Before Holi, it is Diwali for Aussies at Kotla
S Santhanam

New Delhi, March 8: Saurav Ganguly had expressed his keenness to play the three-day game against the Australia here to get some batting practice and to plan a stretegy to check the winning streak of the ‘invincible’ Australians. But what actually happened was just the opposite. It was the Australians who made the best use of the opportunity to have some batting practice to get themselves tuned for the second Test at Kolkata (March 11-15).

Ganguly was a big let down in the match. After a patchy 40 yesterday, the Indian skipper did not even take the field after the lunch-break today, with Vijay Dahiya marshalling in his absence. And while he was on the field in the morning session, Ganguly made a mockey of himself by his lack of concentration and focus on the match.

He first dropped Damien Martyn (14) at slip off Hirwani, then took evasive action at slips as Mark Waugh attempted a drive. The Prince of Kolkata hardly showed any interest in the proceedings. His body language said it all.

After deciding not to enforce the follow-on against the Board President’s XI, the visitors batted for the entire duration of the final day to end up with 461 for seven. Mark Waugh, who lasted just one delivery in the Mumbai Test, came up with a sterling 164 (17x4, 7x6, 230m) while Ricky Ponting completed his second century of the match (102 not out: 11x4, 163m) to leave the home attack in disarray. The match, thus, ended in a tame draw and the final day’s proceedings were a mere formality and of academic interest only.

The decision not to give off-spinner Sarandeep Singh, named in the squad for the next Test, even a single over during the entire day was baffling. Hirwani, ignored by the selectors, picked up five wickets although he got lot of stick from Mark Waugh who struck the leg-spinner for three sixes in his 23rd over. Waugh gave a similar treatment to left-arm spinner Sridharan Sriram who was sent over the ropes twice in one over.

Mark Waugh and Damien Martyn put on 142 for the fourth wicket in just over 100 minutes while Ponting helped Mark to add a further 113 for the fifth wicket to frustrate the Board XI as the home team was found wanting in bowling as well as fielding. Kasprowicz further improved his impressive batting average on the tour with another cameo knock (32 not out: 1x4, 1x6, 46m).

Thus, the match instead of giving the much-needed confidence to some of the fringe players of Board XI has only boosted the morale of the Aussies who will be going all out to stretch their winning streak in Kolkata.

Scoreboard
Australians (1st Innings): 451
Board President’s XI (1st Innings): 221
Australians (2nd Innings): M Hayden c Dahiya b Hirwani 26; M Slater c Mongia b Hirwani 26; J Langer c Mongia b Hirwani 15; M Waugh c Dahiya b Patel 164; D Martyn c sub (Gambhir) b Hirwani 54; R Ponting not out 102; B Haddin b Patel 8; C Miller c sub (Powar) b Hirwani 1; M Kasprowicz not out 32; Extras (b-1, lb-6, nb-21, w-5): 33; Total (for 7 wkts): 461
Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-60, 3-90, 4-232, 5-345, 6-384, 7-393.
Bowling: Patel 22-3-113-2 (13nb), Surinder Singh 15-1-68-0 (5w), Hirwani 38-3-168-5 (8nb), Sarandeep Singh 3-0-10-0, Sriram 10-0-61-0, D Mongia 5-0-34-0.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.