The placard held up by one of India's supporters read "Zimbabwe wenthome last week, you're playing India now". Without trying to be cruel toZimbabwe, everyone concerned, West Indies players and supporters alike wouldhave welcomed the situation. West Indies won all the completed games in thatseries and we all like winners but the prospect of good entertainment was nil.
What a start to the current series with India, victory off the second lastball of the day to India. Statistically it was a close game but after the WestIndies managed to only set India a target of 252 runs in the reduced 45 overgame, the odds were always pointing to an Indian victory.
A few hours before the scheduled start, the odds were pointing to anabandoned game with all the rain that had fallen overnight and in the earlyhours of the morning. No wonder Rahul Dravid invited the West Indies to batfirst after winning the toss.
Of course, India might have batted second irrespective of the conditions asthey have not lost a game batting second for a long time. This victory makes it17th in a row, a world record and with their strength in batting there is everyprospect of that statistic growing even further.
It was suggested to coach Greg Chappell on a previous tour that maybe Indianeeded to practice batting second purposely to perfect that art as well but ashe so rightly put it, they are into winning games and whatever works best is theway to go.
The target should have been a bit more difficult to achieve though had theWest Indies managed their innings a bit better. They had a marvellous startwith Runako Morton and Chris Gayle laying the foundations with an openingpartnership of 87 runs at better than six runs an over.
Dravid would have been disappointed with his opening bowlers as they wereunable to control the copious amounts of swing that the humid atmosphere offeredand the advantage of winning the toss seemed to evaporate. In all, Indiaconceded 28 extras half of which were no balls and wides but the West Indies didnot go on from such a good start.
Brian Lara got 35 off 43 balls but none of the other batsmen in the middleorder got anything substantial. It was left to Gayle to contribute more thanhalf of the runs scored off the bat, getting 123 off 131 balls. Only 29 runs inthe final five overs and Dravid and the Indian team must have felt that they hadbeen let off the hook.
As the Indian opening bowlers let their captain down, so did the West Indianopening bowlers. Where the Indians were depending on swing and were unable tocontrol it, the West Indians were relying on pace and they too were spraying theball around.
It took the mature head and control of Ian Bradshaw to come and steady theship for his captain. However, as long as Dravid stood at the crease, there wasno trouble for the Indians.
There were positives for the West Indies but a big positive for theorganisers of the World Cup next year was the ability to have such a promptstart after all the overnight and early morning rain as it proved that the workand money spent on the new drainage had worked.
PTI
