da luck： Merv Dillon against VVS Laxman – India first innings at Jamaica © CricInfo For a bowler groomed to be the spearhead of the West Indian paceattack, Merv Dillon went an unusually long time without a fivewicket haul
Samanth Subramanian23-May-2002
Merv Dillon against VVS Laxman – India first innings at Jamaica
© CricInfoFor a bowler groomed to be the spearhead of the West Indian paceattack, Merv Dillon went an unusually long time without a fivewicket haul. After his 5-111 at Karachi in December 1997, Dillonsuffered such a drought that he must have felt considerableempathy with Ramnaresh Sarwan, a teammate who also had problemsin notching up a statistical milestone. But while Sarwan remainswithout a Test century to his credit, Dillon got his 5-71 in theIndian first innings at Jamaica.Dillon’s bowling in the two Indian innings presents aninteresting study in contrasts. When India got out for 212, hepicked wickets with extreme alacrity, at the top of the order aswell as the middle. In India’s second essay, however, with thepressure on the batting team, Dillon could only manage one wicketfor 77 runs in 22.3 overs – that too of Zaheer Khan on the finalday with the second new ball.To analytically compare the performances, take Dillon’s head-tohead against the best batsman in either innings. In India’s 212,VVS Laxman top-scored with an unbeaten 65 off 152 balls, withseven fours. Dillon, however, conceded only 18 of those runs;Laxman just managed to nudge the fast bowler around for paltryruns.
Merv Dillon against Sachin Tendulkar – India second innings at Jamaica
© CricInfoEight of Laxman’s runs against Dillon came in the third-man area,and that is telling. As was warranted on a fast, bouncy pitch,Dillon effectively dug the ball in just short of driving length,and Laxman could only score by gliding the ball twice to thethird-man boundary for four. For the rest of the 42 deliveries,Dillon was spot-on, and Laxman could just sneak singles and twos.Admittedly Laxman at the time was under more pressure than SachinTendulkar in the second innings, and admittedly Tendulkar is amore versatile player. But Dillon conceded 30 runs in 39 balls toTendulkar, 22 of them coming in front of square. Tendulkar droveDillon with ease, a direct result of the fast bowler pitchingfurther up when, on the pacy Sabina Park pitch, he should havedone exactly what he did in the first innings – jag it in shorterand let the track do the rest.If Dillon encountered some hitches with his length, ShivnarineChanderpaul showed Zen-like mastery over that very quality. NamedMan of the Series, Chanderpaul set a new record for the longestinterval between two dismissals. In racking up scores of 67 notout, 101 not out, 136 not out and 58, the Guyanese batsmantormented the Indians for 1,513 minutes in all before JavagalSrinath had him caught behind at Sabina Park. Perhapsunsurprisingly, India, along with Zimbabwe, bore the brunt of theprevious record as well when Jacques Kallis tallied 1,241 minutesearlier this year.