In an Indian mythological tale, Thiruvilayadal, Lord Shiva announced a contest between his sons Lord Ganesha and Lord Murugan to win a rare fruit that he received from Saint Narad. The competition was a race between his two sons to make one complete circle of the world. Lord Murugan took off on his peacock immediately and was sure of winning the race. Ganesha, the Elephant God, had no chance to win a race against Murugan, who could fly around the world quickly on his peacock. So, Ganesha worked with Saint Narad and convinced Lord Shiva that as Shiva is the world's ruler, circling him on foot was equivalent to circling the globe. Adopting this method, Ganesh wins the race and the fruit.
In the World of cricket, New Zealand is Lord Ganesha. The Kiwis look for the best method to win a match or a series and adopt whatever works for them. In this ongoing series against India, they seem to have figured out that playing for a draw in Kanpur and converting it into one match shoot out in Mumbai is their best chance to win the series. So, I was surprised that Rahul Dravid gave a Rs. 35,000 cash reward to the curator for producing a ‘sporting’ wicket. If it was Ravi Shastri, he would have given a knock on the curator’s head and rebuked him for giving up the home advantage in the World Test Championship (WTC). India can boast that they won tough test matches away in Australia, England etc. But, the Kiwis will turn around and say that they are the WTC champions, which they won based only on their home series wins and a lone test win in homelike conditions. Trophies matter and not ‘sporting’ wickets or battle scars from away series wins. There is no need to give up 8 WTC points to encourage away teams with easier batting conditions.
Coming to the test match in Kanpur, India went into the test match without their prominent batsmen. It started on even keel with the Kiwis rather than as overwhelming favourites that they usually have been at home. In addition to the pronounced deficit in the batting, a slow and low bouncing wicket prevented the Indian spinners from bringing the close fielders to play. It is no surprise that many of the wickets in this match have been LBW or bowled. One needs to have bounce in the pitch for close-in fielders like Silly point, Slips or Forward short leg to come into play. Despite giving up all their aces, India was still the only team that could have won the test and will rue an opportunity lost by the barest of margins. They had 52 deliveries to take the last wicket, and the Kiwis denied them of that final wicket.
The Kanpur test match was engrossing from Day 1. At the end of Day 1, India looked well set to post a 400+ score. Shreyas Iyer played intelligently, mixing defence and offence, to score his debut hundred. On the second morning, the brilliance of Tim Southee saw the Indians collapse to 345. The Kiwi batsmen followed up their excellent bowling performance and finished the day at 129 for no loss. At the start of Day 3, the Kiwis had a great chance to take the game away from the Indians. However, they played for time rather than accumulating runs for some reason best known only to the Kiwi team. They played close to three sessions and added only 167 runs to lose all their ten wickets. The time consumption strategy of the Kiwis ensured that they left India with less time to bowl them out in the second innings. It was pretty clear that the primary objective of the Kiwis was to ensure a draw in the test and try for a win only if India mucked up badly.
India’s brittle top order failed once again in the second innings. The Kiwi bowlers reduced India to 51 for 5, providing an excellent opportunity for the Kiwis to press for a win. Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee bowled their heart out on this docile pitch to trouble the top order with swing and bounce. However, Ravichandran Ashwin came in and played the innings that saved the Indian team from collapsing. Ashwin took on the Kiwi fast bowlers and scored quick runs to grab the initiative from the Kiwis. Shreyas Iyer and Wriddhiman Saha followed Ashwin’s lead and took the game away from the Kiwis. Towards the end of Day 4, India gave the Kiwis a target of 284 runs to win the Kanpur test. There is a debate that India could have scored faster during the third session and declared earlier than they did eventually. However, these are arguments made based on hindsight rather than foresight. India wanted a big enough lead that they could crowd the batsmen at most times.
It was beautiful to see that day five started with all four results possible. The Kiwi pair of Tom Latham and William Somerville played magnificently to deny India a wicket during the first session. Ajinkya Rahane’s tactics during the first session was a bit questionable. He operated with a pace bowler at one end rather than bringing in his spinners at both ends. Despite the obvious error, he could still have redeemed himself had he noticed the extreme discomfort of Somerville against the odd bouncer. Rahane could have pressed for a short pitch barrage from his fast men and taken Somerville out much earlier. The Indian team adopted this deliberate short ball tactic after lunch and got Somerville out immediately. It was a missed chance to save a lot of time by getting Somerville out earlier in the day.
The Kiwi team had an outside chance to win the test match at the stroke of lunch. It was pretty disappointing to see them not attempt, even briefly, to try chasing the target. The batting collapse that almost lost them the match was more due to their playing into the hands of the Indian team. The best way the spinner could get a batter out on this wicket was by bowling straight and aiming for a bowled or LBW. By playing defensive shots only, the Kiwis handed the initiative to the Indians on a platter. The defensive strategy backfired, and India got to within one wicket of winning after looking clueless in the first session. One would have expected a World test champion to be a bit more assertive in their strategy.
Ultimately, this was a test match that India could have won despite being under the pump a couple of times in the game. They showed good fighting spirit to gain the upper hand at each instance and got to within a wicket to win the match. However, the Kiwis will silently chuckle that they got what they wanted out of this test match. It is now down to the lone test in Mumbai for them to press for a win. The Wankhade at Mumbai has a freshly laid wicket, which will mean good bounce and seam movement for fast bowlers. I am sure that the Kiwis will adopt a more aggressive attitude in Mumbai by picking Niel Wagner in place of Ajaz Patel. The Indian top-order, which struggled against Jamieson and Southee on a docile Kanpur pitch, will look worse on the spicier Mumbai pitch. I hope that the Indian management picks their in-form batsmen for the test rather than giving way to sentiments. The Indian cricket team is supposed to be a high-performance unit and not a family concern.