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India get their own back with interest
Geoffrey Boycott
November 8, 1999
Geoffrey Boycott analyses the second one day international between India
and New Zealand at Hyderabad
After the beating India took at Rajkot, I think the Indian team said
whatever you can do we can do better! And they did with an awesome
batting display which was reminiscent of Ganguly and Dravid at Taunton
in the World Cup.
This time it was Tendulkar who was determined to make up for his last
match dismissal and Dravid who looked in great touch from the first
ball. The New Zealanders were stirred up with superb cricketing shots
and perfect placement. Both batsmen kept pace with each other and 300
runs always looked on the cards. What we did not expect was the
carnage that took place once they had made centuries. Dravid
accelerated so quickly after reaching the milestone that he outscored
Sachin plundering runs all over the park with effortless classic
strokes. Eventually he succumbed to a mistimed slog to mid-wicket.
At the other end Sachin would not be outdone. He improvised with quick
thinking and enormous power. Young bowlers like Chris Drum tried to
stick it in the block hole but the master got his left leg quickly out
of the way and kept smashing to and over mid-wicket. At one stage the
young seamer bowled four full tosses and was hit in four different
places. He was trying for yorkers but by this time the brain was
scrambled. Nobody was queuing up to bowl as Sachin moved around the
crease. Sachin was awesome as he out thought, out hit and out batted
the bowling. They couldn't live with his stroke play as he plundered
boundary after boundary beating and bashing the bowling into
submission. By the time New Zealand walked off the field they must
have been shell shocked. Records came and went as Tendulkar and Dravid
claimed the highest partnership ever in one day cricket and Tendulkar
the highest score by an Indian. In years to come people will say I was
there. I saw it and it was mind blowing.
Once fielders and bowlers have had such a pounding and mauling it
depresses the dressing room. Nobody is in the right frame of mind to
bat and batting is always the mental thing. Psychologically the New
Zealanders would have to concentrate on scoring 7-1/2 runs an over for
50 overs. That scoring rate plays on the mind as batsman after batsman
has to keep up the run rate by playing chancy strokes. Sometimes the
risky shots come off but more often than not when you are up against
it then your batsmen 'hole out' and so it proved as Tendulkar was
able to spread his men out immediately onto the 30 yards circle. He
could give the batsmen singles but try and cut off the boundaries and
wait for the New Zealand batsmen to commit harakiri. Spearman mis-hit
to deepish mid-on, Astle mis-pulled to mid-wicket, Twose tried to work
across the line a straight ball and the captain Fleming tried a big
hit into the deep. The match was over by the fifteenth over. Parore
got himself stumped off a wide and the dangerous Cairns was run out
again by a team mate. The whole innings was in shambles as wickets
tumbled at regular intervals and lower down the order O'Connor and
Vettori got run out through bad calling. The pressure of the mammoth
total scored by India killed the New Zealand batting.
India were outplayed in Rajkot but here in Hyderabad they got their
own back with interest. Whichever side bats first on these flat
pitches has the best chances of batting the other team out of the game
but even with changes to the Indian squad I think they will have the
better of New Zealand in the 5 match series.
© Professional Management Group
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