With that much on the board, I certainly expected a more convincing win but for now, I'll take the series-leveling win.
The careful beginning by Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly showed up the importance of not losing early wickets. Our experienced pros took a bit of time but once they got their eye in, there was no stopping them. I would also like to think that the better balance of the side, with six batsmen and five bowlers and which increased the responsibility on the top-order, did its bit in the steady start which later turned spectacular.
Brilliant batting
The trick lies in taking a bit of time to read the pace of the pitch and the length the bowlers are employing. A great batsman like Sachin does not need too much time to do either and it showed when he started moving around the batting crease as early as the seventh or eighth over. What Sachin started, his captain Rahul finished, in the bargain putting paid to the worries about captaincy having an ill-effect on his batting.
The batsmen certainly found their feet but I don't quite relish the sight of the fielders using theirs to try and stop the ball. Usually, our catching is not a worry but that proved a problem on Friday and it is something the team needs to work on more and more. And please let the fielders not slide for the sake of it.
It is not something that comes naturally. I think they will be better served trying to get across to the ball. It is also important that they understand their limitations. Let them not try to cut off twos into ones, instead let us restrict the twos to twos and ones to ones. In other words, let us be good fielders first before trying to be great fielders.
Which brings to us one of the most difficult decisions a selection committee first and the team management next has to make when it comes to picking someone who doesn't appear totally fit on the field, but proves extremely useful with the ball. There is no doubt Munaf Patel bowled brilliantly, but the same cannot be said of his general fitness or fielding. This is where the selectors need to be careful.
Conundrum
They have to look at different things and none of them in isolation to come to a conclusion. Is he that good a bowler that some fielding deficiencies may be overlooked? Is his fielding that much of a liability that his skills as a bowler cannot compensate? Tough questions to answer, and that's why a selector's job is never easy.
Similar is Romesh Powar's case, and he too bowled superbly. I enjoyed watching him and his partner, Piyush Chawla, mix things up both in terms of trajectory and spin. Variety is an important aspect of bowling. The Indians had plenty of it, while England had none and that proved to be the crucial difference.
Like the Indians rethought their strategy quickly, the English too will probably make some changes before the next game. Meantime, the series has been set up nicely and I am all set for more late nights.
Chivach Sports / Hawkeye Communication