Blogs Indian Batting@Nagpur
November 7th, 2008 by lankanThe fourth test match at Nagpur was eagerly awaited by fans and the cricketing fraternity across continents. Day one happenings weren’t as dramatic as some people might have hoped them to be but there were still some noteworthy innings played by the Indian batsmen. India’s new opening pair of Sehewag and Vijay did lay some sort of a foundation with almost a 100-run partnership. There was one surprise package though and it came from the Aussie camp — the debutant off-spinner, Jason Krejza who went on to break the opening partnership by claiming Sehewag and then sent back Dravid for a duck. Sehewag’s belligerent ways were eventually replaced by the cool and calculated approach of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.
India had lost the debutant Vijay — who looked pretty comfortable for his debut match, Dravid and Sehwag within 30 deliveries. It was left to the old warhorses — Tendulkar and Laxman to put an end to the Aussie charge as they chose to play straight down the V, seldom trying to get too cute with the bowlers. For some strange reason, Laxman did seem anxious and over-defensive. May be this being his 100th test match and the retirement of his old pal, Kumble had something to do with that. Some more concerting strokeplay from Tendulkar and Laxman ensured that India did cross the 200-mark without too many hiccups. Sachin eventually did get to the 100-mark, he seemed so focussed upon reaching but got out soon after that. Laxman too didn’t survive too long after scoring another half-century.
It has to be said that Laxman’s appetite for scoring half-centuries is perhaps amongst the best in the business. Trace his performance over the last few seasons, it is dotted with half-centuries and some of them have been very crucial for the team’s cause but still one would hope that VVS tries and converts more of them into centuries. When the day ended, India had barely crossed the 300-run mark for the loss of five wickets. On such a placid track and a track rendered impotent by retirements and lack of options, it doesn’t sound that great a scoring card. India should endeavour to score at least 500 runs to give themselves a realistic chance of winning the series 2 to nil.
