Srinath heroics in vain as India suffer third defeat

The lanky Australian has a history of dismissing the opposition’s best batsmen and in the time it takes to say, “We’ll bat first,” McGrath had dismissed both Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

McGrath uses a simple method: he bowls just short of a length outside off-stump and then every now and again, he bowls a delivery that is either a touch shorter and lifts sharply or else one that is slightly further up and moves off the seam. By sticking methodically to this plan, he deprives the batsmen of scoring opportunities to the point where they becomefrustrated and play a loose shot and bingo, another pest eradicated.

It appears that this tour of Australia is starting to get to Tendulkar. He made the right move in promoting himself to open, but he played a most un-Tendulkar like shot, just fiddling while McGrath burned and this resulted in a simple catch to the ‘keeper. Perhaps Tendulkar’s comments after the game at the MCG tell the story.

Sachin said the team was a little tired and perhaps they needed to have more rest between matches. It’s amazing how the teams that are losing are always jaded and the ones who are winning can’t get to the ground quick enough. Tendulkar’s shot smacked of a batsman who is currently being mentally dominated by an opponent.

When McGrath followed up with the wickets of Ganguly and V V S Laxman, India were in deep trouble. McGrath’s first spell was reminiscent of Joel Garner at his peak, miserly and penetrative, he took 3-5 off seven, to make India’s road to the finals of the competition as steep as the north face ofThe Eiger.

Apart from Rahul Dravid, who battled with great determination (but still finished 10 short of the top scorer extras), the rest of the batting was lacklustre. The way Devang Gandhi played and missed so regularly when facing Brett Lee, made one wonder why Ajay Jadeja, sore shoulder or not, wasn’t there to bolster the batting. Even if Jadeja can’t throw with much power, he gives India a reliable player in the middle order and most importantly, someone who can score quickly in the final few overs.

While the Indian batsmen must be close to despair, nothing has been able to douse the fire of Srinath. He answered his skipper’s call and bowled a devastating spell, spiced with good lifting deliveries, four crucial wickets and a touch of misfortune. Srinath has learnt the right length to bowl in Australia and while he has tended to tire in later spells in the Test series, he kept going for his full 10 overs and had the Australian batsmen on the hop. It was particularly noticeable that he had Steve Waughjumping and finally trapped him lbw, a dismissal reminiscent of the way Shoaib Akhtar got him at the Gabba.

At this point, India had a chance of winning but Andrew Symonds’ cool hitting and the lack of another top-class seamer, allowed Australia a bit of breathing space. Down on their luck, India suffered another blow when Ajit Agarkar, a bowler perfectly suited to the bouncy pitch livened up by the rain, was missing because of a hamstring injury.

Symonds took advantage of the medium-pace offerings that followed the Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad onslaught and hit straight and hard to produce the boundaries that relieved the tension.

Symonds won the man of the match award and he’s a valuable acquisition with his fielding, medium pace bowling and ability to provide aggressive batting in the middle-order. He’s just the sort of young player India need to find to boost their total and flagging morale.

Scoreboard

India:
S Ganguly c Gilchrist b McGrath 5
S Tendulkar c Gilchrist b McGrath1
V V S Laxman b McGrath 2
R Dravid lbw Symonds 22
D Gandhi c Bevan b Brett Lee 6
R Singh c Martyn b Shane Lee 11
S Dighe c Martyn b McGrath 2
A Kumble c Gilchrist b Symonds 0
N Chopra lbw Symonds 14
J Srinath not out 5
V Prasad b Symonds 0
Extras (lb14, w15, nb3) 32
Total (all out in 36.3 overs) 100
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-9, 3-18, 4-29, 5-71, 6-74, 7-74, 8-82, 9-100.
Bowling: McGrath 10-4-8-4, Fleming 6-0-18-0, Brett Lee 10-0-29-1, Shane Lee 7-0-20-1, symonds 3.3-0-11-4.

Australia
A Gilchrist c Dravid b Srinath 37
M Waugh lbw Srinath 3
R Ponting c Laxman b Prasad 0
M Bevan c Kumble b Srinath 2
S Waugh lbw Srinath 4
D Martyn not out 13
A Symonds not out 28
Extras

(lb7, w2, nb5) 14
Total (for 5 wickets, 26.5 overs) 101
Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-29, 3-55, 4-56, 5-59.
Bowling: Srinath 10-2-30-4, Prasad 10-0-29-1, Ganguly 3.5-0-22-0, R Singh 2-1-1-0, Kumble 1-0-12-0.

Result:Australia beat India by five wickets
Man of the Match: Andrew Symonds