da bwin： On a pitch that is still offering assistance to the bowlers,India’s batsmen have put their team in a strong position by theend of play on day two
Derrick Nicholas12-May-2002On a pitch that is still offering assistance to the bowlers,India’s batsmen have put their team in a strong position by theend of play on day two. Resuming on their overnight score of226 for 3, the West Indies bowlers enjoyed minimal success asthe Indian batsmen put the visitors in a strong position.Dependable middle order batsman VVS Laxman helped put his sidein this strong position of 462 for 6, reaching his third Testcentury in the process. “I thought right from the start of thetour I was batting well. It was just a matter of occupying thecrease and once I was set I thought I won’t throw it away thistime.”He was helped largely in part by the young wicketkeeper, AjayRatra, whose position was in doubt before the start of theTest. There was much debate in the Indian camp whether to playthe accomplished Ratra behind the stumps, or return to the lessaccomplished Deep Dasgupta in favour of his batting. But, theIndians must be relishing their decision to include Ratra as hehas shared in an unbroken 205 runs partnership with VVS Laxman,his personal contribution being 93 not out.Laxman, though disappointed with his own performances duringthe first two Test matches when he got 69 and 74, said thatthose innings gave him confidence to get a big score.Commenting on the Indians approach on day day, Laxman said:”The most important thing was to occupy the crease and playbecause the situation we were in the morning demanded me andAjay to preserve our wickets, because we had lost early wicketsin the morning. The situation demanded that we play suchinnings.” Questioned about the West Indian bowling, Laxmansaid: “I also thought they bowled well, good line and length,not giving us easy deliveries to score.”Speaking about his own performance, Laxman said he was seeingthe ball much better later and, “I though I’ll go for itbecause we had to add quick runs. So I thought I’ll play morepositively. I always enjoy playing the hook shot and the pullshot but it depends on the situation and the wicket.” Laxmancontinued: “Any century is very important. This is my third andall of them have been good. It was always my dream of scoring ahundred in the West Indies and I’m really thrilled that Iachieved it.”Commenting on his partner’s contribution at the other end,Laxman said: “I have played with and against Ajay in domesticcricket for the last two years and I knew that he hastremendous talent and at the same time he’s very gutsy and veryconfident. So I had a lot of confidence in his ability toscore.” He said that Ratra’s innings was: “Very determined andgutsy knock, very positive at the same time because he not onlyheld up an end but played positive cricket and I’m veryimpressed.”On the question of the pitch, Laxman feels that it is “the kindof wicket where you watch out in the beginning, occupy thecrease and runs will automatically flow.” The Indian middleorder batsman is equally confident in the remainder of thelower order to produce. “All the guys in the tail are reallytalented and they’re capable of performing at the highestlevel. Zaheer showed it in the last game, Anil has proved it somany times. I have no doubts at all that they can bat andcontribute valuable runs.”As to his team’s strategy going into day three, Laxman said: “Thethink-tank is going to get together and work out a strategy fortomorrow. Obviosuly we’ll try to bowl them out twice, take a big firstinnings lead and put a lot of pressure on them.”