Day One or One-Day: To Aussies, the same ball game

At 5/400, the highest first day score on this ground, India is assured of nothing but another long day today. Adam Gilchrist, just in on Friday evening, must be drooling into his batting gloves.

It is fashionable to persecute Ganguly’s men for poor days, and deify them for good ones, and it requires stating that the pitch offered little help, the batsmen even less. Hitting through the line, and on the rise, was acceptable, and Ricky Ponting, as composed as a priest, delivered a divine innings of 176 not out. So finely did he strike the ball that even spectating seagulls appeared to stand at admiring attention. In his past 25 Tests he has 11 centuries and, Friday aside, his average in the past two years is 73. As man and batsman his maturity is on parade every match.

Still, the Indians — captain, bowlers and fielders (Nehra’s fielding attempts suggest he and athleticism are not on good terms) — cannot escape inquiry.

Did Ganguly attack too early, too long (though his welcome of Steve Waugh with three slips, two gullies and a point suggested a private battle not yet extinguished)? Should he have packed the off-side field so heavily? Did he err by bringing in a short-leg for Waugh an over too late? Should he have retained a third man? On a day when a supposedly injured Harbhajan Singh came on as a replacement fielder, every tactic was open to debate.

But indicting Ganguly is to not appreciate his predicament. Ashish Nehra is 15 Tests old, just returned from injury, and tires fast; Ajit Agarkar (18 Tests) is an honest customer of reasonable virtues; and the inexperienced, enthusiastic Irfan Pathan (1 Test) was offered the best piece of advice by Wasim Akram, which was not to read newspapers for two years. Starting with today’s news would not be a bad idea.

Together, they lacked consistency, pace and penetration, and on a true pitch they rarely elicited a false shot. Kumble, vastly more experienced, went for 115 in 28 overs, and thereafter the cupboard is mostly bare. If a team is only as good as its bench strength, India is in some trouble.

In a subcontinental cricketing universe, not handicapped by a shortage of resources in money or people, it is absurd bowlers are hard to find. Soon even Parliament will join the debate on the need for altered domestic wickets, but the BCCI has other matters to attend to, though we are never quite sure what they are. Vision evidently is not a word they are familiar with.

Not overburdened by skill, India was abandoned by luck as well. Disarmed by Zaheer’s and Harbhajan’s absence, and overlooking Murali Karthik, losing the toss was a kick in the guts for Ganguly, a promise of toil in the field quickly fulfilled.

Briefly India threatened, but the illusion rapidly passed. Pathan, with his 14th delivery in Test cricket, had Matthew Hayden caught behind to a ball outside off that had ‘‘leave alone’’ written all over it. Ricky Ponting edged a catch high towards Virender Sehwag at slip when 17; had it been held it would have been 55/2. The next look at the scoreboard revealed it was 134/2. Australian batsmen do not refuse generosity.

The sun and the rain clouds flirted, but there was no change of Australian mood. Constantly they attacked, their intent to win this game evident in every shot. Nehra bowled Waugh (30), and had Damien Martyn (30) caught; Justin Langer (58) played a lazy shot to a Kumble googly, but India was haemorrhaging runs and these were just passing attempts to stem the flow.

Hard as it might be to find an Indian virtue from Friday, it might be said they are at least a stoic bunch. Late into the evening, when concentration tends to ebb and focus die, Simon Katich (75) hooked Agarkar to fine leg, and then watched, astonished, as Sehwag produced a running, diving catch of rare beauty.

The team ran to him and rejoiced for it had been a day of rare celebration. Who knows, if they bowl a disciplined line today, and then bat with purpose, the smiles stolen from them may return again. Stranger things are known to happen in this game.