Day 3 at the Adelaide Oval

By Kappax - 15 Dec 2003
December 15 2003

An India fan, witnessing the Dravid-Laxman epic on Day 3 of the second India-Australia Test, reports from the stands of the Adelaide Oval.

I went prepared, having been forewarned by Vishy of Perth that the Aussie sun at this time of year is unforgiving. The caps, sheets and umbrella were loaded up, apart from crucial equipment like camera and video camera. This was my third Test in a stadium, having been to MA Chidambram (Ind vs Aus) and WACA (Aus vs NZ) before.

Reached the ground a little late with baby needing last minute attention, while Missus was excited about her first day in a cricket ground. Entering through high security at the gates, everything was checked. The guards were helpful and indicated the pram could be rolled up, but only through the other end of the stand. How bloody frustrating: I am in the ground, but unable to watch the game. Finally found our seats only for another security guard to turn up and inform us these are reserved seats; fortunately I can I tell him I had reserved them!

Now to the game. I am sitting just 5 rows away from the fence on deep gully/midwicket, and it strikes me just how short the square boundaries are here at Adelaide. Dravid and VVSL are going well -- the score had just got to 200. There was this sense of pressure building up. MacGill was bowling from one end, Dizzy and Williams from the other in turns. Bichel was nowhere in the picture, why? Did my math: yesterday Oz had bowled some 50+ overs, 10-15 gone today: that means new ball due in 25 overs or so. Was Bichel being preserved for that? Still, Waugh could have given him a few overs at the start.

Dizzy was bowling quite short and the field was set for the top edge. On second thoughts, he's bowling too short. Still, Ponting drops VVS, and Oz miss a real chance to sew up the game. Fielding enthusiasts will reckon that a Sehwag or Inzi would have snapped up that one.

Somewhere around then, Dravid and VVSL realised the futility of hanging around and cut loose. The last few overs before lunch brought a flood of runs. In spite of Oz pressure, what needs to be noted here is that there was hardly an LBW shout or a ball beating the bat, showing that the batsmen were in control and the pitch doing little for the bowlers. Laxman and Dravid were playing their shots, not just defending.. so why weren't they getting runs? Because Waugh's field placings were so precise. I did more math and realised that India had scored 72 runs in some 30+ overs, a RR of only 2.5. But the last few overs before lunch gave me the belief that better things were to come, that I wouldn't have to see the pathetic "playing out for draw because we can't win" old attitude. The usual suspects are already hailing the slow batting in the first 1.5 hour as some sort of masterstroke, but I'd have to disagree.

The two batsmen ignore lots of short-pitched deliveries because Waugh has the field set for a top edge. Later, they did pull a couple of balls when in the mood, particularly towards the midwicket region. I'm thinking, the Indian batters are crazy to be ducking bouncers by sitting on their haunches; why can't they just weave out of the way? I fear a repeat of the SRT body-behind-ball dismissal as another shrewd bowler pitches it short, but takes the pace off the ball. In the 2nd session, VVSL weaved out of a bouncer's way and the umpire ruled it a wide, clearly seeing it was too high: another reason not to duck. Also, they seem to hold their bat up periscope-like when ducking: couldn't the ball take a top edge off the bottom of the bat?

They aren't running that first run fast enough. Why run the first one slow and then struggle to make the second? That must be how Dravid ran out Gangs on Day 2; he had little time to judge the second run and made the wrong call, further exacerbated by the sliding save by Williams (instead of running alongside the ball, bend, pick up, turn and throw). It is on such details that matches turn. I don't like the hesitation in the second and third runs just because the first was run slow.

The second session was exhilarating but I managed to miss out on both the 100's as I had stepped outside the stadium for lunch! Back in the stadium, what do I see but a huge horde of Indian supporters dancing, playing the dholaks. Whoever was drumming was doing a good job. He built up an excellent rhythm which had the India fans breaking out into bhangra, and a few Aussie fans joined in too! Fans all around me had this bewildered look with a couple of tons up on the scoreboard, but India was still some 100 runs away from the follow-on target. The centuries gave us Indian fans a small reason to celebrate, but little did we suspect the magnitude of the effort yet to come.

Among the dancing fans, I noticed this turbaned guy dancing while I was recording the goings-on. Later I found it was an Aussie who had applied tan to himself, had a white turban on and a huge nappy around his loins. Out of the blue, I saw 3 more fellows in similar attire joining him and guessed this must have something to do with the Mahatma Cote spoof. Looked like some guys had decided to substitute for Ritchie's silly gig which had been cancelled. I found it somewhat amusing, but I could make no sense of their intention.

In any case, the India fans were busy celebrating and taking out parades through the stand and over the hill. The crowd's reception of this was decent, mixed with bewilderment, and I was surprised to hear later that rubbish was thrown at those India fans on the hill. That was pretty bad and just reflects that unruly Aussie fans exist too, however the crowd for the most part was pretty good and applauded good shots, saves or good throws. I had a decent banter going with a father and son pair as I explained to them some of the Hindi comments thrown by some Indian fans. Like "Maar Laxman maar", aaaah that's asking VVS to hit Steve Waugh's friendly bouncers out of the park! It was fun going as VVSL & Dravid put the bowlers to sword.

Cut to the chase. VVSL and Dravid are now toying with the bowlers. VVSL took a swipe at one outside off and Punter dropped it yet again. Now I was cursing the fact that he wasn't going at it hard -- if you're gonna slash, slash hard. But alas Laxman didn't hear me, and repeated the weak slash. Wasn't he trying to keep the ball on the ground? He only ended up edging it to Gilly.. for a wonderful, memorable 148.

In came young Parthiv Patel, and he was a bit shaky in defence. Waugh brought back pace at one end and Patel suddenly decided to display his range of strokes, and boy did they flow! The kid can bat and it was silly of Coach Wright and company to have turned him into a defensive bat for his first 10 Tests or so. It's only since the NZ Tests at home that Patel has been playing his natural game. He really went after MacGill, and one shot in particular stood out for me: a pull intended to beat leg slip. That showed he knew the field set and had executed a shot designed to beat the field; that takes some skill. Patel was really pissed at his dismissal, but that's how it goes. I reflect that all dismissals look bad in hindsight, but if players are going to be scared of being dismissed, they will never buy a run. Aggy batted decently during his short knock.. I half expected to see him raise his bat after his first run, but he didn't!

An Australian skill that caught my attention was the precise field placements. The fielders seemed to be on auto-pilot; they know where to go, for which batsmen, at what angles. Waugh was giving directions, but for the most part they knew what to do. India scored 297 runs in a day, but against an Indian field placing that would be 400.. so many brilliant shots went to the sure hands of fielders, yielding no run!

Their over rate was outstanding: Australia are so disciplined overall that time doesn't get lost strategising or planning out in the middle. They had bowled 92 overs by 6 pm, while India need 15-20 mins more than that just to bowl their 90-over quota. So on Day 5, trust the Aussies to cram in as many overs as possible. It may just be that extra 5 overs which snatch the last couple wickets!

We head back after a safely negotiated last session for the Indian bats with Dravid at a magnificent unbeaten 199, the bright Australian sun directly in our eyes. That was one fabulous day in the park.