da realbet： Greg Chappell, the coach, was candid in his assessment of the gains andlosses after yet another Indian campaign overseas ended with the bittertaste of defeat
Dileep Premachandran in Cape town06-Jan-2007Listen to Greg Chappell at the press conference
‘He [Sehwag] is certainly a concern but I don’t think he isour only batting concern at the moment’ © Getty Images
Greg Chappell, the coach, was candid in his assessment of the gains andlosses after yet another Indian campaign overseas ended with the bittertaste of defeat. Chappell addressed India’s batting failures in the lasttwo Tests, while praising the likes of Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and SouravGanguly for their contributions. And though he didn’t say it in so manywords, a few major changes are likely ahead of the eight one-dayinternationals at home in January and February.After having much the better of the first three days, India surrenderedthe initiative on the fourth afternoon when they could add only 48 runsfor the loss of four wickets before tea. “We lost momentum during thatmiddle session,” said Chappell. “That certainly didn’t help the situation,and was a significant contribution to not winning the game. I also thinkwe failed to get as many as we should have got in the first innings [thelast five wickets contributed 19].”The bowlers have done a pretty good job through the series and to missout on the opportunity to win it is a little disappointing. I don’t wantto overstate things but I think it’s fair to say that our batting wasdisappointing in the last two Test matches, having won the first Test.”Asked about the mood in the dressing room after South Africa knocked offthe 211 needed with five wickets still standing, Chappell said: “We are alittle bit flat, disappointed in the fact that we got away to such a goodstart and then let it get away from us. You have got to look at thepositives as well. We have won [a Test] for the first time in South Africaand that in itself is something to be enjoyed. But the edge has been takenoff it a little bit by the disappointing batting in the last two Testmatches.”While South Africa’s big-name players came back with a vengeance in thefinal two Tests, Graeme Smith leading the way, India’s big guns neverboomed. “It’s hard to escape, but that’s the case,” he said. “I don’t wantto make too big a point at this stage. It’s posed quite a few questionsfor us and there are things we are going to discuss over the next week orso.”The positive side of it is that some of the young boys performed verywell. They showed they have got some skill, some temperament and goodpersonalities for international cricket. Sree’s bowling has beenoutstanding, Zaheer has been very good as well. Kumble has done a prettygood job for us, I don’t think he can be criticised for today. It justwasn’t a wicket that gave any of the bowlers a great deal of assistancewhich probably highlights how disappointing our batting was yesterday.”One man whose lack of form has come under most scrutiny is VirenderSehwag. After dropping down to the middle order in the first innings,where he scored 40, Sehwag continued his dismal run at the top with asecond-innings failure. “He’s certainly a concern but I don’t think he isour only batting concern at the moment,” said Chappell. “We are just notgetting enough consistent runs. We seem to be losing wickets in batches,which is something you try and avoid in international cricket,particularly in a Test match.”Looking at the tour as a whole, there are more questions than answers.Over the next week or so, when we get back to India and have a chance todigest what’s happened and discuss and debrief, we’re going to have tomake some decisions on which direction we go. There will be a few guysunder a bit of pressure, there’s no doubt.”At the same time, Chappell refused to accept that the decision to openwith Sehwag was the wrong option. “I don’t know that you can say that anydecision is a wrong decision,” he said. “It was a calculated decision. Hehas been an opening batsman, he made 40 in the first innings, and it was apretty slow, Indian-type wicket. We felt that if any wicket in SouthAfrica was going to suit him, this one would. With a lead of 40, if we hadgot an hour or so of Virender playing the way he can, all of a sudden thatlead would have been 100, and the whole game would have changed.”The other thing you have to take into consideration is that Karthik did afabulous job in the first innings, and then kept for 130 overs. I don’tthink we can ask too much of a young man. We asked a lot of him in thefirst innings and he delivered as well as anyone could. But you don’tnecessarily expect a stop-gap opener to be able to do the jobcontinuously.”
‘He [Ganguly] has done what he waschosen to do, which is to get in there and get runs’ © Getty Images
Even then, India were still in the game when South Africa went off on thefourth evening with 156 still needed. But Smith and Shaun Pollock came outand flayed the bowling, making the most of many gaps in the field and someatrocious ground-fielding. “What Rahul [Dravid] was trying to do wasminimise the number of boundaries to try and stretch that 211 as far aspossible,” said Chappell. “Obviously, we didn’t need them to get away witha string of boundaries early in the day. But to be fair, the wicket didn’tdeteriorate like a lot of people expected, including ourselves.”I’m not sure it changed greatly. There were some targets for the spinbowlers but it wasn’t a minefield by any stretch of the imagination. Thecentre areas, the major landing areas, were still pretty good, so Isuppose it makes our batting performance of yesterday that much moredisappointing. There weren’t that many gremlins in the wicket, thereweren’t that many balls flying around. It wasn’t up and down, or stayingdown. If you were prepared to get in and not do anything silly, thenbatting was not that difficult.”The team management will no doubt attract considerable flak for selectingMunaf Patel, who bowled just one over in the second innings, ahead ofHarbhajan Singh, though there were no indicators that the pitch wouldprove to be so spin-friendly. “It was never a choice between Munaf andHarbhajan,” said Chappell. “We wanted the batting that we had and wewanted the balance of the bowling that we had. To be fair, Harbhajanhasn’t bowled for a month, so it was going to be a big ask to push himinto the team as well.”It’s very easy to look at things in hindsight and say what if, what if.We made the choices based on what we saw and what we had. It wasn’t afitness thing at all.”One of the stories of the tour was the return of Sourav Ganguly, whoturned out to be the senior batsman who acquitted himself best. Gangulystarted with a vital half-century in the Johannesburg win, and was India’sleading scorer in the series with 214 runs. “He has done what he waschosen to do, which is to get in there and get runs,” said Chappell. “Ithought his performance yesterday in the difficult circumstance of havingto be rushed in at the last minute was exceptional.”The same couldn’t be said of most of his compatriots. Even as Australia’sversion of Dad’s Army signed off with an epic Ashes triumph, India’sappears to be on its last legs. Thankfully, the likes of Sreesanth andKarthik should ensure that the future isn’t as grey as the Cape Town skieswere this morning.