ONCE again, the final hurdle proved too intimidating and the West Indies took another terrible tumble with the winning post in the far distance here yesterday.
As was the case in the finals of the DLF Cup in Malaysia in October, the Champions Trophy in Mumbai in November and the last match of the series in Pakistan in December, they were not so much beaten in the fourth and final Pepsi Cup encounter against India as thrashed and humiliated by 160 runs.
In their last official match before the World Cup, a strong performance was necessary in their effort to level the series and lift hopes.
They did not seem to appreciate the significance.
Their cricket in every department lacked the purpose and intensity that exemplified much of their efforts in their two narrow defeats in Nagpur and Cuttack and their victory in Chennai on Saturday that gave them the chance to square the series.
On a hard, dry but utterly blameless pitch and in warm, cloudless sunshine, they bowled without thought or control to concede the highest total ever compiled against the West Indies in an ODI – 341 for three – after Brian Lara once more chose to bowl on winning the toss for the third time in the series.
It eclipsed the previous best, 338 for three only three matches earlier. There is a message there and it only bodes ill for the World Cup.
With the notable exception of the newer players, all keen to make their names, they were lethargic on the ground. It was an attitude that characterized their batting as they were bowled out for 181 in 41.1 overs.
Lara’s tactics compounded the problems. Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels gave up 85 from their combined 17 overs, economical in the circumstances, yet they had three overs to spare at the end.
Ian Bradshaw’s spells were in the middle and the end, instead of with the ball that was given to Dwayne Smith, and the apprentice Rayad Emrit was entrusted with the last two overs against two of the most feared batsmen in world cricket.
Daren Powell went for 68 from his eight overs, the usually frugal Bradshaw 60 off his eight and Emrit 65 off nine.
Such ineptitude shattered optimism for a meaningful challenge for the first World Cup to be imminently staged before their expectant countrymen in the Caribbean.
From the outset, Dinanath Ramnarine, the head of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), warned the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) by letter that the players only agreed to undertake the tour “with much reluctance” because of yet another dispute over sponsorship.
Whatever the strength of his case, it was an absurd and inappropriate statement that courted disaster.
There was certainly evidence of “much reluctance” in yesterday’s debacle.
India’s batting triumvirate, deposed captain Sourav Ganguly, present captain Rahul Dravid and former captain Sachin Tendulkar, with a combined aggregate of 34,614 runs and 74 hundreds in 964 such matches, did as they pleased against the hapless bowling and fielding.
The left-handed Ganguly, restored to the team on the recent tour of South Africa after a year on the outside, scored 68 off 82 balls with a six and eight fours.
He shared a second wicket partnership of 101 off 18.1 overs with Dravid whose 78 was made off 109 balls with seven fours. Once Denesh Ramdin neatly stumped Ganguly off Gayle’s fourth ball, a partnership of 119 off 19.3 overs followed between Dravid and Tendulkar.
The demi-god Tendulkar, until now fighting to recover his form after a recent layoff through injury, helped himself to his 41st ODI hundred, yes 41st, to claim both the Man of the Match and Series awards. His even 100 was achieved off the last ball, his 76th.
As he and the whirlwind wicket-keeper Mahendra Dhoni thumped 75 off the last 6.3 overs, Dwayne Smith and Lara himself missed catches off Tendulkar, they would usually snaffle with eyes closed, at 85 off Ian Bradshaw and 91 off the diligent newcomer Rayad Emrit. Smith, who had an unhappy day in all departments, put down a more difficult offering at deep midwicket when Dhoni was five.
It allowed the right-handed powerhouse to lash three huge sixes with his unique, short-armed method in 40 off 20 balls. The West Indies’ woes extended to the run out of Lara, undone at the non-striker’s end after three balls by a deflection from bowler Irfan Pathan’s missed return catch off Marlon Samuels.
It was a wretched way to end what is sure to be his last innings in India where he is worshipped almost as much as in Trinidad. As he left the ground, the 20,000 or so in the stands were muted in disappointment. Lara, coming at No.5, was the last chance of making something of the match. Realistically, it had passed once Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Devon Smith were out by the 15th over. Gayle was dismissed for the third time in succession by Ajit Agarkar, who plucked out his off-stump, Shivnarine Chanderpaul swung a catch into deep square-leg’s lap and Smith, after middling every one of his 31 balls, fell to Yuvrah Singh’s spectacular catch at midwicket. It was the highlight of sharp Indian fielding that contrasted embarrassingly with the West Indies’ efforts. It was also typified by substitute Suresh Raina’s direct hit of the stumps from point that finished off Lendl Simmons.
Samuels followed his 98 in the previous match, and his steady off-spin (9-0-51-1), with a stylish 55 off 63 balls (one six, seven fours) but it held no meaning to the course of the match. By the time he holed out to long-off, he and Denesh Ramdin were engaged in little more than a futile net session. Once more, Yogi Berra’s much quoted comment came to mind. It was ‘de ja vu all over again.’