South Africa won the first ODI of the strangely named “Future Cup” at Belfast today. At the start of the day, India didn’t know what their final eleven was going to be, and they were not spoilt for choice. It was a matter of finding eleven players fit enough to play – and i say fit enough, not fit. In the end, they took field with 2 left arm seamers, an off spinner and a rookie leg spinner, in conditions where they would have fielded if they’d won the toss keeping in mind the conditions.
India lost the toss and were put into bat, and even though Pollock wasn’t playing, the South Africans still had a fairly strong (and more importantly – deep) seam bowling line up – Nel, Ntini, Langevelt, Hall and Kallis who average 27,23,29,25 and 31 respectively with the ball in ODI cricket (consider that india’s best bowler Zaheer Khan averages 28). In addition, they had the debutant Vernon Philander, who also bowls seam up. Sourav Ganguly was dropped by Kallis second ball, but with his leaden footed play, it was a question of when and not if he would be dismissed. Gambhir followed suit, and while Tendulkar was also getting beaten, atleast he seemed to display a better technique (and hence possibly gave himself a better chance of surviving). Dravid joined Tendulkar and the two ground out the bowling. Eventually their class came through, and by the time Dravid had begun to throw his bat, they added 158 in 32 overs. Thereafter, wickets were lost at the wrong time, and India ended up about 20 runs short of where they ought to have been after finding themselves at 204/3 in 45 overs on a smallish ground.
With two seam bowlers, it was imperative that both put in flawless performances, and that didn’t happen. The South African reply was a function of there being no real bowling threat that India could offer. It was left to the spinners to bring India back into the game. Without wickets with the new ball (de Villiers fell to an ordinary delivery), it was always going to be an uphill task. In the end, the South Africans made slightly heavy weather of what ought to have been a straightforward run chase keeping in mind the quality of the bowling – that can be put down to the fact that they don’t seem to play spin bowling as well as some of the other teams.
Much will be made of how Jacques Kallis played a match winning hand and his Indian counterparts – Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar didn’t, but the quality of bowling Kallis had to face ought to be noted. Kallis faced only 29 balls (out of his 116) from RP and Zaheer in conditions which suited those two, and was allowed to score on the leg side a dozen times. The rest of his innings involved facing spin bowlers (part timers and rookies included) to spread out fields. Is it any wonder that the South Africans completed the run chase?
With Sreesanth, Agarkar and Dhoni playing, India might have had a chance. As it happened, some fighting batting went in vain. This was Tendulkar’s 6th 50+ score in his last 12 ODI innings. It was Dravid’s 8th 50+ score in his last 15 ODI innings. Clearly, the pressing problems lie elsewhere. With must win games coming up, India must hope that the squad will get over illness issues as quickly as possible (may be they could mingle with the South Africans a bit – pass some of the flu over to their camp 
).
Tendulkar is likely to face a lot of short pitched questions in England this summer. Batsmen can have many weaknesses, but somehow, being found out by short pitched bowling is a killer one – because it brings into question guts, temperament and all sorts of other issues, even if you are Sachin Tendulkar. In Tendulkar, we will see a great player this summer grappling with something that is a problem – and he will be more acutely aware of it than anybody else. You will see technical adjustments, tactical decisions (he may eschew the hook shot all together) and in general, a studious attempt to cope with the problem. It will also bring plenty of questions about final and irreversible decline. The murmurs have already begun. Not all murmurs will be as graceful as that one though.
The lack of quality in the bowling in the meanwhile, will go unnoticed. Time and again this reality is exposed into plain sight. Its a strange situation – the batsmen are genuinely top class and everyone is waiting for their next failure so they can pan then….. while the bowlers are only moderately good and maddeningly inconsistent (because they are ordinary), and get decent press. In a queer sort of way, i guess the press and the public do accept that the Indian bowling line up isn’t very good.
You may not see victory in Belfast, but you sure will see fight… the question is, can you identify it without getting washed over by the lack of success?
