Wavell Hinds Grabs Sabina Spotlight, But...

Sun, May 19, '02

by VENKY MALY

The first day's play of the fifth and deciding test match at Sabina Park was a fantastic advertisement for test cricket. Featuring two sides working very hard to claw their way up the international cricket ladder, on the one hand, the West Indies, working hard to regain their place at the top of the rankings a few years ago. On the other, India, a very strong side at home, but always shaky abroad and looking for their first series victory in the Caribbean since 1971.

To make matters more interesting, the pitch for this test was rated as being the most bowler-friendly ever seen here, by none other than Michael Holding, who must be familiar with this ground since at least the 1970s. Incidentally, Carl Hooper and Jimmy Adams more or less echoed Holding's sentiments about the pitch.

With a pitch like this, two things seemed certain. One that the West Indies would not bring in a spinner, as was recommended in certain quarters. Second, the team winning the toss would elect to bowl. If not to let their bowlers take advantage of the pitch, then at least to ensure that they did not expose their batsmen first on this pitch. The West Indies went in with an unchanged team, and for India, Harbhajan inevitably came into the side to replace the injured Kumble.

After four tosses in a row that were won by Hooper, it was Ganguly's turn to win the toss. He elected to bowl, and the focus then shifted on to how the newly forged opening partnership of Gayle and Hinds would handle India's attack of three seamers.

The pitch played true to expectations. Pace, bounce and lateral movement were all there for the quicker bowlers. The Indian attack seemed to get a little carried away, and did not make the best use of the pitch and the conditions, which were a fast bowler's dream. Gayle and Hinds batted extremely sensibly to get the West Indies off to a quiet, but solid start. Srinath and Nehra did not make the batsmen play enough, and though the wicket keeper, Ratra was taking several deliveries around his face, Hinds and Gayle were able to negotiate the opening spell without too many alarms.

After the first fifteen overs or so, when both batsmen had gauged the nature of this pitch, they began to open out, and the crowd at Kingston enjoyed the prospect of a run-feast, brought about by two batsmen fighting for a permanent place in the side, on their home ground.

Hinds looked the more impressive of the two batsmen, but did not open out as much as Chris Gayle did during the opening partnership. Gayle played some magnificent shots, especially drives off the front foot, which were reminiscent of a young Clive Lloyd, both for the manner in which they were struck, and for the sheer power behind the shots. Gayle outscored Hinds by a significant margin, and reached his half century when Hinds was still in his thirties.

Having put India in to bat, it was a very vexed Indian captain who saw the first session end with the West Indies having reached 88, without losing a wicket.
Gayle and Hinds were looking well set, and Ganguly's faith in his quicker bowlers did not seem justified.

After the break, one would have expected the opening pair to consolidate further and play a more dominant role. Gayle however, seemed to suffer from cramps, and needed attention on the field on two occasions. The momentum was lost, just as the two openers, who had put on around a hundred runs by then, were looking to accelerate.

Hinds continued to play solidly, as would be expected of a man who has had scores of 175 and 65 in his last two innings, but Gayle seemed to be in discomfort each time he ran a single. As if to compensate for his impaired mobility, Gayle began to lash out and hit some splendid shots. Finally, as has happened so often with him, he got carried away. He hit one shot over cover off Zaheer that went in the air, but reached the boundary. Off the next ball, to a delivery that was not quite there for the shot, Gayle tried to play a shot to point off an angled bat, and was neatly taken by Wasim Jaffer. Till this point, Gayle seemed to have studiously avoided the shot with the angled bat past gully, but ultimately lost his wicket to the same shot.

Gayle looked good for a century, but was needlessly dismissed. If he was indeed unfit, as it certainly seemed to be the case, a sensible alternative would have been for him to retire and resume his innings later.

Gayle was dismissed at 111, with his own score on 68. A century was there for the asking, but in the end it was just another promising knock from Gayle, who definitely has the ability to play some great shots, but needs to tighten up his game and not lose concentration just when the century is there for the taking.

Sarwan came to the crease at his customary one-drop position, and middled the ball right from the beginining. The way in which he got behind the line, played with bat close to his front pad, and in which he punished the loose delivery amply justified the huge ovation that greeted him as he walked out. Here is a man who is averaging over 40 in test cricket, and has not scored a test century yet. Surely that little statistic tells a tale?

Sarwan and Hinds got together in a partnership that completely took the game away from India. Wavell Hinds, playing on his home ground after a long time in the wilderness, played a dream innings. Whether it was the shot off the pads, or the cover drive, or the pull or the hook, he played every shot to perfection.

Hinds saw that Harbhajan, who bowled more than his share because the Indian seamers did not bowl at their best, was getting some turn. During the course of his innings, Hinds chose to counter it by using his feet. A lofted boundary over midwicket and two sixes over long-off were the result. Hinds looked unstoppable against the spin of Harbhajan, as he did earlier against pace.

With consumnate ease, Hinds moved into his nineties, and then reached his century, as all of Sabina Park went berserk with the excitement. Success must be sweet for Hinds, who in the opinion of many, was unfairly dropped, after his failure in an unfamiliar role as opener.

After his century, Hinds singled Harbhajan out for some harsh treatment. A cover drive was played with such astonishing bat-speed that a good delivery wound up racing to the boundary. After this, he swept one delivery for a four all along the ground. A third boundary in a row came off a slightly lofted sweep.

In the meantime, Sarwan reached his half-century, and all the tension of the morning, where the pitch demanded all attention, seemed to dissolve, giving way to a carnival of Calypso batsmanship.

Ganguly persisted with Harbhajan after he had been taken for three boundaries in an over, wisely sensing that Hinds was looking to get after Harbhajan, and was thus giving more of a chance to the bowler than a batsman with a century to his name rightly should. The field was shifted to the legside, and it was obvious that Harbhajan was inviting Hinds to take the challenge and pierce the field.

Unfortunately for the West Indies, Hinds fell to this old spinner's trick in the most straightforward manner imaginable. Off the first delivery he faced from Harbhajan, Hinds chose to step out and hit a delivery on leg stump to the cover region. An inside out shot that usually features in one-day matches cost Hinds a great chance to score a really big hundred, and a relieved Jaffer pouched an easy catch on the long off boundary.

Hinds scored 113 off 200 deliveries, with 14 fours and two sixes. This was an innings that would have done proud to a Brian Lara in full cry, but the manner of his dismissal brought back all the questions about his temperament. At one point, it looked as if Hinds' innings would bring him back into contention as the West Indies most promising young middle order batsman (albeit in the role of opener for now). Which is the position he occupied when he scored that 165 against Pakistan in 2000. But as he walked back after this innings, one could not help but wonder if this was still the same Wavell Hinds who could handle any bowling attack, but could not overcome his own tendency to gift his wicket when well set.

Hinds will have some soul searching to do, and no doubt Hooper and the rest of the West Indian management, will have a few things to say as well, considering what his dismissal did to the rest of the West Indian innings.

Lara came out to replace Hinds, and by the time he had faced a handful of deliveries, one could tell that he lacked his usual touch. He played against the spin against Harbhajan and had a leading edge drop just short of silly point. He also looked out off an lbw appeal against Zaheer Khan. After he played one shot with an angled bat past gully for four, one wondered if there was a need to play such a non-percentage shot, with the West Indies so comfortably placed.

Immediately after, he played at another delivery that he could well have left alone, got an outside edge, and wicketkeeper Ratra took a very nice catch diving in front of first slip. Nehra was the bowler. 'Lara vs Tendulkar' could well win the prize for the least apt description for this series.

The Indian captain had already tested Sarwan by packing the offside field, and having his bowlers bowl outside the off stump. As he has done before, after reaching his fifty, Sarwan started playing more and more shots on the rise. These shots have proven to be his downfall at least twice in this series, and here too, he played it to a wide delivery in the air, but the fielder was too deep, and Sarwan was lucky not to pay the price.

In any event, Sarwan was not to reach his much awaited century. Harbhajan was getting a significant amount of turn, perhaps because he was bowling a little slower here than in this series so far, and was giving the ball more air, and therefore more opportunity to bite the turf and spin. One such delivery pitched on middle and leg, and turned into Sarwan's pads. Sarwan turned it off his pads, straight to the backward short leg. There was some hesitation on the part of Sarwan when the umpire upheld the appeal, but that may well have been a gesture of disappointment since he was well set, and looking better than ever before in this series so far.

In any event, it was bad thinking to be turning a delivery off the pads with a backward short leg waiting for just that shot. Sarwan's much awaited century will surely come. In the meantime, with each innings, he seems to set new standards in how impressive a batsman can look, without going on to get a big score.

With Sarwan's wicket, after being in an absolutely dominant position at 246/1, the West Indies had slid to 264/4, partly due to Hinds' indiscretion. Hooper and Chanderpaul played under some pressure, since India sensed that they were back in the game.

Both Hooper and Chanderpaul have looked like the two top run scorers in this series. But Hooper has had one escape when a needlessly expansive cover drive was hit straight to Das at cover, and the catch was grassed.

The West Indies ended the day on 287/4, a strong position, since Hooper and Chanderpaul have been batting with reassuring solidity. This is a position from which they can go on to a large total, but the West Indian team could be forgiven for thinking, at one point in the last session, that they would perhaps end the day with over 300 runs, for just the wicket of Gayle. That would have been a platform for a truly imposing score, which would have helped them dictate the course of the match,

Harbhajan is already getting turn from the pitch, which has offered something to the fast bowlers, batsmen and to spinners. So the West Indies cannot count on batting being easy in the second innings. The current situation means that the West Indies should begin all over tomorrow, and hope that the centurions from the previous test, Hooper, Chanderpaul and Jacobs, all get good scores.

* Venky Maly is a special correspondent for CaribbeanCricket.com. His daily match reports and analysis will be appearing throughout the remainder of the series.