Little Men's Burden

NAYAN Mongia was supposed to go for it against the Australians in India's September 6 tie. He did. Saurav Ganguly was sup-posed to, in the words of Indian team manager Sandeep Patil, "graduate to a Roshan Mahanama kind of role" in the middle order. He did. Others, however, didn't quite get down to do what was expected of them. Before he went out to bat, Javagal Srinath was advised by all his team-mates to watch his running between the wickets. "Let Saurav Ganguly handle the pressure. He's on a half century," Indian team captain Sachin Tendulkar told him. Srinath went and got run out. Says Patil: "Some can handle the pressure, some can't. We can't play the game for the players in the middle. Your cricketing sense has to evolve." 

Rahul Dravid, it was decided in the team meeting before the match, would be pushed up as he was a stroke player. Says Patil: "Both Dravid and Mongia were getting wasted lower down in the order—especially Mongia. We haven't been utilising him properly for the past four months. But when a team loses five wickets in a space of 30 runs, not much can be done."

 But in spite of the setback, the century partnership between Ganguly and Sunil Joshi was a class salvage operation and augured well for the future of the team. Says captain Sachin Tendulkar: "They played the role we told them to play. They played exceptionally well." But just when it looked as if the team had dug itself out of the hole and could post runs in the 220-plus region, more wickets fell—the last of them, that of vice captain Anil Kumble, proving the costliest as it gave Australia an extra four overs to chase India's final tally of 201. Says Sri Lankan coach Dave What more:

 "The way Kumble threw his wicket away was a very stupid thing to do. Even if he had stuck around scoring three an over, it would have meant 12 extra runs. That could have made all the difference."

Things didn't get better with the way the Indians fielded. Vinod Kambli dropped a sitter of a catch when Steve Waugh was on just 34 and Tendulkar dropped Stuart Law at 25. Both batsmen went on to score half centuries. Worse still, Tendulkar felt out of sorts for the rest of the game after tumbling down in his effort to latch on the Law skier. Says Tendulkar: "I didn't know who else was after the ball since I was looking up but the wind took it away. Anyway, cricket is a game of surprises and we were surprised we got into the game at all after losing those quick wickets. Losing the toss too was bad as we would have preferred chasing. It could have started raining any moment." 

It didn't rain but Tendulkar managed to push the match to the last over. "The important thing we are trying to build up is not to give up till the last ball," he points out. "I was personally happy with the team effort. Though five batsmen got out cheaply, nobody tried anything funny." And Tendulkar gave ample evidence that he would be a tough and aggressive captain when he badgered the umpires to call for the third umpire—and got a runout.

But Zimbabwean fast bowler, Heath Streak, felt that Tendulkar appeared too tense. Agrees Whatmore: "I think Sachin needs to realise that the sun will still go up if he has a bad day and that his mother will still love him."

Star Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva was more forthright: "The Indian team is good but they have needlessly built a psychosis of dependence on Sachin. But since things weren't working well with them, at least they had the justification of trying something new, shuffling the batting order for instance." Lankan batsman Asanka Gurusinghe also has a suggestion: "India should have somebody other than Sachin to control the middle order. When the onus falls on Sachin to control the innings, it cramps his strokeplay. The anchor responsibility should go to Azhar. But I was happy that in the game against Australia they fought till the last. Against us they seemed to give it up half-way. They were waiting for things to happen." 

Interestingly, all the Sri Lankan team members were rooting for an Indian victory. Even their Australian coach What more and team fitness expert Alex Kountouri, also Australian. Says What more: "The lads didn't want the Aussies in the finals. They didn't want the Aussies to have a shot at humbling them in front of their home crowd." Australian captain Ian Healey, however, was hoping for just that and got it when his team beat India. Said he: "Only a final win against the Lankans matters now. It will help us forget the horrible memories of March 17." In the end, that proved too much to ask for.