Saturday, November 08, 2008

Con job

On day 3 of the 4th Test match between India and Australia at Nagpur, the home team conceded a chance to put the Test away for good when they were all out for 441 in the first innings. Just enough to feel that they had an upper hand but not large enough to secure it for good. Not surprisingly, the Australians came out and took the challenge to the Indians. However, two pieces of good fortune - Matthew Hayden mistaking Murali Vijay for Sourav Ganguly (Hayden admitted as much later on) and Ricky Ponting not learning from Sehwag and Laxman's mistakes - ensured that the match was still in the balance.

The way the Aussies were batting (Michael Hussey and Simon Katich were motoring along at almost 4 runs per over) a full day of batting would put the ball firmly in the Australian court.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the Australian fielding playbook and refined it to another level. The Aussies have spread the field, restricting the Indian strokemakers to settling for singles instead of boundaries, and it has worked to an extent but these guys are too experienced to not find the boundaries when the Australians err in their line. Dhoni took the tactic to an extreme - employing an 8-1 field, with just a mid-on guarding the leg-side. Then he instructed the bowlers to bowl a foot or three outside the off-stump and Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma obliged. Over after over, they kept at it, seemingly indefatigable and immovable from their aim. The challenge to the Aussies was simple - if you want the prize, take the risk. Hussey and Katich played into Dhoni's hands, putting on just 42 runs in the 2 hours before lunch. Right after lunch, ZAK resumed his outside the stump line and took his time to lay the trap. Totally against the run of play, he bowled a yorker on middle-stump, Katich was late to react and even though the ball was tailing away he was adjudged LBW - a fair enough decision as he was hit on the full.

After that, slowly but surely, the Aussies began to wilt. Micheal Hussey was run-out by a brilliant piece of reflex fielding by Murali Vijay at silly point. (By the way, watching the way this lad batted and then fielded completely justified his inclusion in the squad. I hope he maintains or improves this energy level of his for years to come. I still have a grouse with the way he was selected but whether right or wrong, he is a find for Indian cricket).

At the end of the day, the Aussies lost 8 wickets, scoring just 166 runs in almost 86 overs. India secured a precious 86 run lead and will look to bat the Aussies out of the match.

Somewhere around tea time tomorrow, the commentators will start taking about declarations and the need to send a message and try to win the series 2-0. Why give the Aussies even a sniff of victory? I don't think Dhoni will give the Aussies even a sniff of a target. Unless India is all out I do not see a declaration happening, and definitely not on the 4th day if it does happen. The Aussies have to go and get 10 wickets. Can they do it?

P.S. Ian Chappell is getting his underwear into a bunch, losing his cool at MS Dhoni for the "negative" tactics and slow over rate. He was never this irate in the 3 Test matches that preceded this one while Ricky Ponting was employing the go-slow. Now he wants captains suspended and hung out to dry and what-not. Where was all of this outrage when the other shoe was dishing it out? What's good for the goose has to be good for the gander. Ricky Ponting began a tactic, and MS Dhoni and his players had the gumption to take it to it's ultimate expression and the ends justified the means. Read the comments at the end of the Ian Chappell article. The comments are spot on in their assessment.

P.P.S.S. I do not like the slow over-rate employed by captains these days at all and will write about it later with a suggestion on how it can be stopped. But, for now, while the administrators are willing to let captains employ it, I am heartily behind it's adoption by Dhoni. By the way, Ricky Ponting HAS to employ the very same tactic if he wants to win this Test. I'll be really looking forward to Chappell's comments after that happens.

1 comment:

Devashish said...

I am surprised by Mr Ian Chappell's dismay at the 8-1 field set by MS Dhoni.

I am sure that if one of the Australian players had the skill of a VVS Laxman to play from outside the off to the onside, or if either Ishant Sharma or Zaheer Khan had lacked the discipline to keep in that channel outside off, the tactic would not have worked.

The Australian team with the exception of Hayden and in the absence of Symonds is a one-trick pony. They can play the fast seaming ball, some of them can negate spin, but none can improvise when the bowlers have the discipline to deny them the easy runs.