India hit the brakes

The year 2008 seems to be heading towards a paradoxical end for India. Flipping the pages of the last 12 months...

The year 2008 seems to be heading towards a paradoxical end for India. Flipping the pages of the last 12 months, in which Team India developed a habit of winning and earned a reputation of being aggressive, the final chapter spells out a rather timid climax with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni deciding to adopt a better-safe-than-sorry policy in the season-ending second Test against England.

Dhoni and his team mates had watched the highlights of the famous six-wicket victory for South Africa against Australia on TV last night. Not too long ago, they were in front of the cameras scripting a similar turnaround win. After two weeks of successive big fourth-innings blasts — in Chennai and Perth — Dhoni perhaps felt there was little logic in setting up a challenging total for England, with his team already 1-0 up in the series, and with truncated 70-over days the norm in this match.

After gaining a 151-run advantage going into their second innings, India killed time, and the hopes of their fans, to end up at 134/4 from 50 overs, ahead by 285 runs when they could’ve even taken the lead to 350-plus with a more attacking approach.

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Gautam Gambhir, the year’s brightest star for India, played an uncharacteristic, muted innings — a 155-ball 44 with just three boundaries — and except for a late evening burst of 39 not out from Yuvraj Singh, the spectators snored at the PCA stadium as runs came in only a trickle.

S-factor

Once again, India’s plans of going for a win seemed to hinge on Virender Sehwag. If Chennai showed what the team could achieve, Mohali was a reminder of their inability to set the pace once the Delhi batsman was out of the equation. While India have their set of contributors, silently constructing a solid foundation, the lack of options to grab the initiative has been a perennial problem.

They added just 47 runs in the second session, and just after Sehwag ran himself out while going for a suicidal single, underestimating Ian Bell’s penchant for diving at the stumps from close-in, the Indian innings came to a virtual halt.

First-innings centurion Rahul Dravid played, missed and was cleaned up for a prolonged, 19-ball duck. Sachin Tendulkar, who started the year raising his bat to the Sydney grandstand, left with his head bowed after a 40-minute struggle against Broad and James Anderson. And VVS Laxman remained tentative in his footwork for a 15 before losing the race against Andrew Flintoff’s arm. The English seamers earned appreciable reverse swing, finding the right length perhaps a trifle too late in the two-Test series.

Tail cut off

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But, earlier in the day, Zaheer Khan didn’t have to use his expertise with the old ball to dismantle England’s lower order after Harbhajan Singh bagged three wickets in a curtailed one-hour opening session to terminate the visitors’ first innings with only 20 runs added to their overnight score.

It seemed a perfect platform for India with England all out for 302. The hosts had two overs before lunch and the remaining four hours to go for the kill, to set up a typical fifth-day sub-continental finish. But it wasn’t to be, and watching Dhoni & Co having a six-hitting competition after stumps was almost ironic.