Need for Tendulkar to open the innings with Ganguly

Need for Tendulkar to open the innings with Ganguly
IAN CHAPPELL

MELBOURNE, JANUARY 12: The Indian team has a major problem. The batting is so heavily reliant on Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly that it is affecting the decision-making process in the team. The reluctance to open with India's two best players and a successful opening combination because of the fear of what might happen if both are out early, cost India any chance of victory against an Australian team that batted positively and set a big target.

It's a long haul from being belted by a bouncer in a Sydney nightclub to the vice-captain of the Australian cricket team, but Ricky Ponting has achieved it in just under 12 months. The elevation to Steve Waugh's deputy in place of the injured Shane Warne is an indicator that Ponting has earned the respect of the officials and is now a leading candidate in the race to be Australia's next captain.

Ponting celebrated his promotion with an aggressive innings, show-casing his strong backfoot play with a magnificent pull shot for six off Javagal Srinath. Ponting's innings, all out attack from the outset, was typical of the Australian tactics as they obviously had a plan to set India a difficult task.

The fact that Ponting responded to the added responsibility by scoring a magnificent century sent a strong message to the selectors that he was ready for any other honour they had in mind.

The rest of the Australian batsmen displayed the same aggressive approach but none were able to match his level of skill for any length of time. The pitch had plenty of bounce, which the Indian new ball bowlers exploited early on and when Mark Waugh fell victim to Ajit Agarkar's outswinger, it could have indicated that the time is right to make a change at the top of the order.

Mark Waugh was out trying to clip a ball from off-stump through the on-side, a sure sign that he isn't in peak form and perhaps it might be prudent to let the elegant right-hander find his touch in a four-day game for New South Wales (NSW), while the selectors have a look at Michael Slater as opener.

In contrast, the Indian opening was tentative and Tendulkar took the weird decision to promote Sameer Dighe to No 3. The inexperienced wicket-keeper was out of his depth against the Australian pace attack and ate up valuable deliveries that India could ill-afford in such a difficult run chase.

This put extra pressure on the Indian captain and after a magnificent start, when he and Ganguly looked like taking the Australians apart, Tendulkar ran himself out going for a tight second run. Shane Lee was the man on the spot who made a great throw from the deep and his brother Brett was understandably delighted with the result, as he'd been taking a bit of a pounding from the talented Indian duo.

Not to be deterred, Ganguly kept India's hopes alive with an innings that matched Ponting's for fluency and timing. As always his driving off both front and backfoot through the off-side was exceptional and a couple of square drives off Brett Lee were exquisite.

Ganguly eventually completed his first ODI hundred against Australia, but either out of fatigue or laziness, he failed to ground his bat in taking a short single and was run out by a direct hit. The replay on the big screen showed the bat over the line, but not grounded, but a small section of the crowd misread the big screen and began to heave water bottles onto the field.

As so often happens these days, play was held up for far too long by the police and security people, who fail to understand that crowds tend to settle down quickly once play recommences following a disturbance.

The crowd behaviour stopped the game for more than 10 minutes but India's run chase had already slowed to a crawl and the required run rate was too much for a batting line-up that is sorely missing Ajay Jadeja's skills in the middle order. India may still lose with Tendulkar opening the batting, but they won't win unless he changes his mind and joins the in-form Ganguly at the top of the order.

SCOREBOARD

Australia
Mark Waugh c Laxman b Agarkar 7
Adam Gilchrist c Laxman b Srinath 3
Ricky Ponting c Tendulkar b Srinath 115
Michael Bevan c Agarkar b Robin Singh 41
Steve Waugh run out 23
Damien Martyn c Tendulkar b Kumble 30
Andrew Symonds run out 3
Shane Lee not out 22
Damien Fleming not out 14
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 8) 11.
Total (for 7 wickets, 50 overs) 269
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-19, 3-118, 4-156, 5-227, 6-232, 7-234
Bowling: Srinath 10-0-52-2, Agarkar 9-0-47-1, Prasad 10-0-52-0, Tendulkar 3-0-23-0, Kumble 10-0-57-1, Robin Singh 3-0-19-1, Ganguly 5-0-16-0
India
VVS Laxman c Gilchrist b McGrath 2
Saurav Ganguly run out 100
Samir Dighe c Mark Waugh b Fleming 3
Sachin Tendulkar run out 12
Rahul Dravid c Martyn b Shane Lee 60
Robin Singh not out 33
Jacob Martin run out 0
Ajit Agarkar not out 6
Extras (lb 8, nb 7, w 10) 25
Total (for 6 wickets, 50 overs) 241
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-31, 3-68, 4-177, 5-212, 6-212
Bowling: McGrath 10-1-32-1, Fleming 10-1-39-1, Brett Lee 10-0-49-0, Shane Lee 10-0-57-1, Symonds 5-0-28-0, Martyn 5-0-28-0