India's batsmen fashioned yet another sizzling batting performance to set up a victory for India after being put in on a difficult pitch in the 3rd ODI at Kanpur.
Given variable bounce and some early moisture thanks to heavy overnight rain, Shoaib Malik must have fancied his team's chances of an easy run chase in the afternoon, once the demons in the wicket had satiated themselves with Indian scalps. Instead, Kamran Akmal dropped Sourav Ganguly first ball, and from then on it was a matter of an experienced Indian opening pair weathering the early storm (albeit a somewhat wayward one - Umar Gul was particularly inconsistent), and the rest of the Indian batting chipping in with a lot of class.
Yuvraj Singh's was a terrific innings on a wicket which he may not have liked very much, while Dhoni came just at the right time and provided crucial impetus. Every plan the batsmen made came off.
The turning point in the Indian innings in my view was the fact the Shahid Afridi went for plenty. On this wicket with unpredictable turn and bounce, he might have proved to be a handful, but he wasn't allowed to settle into a line and length. The left handers in Indian line up made it difficult for him. Even though Sohail Tanvir was demonstrating the virtues of good old fashioned line, length and consistency from the other end, India could afford to play him out because Afridi and then Malik leaked runs.
Shoaib Malik's decision to hold Abdur Rehman back was sound - there were two left handers at the wicket. What he chose to ignore however is that the specialist spinner would probably turn it more than the part time batting all-rounders (this is not always true, but given that neither Malik nor Afridi are great turners of the ball, in this case it was probably significant). Rehman got a wicket in his first over, but by then it was probably too late. Tanvir had been taken out of the attack at the other end, and there was no pressure being built on Dhoni and Yuvraj.
For their part, Dhoni and Yuvraj continued their dominance of Pakistan. Since Dhoni joined the Indian team, he and Yuvraj have been at the wicket together against Pakistan 7 times in ODI's, and their association has yielded 4 century stands. All in all it has yielded 499 runs at a strike rate of 108. Both are amongst the top ODI batsmen of their era.
Dhoni is much underrated as an ODI batsman. He averages 43 in ODI's, while Yuvraj, since Jan 1 2005, averages 45.57 over 79 games. He's reached 50 21 times in 74 innings. Considering the 13 not outs it means that he has reached atleast 50 in ODI's once for every third dismissal. Compare that with Tendulkar's record as opener, which remains the gold standard in ODI cricket - Tendulkar has reached 50 102 times as opener in 283 innings. Considering 19 not outs, it means he's reached at least 50 once for every 2.6 dismissals. Yuvraj is not far behind over the past few years.
This is the standard of the Indian batting. Rahul Dravid, even considering his moderate scores in the recent Australian series (i don't think he was dropped because of that - it was a combination of both his decision to give up the captaincy and his poor scores), averaged 39.91 from Jan 1 2005 till date. Ganguly since his comeback has made 1235 runs at 45.74. Tendulkar, since Jan 1 2005, averages 41. In this year, his batting average is 46.35 (with 1 century and 12 fifties! - these 12 fifties include scores of 99, 93, 99, 94, 99!!). Ironically, the century was made at number 4 in 76 balls, while all the nineties have all been made opening the batting.
Ironically this doesn't give India the win-loss record that they should have. This year alone, Sri Lanka have scored on average 15 runs per 50 over innings less than India, and still produced the same win-loss record. England have scored 25 runs per 50 over innings less than India this year on average, and yet have a win-loss record which is only slightly inferior to India (18-16 to Indias 19-14). India have conceded an average total of 262 in a 50 over innings this year. Only Pakistan (270) is worse. Australia have conceded 253 per innings, but this includes their run of 6 straight defeats just before the world cup where they conceded 335+ to NZ three times. Even the West Indies have conceded on average 10 runs per innings less than India. New Zealand have conceded 16 runs per innings less than India. Part of this has to do with the fielding. Part of it has to do with the consistently ridiculous output of India's pace attack, to which i have alluded many times before (the latest numbers are in my previous post.)
Just two years ago, 1/60 would have gotten Irfan Pathan nervous about his place in the side. His slump began in the West Indies last year and from that time - 18th May 2006 to Jan 31 2007, he took 13 wickets at 39.07 with an economy rate of 5.90. Look at the numbers in my previous post - it makes you wonder about our expectations from our pacemen. Since his comeback, Irfan has taken 10 wickets at 44.10 with an economy rate of 5.38. His economy rate has improved without doubt, but is that enough? Are fast bowlers expected to take wickets?
The "blame BCCI" brigade is probably chomping at the bit by now - but i would caution them against initiating the usual blame game. Can questions be asked of our bowling coach? ODI pace bowling output has infact declined during Venkatesh Prasad's tenure. Is this because ODI cricket has changed? What does Venkatesh Prasad think about these numbers? Can someone please ask the him? Would asking him be more useful than the usual blame the BCCI approach? Is it less cool to ask Venkatesh Prasad a question than it is to blame BCCI?
India need their pace attack to be effective, along with the spin bowling. They need to be able to deliver 50 good overs. If they do that, then the batsmen are good enough to enable India to dramatically improve the win-loss record. Until such time, we'll have to make do with watching our batsmen fail in chases of 290 or more on a regular basis.
No comments:
Post a Comment