India Hit by Gayle Force

West Indies won a rain-affected 25-over game to tie India 1-1 in the series, with one game to go. It was a meaningless format of the game, but a result which held much meaning for West Indies, and shifted the momentum their way. Once again India, after being ahead in a series, let things drift away from them.

India started off on the wrong foot, winning the toss. Sourav Ganguly opted to bat, and then the rains came. By the time the clouds cleared, the match was curtailed to 25-overs-a-side, with batting first a distinct disadvantage. After that everything that could go wrong did, as India - without the services of an injured Sachin Tendulkar - panicked their wickets away in a heap and ended on 123, at least 30 short of being competitive. Any hopes they would have had of taking early breakthroughs were blown away by Chris Gayle.

The first few overs of the West Indian innings were distinctly schizophrenic. Against Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, the openers, Gayle and Wavell Hinds, were circumspect. Against Tinu Yohannan, the star of the Barbados ODI, Gayle was belligerent.

The mayhem began in Yohannan's second over, the innings's fourth. Gayle first lofted him over mid-off, and then over midwicket, for fours. A couple of couples saw 12 taken off the over, and Yohannan was taken out of the attack, only to be brought back into it from the other end, in the seventh over.

Twenty five came off that over. A lofted off-drive for four was followed by a smash over long-on for six. A two was followed by a no-ball, then another loft over long-on for four. Then, a graceful extra-cover drive for four, and finally, a thundering, beautifully placed cover-drive to the boundary.

The momentum had been snatched away emphatically, and India seemed to give up at that point in time. Gayle stayed in the zone right through, playing some delicate paddle sweeps late in his innings, and Hinds joined in the party as well, smashing Harbhajan Singh over long-on for six. They were both out - as was Ramnaresh Sarwan - late in the innings, to soft dismissals, but the damage had been done by then.

Or perhaps the damage had been done well before West Indies even went out to bat. India's attitude to their innings was perfectly encapsulated in Virender Sehwag's first-ball casual lob to Brian Lara at mid-on, off Mervyn Dillon's bowling, a needlessly cavalier stroke at that point in the innings, a term that can be used for most of the dismissals in the Indian innings.

Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Mongia spent the early overs not getting their eye in, but trying to hit every ball into the crowd, where their attitude would perhaps have seemed less out of place. Ganguly managed to pull off some stunning step-away inside-out drives over cover, and played a couple of nice pull shots, but it couldn't last for long.

One by one, all the Indian batsmen threw away their wickets being needlessly impetuous, with only Ganguly - who was wrongly adjudged lbw by umpire David Shepherd - and Rahul Dravid showing any spine. Ganguly made 39 and Dravid played a sparkling cameo of 28, including a superb six over long-off to the bowling of Cameron Cuffy, but it was never going to be enough.

SOURCE: WISDEN ONLINE