da mrbet： The six match one-day series ended in Mumbai amidst great excitementwith both teams winning three each
Woorkheri Raman05-Feb-2002The six match one-day series ended in Mumbai amidst great excitementwith both teams winning three each. India should have won the seriesby a 5-1 margin but for their reluctance to learn from earliermistakes. This was more apt in the case of the middle-order batsmenand once again they made a hash of things when the Indian side wascruising to a victory.
© CricInfoMarcus Trescothick, tipped to be the future England captain, played anattacking knock yet again. For some reason or the other, he went afterAgarkar in particular and decimated the latter in the opening spell.The left-hander relished the pace and the bounce of the WankhedeStadium and unleashed attractive strokes all around the wicket. Itappeared that Trescothick had resolved to enjoy himself on theconcluding day of the tour. Though he lost his partner Nick Knightearly on, he carried the attack to the Indians along with Hussain. Butjust when this partnership was reaching dangerous proportions, Hussaindeparted.Ganguly was forced to bring himself on with Trescothick getting stuckinto the spinners in their early overs. The skipper has the knack ofproviding breakthroughs and he, in fact, went on to claim two wicketsin his only spell. With the visitors in sight of something around 300runs, Ganguly in a last throw of the dice re-introduced HarbhajanSingh. The got into the act as if in vengeance bygetting two wickets in an over including that of the danger man,Trescothick. The English middle order has competed with that of theirrival team by caving in on earlier occasions but Harbhajan completelyoutwitted them at the Wankhede Stadium. He returned his best figures.It was good to see Harbhajan bowl like he did against the Australiansa year ago. Unfortunately, Harbhajan’s efforts were not supported inthe end overs as the last wicket put on enough runs to pile thepressure on the Indians.
© AFPGanguly was in a situation wherein circumstances dictated the courseof action he had to follow. The success of Sehwag at the top and hissuccessive century partnerships with Tendulkar left the Indian skipperno other alternative but to push himself down to number three. Theexplosive pair of Sehwag and Tendulkar started off in the usual mannerand the crowd was hoping that they would bat till the first half ofthe Indian innings. Gough had other ideas and when he found the edgeof the little master Tendulkar, the evening coffees went cold all overthe country. Ganguly looked positive and confident and it would onlybe fair to say that his running between the wickets came as a pleasantsurprise. He was keen on picking up singles till he gauged the pitch.Once he got the measure of the bowling, he began striking the ball wayinto the crowds at will. His confidence level was high and the way hecharged the English fast bowlers suggested that the skipper has gotover his blues. He fell to Giles again but this time around he wasunfortunate to see the ball ricocheting on to the stumps.Ganguly’s dismissal rekindled the flagging spirit of the visitors andthe hosts repeated what they did in Delhi in impeccable fashion. Inthe end, the visitors clinically strangled the lower order batsmen andleveled the series before embarking on a flight to New Zealand.There were quite a few aspects, which were consistent, andunfortunately none were on the positive side. To start off, thevisitors played their middle overs badly after good starts, which wasaped by the hosts as well. Secondly, the youngsters in the Indian sidehave not utilised the opportunities that came their way. Thirdly, theincompetence of the umpires was quite obvious and the mistakes werehorrendous. The entire nation was embarrassed by some disgracefulumpiring decisions in the one-dayers and it is about time that realgood umpires are appointed.