Then and now

As India slipped to an exasperating defeat against Australia at the Mohali stadium in the Champions Trophy, my mind couldn’t stop wandering to a similar setting between the same teams at Mohali ten years back. The tournament then was the Titan Cup featuring South Africa besides India and Australia. It was a do or die situation for both India and Australia in the final league match at Mohali, the winner making it to the final against South Africa.

Rewind to November 3, 1996 – Mohali Stadium, Chandigarh. It was Australia who won the toss and decided to field first, the decision having been taken in the background of Australia losing four matches in the tournament batting first. It was a much anticipated duel between Tendulkar and McGrath, and Tendulkar got the better of the Aussie bowlers early on. Despite Tendulkar’s attacking innings of 62 from 60 balls, India had slumped to 95 for 3 when the old fox Mark Waugh once again got the crucial breakthrough in form of Tendulkar’s wicket. The situation required urgent repair and India had two of the finest batsmen for this job – the veteran Azhar and the new but talented Dravid. Comfortably taking the one’s and two’s, they soon took India past the 200 mark. Towards the end with wickets in hand, Azharuddin exploded spectacularly and helped by Jadeja and Mongia, India posted an impressive 289 on the board.

Defending a total of an apparently tall order was never going to be easy against the hard nosed Aussies, and the Indian bowlers found that soon when Mark Waugh and Taylor got off to a flying start. Ironically for Mark Waugh, it was the unknown Robin Singh who broke the partnership by dismissing him and there was more joy when Stuart Law was out on the next ball. Steve Waugh and Taylor ensured that there were no further casualties for some time and developed a good partnership, only to be dragged back with the fall of two quick wickets. However the Aussies always seemed to be with a good chance of winning given the healthy run rate that they were maintaining, and Bevan and Slater had done a neat job and taken Australia within 50 runs for victory.

The rot started when Bevan was bowled by Prasad. Healy and Slater soon followed Bevan to the pavilion and suddenly India looked to be in the driver’s seat. Reiffel and Hogg added precious 15 runs for the 8th wicket but the ever determined Kumble took two crucial wickets in his closing overs to bring the match to an ultimate climax – six runs off the last over with one wicket in hand. With only Robin Singh available to bowl the last over after finishing the quota of the regular bowlers, Tendulkar took it upon himself to deliver the death over and a chaotic run out off the first ball ended the suspense with India emerging victorious by five runs. This emphatic win against Australia propelled India to a glorious victory in the final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai against South Africa who had defeated India in all the three league matches. This was so reminiscent of the 1993 Hero Cup when India won against South Africa in a thrilling encounter to then defeat West Indies comprehensively in the final.

Come back to 29 November, 2006 – Mohali Stadium, Chandigarh. India and Australia again locked in a do or die battle in the prestigious ICC Champions Trophy. Once again it was India who were batting first. The only surviving members from the victory ten years back were Tendulkar and Dravid with Kumble not being in the scheme of things for one day matches. For Australia, it was McGrath, Ricky Ponting and Hogg who were part of the squad for Titan Cup although Ponting was not in the playing XI in the Titan Cup clash at Mohali.

Tendulkar, who had a low string of scores after the unbeaten 141 against West Indies in Malaysia, had the ideal ground to come up with a big one. Sadly for the Indians, he looked totally out of sorts when he was dismissed by McGrath, only to be followed up by Dinesh Mongia’s dismissal for whom the asking was just too much. Sehwag and Dravid revived memories of the memorable Titan Cup encounter by starting off steadily. At 186/3 in 40 overs with Dravid and Kaif batting sensibly, the scene was set for a big finish but the Indians were pushed back badly when the Dravid-Kaif duo was back in the pavilion within the 43rd over itself. A clueless Raina and a fighting Dhoni tried to salvage the situation but were unable to generate the momentum required for the slog overs and India ended up at 249 for eight. The big shots were simply missing and there were no finishers to take the opposition to task. However, the total still seemed defendable and the hopes of millions of Indians rested upon the shoulders of Pathan and Munaf.

The blazing start provided by Gilchrist and Watson flashed back memories of Mark Waugh and Taylor hitting the Indian bowlers to all parts of the Mohali stadium. The lively Sreesanth got the first breakthrough for India and Australia were 61/1 in 9 overs. But in walked a seasoned campaigner and the leader of an all marauding Aussie team – Ricky Ponting. And what followed next was the most uninspired and unintelligent bowling by the Indian bowlers. It seemed the bowlers bowled anything other than just short of a good length. Attacking Ponting and Co. with short deliveries bowled at around 125 kmph was self destruction to say the least and the match was well out of reach for India within the first 15 overs. Harbhajan Singh has enjoyed a fantastic run of games in the one day variety with his impressive bowling economy figures over the last year but with no Kumble around there has to be a change in his bowling variety, and he has to don the mantle of the wicket taking bowler for India now. Dinesh Mongia quietly slipped in his 9 overs for 36 runs but that was never going to be enough for there were no wicket takers around except for a bunch of lads bowling “Right arm over the wicket anywhere”.

What has become particularly irritating to the cricket fan these days is the pattern of defeats that India seems to be having these days. It is not as if the statistical record of India’s ODI victories has improved substantially over the last decade or so but what one certainly rues is the acute nature of failure associated with India off late. Massive top order failures in the batting department while chasing have started haunting India quite frequently. Gone are the days when chasing a total of 250 odd runs used to be more dramatic – the usual script used to begin with Tendulkar starting off emphatically from one end with a rather sluggish support from the other end. Amidst the chaos, one used to witness some spectacular batting performances only to lose key wickets at the crucial stage before the likes of Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Nayan Mongia and Javagal Srinath used to frantically try chasing the totals.

There used to be sort of a suspense and a bit of drama unlike the trend developing these days – teams slumping to 50 odd for 5 only for the last recognized batting pair to forge a face saving partnership and eventually end up getting bowled out quite a distance away from the victory target. On the other hand, you get to see another scenario where opposition teams end up chasing totals effortlessly against a listless Indian bowling attack. The surrender by Indian bowlers is so meek and brainless that it makes one wonder about the lack of common sense along with their cricketing abilities.

As an avid Indian cricket fan I was hoping for history repeating itself at the Mohali Stadium in November 2006 against Australia, but the outcome just goes to show the giant strides that Australia has taken in international cricket over the last decade. Under Taylor and Steve Waugh Australia forged a very strong test team but when it came to the one day affair they still looked vulnerable as some of their performances till the 1999 World Cup show. The victory in the 1999 World Cup changed all that and today Australia looks unbeatable.

Under Dravid and Chappell, India had sweet one day victories over Sri Lanka, England and Pakistan and achieved a historical Test series victory in West Indies but their recent one day reversals in West Indies, Malaysia and now in the Champions Trophy have brought them to a critical point before the 2007 World Cup.

India next embark to South Africa for a five one day and three test match series from November to January. Going by what India suffered during the 1996-97 test series in South Africa, I can only hope that history doesn’t repeat itself.