Which way will it swing this time?

On the big screen in the stadium and on the smaller ones at home,Mahendra Singh Dhoni can often be seen vehemently supporting an initiative to save the 1411 tigers left in India....

On the big screen in the stadium and on the smaller ones at home,Mahendra Singh Dhoni can often be seen vehemently supporting an initiative to save the 1411 tigers left in India. On the cricket field though,theres fear of another species fast facing extinction in these times of broad bats and Twenty20 that of the swing bowlers.

In this three-match series,expected to be played on flat batting beauties,three of the few survivors left in world cricket Charl Langeveldt,Jacques Kallis and Praveen Kumar will come together in an attempt to prove that they too can exist and operate even as batsmen continue to swing their arms at anything thats pitched up to them.

Elsewhere,theres Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson from England,and Australias Ben Hilfenhaus who rely on the moving ball in an era where hitting back-of-a-length is fashionable.

At the Sawai Man Singh stadium on Sunday afternoon,Langeveldt and Kallis subdued the early burst during the Indian innings,which at one point was threatening to put on a massive score in the first ODI.

Coming in as the last option to the bowling card,Kallis finished with best figures of 7-0-29-3 while Langeveldt,introduced one change,returned with 10-0-48-1,dismissing Dinesh Karthik and playing a hand,pun intended,in Virender Sehwags freak run out while backing up at the non-strikers.

They both ended up on the losing side,as Praveen Kumar kept his head in the final over,of which 10 were required. Earlier,he had picked up the wicket of Loots Bosman in his first spell and utilised the new ball and the cold evening conditions well,and finished with figures of two for 46 off his eight overs.

Street-smart cricketer

Praveen may not have the pace. He is not express,but I feel he is a street-smart cricketer. The change in length,speeds and the variation that he has got with swing,along with the amount of cricket that he has played,really help him, Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.

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Kallis agreed with the Indian skipper. We have a few all-rounders who can bowl but then you also need your Charles Langeveldts the kind of specialist bowlers that do a specific job in the side, he said.

Langeveldt bowled in three spells,coming in each time when the batsmen were on rampage mode to tame them while Kallis returned with the scalps of MS Dhoni,Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja. Both Kallis and Langeveldt mixed up their line and length,shaped the ball in and out,and bowled the odd bouncer to keep the batsmen on a tight leash.

With pitches these days tendered only for big-hitting and entertaining the spectators and the stands getting taller in attempts to increase capacity at new stadiums,thus limiting the breeze across the ground swing bowlers are finding their environment rapidly destructed. With the ball being changed after 34 overs,the option of reverse swing too has been kept out. With rain in the air,the three might get some assistance,even though the pitch itself is as flat as they come.