India gaining in confidence

Daniel Laidlaw

In cricket, you often see something new or unusual every day. While Steve Waugh's mode of dismissal had been seen before, it certainly was unusual, but there was nothing unfamiliar about the middle order collapse it precipitated. Waugh's rare handled-the-ball exit sparked a complete change in momentum, with the now-familiar seven-wicket session handing the ascendancy back to India.

No matter how well Australia is batting, it remains collectively vulnerable to being spun out of control with a landslide of wickets. This is the one collapse it may really regret by series end.

It never ceases to amaze how one team can make a pitch appear spiteful before the other proceeds to show it to be benign. India, with a palpable sense of confidence about its batting that make the feeble showings in the first Test a distant memory, is clearly no longer intimidated by anything Australia can throw at them. It's almost like Laxman single-handedly woke India up to the fact that it's playing at home now and has nothing to fear from the conditions.

Despite the determined efforts of all the Aussie bowlers, Das and Ramesh batted with a sense of belief that made almost every shot appear confident. The Australians had to manufacture the presence of pressure and nervousness because in reality there was none. The openers batted to a plan. Ramesh had obviously been told that he was not to bat loosely because he refused to waft at anything short or wide of off stump. As a consequence, he no longer had the appearance of being exceedingly susceptible to an edge behind the wicket.

The Australians rarely bowl so well for so little reward, testimony to the temperament of the openers. Towards the end of play, this inability to earn wickets got to them and Laxman exacerbated the mounting frustration. Warne and Gillespie bowled their hearts out in a superb first hour after tea but got nothing for it after Ramesh's dismissal. That would have been bad enough, Laxman's calculated assault jabbed the bruised egos. These were the batsmen Australia would have expected to expend the least energy on. The established stars haven't even arrived.

If VVS Laxman's 281 in Kolkata was a movie, his next innings in Chennai would undoubtedly be the sequel, perhaps titled "Laxman: the innings after The Innings". Appropriately, it was filled with more action and excitement in a shorter space of time than the original. He hardly hit the ball in the air in Kolkata, here he was happy to go over the top against Miller, who wasn't quite the multi-dimensional threat expected.

When Australia bowls 50 or more overs for a run rate of around 3 per over, it usually has more than one wicket to show for it. Normally, so few wickets mean runs are scored at a faster rate. But on day two, the number of wickets was not commensurate to the quality of the bowling, at least for the majority of the day.

Shane Warne couldn't have bowled much better than he did to Das and Ramesh. With a consistent length and a hint of drift in the air, he was somewhere near his peak. Yet even at his best, he only beat the edge occasionally and was otherwise defended proficiently. Warne fully earned Ramesh's wicket but it must have been disheartening to know that was all he could manage.

Laxman was a different story. Anything flighted to him was dispatched to the rope at will, as he was able to use nimble footwork to get in position to strike the ball anywhere he chose, usually down the ground or even more impressively though mid on. This display of laconic skill inevitably drew errors in length from Warne which were duly seized upon as well.

All the while, Das played the lengthy innings he had threatened in the first two Tests. His relatively unlucky dismissals in his first few innings balanced out as he was positively tormented by Gillespie, an unlucky cricketer if ever there was one. Whether he was slipping the ball under the bat, past the edge or past the batsman's nose, Das clung to his wicket. He must be destined for a century.

The Australians only had themselves to blame for such unrewarding toil in the field because for the majority of it their batsmen should have been the only ones out there, still feasting on the runs Das, Ramesh and Laxman so amply demonstrated were available. Were it not for Matthew Hayden, Australia would already be out of the series. Hayden held the innings together and his double century was solely responsible for Australia gathering as many runs as it did. A collapse of 7/51 is not the kind of statistic associated with winning efforts. Nor is a series tally of 13 ducks. Gilchrist failed to learn from his pair in Kolkata and at the moment Ponting is to Harbhajan what Darryl Cullinan was to Warne.

The tourists can take heart from the fact that the domination of each day has tended to switch back and forth, and that seven-wicket sessions have become common. But worryingly for a side that prides itself on its fierce competitiveness and ability to turn a match around, India has been the team to show all the recent fighting spirit. Once Laxman began to swing the second Test in India's favour, Australia never prised an opening back into he contest. With Harbhajan having led this comeback with the ball, India are again in the middle of completely turning the match around and once more the Aussies were short on opportunities. Either they summon the inspiration to create them again or the first day was nothing more than a hiccup in India's series renaissance.

You can also read

Harbhajan, Laxman at it again - Prem Panicker's match report

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