India done in by umpires, groundsmen and bowlers…

I am not one that normally complains too much about umpiring decisions. “Take it on the chin” should be the mantra.

However, after a shocking day in the office for Simon Taufel and, to a slightly lesser extent, Rudy Koertzen, I feel compelled to write. When an umpire of Simon Taufel’s standing and capability starts makes a series of shocking errors, it is quite likely that calls for technology to be used would become more strident.

In yesterday’s game, it is fair to say that the Indian bowlers bowled erratically. On a pitch that was unresponsive — apart from some balls that kept alarmingly low — the Indian bowlers ceded the advantage by being a tad erratic. The spin was slow and was mostly unresponsive to spin. So, one cannot blame the bowlers too much. However, one could expect the Australians to throttle the batsmen with line-and-length bowling, thereby getting the batsmen to make errors. One did not see the Indian bowlers adopt a similar approach. However, having said that, one could mount an argument that Younus Khan and Mohammed Yousuf were ejected in an “Australian manner”. The former, an attacking batsman, was throttled for runs by Harbhajan Singh (bowling around the wicket) and played a horrible reverse sweep. The latter, a dour batsman, was eked out by a sledge — from Anil Kumble no less! One doesn’t know what was said, but words were exchanged and two balls later, Mohammed Yousuf was on his way!

That apart, I felt that the main bowlers tried too much on a pitch that did not allow them that luxury. Ironically, it was Sourav Ganguly that showed how a wicket could be taken on a pitch like this. He bowed stump to stump, giving nothing away. In the end, Salman Butt poked at a delivery and was caught behind. The rest of the bowlers had an ordinary day at the office on a pitch that seemed alarmingly like the Kolkatta graveyard that was prepared for the 2nd Test.

I feel that two groundsmen have, together, done Indian cricket a great disservice just prior to an important tour against Australia. However, being a part of a cricketing system that lacks the capacity to look beyond the immediate future, the groundsmen would perhaps expect a hefty bonus from the BCC!

Apropos, a bad-day-at-the-office, apart from the Indian bowlers and the groundsman, Dinesh Karthik would want to forget his shocker of an appearance! Parthiv Patel shouldn’t be blamed for checking yesterday if his passport is in order. I can’t see Dinesh Karthik on the plane to Australia.

The umpires had shockers yesterday. There were at least 7 LBW appeals that the umpires could have gone India’s way. In one terrific spell of bowling, Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan created plenty of problems for Misbah Ul-Huq and Faisal Iqbal with the new ball. Misgah Ul-Huq is plain lucky to be there. He was plumb in front on at least 6 occasions. Faisal Iqbal was also let off once. Poor Ishant Sharma was at the receiving end of about 4 of these bad decisions. Sharma kept bringing the ball back in at pace to the right handers and troubled the batsmen in this spell of bowling. If the selectors had been there to see this spell, they may have well inked him in the team-sheet for Australia. Irfan Pathan suffered at the hands of Rudi Koertsen. Two overs from the close, Anil Kumble was at the receiving end of yet another shocker from Simon Taufel. One can only hope that these two gentlemen get up on the right side of the bed on day-4.

— Mohan