Ind v/s WI: Carribean (Apo)Calypse???

So, here we are! The World Champions embark on their first mission after their crowning.


Ummm, not quite as the Indian team to the Carribean is without 8 of its WC winning team members. In this era of modern cricket, where there are more ODIs in a year than there are days in it, Team Management has become extremely important, almost like it is in Club Football- where the Manager has to prudently maintain an everready pool of 18-25 players who can play 1st team football anytime. This also breeds young players, gives them oppurtunities, allows the manager to chop and change combinations and observe the results. In doing so, when the big games come, he has more options, but also is sure of his ultimate combination, that he wouldn’t have found if he hadn’t developed the talent pool in the first place.

So here is what we can expect as regards team line up in the upcoming limited over internationals:

Shikhar Dhawan

Parthiv Patel

Virat Kohli

Rohit Sharma

Suresh Raina

Subramaniam Badrinath

Yusuf Pathan

Harbhajan Singh

Ravichandran Ashwin / Ishant Sharma

Praveen Kumar

Munaf Patel

Batsmen first. It looks an excellent middle order- it is missing nothing. Good, solid openers, with an aggressive streak, a more than sound middle order and deadly finishers. Virat Kohli can play both ways, so can Sharma. Badrinath can be promoted like in IPL if early wickets fall and ball is doing a bit. Rohit Sharma is the ideal middle order batsman. He can graft well. And Raina and Pathan can be lethal finishers.

Now to the bowling. Munaf Patel is bowling the best he ever has. With his height he will be able to extract bounce and nip. Praveen Kumar can pick up early wickets and trouble the batsmen. Ashwin can bowl literally at any phase in the innings and pick up wickets- his carrom ball has been excellently developed. And vice captain Harbhajan Singh too can keep up the pressure.Yuvraj will be missed as the 5th bowling option, but that can be made up by Pathan, Raina, Sharma and Kohli. Now, to our perennial problem- death bowling. Apart from Ashwin, there isn’t anybody who can convincingly bowl at the death, although Munaf can be decent. Still, that will remain a worry area, particularly without Zak.

Fielding is excellent. Apart from the bowlers, who themselves aren’t too bad, ALL of the rest are exceptional fielders. Absolutely no worries in that department.

Even this team has its bench strength all covered. If the going gets tough behind the wickets, Wriddhiman Saha is an able keeper and no muck with the bat. If someone isn’t getting it right in the batting department, we have a very good batsman in Manoj Tiwary waiting in the wings. If variety is needed in spin department, there Amit Mishra, fresh off a hat trick in the IPL. If a pacer gets injured, or the conditions demand three-pronged pace attack, there is a rejuvenated Ishant Sharma and a clever Vinay Kumar waiting.



I expect the pitches to be low and slow, as the West Indian cricket season is towards its end. Although the expected rain can spice up things a bit. The team winning the toss should bat first.

The West Indies is a formidable outfit in limited overs, with all departments covered decently. Kemar Roach will spearhead the pace attack, with Ravi Rampaul, who has a happy knack of performing very well v/s India, his partner in crime. The young Devendra Bishoo can be vulnerable if put under pressure though. Batting is looking good too with Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo- the upcoming star. And the battery of all rounders- Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Polard and DarrenSammy can plug gaps in any department. Particular mention to Darren Bravo- he will be the one to watch, although India are well equipped with Singh and Ashwin, who will take the ball away from him, making his life very difficult.

So really, there isn’t much to complain for anybody. And no excuses as well- this team is good enough and if we get beaten, we should not lament that ‘the senior guys were missing’

Salvation...

Yeah, we did it, finally. Fumbling for words, you know. Let’s see how the legend unfolded at Wankhede….

I have always, always been let down by the overtly competitive nature of the Lankan captain. And he displayed such a ghastly unsportsmanlike behavior, once an exclusive domain of the Aussies, during the toss itself. Both captains wanted to bat, which is very usual regarding the nature of the encounter. Sangakkara called heads, but it came up tails. Dhoni was proceeding to convey his decision to bat to Ravi Shastri when a confused match referee Jeff Crowe asked what was the call. He said he couldn’t hear it. That’s when Sangakkara realized  his opportunity to benefit from the confusion. He said he called heads. Dhoni rightfully argued to the contrary. Now it was clear to Crowe that no resolution will be reached, so he decided to go for another toss, which was bizarre in itself. He could’ve asked for an audio feed and analysis to solve the problem. Anyways, the toss that wasn’t to be was won by Sangakkara and we had to bowl in the unusual Mumbai heat of 33-35 ºC coupled with the usual Mumbai humidity(around 70%). Never mind that, we had to chase-which was successfully done only 2 times out of the 9 WC finals played.

Again, Dhoni baffled us all with bringing in Sreesanth in place of Nehra. To bring in a 3^rd seamer on a Wankhede track which always offers carry and a bit of assistance sounds logical, but not quite so when that 3^rd seamer is going to be Sreesanth. Zak started well. Infact, Sreesanth too started well. But there was absolutely nothing for the pacers. No assistance whatsoever.With short boundaries, things could have gone out of control. But control is precisely what Zak had. He produced a beauty to get rid of an in-form Tharanga courtesy also of a sharp catch in the slips by Sehwag. Zak’s spell and India’s fielding display- THE best in the tournament ensured SL just could not get away. Even with Sreesanth bowling. This continued for 43 overs of the innings-breaking partnerships just when they were about to blossom. Sanga-Jaya’dne and Jaya’dne-Samaraweera pt’ships were very crucial and we broke them at even more crucial times. But it seemed that the nightmares of 2003 returned to haunt Zak in his last spell of 3 overs as he was slogged around by the classy Jayawardene and ‘India Specialist’ Thissara Perera, who did what he does best- a cameo of 22 runs in 9 balls to finish the Lankan innings on a high, and carry the momentum going into the 2^nd innings. It seemed we gave away 25 runs more than what we would have liked, at 274-6. Even then, there were only nerves. Hope was always a 100%. But nerves, anxiety that Sehwag had to get us off to a flier.

But those nerves were deflated first in the very 1^st over as Malinga trapped Sehwag . 0-1! Our worst start was reserved for the finals? But Sachin is there, one thought. And his trademark straight drive assured us that if not a ton, there was definitely going to a substantial contribution from the master. But sport is not a fairy tale, says Steve Waugh, and that sounded bitterly true as Malinga snared Sachin to have IND reeling at 31-2. At that time, I was brought to ground, it was like my eyes were opened. I was harshly made to see the fact that Sachin would not be there in the end. It was not going to be a match winning knock. And IND may not win the WC.

But as always, IND team had other plans. Gambhir was not going to gift his wicket this time and Kohli played with unbelievable maturity for a 23 year old to bring a measure of stability to IND’s innings, without, very importantly, compromising on the required run rate. It was very important as everyone knew that the usual acceleration at the end would be difficult as Sanga reserves Malinga and Murali towards the end. But Kohli was dismissed by Dilshan who took a magnificient catch off his own bowling, to make it 114-3. Looking at that catch, one again could have got the feeling that- wasn’t this the sort of catch, that people would say in the end, won the match? And all that stuff.

In came Dhoni. Apart from being a very courageous decision, it was also a very tactical one. 3 spinners were operating at that time- Dilshan, Randiv and Murali. All of them are right-handed off-spinners- they turn the ball away from the left handed batsman. Even Gambhir, with his consummate skill in playing spin, had to play at the top of his game to stay at the crease. To expose Yuvraj, another left hander who is known to be a very bad starter against spin, would have been laden with danger. And thus began, what was to be a match winning partnership. The duo played with skill, street smartness, they ran well between the wickets in sapping conditions and came nearer and ever so nearer to the target. With 51 to get off 51, Gambhir, in an attempt to release pressure, came dancing down the wicket to a Thissara Perrera delivery that crashed into his stumps, thus denying him a richly deserved WC ton.

It was destiny that the duo who were groomed to be IND’s finishers extraordinaire for the past 4-6 years, finished off the match without further hiccups.

Sakshi Rawat must be envious of  Pressure. Because it seems to be Dhoni’s mistress. He absolutely revels under pressure. The manner in which he came out to play, considering his form, the occasion, the situation is beyond appreciation. And what an innings he played!! What timing to play such an innings!  It is God’s sublime grace that MS Dhoni was born in India. And make no mistake about that. He has led us to the World Cup, made us Numero Uno in ODI and Tests and won us the T20 WC too.Just the fact that the one who deserved the WC the most, without which the WC lost its charm and NOT the other way round, was finally given the honour of lifting it under his captaincy is enough.What more can anyone want out of a captain?

That I am happy, that 1.2 billion people are in a trance of ecstasy, would be the understatement of the century. MS Dhoni and his Men in Blue have attained immortality. This team and this superhuman feat(I call it superhuman, because no other team in the history of the game has faced such pressure, such weight of expectations as this team has. To play-let alone win a WC, under such constant pressure makes this men more than human…)will be remembered as long as Cricket continues to exist and beyond.

Such moments do not come often in life. I would be happy to say to my grand children one day that I too, was a witness to what happened on 2^nd April, 2011. In this grand scheme of the Almighty, I, along with a billion plus people, am delighted to be a small part in it. I feel, I have attained Salvation…

This is it...

Whatever we witnessed on Wednesday was absolutely phenomenal. So, it will be a miscarriage of justice if we do not talk about it here….

First things first. If the inclusion of Nehra for Ashwin sent down shock waves to us, imagine what would have gone through the Pakistanis? Whatever Dhoni thought, irrespective of that, just the shock value would have rattled the Pakistanis a bit.Although I still feel it was an incorrect decision, full credit to Dhoni and Nehra for making it work.

We were off to a stupendous start, Sehwag looking the most dangerous that he ever has in the tournament.One couldn’t help thinking about 2003 encounter, and wish that 46-1 and 55-2 wont be repeated after a similar start. But this game was all about fate, particularly the 1^st innings, so history repeated itself as Wahab Riaz removed Sehwag at the score of 47. Thankfully, the 2^nd wicket didn’t come. Sachin was fated to score that day, as Pakistanis just couldn’t help themselves dropping catches of the master. But, Gambhir tricked himself into getting out, something that he has been doing since the quarters. Their variety and quality of bowling was much better than ours, and it showed as we struggled to gain control of the innings even with Sachin around. Riaz came back like a typical Pakistani pace bowler, with a heady concoction of ferocious pace and cagey reverse swing that accounted for Kohli first, and then Yuvraj-although Yuvi should have played with a straight bat instead of playing across the line of stumps, the ball wasn’t unplayable.Then we labored on slowly until the 40^th over in hopes of getting stability. But with the dismissals of Dhoni and Tendulkar, it was looking really downhill. But, Suresh Raina, who came again in the face of adversity and extreme pressure, had other ideas as he scored just what was required- a cameo of 36 runs that helped IND reach the score they chased down in the quarters-260. Now, they had to defend it.

As I mentioned above, PAK had the better quality and variety than our bowling. But the Indians were an inspired lot in the field. Relaxed mentally, but charged up physically. I really thought that we were atleast 40 runs short, but there are twists galore in an Indo-Pak game, so that gave me hope that there will be chances, we just had to grab them. Mohammad Hafeez gave us the chance. Pakistani players just haven’t learned that when all is going well, don’t play the sweep!! Misbah learned it during the T20 finals, and Hafeez learned it on Wednesday. A terrible shot, absolutely terrible.University coaches would thrash a batsman if he played this shot, let alone getting dismissed while playing this shot!!! And we were in. All the bowlers bowled very well, keeping Pak under a tight leash- their run rate never reached 5 after that. That the first extra came in 34^th over speaks volumes about our bowlers’ control and discipline.The next threat came in the form of Umar Akmal- had he stayed 5-6  overs more, he would have taken the game away from us. But our premier spin bowler came to the rescue as he bowled a magnificient arm ball to castle Akmal. We didn’t look back from there on, as Misbah left it too late, thereby being the cause of Afridi and Razzaq’s dismissals. The way we are handling pressure reminds one strongly of the Aussies. We are just not allowing our nerves to get to us, particularly while fielding. No dropped catches, tight unflappable bowling and no butter fingers while fielding the ball.

So, the game that everyone dreamt of, right when we lost to SL that fateful night at Eden Gardens 15 years back, when we lost to SL 4 years ago in the Carribean, awaits.Lets have a look at it.

The usual Wankhede pitch is a very brown strip, devoid of grass, offers spin and bounce and is not a belter.So, speaking of IND’s combination Ashwin will replace Nehra no doubt while the rest of the team will remain the same. And this is the right combination. We should bat first, put up a good total- I know I have mentioned that we should look to chase, but because we need to put extra pressure on the top 4 SL batsmen, we need “good’ld runs on the board”, as they say. Because if they bat first, even a little bit of a decent platform like 140-150 for 4 will allow the lower SL order to bat more freely than they would do if they are chasing 270-280 and get to 140-150 for 4. That should form our primary bowling strategy- try and get early wickets, even if they are going at 6-7 r.p.o, we won’t mind if they are 20 overs 130-140 if we can pick up their 4 top order wickets. Although I don’t think Ashwin and Zak will allow them to run away initially.

I do not think they will risk Angelo Mathews, although Murali will play for all money.So their attack should be Murali, Herath, Malinga and Kulasekara. Thissara Perrera, ‘India Specialist’ as they call him, should serve as their all rounder.So, while batting, apart from the usual threats, one thing we have to take care of is the 28-34 overs. Malinga will surely operate in some of them, and he can do a Wahab Riaz on us. Although we did it, we wouldn’t prefer to go for a similar recovery again in the finals. So, once the 23^rd -24^th over comes, we should try and preserve wickets and wait for the mandatory ball change in the 34^th over. No problem if the run rate drops. This will be tough, handling Malinga, as once he gets a wicket, there is an extremely high chance he will get another in the very same over, with his ‘Slinga’.

This is our shot at cricketing immortality. This is our chance for redemption, after what happened in the summer of 2007.This is THE chance, for THE man, to make THE dream come true. A billion people are praying. Keep the faith India…

2 to go...

I cannot look forward tomorrow without glancing in retrospect to a fantastic quarter final win v/s Australia. So lets talk about that first.

Australia, strangely for me, started very cautiously, almost opposite to the way they started the 2003 WC final. IND also bowled very well, keeping the pressure, stacking up dots, forcing them to go for a big shot almost every over. Even with that, their run rate was not ominous at all. And that brought a key wicket of Shane Watson, just when he was looking dangerous. In came Punter and you could almost feel that it will be either 10 runs or a century for him.Unfortunately, it turned out to be the latter. But although Ponting was playing very well, we were picking up wickets, keeping things tight, fielded excellently. Zak also returned with excellent 2^nd spell, snaring the dangerous Michael Hussey and Cameron White. Bhajji’s last over strongly reminded of his over v/s ENG in 2009 T20 WC where he conceded similar wide deliveries which proved to be costly that time. In short, the plan A worked- Ashwin in powerplay, Zak controlling the death overs, part timers chipping in.

We started the chase very well. Sehwag wasn’t in his elements, but nevertheless, a decent start was given. The Master was playing flawless as ever, but a pacy Tait delivery got  the better of him. Every time a wicket fell, all were just praying- a 50-60 rn partnership will seal it. But that never happened. We too lost wickets at crucial intervals, just when a partnership was gaining momentum. Dismissals of Kohli and Gambhir led one to believe that maybe, this wasn’t IND’s day. And when Dhoni got out, in the fashion he did, I don’t know about others, but I felt very much for sure that that was it. That sinking feeling you get when wickets are tumbling, run a ball is required, the new batsman comes in, struggles, the opposition are feeling very good about themselves, the crowd is speechless, almost pensieve. And with AUS, such feeling becomes stronger. You feel that now they won’t let go. They will starve us of runs, create pressure, and their pace battery of Tait and Lee will come and clean us up. Raina? Some short deliveries and a sucker punch full delivery will do the job for him, one felt. Tait and Lee did come, but they changed the game the other way round by conceding 12 and 13 runs off their overs. IND never looked back after that. And in what has to be a tribute to the new found never say die spirit, the new found never, ever panic play and the new found never, ever, ever give up of the men in blue, we recorded a famous win that will go down in the annals of history never to be forgotten.

And from the moment Yuvraj creamed the ball for the winning stroke, everyone was geared up for the, well, nothing can aptly describe its significance, so  I would simply put it- the IND v/s PAK semi final. One has to stop and dwell a bit on the maniacal frenzy created by this match-up over the past week. Everywhere- in the media, in gossips, in chats among friends, in schools, colleges, offices, even in lectures, there does not seem to be any other topic than the semi final. It is like all the passion, fervor of a billion people is exploding at the hilt, at its absolute apex. Whatever the terms ‘cricket crazy nation’, ‘gripped by the cricket fever’ meant, one can see that right here, right now in IND and PAK. It is like news themselves have stopped ‘breaking’ so as to pay tribute to this event. I personally do not believe in hyping up to this much level, but it seems that any body just  can’t help themselves!

Okay, now to the cricket. Any changes we should make? No, stick to the same team. Nehra for Munaf considering the pitch? No, the Mohali pitch will offer bounce and seam, not swing. So, Munaf can very well exploit these conditions, better than, I think, Nehra. But now, what to do after winning the toss has become even more difficult than before. I have maintained in the previous matches that we should chase and back our batting line up. But as it is Mohali, I expect the ball to do a tad bit more in the evening. So, if they bat and put up a decent total, then Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz/ Shoaib Akhtar can wreak havoc with the assistance they get. Ah- that is a chance one has to take, you can say, but that chance has become a riskier one, simply because of the pitch. Again, on the other hand, there is the question of dew.Bat? Bowl? Bat? Bowl? If you ask me, I would prefer losing the toss.

The strategy should remain the same-In bowling, open with Ashwin, hold back Zak, and hope the part timers do the job. And in batting, bat around Sachin.

Hang on people, this one is going to be one heck of a match, perhaps tougher  and more close than AUS….

In close quarters...

“Too soon?!” ,”Is this it???” These are the questions doing the rounds as we approach the world cup quarter finals. After a month of the group stages, where we always watched India’s matches with a sense of absolute security, the World Cup has reached a stage where the Great Indian Dream, as I call it, can potentially end just a couple of days from now. And yes, on the other hand, the Dream is just 3 wins away…

There were all sorts of permutations going on during the match day- should IND win? They face AUS. Should we lose and face SL instead? Wont that be good? Or will it? But a clear way to go is stop thinking about it and go on winning matches. So we did the right thing there vs WI.

That being said and done, IND face a mammoth task on Thursday.  To make AUS lose 2 matches in a row, that too in a World Cup Quarterfinal is no easy task.  Make no mistake, there will be more than one occasion in the match where we will be in a position of being down and nearly out. It will neither  be 267-2 like SA  this time round and nor will wickets tumble from 140-2 to 170-8 like in WI game. The Motera crowd and the rest have to be patient and most of all supporting in those times. They simply can’t start jeering or mocking, as they notoriously do.

Bat first or bowl first? We should, as I have mentioned in the previous blog, bowl first.  A major downside will be AUS running away with the game, ala 2003 final. But if we somehow restrict them to 280-300, it would be great. I do not think the pitch will show much wear and tear, or slow down in the 2^nd innings. It should be a belter, like one in which a team scores 350 and the other chases it down. How to restrict them? Lets see…

Whenever we bowl, we should open with Ashwin. Mind you, AUS only have one south paw in their top order unlike WI who had an army of them. So, Ashwin would no doubt find the going tough v/s right handed batsmen who can easily play with the spin, rather than against it. One has an argument then that won’t Piyush Chawla be handy now with the right handed batsmen? He would have been, but only if he himself was bowling well. But right now, he isn’t, he is low on confidence-this means he is afraid in tossing up the ball, and if he is picked the pressure will make him far worse. Add to that an expensive start to his spell, and we have a liability here. So, I think Dhoni will persist with Ashwin. Now, if Ashwin can bowl well at the start- contain the batsmen and pick up a wicket or two, that allows Dhoni to hold Zak for the 30-50 overs. If we can manage to have 8 Zak overs remaining after 30^th over, it will be absolutely ideal. That can happen only if Ashwin bowls his 8 overs upfront, just like it happened v/s WI. Yuvraj will be important as he is the lone bowler who will take the ball away from the batsmen. He has to bowl well in the current scheme of things. Except Zak, our bowling looks like we are looking to create pressure by bowling economically and then searching for a wicket due to the pressure created. That is where the difference lies in the two attacks- AUS pick up wickets to create pressure while we look to create pressure to pick up wickets.

Australian bowling looks way better than the batting. Brett Lee is bowling excellently at the start, while Tait, if not aggressive initially, will be lethal when the bowl starts to reverse in the later overs. And he is one bowler who, if he gets his reverse swing Yorkers going, can dismantle a settled pair and pick up the incoming batsman quickly- causing a comfortable 130-2 to shaky 135-4. And right during that period, Michael Johnson will lure batsmen with his away going deliveries to nick one. This makes it 140-5, and the body language in dressing room drops, crowd senses the worst and AUS are masters in finishing  their opponents off in such situations. This is the primary threat according to me. Lee’s frontal assault notwithstanding, the middle over blitzkrieg is the one which we need to weather.

Ideally speaking, we should bowl first, keep them around 280-300, bat around Sachin and chase it with 1-2 70+ partnerships. So, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, this is K7 signing off…….

Nah- I cannot prepare for the worst. Simply can’t.

Batting Powerlessplay???

Yes, many will be wondering why we are stuck at 7 points from 5 matches when we should have been sitting easily at top with 10 points. The reason-


Batting Powerplay

I do not think that the timing of the powerplay was wrong, both – against England and South Africa. We were excellently placed, had wickets in hand, had the opposition on the mat. If we had played normal cricket in it, we would have driven home our advantage.

The problem lies in our approach. Ours was a case of powerplay being called around 37-43 overs, i.e. just before the death overs, and NOT in the 45-50 slot. Keeping this in mind, let us talk a bit about it.

When two batsmen are already set, they then only need to play normal cricketing shots, with maybe a slog or two per 2 overs. No need to go hell for leather. And the batting team always has to brace for a wicket.

But when the wicket falls and the new batsman comes in, the other batsman who is there should continue playing normal cricket and now, MINUS the slog every 2 overs. No, no need to slog now at all, even if there is a powerplay going on. And of course the new batsman should play as if NO powerplay is going on. It is not that powerplay is being wasted- by calling the powerplay, you already have forced the opposition captain bring on his premier bowlers whom normally he would bowl during the death overs. The thing that is happening is that our batsmen are feeling extremely conscious of the fact that power play is going on- its like they just have to score runs, even if they lose their wicket. No, this shouldn’t be the approach, particularly when PP is NOT called in the death overs.

Now comes the question of who should come if a wicket falls. I am strongly of the opinion that Yusuf Pathan should NOT be sent in PP. Because, if he middles the ball, there is no need of fielding restrictions. And if he doesn’t, then even in PP, there is a strong chance he will be caught. We should follow the batting order only- Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan. Pathan may come before Dhoni, but certainly not above than that.

As regards as our bowling, I don’t feel there is anything wrong with it. I thought we bowled very decently vs SA. We kept on increasing the pressure ball by ball. Yes- they batted well in their PP, no doubt. And regarding final 2-3 overs, anything can happen. People go gung-ho criticizing our last 2-3 overs, but no one seems to point out that Zak bowled an exceptional over under pressure, giving just 4 runs of the penultimate over. Nehra has got the experience to bowl in death overs, but so has Bhajji- he bowled excellently in 20-20 2007 WC for us. Easy to say in retrospect, but I really felt that Bhajji should have been bowling that over. With left armed Peterson on strike, he no doubt would have gone for the slog sweep, and a strong chance hence, of getting his wicket. Even Du Plessis would have found tough v/s Bhajji as compared to Nehra. So, well, that was a mistake I think. Also there is a strong need to bowl out Munaf earlier. He should be given a prolonged 1st spell I think, because that is when he is at his best.

Some lingering doubts are there regarding our progress, bur it requires a long chain of twisted events to occur-
Ind lose to WI.
Ban bt SA and NED
Eng bt WI by a huge margin.
And rest of results should be sane.This asks for a lot i guess.

So, next up is West Indies where we will no doubt play a MINIMUM of 2 spinners on a hot, baked-up Chennai wicket. Also, I think our toss strategy should be to always chase. In that, we would rid ourselves of any dew effects, avail maximum reverse swing for seamers, turn for our spinners and most importantly, we would know how much we need. With a strong batting line-up, that is most apt according to me. The only con here is increased pressure of chasing. But we need to back our batting lineup to cope with that. Just play around Sachin! That’s all we need to do!!! Yeah I know its not as simple…

India v/s Ireland: Preview

Straight to the point- 7+4 or 6+5? I think in this World Cup it won’t be a case of ‘If 6 have failed, the 7th batsman will more or less fail’. Also, that 7th batsman can easily bowl 4-5 overs atleast if required. So, when comparing that with a 5th bowler who won’t bat as much as our 7th batsman will bowl (those who are getting it won’t find this confusing one bit) 7+4 seems a more attractive proposition.


Now to the other question: if 7+4, then who is the 4th bowler? This should vary according to the opposition. So, as far as Ireland is concerned, I say we should stick to Piyush Chawla. Simple reasons, they haven’t seen much of him, infact none at all, so for a leggie that is excellent if he is a mystery to the opposition. Flippers, googlies and even the conventional break have more chances of picking up wickets than Ashwin’s mildly spinning off-breaks and his carom-ball. Also, there shouldn’t be much of a question of “bowling in powerplays” where Ashwin comes into play. So, go with Chawla, bat first, get a good total and put them under the pump In the evening.

Some are worried with the pitches, particularly in India- they aren’t offering assistance to seam, swing or, more importantly, spin. But as the tournament goes on, with all its group stage fixtures, come quarters and I say we will have some excellent worn down pitches just fine for spinners. Venues for the quarters are Mirpur, Colombo and Ahmedabad. Already a lot of matches have been played on each of these venues. Same for semi-finals- Mohali and Colombo. So, spin was, and will stay without doubt remain a major factor in the world cup.

Ireland will not be an easy proposition tomorrow, and not only due to their superb win over the Poms. They will try to tie us down with some tight bowling initially and their excellent fielding. But if we manage to see the initial phase out, importantly without losing wickets, we will be fine. Yes, this is usually the case with any match, but it is all the more important tomorrow.

And their batting hinges on William Porterfield and Brien brothers, with veteran Johnston providing the finishing touches. So, we have to be careful as they are pretty thick skinned – tough people who won’t give up, have nothing to lose and can be calculative and cool while batting.

But I still get a feeling we will rout them tomorrow. Let’s see what happens…..