da luck： It was a humdinger of a match at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi
Erapalli Prasanna01-Feb-2002It was a humdinger of a match at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. Itall boiled down to the final ball and only a fantastic save at thecover point fence ensured that England won the one-dayer by two runs. TheIndians had been agonisingly close to sealing the series but their hopeswere finally doused.
© CricInfoI find it hard to reconcile myself to the manner in which SouravGanguly’s team lost this game. It was brittle batting under pressurethat was to blame for the defeat. Having said that, I was delighted tosee Agarkar make his runs in a pressure-cooker situation. The young manhas had a wretched run of form with the bat in recent times, but onThursday he proved his ability to fight it out when the chips are down.Agarkar nearly pulled off a miraculous last ball win for India withoutmuch support from his partners. Anil Kumble’s dismissal epitomised thedismal batting effort by the senior players in the side. When thesituation demanded a cool head, Kumble threw it all away, playing a rankbad shot to be bowled. I think that Kumble’s downfall cost India thematch. Five of the Indian batsmen gifted their wickets to left-armspinner Ashley Giles, whose bowling was not as menacing as his finalfigures suggested.Whenever India chases a stiff target, they obviously look to Tendulkarto show the way. It is as true as broad daylight that the Indian battingrevolves around the little master. Ganguly is not back to his best, andis finding it difficult to keep the momentum going during the initialphase of his innings. On Thursday, there were shades of the Ganguly weall have come to respect when he played a few scintillating shots offGiles. The Indian skipper, though, failed to stay till the end and seeIndia through to victory.Mohammad Kaif, for his part, gave enough evidence of his talent andtemperament for the shorter version of the game. The same, though, couldnot be said of young off-spinner Sarandeep Singh and there was nodenying the fact that India missed the services of Harbhajan Singh atthe Kotla.What Delhi also proved is that there has to be all-round improvement inthe planning as well as execution, if India are to seal the series.The England game plan, meanwhile, clearly revolved around taking quicksingles, knowing, as they did only too well, the limitations of theIndian ground fielding. Nick Knight played a brilliant hand and was wellsupported by Marcus Trescothick and Nasser Hussain. As I have beenwriting in my columns, it is important for Andrew Flintoff to contributea few valuable runs to the English cause. The beefy all-rounder’sexplosive half century played a major part in the English win.
© CricInfoWith the series currently 3-2 in India’s favour, it might be a shrewdmove for England to bring Graham Thorpe in at number three. Hussain’sattacking instincts should also help his resurgent side as they pursue aseries levelling win at Mumbai. I have a gut feeling that the Englishfast bowlers might cherish the opportunity to bowl at the WankhedeStadium which offers greater bounce than the wickets at Kanpur and NewDelhi.At the back of their mind, however, would be the thought that SachinTendulkar would be hoping to please his home crowd.