Date-stamped : 01 Jan97 - 02:12 29 December 1996 India: Only paper tigers when abroad Ramaswamy Mohan India`s twin collapse at Kingsmead may have been stunning - but it did not come as a surprise. Batsmen who are mollycoddled by turners have to face reality when the ball bounces face high. They have just proved incapable of passing this test of technique and temperament. Save for the classy Rahul Dravid, defence was not tight enough - nor was stroke play discreet. Test cricket as it is played in India and Test cricket played in South Africa are as different as chalk and cheese. The dusty designer pitches of India represent and extreme use of the prin- ciple of the home advantage which, however, is as old the game itself. The granite-herd pitch ad Kingsmead does also signify an employ- ment of the same principle. But, somehow, Test cricket on such a surface is much closer to normality. There can be no complaints on either score, whether it be that the South Africans who faced India in their lair on those cruel ankle- threatening turners, or the Indians, decimated in well under 3 days but the brutal task force headed by the incomparable Allan Donald. Why India suffers these extremes of performance, to the extent that they are tigers at home and paper tigers abroad, is because of the twisting of the home advantage. while it is all right to prepare a turner and fulfil the huge expectations of hundreds of millions in a television-driven spiral of demand and supply, what it does is protect the battling and instil a false sense of secu- rity. Wristily inventive batsmen who are at home in their own difficult environment face considerable difficulty in adjusting to the pace and bounce of normal Test wickets. The pattern of effective bat- ting at home and abject performance abroad has been too well es- tablished. What is disappointing is that this young Indian side has the po- tential to do better beyond it`s own shores. I will always remember this Test for just 3 balls bowled by Donald in India`s first innings. The first, an outswinger, was pushed firmly through the covers. The second, a swinging half- volley was driven square. The third was the "jaffa", a blindingly fast off- cutter bowled to the perfect length to send Sachin Tendulkar`s off stump for a walk around Kingsmead. Out of the 540 balls bowled in a long day, those 3 were a capsule of the human drama of Test Cricket. This was riveting stuff, pure theatre. It was a blow struck by the finest fast bowler of con- temporary cricket who melds speed and movement even as he enhances the science of fast bowling to a high art form. There was to be no recovery from this telling blow. When the chief goes the Indians are too willing to surrender. What saddens all students of cricket is that this Indian side, endowed with the pace-bowling skills to make an effective attack abroad, was let down so badly by batsmen who are capable of much more than was shown in Durban. Source :: Sunday Times Contributed by Bob Dubery (dauphin@aztec.co.za)