da prosport bet： The Queen’s Park Oval at Trinidad might be one of India’s favouriteaway grounds but that did not save them from a thrashing at the handsof the West Indians on Saturday
Erapalli Prasanna02-Jun-2002The Queen’s Park Oval at Trinidad might be one of India’s favouriteaway grounds but that did not save them from a thrashing at the handsof the West Indians on Saturday.The game began on a sombre note with the players observing a minute’ssilence in memory of the recently departed Subhash Gupte, whom Iconsider to be the greatest leg-spinner the game has seen, and HansieCronje.I feel sorry for the present generation of cricket lovers who neversaw the great Gupte in action. He was a genius in the true sense ofthe word and could work magic on any wicket and against any batsman. Iwould venture to say that if he were playing now, he would haveclaimed 500 Test wickets with ease, considering the high quality offielding support that he would be getting.I still cherish the memory of playing against the great man in aCentral Zone v South Zone encounter at Bangalore. In the course of aface-saving partnership for South which I forged in the company of thelate Kripal Singh, I picked up various nuances of the art of spinbowling from the maestro. Truly, it was a blessed moment for me.Naturally, at the start of the match, I then thought that the Indians,after electing to bat, would spare no effort in earning a win thatthey could subsequently dedicate to memory of the late genius. But therain seemed to have played spoilsport as far as they were concerned.They clearly seemed to lack a gameplan to tackle the contingency ofbatting first in a contest truncated to a 25-over-a-side affair.Batsman after batsman started going for quick runs, as the touristsplayed into the hands of the West Indies side who bundled them out for123 runs. The home side were favourites from thereon and the only hopethe Indians lay in the prospect of another shower washing out thematch before the West Indies reached the modest victory target.A shower did come early on in the West Indies innings but it was anunwelcome sight for the Indians. In the seventh over of the hometeam’s innings bowled by Tinu Yohanan it rained boundaries as WestIndies opener Chris Gayle, who had begun middling the ball well,opened his broad shoulders and plundered 25 runs. The savage attackeffectively sealed the fate of the match.Gayle and his partner Wavell Hinds went on to add 117 runs at wellover a run a ball and this meant that the West Indies easily achievedthe series-leveling win that they had been seeking at the start of thematch.The home team proved that they were ready to take the bull by thehorns in a must-win encounter and their aggressive approach paid richdividends indeed. Now, with the series hanging in the balance, it isup to the Indians to prove that they can bounce back and at least winthe one-day series before leaving the Caribbean.