Dawn of hope, dusk of despair

Azharuddin decided to bat first on the first morning of the second Test at Wellington, which was the right decision. He would not have expected Simon Doull to be so influential with the new ball swinging so much in the air. On that occasion it was more of an inspired spell of bowling than bad batting.

Winning the toss on the opening day of the third and final Test match,Azhar asked New Zealand to bat first. The decision was vindicated when Srinath captured two wickets in the first over. It was the dream start that India needed if they wanted to win this match to square the series. They need 20 wickets in the match to do that.

Bowling first on a pitch that has pace, bounce and seam, needs to be exploited well by the bowlers by probing and interrogating the batsmen around his off stump, and putting him under as much pressure as possible.

While Roger Twose and Horne let the ball go well outside the off stump, pressure was taken off them when Ganguly and Robin Singh bowled in tandem before and after lunch and looked very ordinary at this level of this competition. Neither bowler threatened the batsmen, with easy runs begin scored off Robin Singh’s bowling even though he was able to beat the bat on several occasions. It was a nervous start to his Test career.

The consistency needed by the third seam bowler is a crucial factor. I would expect the third seamer to bowl 20overs in a day and concede not more than 40 runs. The line and length was lacking as the Black Caps took full control of the bad ball by hitting 38 fours and two sixes during the day’s play.

Prasad and Srinath created problems for the batsmen, but they cannot be expected to bowl all day long. Once Srinath tired, the Indian attack did not threaten Twose and McMillan, who added 160 for the fourth wicket — record partnership for the wicket against India — in quick time. Twose, who was out for 87 in the second to last over of the day, scored his fourth Test 50 and McMillan his fifth.

In reaching his 92, McMillan hit 11 fours and two sixes. India needed bowlers to keep it tight at one end while Srinath and Prasad attacked from the other end. To see Kumble introduced into the attack after the 12th over showed a lack of confidence in Robin Singh, or had India selected the wrong player? The question is, "Would Mohanty have bowled better even though he has played only two Tests?"

The Black Caps will begrateful to have been let off the hook when they would have struggled for most of the day and perhaps even bowled out. A third wicket partnership of 95 between Twose and Horne was overshadowed by the fourth wicket pair of Twose and McMillan.

India will be disappointed with their performance on the first day. They will need to improve if they want to stay in touch with the match.

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand (1st innings): M Bell c Mongia b Srinath 0, M Horne b Srinath 63, S Fleming c Dravid b Srinath 0, R Twose c Mongia b Prasad 87, C McMillan c Prasad b Kumble 92, A Parore batting 9, P Wiseman batting 0; Extras (b 5, lb 12, nb 14, w 1): 32. Total (for 5 wickets in 90 overs): 283

Fall Of Wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-95, 4-255, 5-278

Bowling: Srinath 23-9-62-3, Prasad 24-7-37-1, Kumble 21-6-52-1, Robin Singh (Jr) 14-1-67-0, Ganguly 5-3-25-0, Tendulkar 3-0-23-0.