The Kiwis were finally beaten by the Indian monsoon. The moisture the rains had left behind in Nagpur became a double-edged sword as Daniel Vettori won the toss and chose to bat. His batsmen who had been so defiant in two Tests were completely done in by the bit of lateral movement afforded by the moist conditions surrounding the pitch on the opening day and the world’s top ranked Test side were soon able to show the big gulf between the two sides.What moisture does to seam bowling in Indian conditions is rather well known. Dale Steyn once used the watering can liberally used by the Ahmedabad groundsman in pitch preparation to bowl the celebrated Indian batting lineup out in exactly 20 overs, of which he bowled just eight.
India got the rare chance this time around to pep up their bowling attack in which young Ishant Sharma proved himself worthy of the mantle of leading the attack in Zaheer Khan’s absence.
Why Ishant was not played in the first two Tests is one of those mysteries of Indian cricket. It is said the skipper believes Sreesanth bowls more wicket-taking deliveries than Ishant. It’s not unusual for selection procedures for the final XI to follow such thin and specious logic. Truth to tell, it hardly serves the team to leave out its most promising quick when only two seamers can be played in a Test XI in India.
Sreesanth is a great trier who bowls a nice and late outswinger but he cannot be India’s great hope for the future. He must be rated when there is a place for three seamers as in Tests played abroad, particularly in countries outside the sub-continent.
No skipper would like to go the other way and put the hosts in, certainly not in India. Ricky Ponting who learnt his lesson from the Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 2005 has won the toss and batted some 38 times after one bitter experience.
Like Vettori, Dhoni had walked into the trap of batting first on a moist pitch in 2008 at Motera but at least in his case it could be said he chose to bat in what were normal hot weather conditions in April rather than in wintry November.
When the pitch loses its moisture and flattens out, the conditions become splendid for batting, which is when Team India made the most, with the consummate professional Rahul Dravid crafting an innings of length to put his side far ahead as to settle the issue once for all.
Being such a keen student of the game, Dravid cannot but play the industrious Test knock. That he maximised his return from the potential represented by lovely batting conditions is a tribute once again to his ability to focus on the essential.
There was some disappointment that Sachin did not go on to his 50th Test century in his home state. But there is a silver lining to this too. There was also a touch of inevitability about beating New Zealand. Even so, the task might have been that much harder had Dhoni’s notorious bad luck with the toss gone the other way and he had won the toss and batted in Nagpur. I read somewhere that they have a horse racing type of gauge in South Africa to say how much moisture there is underneath the surface. I wish Dhoni would use it in the significant series ahead.