the IPL as a launching pad to the Indian squad - Amit Mishra. He richly deserved the 5 wickets he picked up on debut - 2 LBW, 2 bowled, and 1 stumped indicating clearly that these were not wickets gifted to him by mistimed tailender slogs. When Kumble is fit, and that is the caveat I want to emphasize - that he is completely fit, he deserves to play ahead of Mishra, but until that is the case Mishra merits a spot in the playing 11. It is good to know that there is an able apprentice waiting in the wings. Mishra should not lose heart - I suspect that Kumble will not be around much longer - and at 25, Amit's best years are ahead of him.

But that is a question to ponder about after the match (or series) is over. I will not speculate on how many runs the Indians need before they declare or the timing of the declaration. Dhoni has played the fastest innings on the pitch and knows what target is attainable. The highest score ever made in the fourth-innings to win a Test match is 418. On that occasion, Steve Waugh gave the West Indies 200 overs to score those runs. They did it in 128. There are 180 possible overs left in this match (more realistically 165-170 going by the slow over-rates of the Aussies. On an aside, will they be censured by the Match Referee for this, I wonder?). India is 300 runs ahead right now. You can do the math and figure out what should be a good total to declare at.

I just hope that if one of the openers gets out on the 4th day, the incoming batsman is either Dhoni or Ganguly, depending upon whether the right-hander (Sehwag) or the left-hander (Ganbhir) gets out. Keeping the pedal to the floor and scoring quickly is imperative. So far in this match, India has had 3 century partnerships, and two over 70 runs. All 5 of them have featured a left-right combination. Coincidence? I think not!

The sooner the batsmen reach the target that Dhoni has in his mind, the more overs the Indians have to bowl out the Aussies. Once he reaches a big enough target, Dhoni can ensure that an Aussie victory is out of question, leaving him free to relentlessly attack without worrying about the runs being scored.

The Aussies are staggering. Can India deliver the knockout punch?