da cassino online： The West Indies team is in a hopeless situation – their battingis brittle, catching atrocious while their bowling lacks purpose
da 888： Erapalli Prasanna21-Oct-2002The West Indies team is in a hopeless situation – their battingis brittle, catching atrocious while their bowling lacks purpose.They seemed to have lost the Chennai Test even before a singleball was bowled. The first sight of the cracks in the track atChennai probably drained away all their hopes of giving thisbuoyant Indian side a fight.Hooper’s decision to bat first was based on his knowledge thatthe pitch would turn increasingly as the days went by. India,though, played some smart cricket on the first day and wrestedthe advantage quite nicely.
© CricInfoAnil Kumble bowled very well to pick up five wickets and thateffectively ruined the West Indies. The visitors’ body languagebetrayed that they had lost all hope even before they began theirinnings. The supremely confident Chanderpaul seemed an exception,for he has thrived against the Indian attack in the past. I amcertain that Parthiv Patel’s brilliant catch to dismissChanderpaul was hence the turning point of the match.When India replied, Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar got theteam off to another good start. With the duo’s continuingsuccess, I feel the quest for a good opening pair must now becalled off. A batsman like Sehwag, in particular, is a constantheadache for any opening bowler.The West Indies did not help their cause by dropping catchesoffered by him and a few of the other Indian batsmen. As anybowler would tell you there is little he can do if his fieldersfail him. The West Indies fielders, who dropped almost tencatches in the match, then do not deserve the slightest mercy.Their failure meant that the lion-hearted efforts of MervynDillon and debutant Jermaine Lawson were wasted.Talking of Lawson, he is a special bowler who needs to be groomedand guided. I am quite impressed with the pace he generates.Anyone who bowls at about 150 kmph is a genuine threat to anybatsman. It has been quite some time since we saw someone likehim from the Caribbean Isles. It will always be to young Lawson’scredit that he claimed the wickets of Dravid and Tendulkar in hisdebut Test. He certainly has a bright future ahead of him.That said I would have loved to see a few of the India batsmen goon to make a big score. Against better teams, they will certainlyhave to be more focused on their job. If the Windies fielders hadheld on to all the catches, India would have really struggled toclaim a good enough lead.One man who, however, did not get even a fair chance to prove hismettle was Sourav Ganguly. My heart goes out to the Indiancaptain; he has been getting some shocking decisions lately. Ihope he will bounce back with a big hundred at his home ground -Eden Gardens.When the West Indies batted for the second time, it was good tosee the application shown by young Ramnaresh Sarwan. I am surethat the day when he scores his first Test hundred is not too faraway .India would certainly not complain about only three West Indiesbatsmen getting to double digits but surely it must be a majorconcern for the Windies management. Their decision to leave outMahendra Nagamootoo from the Chennai Test is a clear indicatorthat nothing is working for the Caribbean team.
© CricInfoI was quite thrilled to see Harbhajan Singh putting in that extraeffort, and helping himself to seven wickets in the Test match.The West Indies batsmen have found the going extremely difficultagainst the Indian spinners. With Zaheer Khan pulling out of theKolkata Test with an injury, I think it is then the best time forthe selectors to give Amit Mishra his first Test cap.The West Indies are in a hopeless situation and the onus is onIndia to make a clean sweep of this Test series. They are on aroll and the boys would do well to keep the winning streak goingon.
