Ind vs S. Africa, Sat 12th March
After a superb start from Sachin and Sehwag, India had scored 230 runs in their 38 overs, when they decided to take their powerplay. Once again, the batting powerplay proved to be the Indian team's nemesis and batsmen could not even cross 300 in their allotted 50 overs. What is worse, that the team failed to play their quota of 50 overs and Dhoni, the captain, stood there watching his team mates get out in a rush.
Teams are scoring 300 odd runs on a regular basis in one day cricket. You can give T20 the credit for this, but what is also important is the kind of tracks being provided for these matches. Most teams have come with 1-2 spinners in their squad to exploit the spin tracks in the Indian sub continent. But the tracks being provided are absolute flat. They might be on the slower side, but most tracks favour batting. So, if you dig your heels in, play some sensible cricket, you might even see someone score 400 in the days to come. To better that, some one might might chase it down too. All you need to do is play sensible cricket. And this is exactly what the middle order is failing to do. Come the batting power play and the best laid plans go berserk.
I would again like to point out that India must play five bowlers. A few days ago, Dean Jones (in some article in the Australian media) concluded that the Indian team dint have in them to win the Cup. The fact is that he's right. With 7 batsmen, the bowling attack can do little wrong. And on tracks like these, they can do nothing wrong. Unfortunately, we dont have the sting in our bowling. Although they have quality bowlers, a lot of other teams too are suffering in Indian conditions. This leaves very little margin for error for the four Indian bowlers that play on the day. The fact that we have no Holding, Akram or McGrath in our team does not help. Besides, the part time bowlers are all the same type. Slow, trying to spin the bowl. So, if one is effective, so are the others or else, no one is. Someone like Joginder Sharma/ Robin Singh/ Collingwood could be handy at times, but there is nobody in the squad.
The bottom line is that you could score 380 with your seven batsmen, but if your four bowlers dont get you 5 wickets by the 40th over, the match is lost. Hoping that the batsmen throw their wickets can happen in only if you are a five-year old playing with your Dad for a cup that does NOT count!!!!
Teams are scoring 300 odd runs on a regular basis in one day cricket. You can give T20 the credit for this, but what is also important is the kind of tracks being provided for these matches. Most teams have come with 1-2 spinners in their squad to exploit the spin tracks in the Indian sub continent. But the tracks being provided are absolute flat. They might be on the slower side, but most tracks favour batting. So, if you dig your heels in, play some sensible cricket, you might even see someone score 400 in the days to come. To better that, some one might might chase it down too. All you need to do is play sensible cricket. And this is exactly what the middle order is failing to do. Come the batting power play and the best laid plans go berserk.
I would again like to point out that India must play five bowlers. A few days ago, Dean Jones (in some article in the Australian media) concluded that the Indian team dint have in them to win the Cup. The fact is that he's right. With 7 batsmen, the bowling attack can do little wrong. And on tracks like these, they can do nothing wrong. Unfortunately, we dont have the sting in our bowling. Although they have quality bowlers, a lot of other teams too are suffering in Indian conditions. This leaves very little margin for error for the four Indian bowlers that play on the day. The fact that we have no Holding, Akram or McGrath in our team does not help. Besides, the part time bowlers are all the same type. Slow, trying to spin the bowl. So, if one is effective, so are the others or else, no one is. Someone like Joginder Sharma/ Robin Singh/ Collingwood could be handy at times, but there is nobody in the squad.
The bottom line is that you could score 380 with your seven batsmen, but if your four bowlers dont get you 5 wickets by the 40th over, the match is lost. Hoping that the batsmen throw their wickets can happen in only if you are a five-year old playing with your Dad for a cup that does NOT count!!!!
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