Irani Trophy 2008 - Day 3
September 26th 2008 12:55
Today's cricket featured some high octane action in the first half or even three quarters of the day before it fizzled off tamely. Even though Jaffer left early today, Dravid was in one of his bloodyminded moods where it is his bat, his pad, his sweat and his sinew behind every ball. He managed to outlast Ishant Sharma's outstanding spell which consumed Badrinath as well as Kaif. Kafi, unfortunately got too good a ball first up. Not too much he could have done with that. Badri, though was beaten for pace as well as unexpected bounce. Credit though must go to Ishant for hustling batsmen.
Laxman walked in and in no time the scoring started picking up and we saw many quick singles and yes even threes (no jokes, guys). The supposed leg spinner Chetanya Nanda came into the attack and the batsmen started relaxing. This was after Laxman had opened up with a sterling cover drive off Pradeep Sangwan. Laxman played an immensely poor shot when he tried to take a ball outside off stump towards the onside and he got a big leading edge which ballooned right into the point fielder's hands. And Nanda had his first breakthrough against the run of play.
That right there though was to mark Sehwag's inspiring run at captaincy. All his decisions from hereon were questionable and really even seemed senseless. Dhoni walked in with some pressure after his inadequate showing in the first innings. Sangwan was actually operating from the other end when Dhoni walked in, but what does Sehwag do? He takes Sangwan off (the man who dismissed Dhoni in the first innings) and brought himself on for an extended spell. And Dhoni all but murdered Sehwag. He cut him, swept him, launched him over mid on and mid wicket and ruthlessly reverse swept him. It was callous and effective treatment through and through. The question needs to be asked as to why Sehwag was bent on bowling himself over such an extended spell, provided that he was getting hammered.
But to give credit where credit is due, Dhoni again showed how good a player he is of spin in the subcontinent. He put Chetanya Nanda in his rightful place while showing part time spinner Sehwag a thing or two about attacking batsmanship. While Dhoni raced to his half century, Dravd at the other end had just about reached his 50 run mark - but what was more important was his vigil of over 170 balls which bought the middle order and late order players more respite from Ishant Sharma. He too left soon in a moment of madness - late on a cut off Nanda to be caught at slip.
And finally, when I was convinced that Sehwag was intent on seeing how fast Dhoni would get to a century, he brought back Nehra and Ishant. And results, gentlemen, were almost automatic. Dhoni edged one off Nehra which flew over the slip cordon, survived a torrid first over from Ishant and then was completely fooled by a slower one from the same bowler in the succeeding over to hand over his wicket. Sehwag and co walked in to congratulate each other with sheepish smiles.
Now, lets cut over to the Delhi chase or what passed for it. Sehwag promoted himself up the order in a show of force partnering Gambhir. That he had dispensed with any nominal caution was reflected in his almightly swipe that he tried against R.P.Singh's first ball. All it met was air. And in the next over, the newly crowned lynchpin of the Indian pace attack, the now-canny Zaheer Khan, pitched a delivery right on the stumps and brought it back a notch to trap Sehwag absolutely in front. The opener need not even have waited for the verdict - so plumb was it. From thereon it looked like the Delhi blokes were in a great hurry. Gambhir tried different ways of getting out by jumping out of his crease but alas he could not succeed. At the end of the day he was still there - playing slightly better than what he started out with. But the batsmen at the other end did not seem to have any great wherewithal. Virat Kohli had an aggressive welcome and soon departed LBW to the same man - Zaheer Khan. In fact Zaheer should have had Rajat Bhatia too but the umpire for some reason did not give that one out.
All in all a good day's cricket and the Rest of India team look ready to clinch this. There is only Gambhir standing between them and victory now.
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