Centurion, Day 2, Lunch
Saturday, November 23, 2001

Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten have raised visions of another hard grind on the field for India.

Javagal Srinath's bowling over the wicket to Kirsten was not going to fetch him much success as many of his deliveries were pitched outside the leg stump. Ideally he should have pitched a shade outside off stump to capitalise on the natural advantage that he gets by tilting the ball away from the left-hander.

Ashish Nehra is one bowler India can be hopeful about in the future. He has everything in him to develop into a fine fast bowler as he grows in confidence. I like the length he bowls, which is normally full. He is reluctant to pitch the ball short and uses the bouncer more as a formality. But he has to unleash it with some purpose, because even if it does not get him a wicket it can still be a surprise weapon to unsettle the batsman.

Venkatesh Prasad completely relies on conditions. When the conditions are unsuitable for seam bowling he is ordinary, and today his bowling was lot of up-and-down stuff.

The more I see of Gibbs the more I like his batting, and I must confess that I have become a fan of his. With Nehra pegging away at a good length, Gibbs was unable to stroke as freely as he normally does, but in the process he showed a good, compact defence. More importantly, he did not seem out-of-sorts playing the waiting-game – something which is alien to his attacking instincts. That's a sign of a top-class batsman.

There was finally a hint that the unofficial status of the match showed in the way the Indians conceded easy runs inside the circle.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to H Natarajan.

More Session by Session
Kumble gets tough
Das and Laxman throw it away

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