Indian spin masters dance to the Kiwi tune at Nagpur

We heard this even when Moeen Ali trouvbled us in England in Tests a couple of years ago with his harmless-looking off-spin; we heard this even when Australia’s Nathan Lyon kept on taking five-wicket hauls Down Under in Tests and we still believe we are masters of spin. 

The World T20 opener showed us how poor we are in assessing ourselves apart from playing spin and that too at the hands of a nation that has not had quality spinners, except for one Daniel Vettori, who has retired. And one cricket enthusiast told me before this game that New Zealand had no chance on Indian wickets because they did not have a Vettori in their ranks. 

Alas, they played not just one but three Vettoris in Nagpur and bamboozled our famous battling line-up with their spin. And one of them happened to be a half-Indian, Ish Sodhi, who was born in Ludhiana and bowled his leg-spin spot on dismissing a settled Virat Kohli with his first ball. 

Before the Alis and Lyons devoured us away from home, England came here and unleashed a spinner answering to the name of Monty Panesar, born to Indian parents. Panesar tortured us at home and played a crucial role in England’s series win after Ravichandran Ashwin gave us a good spin win in the first Test. 

Santner, Nathan McCullum and Sodhi shared nine wickets amongst them at Nagpur, a record for spinners in T20 Internationals. And poor Kiwis, who thought they needed a 200-odd total to tame the Indians, suddenly realised what they put on the board was not even par but a winning score. 

The way Guptill started with a six off Ashwin, it looked like they had a fair idea of what would be a par score at Nagpur, though their decision to field three spinners was exemplary. And equally wise was their decision to bat first when the batting conditions were better. 

The ‘over-attack’ as South African Shaun Pollock mentioned did not yield the desired result for the New Zealanders as they kept on losing wickets and the over-attack of Jadeja, who bowled three wides in an over trying to get Cory Anderson to do some mischief also did not do any good to the Indian cause. 

If Ashwin was expensive by his own standards and Jadeja wayward, the Kiwis showed how to bowl on alien conditions. The inexperienced trio made the Indians dance to their tune and the spin masters such as Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina batted like cats on a hot tin roof when they faced the Kiwis.