When Laxman eases a drive through covers, all’s well with the world. But when he clubs one through mid-on, you just grimace
S Aga13-Mar-2010
Deccan’s batsman played some daft shots but Rohit Sharma’s was the daftest of all (file photo)•Associated PressSofter, softest: Three years ago, Manoj Tiwary was being spoken of as the future of Indian batting. Since then, he’s endured a severe knee injury, indifferent form and two seasons on the fringes for the Delhi Daredevils before the transfer to Kolkata last December. Change of fortune in home colours? Not quite, with a first-ball dismissal that was eiderdown-soft.Slap-happy: Few have as much experience of the format, are as adept at it or have as many runs as Brad Hodge. Having launched the first six of the competition over wide long-on, he was then undone by an innocuous delivery from 20-year-old Jaskaran Singh, at the opposite end of the experience scale. It was wide and asking for a caning. Instead, Hodge slapped it uppishly to Herschelle Gibbs at backward point. And unless the batsman in question is a certain SR Waugh, Gibbs knows how to hold on.Lack of finish: “We lost it in the last few overs of our bowling, and the last few overs of our batting.” said Adam Gilchrist afterwards. Without Fidel Edwards and his toe-crushing yorkers or the bustling pace of Ryan Harris, the death-overs bowling was dismal. From 81 for 4 after 14 overs, Angelo Mathews and Owais Shah biffed and bludgeoned 80 from the next six. Full tosses, half-volleys on leg stump, long hops – the full buffet-bowling spread was laid out, and neither batsman forgot to tuck in.Beauty and the beast: When VVS Laxman eases a drive through the covers, all’s well with the world. But when he clubs one through mid-on as a right-handed Atul Bedade might have, you just grimace. Laxman’s 14-ball 22 was a perfect example of how some of the game’s stylists have to adapt to stay relevant in this format. Having smashed Laxmi Ratan Shukla over long-on for six – he has just eight hits over the rope in 13 years of international cricket – he fell going for an encore off Murali Kartik. There’s only so much you can go against the grain.Drop, drop, caught: “We should have had him twice before we got him,” said Dav Whatmore with typical candour when asked for the game’s turning point. Gilchrist had 2 when Hodge failed to hold on to a slip catch, and was on 41 when a chance slipped through Charl Langeveldt’s fingers at long-on. Tiwary though held on a couple of overs later. And from 99 for 1, Deccan’s batsmen went AWOL.This ain’t Newlands: As recently as a week ago, Gibbs and Langeveldt were Cape Cobras team-mates. On opposite sides of an IPL divide here, it was Langeveldt that finished on top, darting one past the outside edge and then having Gibbs caught at long-off. Like a golfer in a sand-trap, Gibbs got under the ball and this time there was Mathews to ensure that Langeveldt’s catching would not be reprised.What was that?: “The shot selection was very poor,” said Gilchrist after the game. He didn’t bring up individual names, but if there was an award for brainless stroke of the day, Rohit Sharma would have won it unopposed. The tennis-forehand-like effort to mid-off was truly grotesque, and raised some uncomfortable questions about the state of mind of a batsman whose game has regressed in the past two years.Swipe out: Competition for Rohit came from Andrew Symonds and a wretched heave across the line against Ishant. It went only as far as Sourav Ganguly at midwicket. From 99 for 1 to 116 for 4. And there would be no recovery.I aim, I miss: Jaskaran was way out of his crease when Ishant dived full length to stop a straight drive from T Suman. With all three stumps to aim at, Ishant got up and had a shy. No fun-fair awards for him, with the throw so wide of the target that they managed to run one anyway.Variety and spice: On Indian pitches, merely dropping the ball on a length is asking for a flogging. Slower balls and cutters are popular options on placid pitches, and Ishant showed how to do it in the final over. With 17 needed and Suman pre-meditating big heaves across the line, Ishant rolled his fingers across the seam and flummoxed him twice. And that was pretty much that for a game littered with far too many mistakes to be memorable.
