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An American football coach once had the basic principle of sports
writing explained to him by a reporter: "When you lose, we make fun of
you. When you win, we make fun of the other guy."
Much fun therefore, is being made of Australia's bloopers in the Chennai Test and India are spared the pincushion treatment for now. They would hope the respite lasts for another few months at least.
Yes, victory in the Chennai Test has brought relief rather than
fist-pumping 'payback' celebration. Three Tests and three months of
introspection lay between India's last Test victory in Ahmedabad
against England and the Chennai Test. This was a victory they needed as
much as they wanted. And it was brought about through a fairly simple
formula, one that India will hope to follow through the rest of the
series.
Chennai was dusted and done, in that order, 90 minutes into day five.
After MS Dhoni's brutal double-century on Sunday, the Indian spinners
brought their brand of business into play on day four. R Ashwin,
Harbhajan Singh and Ravinder Jadeja ran through the Australian batting
on a track that spat, bit and either leapt with venom or sizzled with
zip.
This is the way this series is going to go, in all likelihood, in terms
of conditions. The focus is on pitches that will allow India to
successfully play three spinners, including Jadeja. As long as their
batsmen can hold out (Dhoni did far more than hold out in Chennai, he
led a surge) and the inexperienced Australians keep sweating, India will
control the series.
This is, it appears, a fine chance for India to secure a result that
stays true to script and put to rest some of the nightmares of their
upending by England.
Before Chennai, India's last Test victory had come on a sluggish surface
and led to complaints about the man-hours and sweat-buckets required by
India's spinners to get 20 wickets. The turner which was demanded,
rather openly, backfired on them in Mumbai after England re-grouped, playing Monty Panesar ahead of Tim Bresnan.
The only similarity between Panesar and Australia's Xavier Doherty
is that they are quickish left-arm spinners. Doherty is more of a
limited-overs specialist and, not surprisingly, Panesar has played over a
100 first-class matches more than him. India will be on the lookout for
any copycat approaches from Australia which, if unsuccessful, will no
doubt be mocked too.
Chennai was originally
the venue of the fourth and final Test of the series. The venues were
switched around to open the series in the south when it was decided that
Hyderabad would host the second Test instead of Kanpur (Cricket
Australia had expressed
dissatisfaction over the facilities in Kanpur). The ideal script for
India would be if Australia heads into a north-Indian spring, in Mohali
and Delhi, 0-2 down.
| To say that a dry, slow, crumbling, unpredictable pitch equates to what other sides do - play to the home team's 'strength' - is somewhat misleading. If India had more confidence in the spinners they consider their 'strength', the surfaces would not require "selective watering" | |||
That could be possible, taking into account VVS Laxman's succinct
description on television of what the pitch in his home town for the
second match would be like: "hard, firm and crumbling". In the previous Test
played in Hyderabad, New Zealand were beaten soon after tea on the
fourth day, with Ashwin and Ojha taking 18 of the 20 wickets.
Word from the Indian camp is that injury to one quick bowler after
another meant that spin became the only 20-wicket option available to
the hosts for this series. One tally even adds the number of injured up
to ten but in real terms the list includes Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav,
Varun Aaron, Vinay Kumar, Irfan Pathan and a fittish RP Singh (who comes
with wishful longing for a 2007 version).
The Chepauk track was called 'decent' by Dhoni and 'typically Indian' by
Jadeja, while Clarke said it "looked a lot worse than it played". There
were 1243 runs and 32 wickets over four-and-a-bit days, evidence it was
said of its perfectly respectable nature. What cannot be denied though
is that - barring Pattinson's manful effort in the first innings - the
pitch largely favoured the spinners, rather than give both the quicks
and the slow men their moments over five days.
Ironically, the type of bowler it favoured is the kind that is sadly
going out of vogue in India to the point that the national selectors
couldn't find a surprise newcomer to throw into the mix. Laxman's
estimate of the number of quality spinners - and he knew how to play
them - in the country numbered at "seven or eight", rather than the "two
or three per domestic team" that he remembered running into in the
1990s.
To say that a dry, slow, crumbling, unpredictable pitch equates to what
other sides do - play to the home team's 'strength' - is somewhat
misleading. If India had more confidence in the spinners they consider
their 'strength', the surfaces would not require, as the Chennai curator
delightfully explained in the Indian Express
this morning, "selective watering". This is more a reflection of
India's limited options and the weakness of a new, raw generation of
Australian batsmen. And not wanting to be made fun of.
Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Sharda Ugra
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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