Indians should have learnt from Shiv Sunder Das: Streak
19 June 2001
As the Indian team was looking for reasons for its defeat in the
second Test which denied it a series win, it was Zimbabwe captain
Heath Streak who came up with the most apt explanation for the
visitors' plight.
Streak said batting on wickets such as those in Zimbabwe required a
lot of patience and it was exemplified in the performance by man-of-
the-series Shiv Sunder Das, but the rest of the Indian batsmen simply
failed to emulate the diminutive opener.
"Throughout the series, Das showed the patience required on wickets
with a bit of extra bounce. He knew where his off-stump was and he
didn't play unnecessary shots," Streak told reporters on Monday.
"It was not an easy wicket to come out and dominate and play shots.
For example, VVS Laxman came in and started to play some brilliant
strokes. But it is hard to play attacking cricket consistently on this
wicket," he said.
Understandably pleased with his team's performance, Streak said the
victory was made possible by the best use of their talent. "We had a
bad start in the first innings but we recovered pretty well. The
Flower brothers really got us back into the game. And we made the best
of our talent and some of the tailenders batted really well. All the
way down, seven, eight, nine, they all chipped in. Those were some of
the things which probably won the game for us," he said.
© PTI