Karma at Cape Town!

By John Cheeran
My fears came true at Cape Town on Friday.
Indians failed to plan and pace their innings and failed to make use of the 90 overs of yesterday’s play.
The challenge that India has given South Africa – 211 runs to win -- is 75 runs short of a total that would have teased and tormented the South African batsmen.
It stemmed the fact India and Rahul Dravid did not have a clear vision of whether to attack or defend.
Yes, the move to thrust Virender Sehwag into opening when the team would have relished quick runs was a laudable effort indeed. Sehwag failed, and now the best batting slot for him will be as the 12th man.
As I had pointed out that in the batting tradition those who succeed in the first innings should walk easy in the second innings. Karma, you might say.
What baffled me was how did India manage to fuck it up after Dravid and Sourav Ganguly managed to take what appeared shores of safety at 110 for two.
To lose those two and Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman in a matter of minutes was nothing but descent to hell.
And to consider that Laxman was run out at this crucial hour! There would have been no better- awaited gift for South Africans on this whole series.
There is something wrong with Tendulkar’s batting that he cannot dominate left-arm spinners such as Paul Harris when they aim for the leg stump. It was ridiculous to see both Dravid and Tendulkar playing defensively against Harris. Tendulkar should have made efforts to dominate and help the Indian innings to flow easily. In the end, Tendulkar could not defend or attack.
It was only the 21-year-old Dinesh Karthick who showed his illustrious seniors how one could bat in such circumstances. Karthick, who should be in the running for a specialist batsman’s role preferably as an opener now onwards, played some wonderful cuts and reverse sweeps to resuscitate the Indian innings to some extent. I wish the Chairman of Selectors Dilip Vengsarkar could have appreciated the advantages of being young in flesh and spirit while watching Karthick at play.