Saturday’s match reminded us of how limp Indian Cricket can appear on days when their batting falters even marginally, and how easily top teams like South Africa can flatten our modest bowling attack to overcome double-digit required run rates. Here is my take at the things that went wrong and how they could cripple India’s march towards a second World Cup title, followed by a couple of very realistic options for India to solve all their Cricketing problems.
Once again, a poor death-overs display. Both in batting and bowling, we showed that we are developing a fatal habit of being unable to step on the gas in finishing stages. Our batters followed the age old three step Indian recipe of forward-defending dot balls, building pressure and finally losing their wicket to the catcher on long-on boundary. We rarely ever ensure that at least a single comes off every ball to keep the scoreboard ticking. We would rather have big sixes to send the crowd roaring. Or so we thought! Well the sixes never came and on the other hand our bowlers showed that being simple-straight-and-full is actually as complicated as brain surgery. Half volleys, wide outside off stump and full-tosses made a sorry list of deliveries we had on the menu for South African batsmen in the late overs, with Bouncers and Yorkers being miserably conspicuous by their absence. Though after years of exposure to this agony, fans are starting to cope a little better, but the question never ceases to ring - For the love of everything that is holy, why can’t we bowl Yorkers like they do?
No-aggression treaty with opposition sides during middle overs. It is time that we overthrow the rule of not having attacking strategies employed between overs 15 and 35. When the bowlers run in, the only other blue-man in the TV-frame is Dhoni keeping wickets. We have four fielders on the edge of the circle, and five that patrol the boundaries. Period. This is the field-set-up no matter who the bowler is, or who the batsman is. Our rare show of attacking Cricket is having one lone slip fielder that barely ever comes into action, while opposition batsmen simply nudge the ball around to pick up six easy singles every over. We need to realize that with a batting powerplay in hand, required rates of 10ish are quite easily manageable against our bowling attack. We have to stop waiting for things to happen, and Dhoni needs to attack a bit more. Initiative-less-Cricket is painful to watch, and it simply sets up a cruise for the Indian team to a lame defeat.
BCCI’s inability to recruit. Fine, I am just going to say it. BCCI’s inability to pay millions to, and arrange Indian citizenships for, Dale Steyn and Brett Lee is hurting us badly. Since it is painfully obvious that we won’t develop genuine fast bowling talent at home, I urge BCCI to double their efforts to get these boys smuggled to India as Daljeet Singh and Brijesh Leeladhar, so we can get on with our fast bowling. It is about time we put the BCCI-billions to good use! It has now become a matter of national security, and having these guys right there in India to play the World Cup is the perfect opportunity.
Sachin and Sehwag. These guys have seen enough to know that losing their wickets at any stage of the game is detrimental. Sehwag got dismissed in the 48th over against the Bangladeshis, and the remainder of the inning was a sad showcase for Indian batting. The start needs to be the end, as it seems that the only way we can put insurmountable scores on the board is by being zero wickets down at the end of the inning. So, getting out is hereby prohibited by BCCI law for Sachin and Sehwag. And since we don’t really need batsmen other than the openers, it also provides that ever-elusive opportunity to finally play Ashwin in the side!!
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