Sep 03, 2002 10:23 AM
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(Updated Sep 03, 2002 04:14 PM)
MATCH GOES EVEN STEVENS
India threw away an early advantage to get a strong hold over the match by wasting a lot of time knocking over nine, ten and jack.
India started the day well by the ever-impressive Zaheer Khan getting Alec Stewart lbw early in the day. However Flintoff came in and spoiled the party for India by hitting a blistering half-century at almost run a ball. For a moment even Nasser Hussain looked slow. However the credit for this should go to the Indian captain's stupid decision of giving Anil Kumble the new ball replacing Nehra after giving him only two overs in the morning. Even if he felt he had to replace Nehra he could have done it by giving the ball to Agarkar. By the time sanity dawned on Ganguly the pair added a 100 runs. Agarkar struck two blows of consecutive deliveries removing Flintoff and Hussain. Now is where India lost it. They could have easily seized the initiative by knocking over nine, ten and jack. However everybody from Sehwag was asked to bowl and they made sure that the international scene doesn't hassle Simon Jones. Yet Sachin was not given the ball. This is making even me slowly believe that Saurav believes he plays against Sachin and not with him. Even Simon Jones might not believe that they took the total to 487.
India got off to a bad start losing Jaffer in the first over. However Dravid and Sehwag got together and made sure there were no jitters until Sehwag committed suicide. Sehwag played well but again every ball he thought he had to get at least a four out of it and that led to his downfall. He still doesn't convince me as a test player leave alone opening. He bats the way Flintoff does for England. However he at no. 8 is only a bonus for England not at no. 1 like India. Then came back Ganguly's insanity; Nehra coming as a night watchman. He is only a no. 11 slogger and he was sent to do the work of a person who had to defend for the rest of the day and protect the batsmen. I think Ratra or Kumble would have been the ideal choices for the job. Inevitably he got out.
