Designer pattern turned out to be spinner’s paradise

Former Indian skipper Dilip Vengsarkar says the team won the Test because they played to their strength this time. ‘‘They won because of the batting,’’ he opines.

Incidentally, the Big Three —Rahul Dravid (148), Sachin Tendulkar (193) and captain Saurav Ganguly (128)—scored centuries in the same Test innings for the first time.

Former Indian wicketkeeper Chandrakant Pandit feels the win is ‘‘tremendous’’ because the Indians made a comeback after trailing 0-1 in the series. ‘‘There was always this feeling that they weren’t performing upto expectations,’’ says Pandit and adds that playing as a team made the difference.

Besides the contribution from the ‘man of the match’ Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, the performance of Anil Kumble, Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Harbhajan Singh were equally creditable.

Both the former cricketers were unanimous that the toss played a major factor in sowing the seeds of the fightback. ‘‘It was a brave decision,’’ says Vengsarkar of Ganguly’s decision to bat first after winning the toss. ‘‘To bat first, that too at Headingley, which is considered to be a seaming wicket needed guts. To me it looked liked a calculated move, which showed Ganguly and the coach John Wright’s confidence on the batsmen,’’ the classy batsman of yesteryears points out.

Ironically, Ganguly had received a lot of flak at the start of the Test for opting to bat first. But that’s another story.

The Test has also injected a new life into Kumble, who had a match haul of seven wickets. This, after his abilities were being questioned in the team after the jaw surgery in May. ‘‘We always expect Kumble to bowl well. But on this wicket it was interesting to see that he was spinning the ball, which is quite unlike of him. Besides, he also made full of the help he got from the wicket, which I feel had an Indian touch to it,’’ says Pandit.

The win also comes as a shot in the arm for the young bowling attack. ‘‘The victory would definitely boost the moral of the bowlers. There is an important Test coming up and I hope they go on to deliver the knockout punch at the Oval,’’ remarks Vengsarkar. Kumble, probably summed up the proceedings best saying, ‘‘it will now give value to the wins at home.’’