India Runs Into Pace Wall

After the high of Trinidad, India came crashing down to Earth with such a thud that you had to wince. They came to the Kensington Oval with a record that read, seven matches, six defeats. After being bowled out for a pathetic 102, the figure in the defeats column might need an increment soon.

Only Sourav Ganguly, with a gutsy 48, showed any semblance of defiance, the rest were empty Coke cans trapped under a steamroller. By the time the heavens opened for the fourth and final time, West Indies had knocked off 33 runs for the loss of Stuart Williams?s wicket.

They got off to a fairytale start and Carl Hooper could have been forgiven for yelling, "Merv, you beauty" as his leading fast bowler pushed India onto the back foot with the very first ball of the match, bowling Shiv Sunder Das with one that nipped back through the gap between bat and pad. It was a poor hesitant stroke across the line from Das after the Indians had been sent in, and Rahul Dravid once again found himself quasi-opener.

India responded positively to that setback, with Dravid and Wasim Jaffer playing some superb strokes in the opening half hour. Dillon?s first over was a highlights package in itself. After sending Das back, he watched Dravid on-drive him beautifully and then edge one streakily past the slips for four.

Jaffer got going with a nudge down to third man off Cameron Cuffy and two gorgeous square-drives off the back foot that hinted at genuine quality. But it was too good to last as Dillon made it two openers back in the hutch with a delivery that hit a grassy patch and took the edge of Jaffer's bat on its way through to Ridley Jacobs. Jaffer made 12 and India were 26 for 2.

Moments later, India found themselves - to use not so polite terms - in a big pile of manure when Sachin Tendulkar had a diffident poke at a Pedro Collins delivery that just moved away a shade. Jacobs took a simple catch and Tendulkar was out for his second duck in a row (27 for 3).

Rain prompted an early lunch interval but it didn?t take West Indies long to slice through the middle order afterwards. Dravid was in superb touch and had made 17 confident runs, but he could do nothing when sold down the river by his captain. Ganguly played one towards Shivnarine Chanderpaul at cover and called for the run. Dravid backed him up well, but was left with few options when Ganguly changed his mind. Chanderpaul swooped and threw to Cameron Cuffy, who showed remarkable agility to take the bails off, with Dravid short of his ground (50 for 4).

VVS Laxman came into the match on the back of three successive 50s but a glimpse of daylight was all Cuffy needed to storm through and reduce the innings to rubble. There was some movement back into the batsman, but the gap between Laxman's bat and pad was of English Channel proportions as the ball cannoned into the off stump (51 for 5).

Hooper then dropped a sitter from Ajay Ratra at second slip before another shower took the players off for an hour. When they came back out, Dillon sent Ratra packing for 1. The ball pitched on a length, Ratra's push went off the edge and was brilliantly caught by Jacobs diving to his right (61 for 6).

Harbhajan Singh had his all-too-brief dash, but the pull proved to be one shot too far. A short ball from Sanford was pulled down to deep square leg, where Dillon took the catch, Harbhajan gone for a not-so-lucky 13 (78 for 7).

Sanford then produced a perfume ball and Zaheer Khan, regrettably for India, didn't come out smelling of roses. It reared up and Zaheer's contortions within his crease merely succeeded in fending the ball off to Ramnaresh Sarwan at forward short leg (86 for 8).

Ganguly wasn?t waving the white flag though, coming down the track to smash Dillon through cover and sending the next ball on to the roof of the Pickwick Pavilion. But that flickering flame died quickly, Srinath trapped in front by Dillon and Ganguly the victim of a stupendous catch by Dillon inside the rope at deep point after he slashed at Sanford.

The West Indian openers dealt in boundaries before Zaheer got Williams to snick one through to Jaffer at third slip. But apart from that, it was all Barbados Blues for India, yet again. At Port-of-Spain, Hooper?s gamble of bowling first backfired badly. Here though, his quick bowlers ensured that all the chips were on his side of the table by the close of the opening day.

Back in the ?80s, an obscure band called The Fixx sang, ?Are we, are we ourselves? Because seen through these eyes, we lead a double life.? It would surprise no one if India?s cricketers adopted that as their anthem. After outplaying their hosts in Trinidad, they reverted to overseas type with a vengeance here. And you could almost hear the Blues wailing.

SOURCE: Wisden Online.