Durban, Dec. 24: Every stroke off their bats sounded like a gunshot, stabbing the calm of an overcast and sluggish Christmas’ eve morning. Sachin Tendulkar stepped out to drive, made accommodative correction while still in the downward arc, and then flashed the ball to the imaginary extra cover boundary.
In the net alongside, a humming Virender Sehwag mimicked the shot to the tee, hitting it exactly where the Master had. The two continued with the ritual for about 20-odd minutes before the others took strike. But in that short period, not one ball managed to beat the two bats.
The ease with which Tendulkar and Sehwag batted on the practice pitches at the Kingsmead on Friday, which will be very similar to the one which will host India’s Boxing Day Test against South Africa from Sunday, is a good sign. What isn’t is the fact that they were pounding pacers Ishant Sharma and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.
The Indian attack’s inability to cope with responsive pitches was emphatically illustrated in the first Test when they crashed to 116/9 in less than 35 overs on their way to an innings defeat, but bounced back in the second innings with a 450-plus score.
New-ball bowlers Ishant and Sreesanth, on the other hand, had the South Africans on the field for 580 minutes spread over two days, and not once did they manage a spell where they could claim to be on top.
Their rudderless performance — the two bowled 51 overs combined giving away 217 runs for two wickets — is a cause for concern, and nothing could be a fairer assessment than India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s own. “You’re supposed to either take wickets or not let the opposition score at five runs an over in a Test match,” Dhoni said after the loss at Centurion, whose bowlers managed neither.
A fit-again Zaheer Khan will take his position as the leader of the pace attack having recovered from a groin injury. He is Dhoni’s trump card on the tour, but with other mis-firing pacers, offie Harbhajan Singh —who’s in a better form with the bat than with the ball, and two rookie pacers — Jaidev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav — in the wings — can India manage 20 wickets?
This year, Sreesanth has taken 12 wickets in total from six Test matches at an average of 57.16. Ishant fares only slightly better. “Being good enough to play Test matches and being good enough to win Test matches – there’s a huge difference there. You need quick bowlers who can bowl at the batsmen’s throats to shake him up, and then slide the ball that goes away and takes the edge,” Peter Pollock, South African pace great of the Sixties told this newspaper on Friday.
“Dhoni will feel confident that his batsmen will do well now, but if bowlers don’t take 20 wickets, he’ll either lose the Test gain or manage a draw at best.”
Ishant, Sreesanth and rookie pacer Jaidev Unadkat failed to touch the 140kmph mark at Centurion, while Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn only rarely slipped below it.