On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 11:38:10 +0530, Cricketislife!
Quote:
>So basically "Nyah, Nyah Nyah, I'll support my sunshine and his
>attributes and criticize if some other nation's captain exhibits
>similar traits but won't condemn when sunshine is wrong" sums your
>position up?
>CiL
>"Hope is replaced by fear and dreams by survival, most of us get by."
>Stuart Adamson 1958-2001
Lara in his column at Trinidad Guardian, talks about Sunshine' remark
++++++++++++
I am not going to look back at what has happened so far during this
tour and say that this is the first match which was played under fair
conditions for both teams and we came out on top.
Conditions in South Africa are definitely too much in favour of the
toss and that is something they should try to rectify.
One of the journalists at the post-match press conference said that
Graeme Smith suggested that his team might be jaded, hence the result.
That was a bit disappointing. Our team took each defeat at the hands
of his team, with the knowledge that we were outplayed. Now, on the
first occasion when we got the upper hand, we are hearing about the
unfortunate situation with his team.
I must recall that Steve Waugh at the end of the Test series played
in the Caribbean 2003, when we won the last match in Antigua was
more complimentary to our efforts. And so was Ricky Ponting, after we
won the last three one-dayers.
Well, let us hope that they are still jaded and we can pull off
another win in the last match of our tour on Wednesday.
I lost another toss, but this time it didnt matter. We were going to
field if we had won it.
We checked the results of the World Cup matches played on this ground
and, surprisingly, they were all day matches and the team batting
second won three of the four matches played at this venue.
Yes, the pitch looked great for batting, but what was also obvious was
that it was hard and definitely going to stay that way for the entire
match.
The team batting second was at no disadvantage and we thought that
would be our best option.
Our bowling has been our strong point in the one-day series so far and
we thought that they should be given the opportunity to set the tone
of the game for us.
From the start of play, we realised that this was going to be a
high-scoring affair and if we could save a run here or there it might
make a difference at the end.
This brings me to the last over bowled by Corey Collymore. When
getting 300 runs looked inevitable for the South Africans, he was able
to avoid that psychological disadvantage that we might have faced.
They made 297 and Corey only conceded four runs in the last over. It
was a telling over at the end of the day and his spell was also very
good.
But the bowling honours must go to our 19-year-old fast bowler Ravi
Rampaul. He came in to bowl at a stage when the South Africans were
looking to pick up a momentum for their innings. Their in-form
batsman, Jacques Kallis, was at the wicket; yet Ravi was able to
restrict the flow of runs at that stage.
There were a couple of overs in which he went for some runs, but they
were not convincing shots by the batsmen. His three overs in his
second spell were spot on yorker-length deliveries, giving the
batsmen no opportunity to free their arms.
Continuing on the bowling side, the only disappointing thing was the
number of no-balls, especially from the spinners in particular Ryan
Hurley.
Wides are sometimes understandable on pitches on which the margin of
error is very slim; but to give the opposition extra runs and balls
for over stepping the crease can cause a team unnecessary headaches.
Our approach when batting was a very positive one. Chris Gayle set the
tone of our innings, taking apart Andre Nel. When he was dismissed,
Ricardo Powell took charge and, all along, the Man-of-the-Match,
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, was setting himself up to bat through the
innings.
I was most surprised when it was said that he took only 75 balls to
score his 92 runs. I cannot seem to say it enough that if one of our
top three batsmen bats through the innings, our result will be more
favourable.
Yesterday was another occasion when it didnt happen 100 per cent, but
Shiv at least got us to a comfortable position.
Sarwans innings again showed the level of maturity he has reached on
this tour and I am sure that he is going to continue in this vein for
a long time.
We are all now looking forward to Wednesdays match and another
winning performance.
++++ http://www.guardian.co.tt/sports1.html
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