Another final, another defeat for India

For the third straight game, the Summer Spice series produced a bland, unappetising game. On the two previous occasions, the common factor was Kenya. In the final, today, you could almost be forgiven for imagining that it was the Kenyan outfit taking on South Africa -- India's display in the key game was about as inept as it was possible to get.

Kingsmead, in Durban, has been experiencing torrential rains for the three days preceding this final. The result was that what should have been a flat batting track was rendered a touch soft, with just enough sub-surface moisture early on to interest the seamers.

India retained the side that took on Kenya two nights ago, while the Proteas omitted the presumed spin of Nicky Boje in favour of the medium pace of Justin Kemp.

Shaun Pollock won the toss, and immediately opted to insert -- reasoning that the deck should provide early assistance to bowlers, before drying out into a good batting track.

The South African skipper got his reading bang on target (which, incidentally, made you wonder a bit when Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly said at the toss that had he won, he would in any case have batted first). With a pitch that for once afforded some assistance, Pollock and Mornantau Hayward produced a controlled first spell, characterised by a length just back of three quarters, giving the Indian openers no room to drive or force square.

16/0 at the end of 5 overs was a startling slow start for the Ganguly-Tendulkar combine which, more often that not in this tournament, had gotten off the blocks in a hurry. The pitch and the bowling on the day, however, demanded circumspection, and controlled accumulation -- the gameplan indicated was to see off the early threat of seam, and aim to be around 40 or so at the end of the first 12 overs, when Pollock and Hayward, like clockwork, make way for the support seamers.

Saurav Ganguly, however, seemed a touch miffed at not being able to get the board racing. In the 6th over, thus, he stepped back a pace to leg to change the line, and looked to slash Pollock square on the off. Time and again in this tournament he has done just that to brilliant effect -- on one occasion, getting two sixes in that region. This time, however, the pitch was different -- the ball seamed away a touch, and the shot merely found the edge through to the keeper.

Sachin Tendulkar seemed circumspect, occasionally playing controlled off-to-on flicks and checked drives on the off. In the 12th over -- and, predictably, Hayward's last in the first spell -- however Tendulkar attempted to go up on his toes and force one square. Again, a shot that would have been on at other venues ended in disaster here, with the ball lifting and seaming in sufficiently to find the thick inner edge onto the stumps.

Some comment would be called for about the timing of that shot -- as pointed out, Hayward was into his last over of the first spell, Pollock had already finished his initial quota of six, and the lesser seamers were due to come on. Nothing is quite as predictable as South Africa's ODI bowling changes, and it therefore came as a surprise that a batsman with Tendulkar's experience did not keep in mind the possibilities opening up in the game.

Rahul Dravid at number four, today, made sense -- given the conditions, you needed a batsman who could play good seam bowling in conditions that helped the bowling side. With Virendra Sehwag, the Indian vice-captain settled down to the task of consolidation, India bringing up its first 50 in the 18th over (68/2 in 20).

Sehwag unlike in the last league game took his time to settle in but once he had got a feel for the bowling and the pitch, began opening out with shots of brutal power. Kallis and Ntini, the second seam pairing for the Proteas, proved easier to negotiate than the lead pair, and India in fact seemed to be recovering nicely when Sehwag, looking to get under a Ntini lifter outside off and crash it over point, played a bit too late, and too hard, managing only to put the ball down the throat of Hayward at deep third man to end a good innings of 34 off 58 balls (91/3 India).

The batting side almost took another body blow when, soon after, Dravid flashed uncharacteristically at Ntini and got the edge, only to have Klusener grass him at slip (96/3 at that point) -- making it the fourth occasion in this series alone that the fielder has dropped them in that position.

India's 100 came up in the 29th over, the second fifty taking just 67 deliveries thanks largely to Sehwag, and to a couple of crisp pulls by Dravid. VVS Laxman, at the other end, seemed however to have not yet found his feet -- the footwork was less than perfect, the ball more often than not hit the thick edges rather than the middle and, overall, the performance did not induce much optimism. Thus, there was a touch of inevitability when the Hyderabad right-hander clipped a ball from Klusener to mid off for Ntini to dive and hold well -- the ball had stopped a touch on hitting the deck, Laxman misread it and went through with the shot, and perished.

Yuvraj Singh then blotted his copybook big time when, fresh to the wicket, he slashed at a Justin Kemp delivery with no foot movement to speak off, and presented slip with a nice low catch.

At the 35 over mark, India had limped to 123/5 in 35 -- and the outcome of the match seemed already determined. Dravid alone batted with controlled efficiency, getting to his 50 (53 off 76 in a team score of 135/5 and controlling the innings very well in the face of a collapse. Kingsmead, in fact, seems to bring out the best in him -- in 1997, if you recall, he had produced a blistering 84 in the SBI ODI finals on the same track, an innings made famous by his head on clash with Allan Donald at his fastest -- and most voluble.

Retinder Singh Sodhi, showing the sort of application and willingness to fight that was missing earlier in the Indian innings, helped take the score to 153/5 at the end of 40 overs. Given the nature of the pitch, anything from 60-80 runs, off the last ten overs, could have helped put some pressure on the Proteas. What we got, instead, was a complete collapse.

It began in the 44th over, when Hayward put a little extra into a short ball and Sodhi, shaping to hook, found the ball getting big on him, hitting the bat before it was fully into the shot, and putting the ball up for midwicket to hold. In the very next over, Agarkar aimed a loose drive at Kemp only for Pollock, at cover, to grass the chance.

Dravid in the 47th attempted to chip one over the off side field, making a bit of room by backing to leg. He had, however, misread the slower ball, and ended up hitting early to get the toe of the bat to it and put it up for Pollock at cover to hold, ending an innings of 77 off 102 balls, with India 177/7 at that point.

And then the tail crumbled -- Harbhajan mishitting a slower ball to cover, Srinath taking off for a run that would have been suicidal against a team of junior schoolboys, and Kumble reaching a long way to flat bat one to mid off to have India 183 all out, with ten deliveries left to go.

Granting that the early overs were tight and incisive, it still was an unpardonable collapse. In all pre-match analysis, locals and experts had been pointing out that Kingsmead would not be a belter, that the way to go was to accumulate, and that any score of around 220 would put psychological pressure on the chasing side.

Perhaps the only people who did not read those reports or listen to that analysis were the touring Indians -- batsman after batsman perished attempting the big strokes, and none bar Dravid, Sehwag and Sodhi attempted to work the ball around and get singles to move the score along while waiting for the gimme ball.

It's a funny thing, really -- in India, there are hundreds of fans who tend to switch off their television sets when Ganguly and Tendulkar get out. Judging by how they play when that happens, you would have to think that nine Indian internationals similarly switch off once the top two are gone, decide that it is a lost cause, and roll over and play dead.

With the sun beating down on the pitch and drying it out quite nicely (just as Pollock predicted at the toss) there was only one way India could defend a total of this kind -- tight bowling, tighter fielding and catching.

Javagal Srinath, going round the wicket from ball one, produced a superb first spell that time and again had Kirsten in trouble. At the other end, Ajit Agarkar gave it away. Through the Indian innings, the South African bowlers had ensured that they did not put theball down on a length that allowed batsmen to drive -- the one sure way on a track of this kind that you could get runs. Here, in his first three overs (18 runs) Agarkar time and again bowled the full length, and got driven, in the process easing the pressure on batsmen who struggled against Srinath at the other end.

To make matters worse, Srinath in the 9th over produced a delivery that angled in on Kirsten before straightening off the deck, finding the edge of the batsman's slashing bat. The ball was going straight to Sehwag at first slip when Laxman, at second, lunged across, got his hands to the ball, and grassed the chance.

Anil Kumble found a track where he could turn the ball and, introduced early, did manage to give both batsmen some pause for thought -- but the target before them was too low to really pressure two form batsmen who, further, had been given the luxury of a rapid start. Kirsten and Gibbs played cricket the way they knew how, playing their shots, running like the dickens, and ensuring, by racing along to 77/0 at the end of 15 overs, that the game was effectively sealed.

Herschelle Gibbs is reputed to be, with Kallis, South Africa's best player of spin -- but you wouldn't think so judging by his struggle against Kumble, first, and Harbhajan Singh, here. Time and again, he misread the ball, pushed, prodded, flayed in desperation, and finally got turned inside out by Harbhajan Singh with an arm ball that got the leading edge to give the bowler a simple return catch. 21 off 41 to the flamboyant Gibbs is indication enough of the difficulties he found himself in today, with spin being introduced early. It is, too, indicative of all that could have been possible, had Srinath's chance been taken by Laxman, had Agarkar been tight in his first spell, had...

Gibbs' problems, and the rest of it, is all of course completely irrelevant to the course of the game -- at the 15 over mark, South Africa had ensured that the runs to overs equation was so loaded in its favour that it could get to the target by just tapping the ball around for singles from there on.

Srinath appeared in this game to have found the missing motivation -- I wonder what it has to do with finally finding a wicket that gives him something to work with. After a brilliant first spell, he was brought back in the 23rd over, promptly beat Kirsten with another blinder, then caused Kallis no end of problems. The latter, in desperation, slashed at the last ball of the 23rd over, and put it high only for Anil Kumble, at deep backward point, to make an amateurish mess of what was a very simple outfield catch.

Harbhajan finally ended India's misery at Kirsten's hands -- and ironically, it was Laxman at slip going low to take a hard catch as the offie, going round the wicket, got the opener driving at him, the flight and loop beating the batsman's attempt to get to the pitch and the turn finding the thick outer edge. Kirsten's 87 -- thanks in large part to Laxman's early largesse -- had however by then batted his side to the threshold of a win, with South Africa at the time on 150/2.

Look at the performance overall -- batsmen who won't apply themselves, bowlers who will consistently bowl the wrong length and line, fielders who won't hold the simplest chances when it matters most - and you'll get some idea why India now have no competition for the choker tag, with nine finals defeats in as many tries.

It's like they say -- almost all of it is in the mind.

Full Scoreboard:

Indian innings
South African innings