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…..