By Gaurang
November 6 2002

The first India-WI ODI had a "practice match" feel about it, despite the presence of a jam-packed stadium. The result of the practice is that India have quite a few things to sort out. Ganguly won the toss and decided to bat, on a pitch that had so many cracks that Manjrekar in one of his rare funny moments compared it to Danny Morrison's face.

Ganguly and Sehwag got off to their customary quick start. Especially Sehwag, who hit a straight drive and a wristy turn of the middle stump through midwicket in typical "Twindulkar" fashion. But then the Windies exploited his weakness against the short rising one into the rib cage and forced a mistimed hook.

Agarkar joined Ganguly in the middle. This was the first major experiment from the Indian think tank. In the end Agarkar grabbed the opportunity with both hands and showed that he is actually quite a high-class batsman, not simply a pinch hitter. But as the commentators mentioned with a line-up so studded with batsmen, a pinch hitter is actually not needed. It would be best if Agarkar came at seven or so.

The fall of Ganguly, bowled going for a big hit, brought VVS. Who started very slowly. He had 9 runs off 22 balls at one stage. If he had got out then, it would have been a total waste of balls and for this reason alone Kaif MUST be promoted up the order. In the end VVS scored a decent number of runs at a decent run rate, but still one felt Kaif would have been much better here, and that VVS is congenitally unsuited for ODIs.

Dravid was out of sorts, as he seemed to be struggling with an injury that made running difficult and would later make keeping even harder. That he yet managed to score at run a ball is a tribute to his guts, and Leipus's magic. He received on field treatment several times during his knock.

Yuvvy was dismissed in a very tame manner, when he popped one to short cover after mistiming a drive. But since he's played no serious ODIs or other matches since September, his mistake could be forgiven, especially since he probably saved 10-20 runs in the field.

Agarkar also was dismissed just short of a well deserved century when he was all set for an assault. The ball may have been slightly slower, but in the end he mistimed it to cover as well.

This brought the second Major Experiment of the Day, JP Yadav before Kaif. Why? To blood the youngster I guess, but the move went horribly awry. The debutant was clearly nervous, and after 4 dot balls, tried to slog a good length delivery and was comprehensively bowled.

The end however was Magnificent, as Kaif added 48 runs in 5 overs with Dravid, his own contribution 30 of 19 balls.

In terms of the bowling, the absence of Zaheer Khan was felt keenly, especially at the death.

The Indians also looked a bit rusty in the field. Yuvvy was his fluent self but Kaif misfielded once and then dropped a sitter (by his high standards) from Hinds off Sehwag.

Earlier Yadav completed a nightmare debut by dropping Hinds in the 20s off his own bowling and then misfielding several times, once allowing a four to slip through to the fence when there should have only been one allowed. The bottles began raining at that moment.

Kumble and Bhajji both seemed taken aback that the Windies did not just cave in like they did in the Tests, and were a bit shell-shocked by some excellent batting by Hinds, Samuels and Sarwan, who used their feet much better than in the tests.

The posters all said "We miss you Sachin." But the player really missed was Zaheer Khan, who is both economical at the death and penetrative in the beginning. No other Indian bowler quite measured up.