Monday, November 10, 2008

The goose and the gander

After watching the end of an absorbing (and sometimes engrossing) series between a surging India and a crumbling Australia, here are some of the thoughts that went through my head while the post-game festivities were going on.

1) MS Dhoni has that important ingredient that a successful captain needs - luck. Winning the toss was important and he has done it in all three Tests that he has captained (and won). Sourav Ganguly supposedly said something along those lines, too. But there is a lot of truth in the adage that winners make their own luck. Dhoni is a shrewd judge of situations and scenarios. He adopted the go-slow tactic on Day 3 and the Australians could not think of another way of scoring (a point brought out by CSD in a comment on one of my earlier posts) when confronted with this challenge. Dhoni's greatness is not that he thought of this plan, but that he convinced his bowlers to keep at it, ball after ball, over after over, half hour after half hour. Like a predator that sits patiently by a watering hole, he bid his time, knowing that the Aussies would come. They took a long time coming and when they did, they meekly accepted their fate. Not what I expected from the #1 ranked team in the world (note that I did not say they were the best team in the world. For my money, that is Sri Lanka). John Buchanan was a better coach than the current one and his tactical acumen must be greatly missed by Ricky Ponting, who does not think well on his feet.

2) Ricky Ponting is pretty frank in his post-game interviews (he freely admitted that India had outplayed them in the series and deserved to win) but gets prickly when the questions become directed to him as an individual. When asked about the bizarre decision to bowl part-timers on day 4 after the tea break, he brought out his "spirit of the game" defense. Sad. Instead of addressing the question he treats it as an affront to his dignity and tries to divert the attention to something else. When you are winning, it is easy to appear magnanimous. When you are losing, your man-management skills get tested. Considering how thoughtful and gracious Ponting was in the prize ceremony interview, it is odd that he regressed when questioned about a decision that may well have cost the trophy.

3) MS Dhoni made two brilliant moves yesterday, and neither of them got the Indians a single wicket. First, after 9 wickets were down, he walked up to Ganguly, took him aside, and was seen talking earnestly to him. Ganguly demurred, but Dhoni gave him a big hug, and Ganguly led the side for the next few overs. In his last Test match, Dhoni gave Ganguly a taste of what he said he'd give his right hand for - captaincy. Dhoni's second move was to insist that Anil Kumble step up to the podium to accept the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. When the last wicket fell, Dhoni ran to the wicket, but only to pick up two wickets - one of them was a souvenir for Ganguly (he also kept one for himself...methinks he then gave it to Kumble, but I have no way of knowing). Rapturous celebrations by him are usually reserved for big wickets, not for the grand finish. I am reminded of Rudyard Kipling, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs..."

4) I am as big a fan of Dhoni's captaincy as you can find, but I HATE the 8-1 field that he adopts, and the slowing down of the over-rate. While it was happening I could see why he was doing it and I admired his guts for taking the unpopular road to keep the bigger target in sight, but I hope he does not make it his typical modus operandi. It may be the best tactic, for now, against extremely aggressive and dominant batsmen; however, there's just a handful of those in Test cricket, and many of them are on the Indian team. I fear that other captains will see this tactic and start applying it willy-nilly. Test cricket will get bogged down into a game of pseudo-attrition and that will take away some of it's charm. Dhoni, you also need to keep the over-rate going. You are at the forefront of a new wave of Indian cricketers and I'd rather see more of that aggressive, innovative captaincy, than a paint by the numbers go-slow tactic.

5) By dropping a couple of sitters, Rahul Dravid lost a golden chance to equal Mark Waugh on the all-time list of catches by a fielder. He is a 179, while Waugh is at 181. Ironically, his being so close may have delayed the stay of execution on him. Had he succeeded in reaching or crossing Waugh, the selectors (ever mindful of milestones and public perception) would have felt that there was no reason to keep him going. I foresee Dravid scoring some runs in the next month in the Ranji Trohpy, making his way back to the Test team against England, and if unable to rediscover the touch that made him India's best match-winning batsman ever (yes, ever) retiring quietly. Simply playing two Tests will be enough to cross Waugh (he does average more catches per innings than Mark Waugh did, actually!).

6) India is on the verge of becoming the next great team. It has the players and the skill set to be so, led by an admirable captain. I hope they learn the good things - aggressive mentality, positive outlook, sharp fielding, good running between the wickets, incisive bowling, and patience - and not the bad things - sledging, whining to umpires, slow over-rate - from the Australians. The Indians drop too many catches, and misfield too many balls to be considered the best. Hopefully, with the new blood that is coming in, the fielding levels will increase, and that that gap will be bridged, too.

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