And we thought Jason Krejza had somehow got into the wrong sport!
Didn't they blast him in the match between the Australians and the Indian BoardPresident's XI? Didn't that pasting send shivers down the spines of theAustralians, resulting in summons to Cameron White, who's more a batsman who canbowl a bit? Didn't everyone tell us that the Australian spinners were completelyharmless – simple, pure and above any artfulness or chicanery when they bowledon the field?
Clearly, we were misled. Krejza can actually bowl. On his Test debut, theoff-spinner got three wickets and practically dismissed Sachin Tendulkar twotimes -- only his fielders refused to place themselves under the descending balland take the catches. He got a hiding to begin with, but he beat Virender Sehwagand VVS Laxman with sharp turn as they attempted to cut him; the strokes provedinjudicious, but only because Krejza turned the ball so much. He got a bonuswhen Rahul Dravid, wandering in briefly like a lost child, gifted away hiswicket in another alarming, extremely uncharacteristic manner.
Going into the final Test, Ricky Ponting had declared that he needed bowlers whocould dismiss India twice in the match, else the Border-Gavaskar Trophy they'veheld for four years would be gone. He had said Krejza could be the man to do thejob, but it did seem unlikely -- the prevalent feeling was that if their firstchoice in the first three Tests, White, was so ordinary, how bad would Krejzabe?
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But it can be safely reported that Krejza is not really akin to helpless sheepto slaughter; he flighted the ball bravely despite going for runs, he turned theball sharply on a first-day track, and he's capable of quick thinking -- notethe way he deftly attempted to strand an advancing Saurav Ganguly short of hiscrease by bowling fast and wide. On his first day in Test cricket, he did notlook out of place at all.
I guess we were also deceived by his first class figures; the selectors had saidthat he'd had a good season for Tasmania -- surely a joke, for he'd taken 18wickets at 47.11. You'd expect a specialist spinner to average half that figurein first-class cricket. Thus Krejza was summarily dismissed as no threat, withderision -- a fate, incidentally, he shared with Sarah Palin. The USvice-presidential candidate, like a gauche teen who'd accidentally wandered toamong royalty, had become an embarrassment. Krejza, the moment Sehwag startedattacking him, seemed headed for a similar result.
Yet Ponting continued to allow him attacking fields, allowing the batsmen theruns and perhaps some sense of gratification at his harmlessness. Perhaps it wasthis that lulled his three victims and Tendulkar, who lofted him twice towardsthe long-off boundary and got dropped by Johnson and Lee.
When he was given his Baggy Green this morning, he seemed to be overcome by itall. We thought he'd missed his métier, that he would have been much better offkicking a football than trying to turn the ball on cricket pitches. Forfootball, he had pedigree – his second name suggests a Czech origin, and hisfather actually did play football there.
In Bangalore, the debutant White had got Tendulkar; in Mohali, another debutant,Siddle, took him out; Krejza didn't get Tendulkar on debut, but he showed a rareunflappability for a debutant, and a turn for spin. He showed that he belonged-- at least on his first day in Test cricket.
