da lvbet： © Reuters The game at Ahmedabad’s Motera stadium shaped exactly like theone at Rajkot
Erapalli Prasanna16-Nov-2002
© ReutersThe game at Ahmedabad’s Motera stadium shaped exactly like theone at Rajkot. Sourav Ganguly won the toss and asked the WestIndies to have a bat first, no doubt emboldened in his decisionby India’s whirlwind chase – rudely interrupted by the crowd – inthe previous game.In my last column, I had mentioned the logical options that areavailable to a captain on winning the toss. If the Indian captainopted to field first, he must have believed either than hisbowlers could restrict the West Indies to a gettable target orthat his batsmen were capable of chasing down even the tallestscores. At the Motera, Ganguly would have had an additionalfactor on his mind – the dew that would undoubtedly make bowlingdifficult in the second half of the match.Chris Gayle, at the moment, is in terrific form. One may lookaskance at his footwork, but the clean strikes from his bat canonly be admired. He is yet another batsman in world cricket whobelieves in straddling the crease with a wide stance, enablinghim to be flexible enough to pull a short delivery or drive afull one. This approach is a real problem for the bowlers, asthey hard-pressed to get the length right.Gayle scored a fabulous 140 on the day, but one must not forgetRamnaresh Sarwan. The latter yet again got so near yet so far tohis first international hundred, but he played like a championnevertheless, consolidating Gayle’s frenzied start with aresponsible, mature innings and helping the West Indies post animposing target of 325 for India to chase.India lost Virender Sehwag early, and sensing that the run-rateneeded to be boosted right away, Ganguly played some excellentshots to up the tempo. Unfortunately he was caught behind tryingto flick one down the legside to the fine leg fence. It was thenup to VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid to play responsible knocks tosteady the Indian innings, which they did very well indeed.It was that partnership that brought hope back into the Indianinnings. Dravid in particular, playing the anchor to perfectionand holding down the fort at one end, was extraordinary, pacinghis innings to perfection and letting the other batsmen playaround him. Sanjay Bangar also came up with a gem of an innings,a deep contrast to his usually dour approach in Test cricket.The West Indians, in my opinion, lost their hold on this seriesever since they allowed Ganguly and Sehwag to smash the ball intooblivion at Rajkot. Their bowling at Ahmedabad was indisciplined,to say the least; the numerous wides and no-balls are mutetestimony to that fact.But nevertheless, the 649 runs scored in the match onlyhighlights how closely fought the match was, and that there waslittle to choose from in the batting departments of the twoteams. With the series at two-all, where the rubber will go fromhere is anybody’s guess.