da bet7： More than anyone else Chappell believes cricket, batting to be a game of the mind. If the Indian batsmen begin to believe they can’t, the battle would be hopelessly lost before the game at Cape Town
da dobrowin： Dileep Premachandran23-Nov-2006
Sachin Tendulkar was one of the few Indian batsmen who wasn’t completely lost at Durban against South Africa © Getty Images
The defeat at Kingsmead was so comprehensive that it¹s difficult to seewhere the Indian team can turn to for solace as they prepare for the threematches that are left in the one-day series. On a pitch that wasn’t as venomous as it can be, most of the batsmen were ruthlessly exposed by South Africa¹s pace arsenal, with only Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid suggesting that they had the technique, the nous and the stomachfor battle that might keep utter humiliation at bay.There¹s not much that can be done between now and the next game in CapeTown on November 26. Batsmen raised on placid Indian pitches are not going to overcometheir technical shortcomings in a 48-hour period, hard as they may workat nets and in front of the bowling machine. Virender Sehwag, who hasstruggled in recent times, showed on the tour of Australia in 2003-04 that a positive outlook and implicit faith in the methods that hadtaken him to the international arena were enough to overcome the technicalglitches that many had predicted would be his downfall on Australianpitches.He had done much the same thing on his Test debut in Bloemfontein, scoringa brilliant century against an attack that was every bit as lively as theone that inflicted the 157-run humiliation in Durban. Greg Chappell andmany of the game¹s great thinkers have often stressed just how muchsuccess at this level is about getting your mind in order, and Sehwag inhis pomp epitomised that with an unfettered, uncomplicated approach thatreaped spectacular rewards.For the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina, confronted by suchconditions for the first time, that is the primary challenge. Theirfootwork and repertoire of strokes won¹t change drastically in the spaceof a tour, but they have to repose faith in the power of positive thinkingif an unrelenting pace attack are not to chew them up and spit them out.Sehwag himself is said to have benefited immensely from a session withRudi Webster during the West Indies tour, and Chappell, who has first-handexperience of the value of that from his playing days, must now focus ongetting the message through to his embattled middle order.Players with less talent than Dhoni and Raina have left South Africa withmore than a few runs in the kitbag, only because they trusted theinstincts that had made them successful in the first place. And while thestand-and-deliver approach that often works in India will come a cropperhere, the need of the hour is a tweak here and an adjustment there, ratherthan a wholesale overhaul of technique.
Sehwag in his pomp epitomised an unfettered, uncomplicated approach that reaped spectacular rewards © AFP
Much has been made of the team selection for the tour, but with theexception of VVS Laxman, who should have been a shoo-in once Yuvraj Singhlimped out, there¹s no one back home in India who could be expected to flyover and come to grips with these surfaces and this quality of attack.Lest we forget, this same South African side defeated Australia 3-2 in aone-day series, skittling them out for 93 in the Cape Town game.Graeme Smith spoke after the Durban win about how much of his team¹sprogress over the last couple of seasons was down to overcoming the fearof failure. The biggest challenge for the Indian team management is to tryand instil a similar attitude. They may crash and burn playing what MickeyArthur likes to call “brave cricket”, but that option is any daypreferable to surrendering as meekly as they did at Kingsmead. Dravid willno doubt lead from the front, but the bigger task before him is ensure thathis more callow team-mates follow.It is a challenge for Chappell too. More than anyone else he believescricket, batting in particular, to be a game of the mind. Some Indianbatsmen looked shell-shocked last night. If they begin to believe theycan’t, the battle would be hopelessly lost.
