Firstly, I stand corrected about the team selection at the Perth Test- where most expected that India did not have enough benchstrength in the pace attach. Irfan Pathan proved everyone wrong, and rightly deserved the man of the match for his swing bowling and valuable batting. However, as mentioned the bouncy track did not do much harm to the Indian batting- as defensively you do have scope to survive, as the ball flies over the stumps...
All in all Kumble is getting the entire bowling department to work along his approach to bowling- have enough good balls to pin the batsmen and then when you can sense that they will try something, allow them to do so- or just about. When you can lead the batsmen to a known situation- even if it is not something directly in your favor- you can as a bowler get a reference point to sneak in something that is just a bit off their intention. Type 3-Type 2 mixing- in the jargon of Dot Chess.
Also the pattern continues- Aussie batsmen are not going to get easy stuff to pull or hook- perhaps cut at times.
So tomorrow, India may play with 5 bowlers? Perhaps- since Irfan Pathan looks good enough with the bat as the remaining batters. But then Ganguly, Sehwag and Tendulkar may chip in nullifying the need for a fifth bowler? But then again- I think two regular spinners always looks good for India. Let's leave the nice headache to Kumble :-)
And how are the Aussies going to bowl at Sehwag and Tendulkar- who seem to get many runs behind square on the off side, by playing the upper-cut. Or will they in turn resort to the pull and hook, instead?
Expect more chess vs natural game from Kumble. He has already baffled everyone by his field-placings in the last innings at Perth, when Australia were down by 5 wickets. Putting most fielders on the fence is not what you normally see when you are trying to bowl out Gilichrist and the tail, and you have lots of runs to spare. But then this was not 'normal'- as India had enough time to get the wickets... another instance where imbalance is converted to an execution effect. This time it was Nimzo-Kumble, with the prophylaxis!
There has been some exciting chess at Corus as well, with wunderkid Carlsen playing with some flair right off the opening lines. I am sure the Late Bobby Fischer would have appreciated this young kid.
Wake up at 6am for the last one at Adelaide.
Best wishes,
Saumil
Mumbai
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