da supremo： ‘ I mulled over the decision for a while,’ said Rahul Dravid at the end of the day. ‘In the end I went in with who I thought could, when playing well, make a genuine difference’
da betano casino： Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Jaipur15-Oct-2006
‘I mulled over the decision for a while. In the end I went in with who I thought could, when playing well, make a genuine difference’ – Rahul Dravid on why he picked Irfan Pathan © Getty Images
If there’s one person who would have delighted in the opening hour of thegame at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium at Jaipur, it would have to be MehdiSheikh, head coach at the Baroda Sports Club. Sometime in 2001, within aspan of six months, two young men – a swinging prodigy called Irfanand a pacy seamer called Munaf – caught his fancy. Sheikh remembers the duo opening the bowling for his club and wished that they would one day go on to share thenew ball for Baroda.Both went a step further and their combined effort today (16 – 5 – 38 – 5)would have thrilled him no end. Both kept up the pressure from the wordgo, both cranked up a more-than-decent pace and both, immaculately, keptit straight. Munaf was rewarded with his first Man-of-the-Match award andPathan was rewarded with large dollops of confidence that had temporarilydeserted him.When looked at purely from a bowling angle, Munaf’s was probably thebetter performance but it was Pathan, not even a certainty in the sidetoday, who proved the revelation. The faith that Rahul Dravid reposed inhim was paid back, handsomely. “I mulled over the decision for a while,”said Dravid at the end of the day. “In the end I went in with who Ithought could, when playing well, make a genuine difference.”The number of Man-of-the-Matches that Irfan’s won is testimony to thefact that he’s a proven matchwinner for us. He takes wickets early,contributes with the bat, is good in the field. I wanted to go withsomeone who’s capable of doing it for me on the big occasion. It also gaveus the opportunity to play the second spinner, which I knew was importantin these conditions.”That second spinner was crucial in India keeping up the pressure after theearly tourniquet. Ramesh Powar, who’d been tonked around in West Indiesand hadn’t got a chance thereafter, turned in a fine spell that undid thelower-order. Again, it was an inspired decision because it meant leavingout Dinesh Mongia, who’d done impressively in his only outing in KualaLumpur. “The wickets in Malaysia were a bit different and it suited theseamers more,” said Dravid when asked about Powar coming in after amini-break. “We knew he’ll be a big player in these wickets, credit to himthat he came out and bowled beautifully. In fact, he set the game up forus.”Dinesh was unfortunate to miss out. Leading into the World Cup, he’ll gethis opportunities. I had to ask myself several questions when I made thedecision. Is he a better bowler than Powar? Who was the better bowler onthis wicket? Who’s given England more trouble in the last series? On thesewickets Powar can really be a handful.”The one thing India failed to do in this game was to win convincingly,even after dismissing the opposition for just 125. Sehwag fell early – hehasn’t crossed 10 in his last five innings – and Pathan, who was sent atNo.3, can be only a temporary solution. Dravid didn’t worry too much aboutthe former – “When in form, he can win us the World Cup” – whileexplaining the reason for the latter. “I realised that on a wicket likethis which is slow and low, getting off to a good start is important,” hesaid when asked about Pathan’s promotion. “The ball started spinning andkeeping low. Sometimes you need the hardness of the ball and a batsmanlike Irfan can go out there and get us to a good start. Even though it wasa low score, I wanted to get off to a good start.”But surely, there must be some concern about losing six wickets with sucha meager target? “There’s a lot of quality in that batting line-up,”Dravid added, “and it looks like we’re struggling because two or threeplayers in the line-up are not getting the kind of runs that they should.There is some class in that batting line-up. It’s not as if we’ve beenstruggling for a hell of a long time. Just last season, the same guys weregetting a lot of runs. So we are going through a little bit of a toughtime but I don’t see that as a problem. We have a few days off, gives theguys some time to go back and practice and I’m pretty confident ourbatting will come good.”
