'Bangar An Answer To India's Prayers'

Sanjay Bangar has surprised us immensely. He certainly looks to be the all-rounder India has been praying for allthis while. If he played a blinder of an innings in the fourth one-day match between us and India, he worked up a fair bit ofpace in Jodhpur.

It was a bowlers' day for a change in Jodhpur on Thursday. In a one-day series where top batters haven't allowed much look-in at the lower half, not only we were dismissed completely in the 47th over but even the Indianswere not left with much batting by the end. The bowlers have come to their own at last.

It was not a bad one-day wicket. Certainly not the type where you could explain away a total of 201 runs.

We couldn't bat as well as we should have considering we went into the game with seven specialist batsmen. If one takes into accountthe potential of stumper Ridley Jacobs and Vasbert Drakes, our batting actually extended till number nine. Still we could not last our overs and missed out on critical 20-30 runs.

It was also a game where our openers failed. Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds have been such a force in this one-day seriesthat it is easy to blame our batting debacle on their failure.

But a batting line-up cannot run on a couple of batsmen alone. Gayle and Hinds have set the pace of our batting but theycan't succeed always.

I was hopeful of a positive outcome till the very end. Even with 10-15 runs left to defend our meagre total, anythingcould have happened had we broken through. India were only left with Javagal Srinath and Murali Kartik on the bench.

We were left to rue the missed chance of Bangar when Powell put him down atmid-wicket. We missed a couple of chances in the field but honestly I was pleased with ourbowling effort. We bowled straighter and were more consistent than in previous games.

Bangar certainly is a cricketer who can adapt his game to situations. We only saw him hold his end up in Tests but he isa man transformed in one-dayers. He has thrown his name in the hat for selection in India's World Cup team.

It just makes me ponder of India's chances in the coming World Cup. Their batting surely looks good enough but to win acompetition of this magnitude, a team must wear a well-rounded look. At present Australia seems to be a side to beat. Theykeep coming at you from all directions and squeeze you dry whether in the field or at the crease.

Rahul Dravid bore his responsibility well which included the extra burden of leading the side in a do-or-die game. Hisbatting was absolutely crucial for India as was the flamboyance of left-hander Yuvraj Singh. The youngster edgedme through the vacant slips on more than a couple of occasions but I couldn't post an attacking field because of the modesttotal we were defending.

Yuvraj's was a timely knock for India and he and Dravid showed this wicket could suit a batsman if one was willing toget his eye in and adjust to its somewhat inconsistent pace and bounce.

We arrived in the Capital at midnight the same day the match finished in Jodhpur. The travelling in thisone-day series has been tiring. On occasions, we have travelled for 11 hours between two venues. In a series as longas this which involves seven one-dayers, back-to-back matches at one venue would have been a help.

Still, the only thought which occupies my mind now is to finish the series the sameway we began in Jamshedpur -- on a winning note.

PTI