Dravid & Co give up pride

[Inside_edge]

(Grab a throw and a toss pillow.Its pretty quiet here) :hic: along with series; Sourav, Kumble, Zaheer, Sreesanth not hurdles enough for Safs Ajay S Shankar Swinging one practice stump again and again, aiming somewhere up towards the Table Mountain, Greg Chappell?s quiet golfing moment at the Newlands ground this morning was disturbed by former South African spin ace Pat Symcox. Walking up to the Indian coach, Symcox sensed the cold breeze rustling in from the southern end, and said, ?It?s the wrong one, the rain wind could save you guys.? Chappell didn?t react, he barely nodded, returned to his ?golf?. Deep inside, he was still seething at the way his batsmen had thrown up their hands, given up the game yesterday. Deep inside, he was also looking at the road ahead, on the final day of what could be his last Test as Team India coach: the atrocious fielding, the miserable batting, the hidden injuries, the bizarre selection, just about everything. Minutes later, South Africa began pushing his team, over by over, towards what was eventually a five-wicket defeat, only the third time in India?s cricketing history that they have taken the lead, and then ended up losing a Test series. It happened against David Gower?s England over 21 years ago, it happened against Carl Hooper?s West Indies four seasons ago, it happened today. Racing against time under a brooding cloud cover, managing to retain their focus during a nearly four-hour rain break, South Africa coolly nudged aside everyone that stood in their way ? Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth ? to wrap up the three-Test contest 2-1. ?We will know in the first 30 minutes,? Chappell had said. We knew. Thirty runs, no wickets, match over by a mile. With one masterstroke South Africa had fooled them all ? Shaun Pollock, possibly South Africa?s best bet against Anil Kumble, walking into bat this morning instead of Jacques Kallis at No 4. Pollock had batted only once before at that position, against Sri Lanka in a drawn match at Durban four years ago, when he made just 11. But today, he made a valuable 37, and more importantly, used his feet to tear apart the web that Kumble had begun to weave last evening. Obviously, the South African thinktank had noted down the way the 33-year-old veteran had batted against Kumble in the second innings of that first Test at Johannesburg. And this time, watching with a thumping heart at the other end was his skipper Graeme Smith, struggling to pick Kumble, chancing his arm a bit against the rest, finally letting Pollock take the lead role. India did break that partnership, Zaheer getting Smith to nudge one behind for Dinesh Kaarthik to take a superb one-handed catch, but it was too little, too late ? after 72 runs, 89 balls, one hour and nine minutes. There was one brief flutter 19 minutes later, when Pollock went too, edging Zaheer to Laxman at second slip ? 127 for two to 132 for four, still 79 runs behind. But the calm Kallis and South Africa?s batting rock of this series, Ashwell Prince, quickly shut up the chirping Indians with some careful, focused ?old-fashioned? batting, taking the singles and patiently working the ball around in a 77-run clincher. Finally, as the winning run came in the final hour under floodlights, you could ask why an exhausted Sreesanth simply fell off the radar after the Zaheer surge. You could also pick on the fact that Munaf Patel, said to be fit, bowled just one over; you could snigger at India?s ?second spinner? Virender Sehwag, 1-0-8-0, and wonder why the real option, Tendulkar, got just three overs; you could shake your head at the 67.3 overs that Kumble bowled in this match, but also wonder why he was bowling around the stumps to Kallis all afternoon, when the rough was way out on the leg. But then, did it matter in the end? And so, left gasping by South Africa?s exhaust fumes were Team India and coach Chappell, with the bitter aftertaste of a campaign that began on the right road but quickly veered off into the wild. Also left in the wake of this comprehensive defeat were a string of signposts pointing to what went wrong, what worked out, and what needs to be done. ? THE BIG SURPRISE: One man. The only Indian batman to average more than 40 in three Tests. And that was the man they said didn?t deserve to be here: Sourav Ganguly, 42.8. In the process, the Bengal left-hander also sealed his return to the one-day team. ? THE FLOP SHOW: The rest of the Indian batting, of course. Dravid, gritting through a finger injury and two atrocious decisions at Durban, managed just 20.8. Tendulkar managed two half-centuries but was still stuck at 33.3, with that scratchy 14 yesterday raising serious question marks. Laxman was there, but only just about with two 50s at 30.1, and Wasim Jaffer masked his miserable run with that magnificent 112 on Tuesday. Time to reach for the alarm? You decide. ? THE HIT ARTISTES: Zaheer Khan, bowling his guts out throughout the series, almost turned the final Test with that late burst. Anil Kumble, as solid and reliable as ever, didn?t run through the South Africans, but didn?t give them any room either. ? THE SUPERHEROES: Definitely, Sreesanth and Dinesh Kaarthick. Having played just six Tests before he landed here, Sreesanth set up that historic first Test win, and finally ended the series with an amazing 18 wickets ? the best for India in South Africa along with Srinath (1996) and Kumble (1993). And Kaarthick? He was the real star of the last Test. Forced to open after a break of 15 months in Test cricket, Kaarthick came up with a classy 63, kept brilliantly, and then showed the big stars what batting against a rookie spinner was all about. ? THE QUESTION MARKS: Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel. Spurned by the coach, the chief selector, a badly out-of-rhythm Sehwag will have to bank on his teammates once again to save his career. Munaf Patel bowled reasonably well, under the circumstances. But somebody will have to come clean on his bandaged left ankle injury, why he was not flown home, why he was picked for the last Test? And Harbhajan Singh? Maybe, the way Tendulkar turned the ball in the final over gave you the answer.

[Inside_edge]

Re: Dravid & Co give up pride more From SA cricket India's cricket board said on Sunday national selectors should be prepared to get tough with struggling senior players in the wake of the test series defeat in South Africa. India took a 1-0 lead in the series but sub-par performances from experienced batsmen let South Africa rally to a five-wicket victory in the final test in Cape Town on Saturday. The Proteas swept the preceding one-day series 4-0 by big margins, also taking advantage of India's faltering batting, which failed to reach a tally of more than 200 runs once. "The board is definitely concerned by the performance, but it will not interfere," Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Niranjan Shah told Reuters. "It is up to the selection committee to review things. "(But) the selection committee should not go only by the history of some players," he added. "Consistent performance is important." Indian media and experts have rounded on batsman Virender Sehwag, who made just 89 runs from six test innings. The 28-year-old Delhi batsman also failed in the one-dayers, raising the possibility of him being left out of the upcoming home one-day series against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Skipper Rahul Dravid also failed to get a fifty in the tests and, with Sachin Tendulkar, took the blame for the batting collapse on day four that led to the final test defeat. Selectors meet on Friday to pick the 30 probables for the World Cup and the squad for the series with West Indies starting on January 21. India's poor one-day form has also raised concerns in the build-up to the World Cup, starting on March 13. Coach Greg Chappell criticised the batsmen on Saturday and hinted the performances would be put under the microscope. "Looking at the tour as a whole, there are more questions than answers," he said. "There will be a few guys under a bit of pressure, there's no doubt."