The West Indians come to the party
Navta Vij - 7 November 2002

The West Indians have finally arrived. In a match marred by crowd violence and dejected fans, Ramnaresh Sarwan grabbed the first one-day international at Jamshedpur from India’s clutches to take a one-nil lead in the seven-game series.

India started off quite well, although the aura of invincibility surrounding their opening partnership was somewhat dented. Frustrated at an inability to produce any fireworks after the 10th over, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag departed trying to hit out. India, in their first surprise of the day, and obviously still in a quest to optimise their line-up, sent Ajit Agarkar in at number three.

Agarkar started his innings cautiously, and his 95 will be recognised as an innings of great composure from a man who was once nick-named the Bombay Duck for his failure to score runs. After he departed, debutant Jai P Yadav and Yuvraj Singh failed to boost the score, and as a consequence, the remaining middle- order had to scrounge for runs.

It is a good thing then that the line-up included Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif, who played with responsibility to preserve their wickets and, in the last four overs, made runs as freely as they wanted. This presented the second surprise of the day - Dravid scoring at more than a run-a-ball. India amassed a total of 283, and given the unpredictable form the West Indian batsmen have been in, this seemed to be a winning total.

How wrong we were! It was a total that seemed enough when amassed, but halfway through the game, it left one wondering why that extra run had not been scored. Wavell Hinds and Ramnaresh Sarwan may have caused the Indians to falter, their fight-back right from the start as destructive as the crowd behaviour. Between them, they managed to bring the runs required per over to an acceptable level, a point from which India had to struggle to bounce back.

That was until the crowd became unruly. In a country where cricket is no longer just a sport, loss is not accepted well. It is in fact accepted so poorly that spectators are happy to throw bottles, bricks and petrol bombs on people they idolise. Such is the passion of their "support," and such was to be India’s destiny. With a disgraced face, Ganguly led his men off the field, and with a determined face, he also led them back to end the game in front of an increasingly rowdy crowd.

It is funny how players peak when you least expect them to, or how winning formulae elude a team when they are most needed. Ashish Nehra bowled poorly throughout the innings, but he was the man who, in poor light and mounting tension, bowled unplayable deliveries in the 48th over and took the wicket of Chanderpaul to put India right back in the game. The deliveries were pitched in the right place and produced the right result.

By the last over Sarwan, who paced his innings well, came across as the beaten soul. This produced the third surprise of the day. Agarkar, having played so well throughout the match, bowled the last over, and the first five deliveries nudged India closer to a win, especially considering the presence of mind the bowler had in running out Ridley Jacobs. But anyone who has watched Sarwan bat would have known he was more than capable of hitting three off the last ball. In front of a now-placated crowd that smelled a win, Agarkar bowled a full toss and Sarwan eagerly dispatched it to the cover fence to take the match.

There will be those who criticise the Indian team, but they will be overlooking Sarwan's mental strength. They may ask why Ganguly continued to bowl Harbhajan Singh when he was clearly struggling, or criticise that final delivery bowled by Agarkar. In reality none of this is valid. The reality is that in games that go down to the wire, what happened previously is rendered irrelevant. What matters is who has the mental strength to rise to the occasion. Today it was Sarwan. Another day it may well be Agarkar.

The views expressed above are solely those of the guest contributor and are carried as written, with only minor editing for grammar, to preserve the original voice. These contributed columns are solely personal opinion pieces and reflect only the feelings of the guest contributor. Their being published on CricInfo.com does not amount to an endorsement by CricInfo's editorial staff of the opinions expressed.
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