Ganguly gamble goes for a toss

With the conditions changing by the minute, Ganguly had to take a call. The unfortunate part of the decision was the fact that for a match of such importance, cricketing sense had to take a backseat and one had to take a gamble.

Ganguly took a wager — he put the Aussies in to bat. And as if there was a larger conspiracy doing the rounds, just as Aussie openers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist walked in to bat, the cloud cover shifted and the sun came out in all its splendour.

The moisture in the wicket soon dried and the pitch, from helping seamers went quickly to being a batsman’s paradise. To add to Ganguly’s woes, Zaheer Khan looked completely overcome by the occasion. His first over itself was enough to prove Ganguly wrong. Or at least suggest that the decision had backfired. And just for the record, the over yielded 15 runs, and went on for ten deliveries.

The planeload of fans were suddenly losing their voice and the few yellow pockets in the stands seemed to collectively have hit paydirt.

There are two schools of thought on the logic of Ganguly opting to bowl first. The obvious one could be the seam-friendly conditions and the faith in India’s new-found muscle in the pace department. The trio of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer and Ashish Nehra, who had such a brilliant World Cup so far, ideally should have relished the conditions. But the changing conditions and the series of short deliveries, combined with a listless Srinath meant that the composed Aussies could profit more than they expected to when they walked out. It also meant that the Indians were on the backfoot right from the beginning of the World Cup

The second, simply, was Ganguly’s fear of facing the Aussie attack under such overcast conditions. The Aussies had exposed the brittleness of the Indian line-up during the preliminary game and Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee have been in deadly form right through the tournament. That must have been at the back of Ganguly’s mind when he took the decision to bowl first.

Which of these was the main reason, or whether it was a combination of the two are open to debate. But that’s beside the point. In hindsight, it will have to Ganguly’s cross to bear.