Date-stamped : 02 Nov94 - 06:26
India v West Indies, ODI 2
Wankhede Stadium, Bombay, 20 October 1994

Sidhu should open with Tendulkar - Sunil Gavaskar

Indian cricket history has shown that the first match is the  one
that  finds the home team napping. Either they are over-confident
or they are so much in awe of the opponents that they  lose   the
match even before taking the field.

The overwhelming loss at Faridabad certainly jolted  the  Indians
but  having  had  a look at the West Indian attack they also knew
that though it is not to be underestimated there is no real  rea-
son to be apprehensive either.

Mohd. Azharuddin winning the toss also helped for, he  could  ask
the  West  Indians to bat first. The sun was hidden and though it
was not overcast there was plenty of humidity  which would   have
meant  that  any  moisture  just  under the surface of the wicket
would stay there for sometime.

The wicket also was hard and there was plenty of bounce there for
Srinath,  who,  encouraged  by his bowling in Faridabad, was once
again running in smoothly and positively. Prabhakar gave a  high-
class  display  of swing bowling and before long, the West Indian
innings was in ruins. Srinath got Williams and Lara, and   Venka-
tesh  Prasad,  who replaced Kapil Dev, chipped in with the wicket
of the dangerous-looking Simmons and  followed it  up  with   the
wicket of Adams.

Carl Hooper had played a superb innings  in  Faridabad.  Here  he
showed  that  if one plays cricketing shots and with common sense
then one can get runs even if the side`s position looks  precari-
ous.  In  Shivnarine  Chanderpaul  he had a young man with a wise
cricketing head on his shoulders and together they repaired   the
West Indian innings which was in tatters at 51 for five.

Kumble and Chauhan made no difference to  the  pair  and  Srinath
brought  on  for  his second spell was punished. Somehow Srinath,
when he comes back for his second and  third  spells, is  not   a
fraction of the bowler he is in the first spell but so long as he
keeps getting wickets in the first spell nobody will complain too
much.

Prasad blotted his report somewhat by bowling some  no-balls  and
wides,  and if the Indian team bowled two overs short, it was due
to the extra deliveries they had to bowl. This is  an area   that
they need to work on before it costs them matches.

Another area that the Indian think-tank needs to look at again is
the openeing batting positions. With Navjot Sishu batting so well
in these two games he should go back to opening the batting  with
Prabhakar  dropping  down the order. Tendulkar should continue to
open because he is too good a batsman to fail  continuously   and
giving  him  a platform of 50 possible overs to build his innings
is definitely better than having him come in when 30  overs  have
been bowled. Kambli can then move up the order.

This does leave the number six position, which is a vital one,  a
little  weak  now  that Kapil is not there for the next few games
with his injury. But then if the first five batsman do their jobs
well then there is nothing better that the lower will need to do.

What was encouraging was to see the resolute way both  Azhar  and
Kambli  got  behind  the ball and their determination to stick it
out. The indian skipper must however look at his tendency to  get
out  when he has done all the hard work. He did that in Sri Lanka
and he got out once more when he was well set here. He has to set
the  example  of carrying on when batting so well that the others
can emulate him.

The rains spoilt what was turning out to be an interesting  match
but  then  the  Indians who won it because of better run-rate are
not complaining. Neither is  Dilip  Vengsarkar who  got  a   well
deserved tribute for his services to Indian cricket.

Source :: The Times of India.
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