An Indian win at Kotla and the feat of Boucher

After the constant mirage chasing in England, the win at Feroz Shah Kotla offered some solace though it was obtained in the cleanest of possible manners against not so formidable opponents.   West Indies dominated a major part of the match before nosediving in their second innings – but Darren Sammy can be proud of the way it was battled.  Chanderpaul scored a century and held their innings together well and on day 1 they held their heads high.

On the bowling front, it was good for India for they were able to bowl out the opposition twice with an inexperienced attack with only Ishant Sharma being an experienced pro – Pragyan Ojha alongside debutants Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin fared so well. 

In the batting front, India seemingly lacks the consistency and revolves on the starts being provided by Virender Sehwag – who lashes the cherry to all parts of the ground and also can get out suddenly.  The strength of having Viru, Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni looks redoubtable but of late has not proved to be as strong.  It is perhaps time to shake a couple of old fort and provide youngsters like  Cheteshwar Pujara a chance to cement themselves even ahead of the likes of Manoj Tiwary, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.   The present  West Indies team clearly misses Chris Gayle whose presence can make huge difference to their morale and of course to the totals.  For the outsiders, his forced exclusion appears to be clash of ego rather than disciplinary grounds.   For the next test Adrian Barath would be in contention and whether he will make any significant difference remains to be seen.

Their current manager is a person who scored 5959 runs in 86 tests (16 ceturies) and 6248 one day runs in 224 matches, after making his debut in India in 1983-84 season.   Richie Richardson emerged out of the shadows of great Viv – as explosive in batting but modest when it came to speaking.  Like Richards, he also would not wear a helmet and would bat with a maroon sun hat.   In Mar 1991, he blasted 182 against Aussies at Georgetown with more than a 100 in the final session of first day.  As a coach, he is struggling on the same pitches where he once made merry.

Elsewhere at the Newlands ground, Mark Boucher had the remarkable feat – a 500 test catches perhaps is as good as 15000 runs that Sachin got at Kotla.  He has played the most no. of Tests as wicketkeeper still his landmark is unprecedented and unlikely to shaken by any of the present bunch.  From 1997, he has been a regular – a quality batsman and good behind the stumps.

There are only 13 keepers who have had more than 200 dismissals – Boucher tops that list and yesterday he completed 500 catches

Player	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
MV Boucher	140	266	523	501	22
IA Healy	119	224	395	366	29
AC Gilchrist	96	191	416	379	37
RW Marsh	96	182	355	343	12
APE Knott	95	174	269	250	19
TG Evans	91	175	219	173	46
AJ Stewart	82	141	241	227	14
Wasim Bari	81	146	228	201	27
PJL Dujon	79	150	270	265	5
AC Parore	67	121	201	194	7
RD Jacobs	65	122	219	207	12
MS Dhoni	62	115	202	176	26
Kamran Akmal	53	99	206	184	22

His achievement can be better understood, when you know that only 4 Indians have had 100 victims and more

Player	Mat	Inngs	Dism	Catches	Stumpings
MS Dhoni	62	115	202	176	26
SMH Kirmani	88	151	198	160	38
Kiran More	49	90	130	110	20
Nayan Mongia	44	77	107	99	8

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.