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 Bouncy Chepauk wicket helped India: Kumble - Scorecard
 Chennai, Oct 14: Anil Kumble was all smiles in Chennai this evening. And why not? Last week, he celebrated the 400th scalp in Test cricket. And today, he had a seven-wicket haul against the Aussies at the Chepauk stadium, reducing them to a total of 235 after being 136 for no wicket.
"The wicket was not unplayable. In fact, it is a good wicket to bat on. However, I managed to pitch the ball in the right areas and we were helped by some bounce in the wicket. The Bangalore wicket was slow but this one at Chepauk had a lot of bounce. Bhaji's two wickets in one over were very crucial and we could get at the new batsmen."
Asked if there was a plan to get the Aussies to play half-cock, Kumble said the bounce in the wicket helped create bat-pad opportunities. "Once there was some bounce, they were bound to be caught half-cock and we could induce some bat-pad catches," he pointed out. He would rate it as one of his best performances especially since it came against Australia.
He would not say that the track was bad or that it was too dusty. There was some dust only around the bowlers' foot-marks, he maintained.
On the performance of Simon Katich, who remained unbeaten despite having come to the crease at the fall of the first wicket, Kumble said batsmen can do well, and it was not as if the wicket was a bad one. He said he was confident that the Indian batsmen would do well tomorrow.
On why all the wickets fell at the pavilion end and whether the bowlers could exploit a spot or two, Kumble said there were no spots on the wicket. "It was just a coincidence that all the wickets fell at that end," he felt.
R Rangaraj
Published: Thursday, October 14, 2004
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