Line & Length
R Mohan
Australia Invincible No More
January 24, 2008
Team India did much more than stop the Australian juggernaut at Perth in a Test that confounded every expectation.
By proving Australia is no more the invincible team of world cricket by beating them in their fast bowlers' lair, Kumble's men have challenged the world order that has existed for more than a decade.
Dennis Lillee may have helped pass on some bowling tips through coach Venkatesh Prasad. The huge cross winds at WACA are a strange phenomenon that bowlers do not come across in big, built-up international venues anymore. If you harness the Perth winds, you can conquer the batsmen was the message a young trio of swing and seam merchants assimilated.
The Kookaburra ball is not known to be a swing bowlers' best friend although the new ball does tend to move more than the Duke that has a bigger seam and so is a bowlers' ally for a longer period as it also lends itself nicely to reverse swing when the ball gets old.
India's pace trio used the Australian ball well, with a good wrist position at release and the right speeds that will maximise swing.
The peculiar conditions at the western Australian city were reigned in to expose the chinks in Australian batting that the Sultans of English swing in Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard had exploited so well in the 2005 Ashes. The Indian bowlers may not have produced such awesome movement when the series was open, yet it is better late than never.
The Adelaide Oval, being almost as much of an open ground as WACA, can lend itself nicely to swing, too. Considering Australia were previously downed here by Ajit Agarkar's late swing, maybe there is reason to hope the Indian bowlers' domination is not over yet.
While we tend to exaggerate the importance of our vaunted batting line-up what we often fail to see is that in good bowling conditions it is Indian bowling that picks up nicely and enables Team India to win Test matches abroad, as in England last year. The forte of Indian cricketers is not power, not brawn. Their strength is far subtler, as in swing and seam bowling and in spin.
The beanpole, drainpipe-legged Ishant Sharma, a tyro at this level of Test match cricket, may become the exception to this rule of subtlety over strength as the 19-year-old fills out and becomes a fast medium bowler in the mould of Javagal Srinath. In the battle he won so easily against Ricky Ponting in an exhibition of controlled seam bowling, Sharma proved that lack of experience was no handicap, not when there was pace and bounce in the pitch.
Emphasizing the point about the subtleties of Indian cricketers was the success of V.V.S.
Laxman who played quite the stellar role in making this win possible by stretching the target beyond the psychological barrier of 400-plus that has been crossed just thrice in 131 years of Test cricket.
Laxman proved himself a master in batting with the tail.
He has this Steve Waugh-like confidence in his colleagues that makes nothing of taking a single off the first ball and letting them build their confidence by facing the music. Contrast this with the approach of Misbah-ul Haq in India when he must have declined at least 100 singles in farming the strike when with the tail.
To say Laxman revels in Australia or against the Aussies anywhere is to gild the lily. He has often said that pressure brings out the best in him and none puts on the pressure like the best do. What impels a touch player to excel against bowling of high intensity is a part of the mystique of the remarkable batsman.
Always judged harshly at times when his confidence and form have suffered, inevitably in direct proportion to each other, Laxman had to prove himself more often than any other cricketer, Mohinder Amarnath included. When his instincts guide him, his feet and his bat into the right areas, there are few better sights on the cricket field.
To dismiss that ball on the line of off stump past long on with a wrist of steel is an expression of art rather than the making of runs for the stylish Hyderabadi who bats in the best traditions of southern style set by Gundappa Viswnath and carried on by the likes of Mohammed Azharuddin.
Shunted down the order after Sydney, Laxman did what he has always done well - batted on and on in the team cause.
Team India helped anoint that performance with another VVS (Very Very Special) win.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
By proving Australia is no more the invincible team of world cricket by beating them in their fast bowlers' lair, Kumble's men have challenged the world order that has existed for more than a decade.
Dennis Lillee may have helped pass on some bowling tips through coach Venkatesh Prasad. The huge cross winds at WACA are a strange phenomenon that bowlers do not come across in big, built-up international venues anymore. If you harness the Perth winds, you can conquer the batsmen was the message a young trio of swing and seam merchants assimilated.
The Kookaburra ball is not known to be a swing bowlers' best friend although the new ball does tend to move more than the Duke that has a bigger seam and so is a bowlers' ally for a longer period as it also lends itself nicely to reverse swing when the ball gets old.
India's pace trio used the Australian ball well, with a good wrist position at release and the right speeds that will maximise swing.
The peculiar conditions at the western Australian city were reigned in to expose the chinks in Australian batting that the Sultans of English swing in Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard had exploited so well in the 2005 Ashes. The Indian bowlers may not have produced such awesome movement when the series was open, yet it is better late than never.
The Adelaide Oval, being almost as much of an open ground as WACA, can lend itself nicely to swing, too. Considering Australia were previously downed here by Ajit Agarkar's late swing, maybe there is reason to hope the Indian bowlers' domination is not over yet.
While we tend to exaggerate the importance of our vaunted batting line-up what we often fail to see is that in good bowling conditions it is Indian bowling that picks up nicely and enables Team India to win Test matches abroad, as in England last year. The forte of Indian cricketers is not power, not brawn. Their strength is far subtler, as in swing and seam bowling and in spin.
The beanpole, drainpipe-legged Ishant Sharma, a tyro at this level of Test match cricket, may become the exception to this rule of subtlety over strength as the 19-year-old fills out and becomes a fast medium bowler in the mould of Javagal Srinath. In the battle he won so easily against Ricky Ponting in an exhibition of controlled seam bowling, Sharma proved that lack of experience was no handicap, not when there was pace and bounce in the pitch.
Emphasizing the point about the subtleties of Indian cricketers was the success of V.V.S.
Laxman who played quite the stellar role in making this win possible by stretching the target beyond the psychological barrier of 400-plus that has been crossed just thrice in 131 years of Test cricket.
Laxman proved himself a master in batting with the tail.
He has this Steve Waugh-like confidence in his colleagues that makes nothing of taking a single off the first ball and letting them build their confidence by facing the music. Contrast this with the approach of Misbah-ul Haq in India when he must have declined at least 100 singles in farming the strike when with the tail.
To say Laxman revels in Australia or against the Aussies anywhere is to gild the lily. He has often said that pressure brings out the best in him and none puts on the pressure like the best do. What impels a touch player to excel against bowling of high intensity is a part of the mystique of the remarkable batsman.
Always judged harshly at times when his confidence and form have suffered, inevitably in direct proportion to each other, Laxman had to prove himself more often than any other cricketer, Mohinder Amarnath included. When his instincts guide him, his feet and his bat into the right areas, there are few better sights on the cricket field.
To dismiss that ball on the line of off stump past long on with a wrist of steel is an expression of art rather than the making of runs for the stylish Hyderabadi who bats in the best traditions of southern style set by Gundappa Viswnath and carried on by the likes of Mohammed Azharuddin.
Shunted down the order after Sydney, Laxman did what he has always done well - batted on and on in the team cause.
Team India helped anoint that performance with another VVS (Very Very Special) win.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
