Nagpur Test, Day 2, Lunch
Friday, February 22, 2002

Though Sourav Ganguly will be more than happy with his team's performance, he will recognise that fact that two vital wickets – those of Stuart Carlisle yesterday and Ray Price this morning – were gifted to them by some catastrophic running between the wickets.

The partnership between Price and Travis Friend this morning threatened to embarrass India and take the total beyond 300. On any surface, 300 is a decent total and Ganguly was fortunate that the run-out meant Zimbabwe fell short of the barrier.

One of the things you noticed this morning was an over-reliance on Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. It took India 40 minutes to pick up the ninth wicket yet there were no bowling changes. Srinath is a bowler who is not really ruthless enough against the tailenders. He used the spare ball very sparingly though whenever he did, he had the batsmen in a lot of trouble. Against the tail, you need to be more aggressive. You have to attack them with yorkers and bouncers to the ribs and I think Srinath doesn't do that enough.

Watching the Indian openers bat, one continues to be impressed with Deep Dasgupta's technique and assurance. He gets into position well and makes things look easy for the batsmen to follow. SS Das on the other hand, though he scored more quickly, gave the bowlers too many chances. When he came into international cricket, he was a very compact, neat player. You just get the feeling that he's not as solid now. This is the perfect opportunity for him to make a big score. The attack is moderate, the pitch is good and once he gets a big innings under his belt, the element of risk that has entered his batting might disappear.

Sanjay Manjrekar, stalwart of the Indian batting in the early 90s, was talking to Dileep Premachandran.

More Sanjay Manjrekar
Day 1, Close: 'Good day at the office for India'

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