da betsul： A fun, festival-style match this is supposed to be, but it is doubtfulthat India’s cricketers will be leaving Canberra in anything evenvaguely resembling a jovial mood after suffering a crushing defeat atthe hands of the Prime Minister’s XI at the
John Polack07-Dec-1999A fun, festival-style match this is supposed to be, but it is doubtfulthat India’s cricketers will be leaving Canberra in anything evenvaguely resembling a jovial mood after suffering a crushing defeat atthe hands of the Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval today. Havingpermitted their opponents to amass the mammoth tally of 334 for fiveoff their 50 overs, the visitors’ top order folded disastrously toensure that they were dismissed for 170 in response, and that theyaccordingly lost this battle by the shattering margin of 164 runs.Against a side which was composed of eleven of the most talented youngplayers from Australian domestic ranks, the Indians werecomprehensively out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded today. Theironly triumph for the day came at the toss (upon which they sent theirrivals in to bat), and even that soon proved a pyrrhic success.Representing Australia’s national political leader, Prime MinisterJohn Howard, the ‘home’ team went on the attack from the outset anddelighted an enthusiastic crowd with some fine aggressivebatting. They treated their audience to ten runs from the first overof the day (bowled by Ajit Agarkar) and never really lookedback. Capitalising on batsman-friendly conditions, it was the in-formpair of David Fitzgerald (115) and Andrew Symonds (101) who took mostof the honours from the morning session. Offering something of acontrast in styles, they indeed found few difficulties on a warm dayin the national capital against an attack which struggled in theabsence of the rested Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath and AnilKumble.Fitzgerald again exhibited how rapidly he is maturing as a cricketer,raising yet another century in what is proving a golden summer forhim. The South Australian opener did tire noticeably through thelatter stages of his innings, but still found time to continue somepowerful shotmaking; his repeated use of his feet to the Indianspinners to drive them straight down the ground perhaps the mostimpressive feature of his hand. He should have been caught behind on93, makeshift wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid grassing a regulation outsideedge off Sachin Tendukar’s off spin bowling, but otherwise he wasrarely bothered by the attack.Symonds, meanwhile, hit with all of the awesome power for which he isrenowned. Although it must be noted that he survived several earlyscares (including a beseeching caught behind appeal to umpire PeterParker off Kumaran’s bowling on 13, and a run out chance to VijayBharadwaj at mid off on 20), he played what was generally an excellentinnings. His contemptuous ability to scythe the ball over the off sidefield and to hoist full deliveries over mid wicket was again inevidence in a hand which revived many memories of his recent centuryfor Queensland against the same opposition in Brisbane.But as well as the young Australians batted, India did not necessarilylook out of the game at halfway. Such was the quality of the pitch, sofast was the outfield, and so strong was their batting lineup onpaper, that it was in fact hard to predict just how quickly andimpressively they would be able to score. But neither that assessmentnor the Indian batting itself proved anywhere near the mark when theafternoon session began. Openers Sadagoppan Ramesh (1) and VVS Laxman(3) departed inside the first three overs to put the early writing onthe wall.And, at the other end of the innings, the last five wickets fell for48. In between, Saurav Ganguly (46) and Vijay Bharadwaj (45) conceiveda stylish association of 78 runs for the sixth wicket but there wasnever any real momentum in the innings at all. A succession of Indianbatsmen were unable to come to terms with a combination of accuratepace bowling and excellent fielding, and they proved wholly incapable,for today at least, of showing the sort of steadfast determinationwhich they will undoubtedly be called upon to display throughout theforthcoming Test series. The match was indeed as good as over whenSachin Tendulkar (1) thin edged a delivery through to wicketkeeperBrad Haddin to condemn his team to a score of eight for three in theseventh over. Even the partisan crowd found little about which tovoice any appreciation throughout what was, in terms ofcompetitiveness at least, a generally dismally predictable finish tothe game.Test aspirant Brett Lee was the star of the afternoon, capturing 4/25off ten hostile overs. Concentrating predominantly on pitching theball up and aiming at the stumps, he showed all of his usual speed andfire, and troubled the batsmen repeatedly. Nevertheless, he wasallowed to dictate terms too easily and, whilst he did perform verywell, he did not bowl quite as impressively as those figuressuggested. Each of the wickets that he took was indeed as much atribute to a lack of concentration from the four batsmen concerned asto his own efforts, all of them showing a complete inability to playdown the right line against Lee’s blistering pace. Notwithstanding thefact that he went wicketless, Paul Wilson (0/25 off his ten) alsobowled impressively.It would be wrong, of course, to read too much into this result -particularly in view of the fact that it came in a one-day game. Itdoes seem appropriate to conclude, though, that the Indians’confidence will take a substantial blow after this effort and that theeffect of their win over New South Wales earlier in the week will becompromised. Moreover, the bottom line is that they will need to finda way of playing significantly better than they did today if they areto have any hope at all of matching Australia in the First Testbeginning in Adelaide in just three days’ time.