India Lost It In The Mind

Just two sessions to go, nine wickets in hand and abowling attack they had unfailingly milked for over 400 runs in each innings ofthe series. What went wrong?

India's problem was in the mind. A batsman of SachinTendulkar's class suddenly decided to treat each ball as if it was a matter oflife and death. Whereas he could have provided direction to a batting consistingof bowlers, a rookie wicketkeeper and two fellow senior batsmen struggling forform, he cast a spell of fear in their hearts.

No wonder the Indians collapsed. They forgot theage-old maxim of cricket: You can play for draw for 20 overs, but doing so for90 overs is out of the question. That's the surest way to disaster. The Indiansmust be kicking themselves in the back.

Suddenly, every Pakistan bowler looked a match-winner. Even somebody like ShahidAfridi was a demon personified. Kudos are coming the way of Mohammad Sami butwhat can a bowler do wrong if you don't take him on and he is secure in theknowledge he is not going for runs?

If the Indians were indeed looking for a draw, the lastthing they needed was for the bowlers to find line and length and hem them witheight close-in fielders. The way to go about it was to bat normally, hit ballswhich deserved to be hit and scatter the fielders. Anil Kumble did it soadmirably and taught his seniors a thing or two about batting.

I remember in our times we used to go hard at ouropener Shoaib Mohammad for batting so defensively. We used to tell him: You areallowing the bowlers to find their rhythm and gain in confidence and they wouldcreate problem for us. At times, we used to love close-in fielders: It onlymeant we are going to get some free runs in the outfield!

Imran and I always used to plot ways to win matches.That's why we called for neutral umpires because we thought we were not gettingcredit for our skills. We backed ourselves to defend even a sum as paltry as 120runs.

The Australians do exactly the same. They lost to Indiain Mumbai on a vicious turner but did they change their style of play? No. Theylost but never batted under pressure.

I remember even on a minefield of a pitch, SunilGavaskar on-driving against the spin with aplomb. He did so because he read theball in the bowler's hand.

Somebody like Saurav Ganguly today is choosing his movement only after a ball ispitched. Even Rahul Dravid batted against his grain in this Test.

The Indians deserve their fans' ire not in the secondinnings alone. I thought they were equally terrible in the first innings. Butfor Virender Sehwag, who else batted well? The negative mindset was all tooapparent. That was the period when they should have shut the game on Pakistan.Tendulkar played an airy-fairy shot on 41 when better application was required.If you are a high-quality bat and well-set, you don't do that. Same about theothers.

Not that Pakistan was without a fault. I thought theybatted too long on the fourth evening. They needed to give more than six oversto the Indian openers. When they knew they were not going to be all-out, theyought to have promoted Abdul Razzaq for quick runs and give the Indians moreovers to play. Again, there was this negative mindset in play.

Pakistan played out of their skins in this Test becausethey knew a backlash awaited them back home. I would like to see them similarlyaggressive at all times.

Somehow we in the sub-continent allow pressure to get the better of us, ratherthan back ourselves and play the ball on merit. The 'white' countries, let'sgive them credit, play cricket as it should be played. Just a game and anexhibition of skills and your mental resoluteness.

More than celebrating a team's win or wallowing in thesorrow of a loss, the lesson from this series is that the teams from thesub-continent are still not able to absorb pressure. It worries me.

The gains for Pakistan were obvious: Younis Khan andDanish Kaneria. Both have taken important strides for themselves in theircareers.

The profits for India were less obvious except for theimpressive comeback of Lakshmipathy Balaji. India look a side which needs a bitof a shake-up: May be it's time to recall somebody like Mohammad Kaif who is ingood nick and whose energy in the field gives the side a leg-up.

PTI