It was heartening to see swing bowling in all its glory at
Lord’s in the much-hyped 2000th Test match, which concluded in a victory for England .
Swing bowling is something of a rarity in modern-day cricket
— especially after the sheen on the ball wears off. It was thus a joy to see
not just the English bowlers but also the Indian new ball bowlers testing the
skills of the batsmen by curling the ball in the air.
Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad relied on bouncing the Sri
Lankans, but they unsettled the famed batting Indian line-up with swing than
bounce.
Both Tremlett and Broad targeted the Indians by judicious
use of the seam to test and tease the best Indian batsmen. And in the fourth
innings, James Anderson’s guile and pace, mixed with prodigious swing, left the
No 1 Test side clueless.
Ishant Sharma livened up the fourth day morning with one of
the finest spell of fast bowling ever seen at Lord’s. Rather than keeping the
ball short and wide, he pitched it up and swung it to come up with spell that
raised visions of a strong comeback by India .
But Ishant was brought into the attack quite belated after lunch which allowed
the momentum swing England ’s
way — irreversibly.
Praveen Kumar made a memorable maiden appearance at Lord’s
by getting himself on the Lord’s honours board with a five-for. His ability to
swing the ball is unquestionable, but it is his lack of pace which allows the
batsmen to get the better of him. Should he add a few yards of pace, Praveen
could be lot more dangerous.
Sadly, the advent of T20 cricket has not helped in playing
the waiting game that is requisite for Test cricket — something players like
Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman have mastered.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy was disappointing. When the
chips are down, it’s the captain who has to lead from the front. Yes, India
lost Zaheer (hamstring), Tendulkar (viral fever) and Gambhir (on-field injury) at
critical stages of the game, but history is proof that champion teams defy the
odds than dish out excuses.
In 1989-90, in the second Test against Australia ,
Pakistan were
seven for three with their batting stalwarts Javed Miandad and Salim Malik on
the injured list. A defeat was very much on the cards, but captain Imran Khan
took the responsibility to defy the odds and scripted an epic by guiding Wasim
Akram and draw the Test. It’s such mental toughness that made Imran one of the
great captains in history.
Not only Dhoni failed as a captain and batsman, but his ‘keeping
was shoddy as well. In contrast, Matt Prior was simply stupendous and certainly
proved his worth as the finest wicket-keeper batsman in the world at present. He
was safe behind the wicket and rescued England
with a match-winning hundred in the second innings.
The imagination of the Indian think-tank is baffling. A bold
management would have picked Yuvraj Singh instead of Mukund to open the innings
for India as Yuvraj could have been used as a fifth bowler as well. His left-arm
spin could have unsettled Kevin Pietersen who scored a double hundred and
bagged the man of the match award.
The Englishmen don’t play leg-spin very well. Amit Mishra
would have done much better on the bouncy track at Lord’s than down-in the-dumps
Harbhajan Singh.
The Test match at Lord’s was heart-warming for one reason: Test
cricket is alive and kicking! One saw packed house on all five days with
thousand waiting outside to get in.
Test cricket was a winner and that is something genuine
lovers of the game would be most happy about.
Note: This article has been published in Cricket Country on 27/07/2011 http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/yuvraj-for-mukund-would-have-given-india-an-extra-bowler-4267
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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