Taking that last wicket quickly on the 2nd morning will be necessary. Though, as long as they don't allow too many more runs, it may not be a bad thing from India's point of view if South Africa bats long enough for the early morning dew and moisture to evaporate from the pitch! I'm not hoping it happens, though.It was a little bit of both - the last wicket pair scored another 30 runs to take the score to 296 while playing out some of the juice in the track.
Juice in the track or ice in the veins, nothing seems to matter when Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag are together at the wicket. The first over by Dale Steyn was a disappointment. Six balls were pitched outside the off-stump, going further away, and left well alone by Gambhir. It was as unsatisfying a start as was possible for South Africa. Here you had Gambhir, fresh off his first failure in 12 Tests, nervous about the situation, and you let him just ease those nerves by watching 6 balls go by?! Ugh! In spite of that maiden, after 9 overs the score was 68 for no loss.
Two balls later Sehwag sold Gambhir down the river turning and a lousy run-out was the result. At that point, Gambhir had already plowed his way to 25 off just 38 balls. Think about that. 9 overs into the inning, Gambhir was already on 25. But his partner, Sehwag, was a mind-boggling 44 in just 22 balls. Chastened by his terrible decision, Sehwag went into a shell and scored only 10 runs in the next 21 balls. By which time, Murali Vijay had not done himself any favors, getting out to Morkel. Sachin Tendulkar was circumspect, as he is wont to be these days, and Viru had had enough.
100 in 87 balls. 9 fours, 1 six. And this was Sehwhack in a slow-go mode!
The rest of the day featured a lot of audacious strokes, slices of luck, and an inexorable march to a century by SRT. Viru and SRT thundered past the SAffer score, putting into perspective the batting of Hashim Amla and Alviro Petersen.
The end of the day featured a flurry of wickets - Sehwag for 165, SRT for 106, and Badrinath for 1. Rather than give you the gory details, I'll mention a couple of things that caught my attention.
a) This is the 13th time in 19 centuries that Viru has crossed 150 runs in an inning. In comparison on the all-time list, Bradman did it 18 times (out of 29 overall centuries), SRT 18 (47), and Ponting is barely ahead at 14 (39). Brian Lara is the leader with 19 out of 34. Temperamentally speaking, Sehwag is in a league by himself. His hunger for long innings is unmatched in the modern game.
b) If I was captaining against Sehwag, here's how I would try to get him out: I would not spread the field even as he launched his assault. He loves the spread field as it enables his miscues to land safely. I'd keep the attacking field and ask him to hit over the infield. Statistically speaking I have a better chance of getting him out when he is in this attacking mode than when he is in the content to chug along at the run-a-ball mode. Thus, paradoxically speaking, my best chance of getting him out is when he is in Seh-whack mode and blazing away to all corners.
c) India's hopes of a big lead rest on VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni. One more big stand is needed. Sanjay Manjrekar feels that a 120 run lead will be an intimidating one. I am not so sure, but it would be a nice one to have. Better than trailing by 325 runs after one inning as was the case a week ago!
d) The crowd at Eden Gardens is as close as any stadium in India comes to creating a home-field advantage. I have heard the crowd at Chepauk and Chinnaswamy but the Gardens crowd is a different beast altogether.
No comments:
Post a Comment