The Ausralians who are often baffled by the fact that Laxman isn't in the ODI team, should see the last few overs of current session (Day 3, pre lunch Ind-Pak test 2). All those who want to see what is meant by lack of street smartness should also see this as a nice example.
Scenario - Dravid on 97, obviously a bit nervous to get to 3 figures and lunch approaching, a dilemma that batsmen hate facing, whether to go for it or not. Generally they like to get the monkey of the back before heading to the pavilion.
So what does Laxman do? Out of around 6 overs before the session close, he takes singles on at least 5 occasions off the last ball of the over, constantly denying strike to his skipper. Of course he isn't doing this on purpose, but this is where he lacks a sense of the moment, this is where he lacks the street smartness to manufacture a single, this is where he lacks the agility to steal a single. You could feel the frustration in Anand Vasu's cricinfo commentary when he had to repeat "And still Laxman keeps the strike!".
Not that this is a big issue and Dravid possesses too great a temperament to get affected by it, however some other batsman can easily get desperate in such situation and throw it away.
Laxman could have been such an authoritative figure if he could have exchanged some of his artistry for this kind of smartness!
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
If I were Inzamam
What a shame of pitch! I haven't seen in even 1 ball bowled in this test, but I can feel how hard it must have been to go out and bowl on it, in particular to people with big blades and powerful muscles. Such pitches must be nipped in the bud. People have been suggesting ways to preserve the art and the skill in cricket which really merit an attention from the ICC. Spectators who don't want to watch this art and are interested in slam-bang stuff should go and watch baseball.
Coming to the point of the post, Pakistan have gotten a headache. There is no doubt that India have gotten an equal share of it, but the one that Pakistan are facing is a dangerously recurring one. I have not seen how they countered Sehwag in this game, but I presume that they tried their unsuccessful ways once too often against him. Of course, it's easier said than done, but if I were one of Inzamam or Bob Woolmer, I would totally give a revamp to my plan A against him. The thing that I would do before that is not call him a slogger who hits the bulls eye once in a while. To be able to smack the likes of Lee and Shoaib and Kaneria and Hoggard, that too with immaculate consistency and break a long standing Donald Bradman record of crossing 150 six times in a row after crossing 100, you need serious ability. So what if he doesn't move his feet, he doesn't need to. He has gotten such a great eye and hands that he can attain balance without moving feet, and that's what you need to move your feet for- to balance yourself for playing the shot - right? So it'a a divine gift, if you can balance without feet movement.
Talking about revamping the plan, I confirmed this from one of my Pune pals, that Pakistan hardly ever had a short leg in place for him. True, as the "on the ball" http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/233300.html would tell that he patiently left all the bouncers hurled at him. But then, they bowled only 10 of those at him, which was appalling.
Going ahead, I would go in with something like this in my plan A, and I am talking about the 1st over of Indian innings.
On the off side (you don't need to know rocket science to predict he loves them there) - 1 slip, 2 gullies (as he is more likely to get thick edges than thin), 3rd man (my most attacking position and a must on any pitch for Sehwag), deep point (may be I can cut down on at least 10 of those 38 boundaries and frustrate him a bit), extra cover.
On the on side- a forward short leg, a deepish backward shortleg and a conventional midwicket.
Unless really necessary, don't bowl a single ball in his half and take out the straight boundaries, remember you haven't gotten mid-off and mid-on. Consistently try to angle in or cut into his ribs of shortish length. You need quite a bit of ability though as a bowler to execute this and be accurate enough. With the dose that has been given to the Paki bowlers, I doubt how they can manage this.
If he resorts to the pull against the short ball and does that well, then I might bring in my subsequent plans, by putting some more protection on the on side, but I won't take out my deep point and 3rd man unless I give up hope.
Having said all this and given the whacking to the curators, I can only clap for the mental makeup of the man. He just doesn't care a damn about who he is facing, what the score is or what the situation is. As much as you will criticise his irresposible play had he gotten out while attempting his 1st boundary itself, you have to salute his self-belief for daring to try and execute 47 of those.
I hope Inzamam isn't in my fans' list and doesn't know enough English to be able to read my blogs. For I can never have enough of "Sehwag against Pakistan", makes me feel like he is the one who will repay Ijaz, Afridi and Anwar along with the interest of so many years.
Coming to the point of the post, Pakistan have gotten a headache. There is no doubt that India have gotten an equal share of it, but the one that Pakistan are facing is a dangerously recurring one. I have not seen how they countered Sehwag in this game, but I presume that they tried their unsuccessful ways once too often against him. Of course, it's easier said than done, but if I were one of Inzamam or Bob Woolmer, I would totally give a revamp to my plan A against him. The thing that I would do before that is not call him a slogger who hits the bulls eye once in a while. To be able to smack the likes of Lee and Shoaib and Kaneria and Hoggard, that too with immaculate consistency and break a long standing Donald Bradman record of crossing 150 six times in a row after crossing 100, you need serious ability. So what if he doesn't move his feet, he doesn't need to. He has gotten such a great eye and hands that he can attain balance without moving feet, and that's what you need to move your feet for- to balance yourself for playing the shot - right? So it'a a divine gift, if you can balance without feet movement.
Talking about revamping the plan, I confirmed this from one of my Pune pals, that Pakistan hardly ever had a short leg in place for him. True, as the "on the ball" http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/233300.html would tell that he patiently left all the bouncers hurled at him. But then, they bowled only 10 of those at him, which was appalling.
Going ahead, I would go in with something like this in my plan A, and I am talking about the 1st over of Indian innings.
On the off side (you don't need to know rocket science to predict he loves them there) - 1 slip, 2 gullies (as he is more likely to get thick edges than thin), 3rd man (my most attacking position and a must on any pitch for Sehwag), deep point (may be I can cut down on at least 10 of those 38 boundaries and frustrate him a bit), extra cover.
On the on side- a forward short leg, a deepish backward shortleg and a conventional midwicket.
Unless really necessary, don't bowl a single ball in his half and take out the straight boundaries, remember you haven't gotten mid-off and mid-on. Consistently try to angle in or cut into his ribs of shortish length. You need quite a bit of ability though as a bowler to execute this and be accurate enough. With the dose that has been given to the Paki bowlers, I doubt how they can manage this.
If he resorts to the pull against the short ball and does that well, then I might bring in my subsequent plans, by putting some more protection on the on side, but I won't take out my deep point and 3rd man unless I give up hope.
Having said all this and given the whacking to the curators, I can only clap for the mental makeup of the man. He just doesn't care a damn about who he is facing, what the score is or what the situation is. As much as you will criticise his irresposible play had he gotten out while attempting his 1st boundary itself, you have to salute his self-belief for daring to try and execute 47 of those.
I hope Inzamam isn't in my fans' list and doesn't know enough English to be able to read my blogs. For I can never have enough of "Sehwag against Pakistan", makes me feel like he is the one who will repay Ijaz, Afridi and Anwar along with the interest of so many years.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
I still fear...
Within 6 hours from now, the annual (I don't know if it will continue to be that way) India-Pak summit clash is about to get under way at Lahore and heaps of free time has made me read on every scrap on the reams of (web) pages expended by various pundits in anticipation of the event. That's what I am filled with, anticipation.
On paper, I would say that both teams start neck and neck. Riding on the high of their recent home bashings, there is no shortage of winning habit. For all the might of Inzamam, Afridi (note that he is number 2 on my list), Shoaib, Kaneria and Yousuf whatever, India have gotten Dravid, Kumble, Sehwag, Dhoni and Pathan (excuse me for some notable absentees) in their ranks. And as my cricketing knowledge tells me (unlike that of some, on some pathetic websites, who can write with enormous aplomb about how Yuvraj Singh will beat the hell out of Pakistan one day and the very next day can come up with a masterpiece of immature writing about how Mohammed Asif will win it for Pakistan), it's hard to predict anything about the outcome. One thing seems certain though, whoever wins the 1st test, with due consideration for the 2 coaches who have brought in fighting spirits in their teams, will have to lose the series from there rather than being beaten. Which is exactly why teams have to be at their ruthless best right here tonight (my time).
Having been a follower of the match-fixing era of Sharjah and the post-Javed-Miandad-last-ball-six-time, I still have some apprehensions about India playing Pakistan, especially when the neighbors are close to their best. And hence my list of Indians to watch out for contains those names that I mentioned. Dravid, I think he will experience an Inzamam Ul Huq effect on his batting with the captaincy coming his way, if at all he can bat better. Kumble, the tiniest smell of blood and he will be there running in over after over after over. Probably the best ever to have bowled on subcontinental pitches (his offset away from subcontinent to that in subcontinent makes me weigh in his favor rather than Murali's), he will not be kept out of the match at any stage. The other 3 are young, talented and thankfully never been a part of the apprehension against Pakistan times. They will believe that they are better than their opponents and hence are pivotal to Team India's success.
Talk about subplots for India, and Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman come to the mind. Still formidable mind you, Sachin is past his dominating best, which is not a cause of concern at all. He will score runs, just based on his willpower and reputation, but I believe that gone are the days when he could be termed as the deadliest Indian weapon who, within a couple of sessions, would set up the test match for his side. He is in more of a stock batsman role, the role that Shaun Pollock plays for South African bowling. Laxman, well he is an enigma, and you better not predict about him. But I get the feeling that he will also play the supporting cast.
On the other hand, how dearly would Pakistan love their captain to play the way he has been doing for the last couple of years? I hope that the law of averages in deed catches on him and at least 30% of the battle will be won for India. I also hope that Greg Chappell has devised a strategy for Shahid Afridi and it works out in the middle, for it is this man who can remind the Indians of their butchering days with Ijaz Ahmed and Saeed Anwar. It's this sense of fear that made even a bowler as pathetic as Arshad Khan (only Rameez Raja, the Pakistani counterpart of somebody like Maninder Singh, has the wherewithal to spit into the mic heaps of praise for this gentleman) to eat them away during that shameful 2nd innings of Bangalore test and Afridi is well capable of pushing India into that mode. Danish Kaneria, it's a challenge for him but so far he has done extremely well against the Indians, mostly because he has gotten a reputation against them. I don't know where it sets in, but there are some players (quite a few of them Pakistanis, on another thought quite a few of them southpaws) who just fail to do badly against the Indians. The Haydens, the Andy Flowers, the Saqlain Mushtaqs, the Saeed Anwars, the Aquib Javeds, the Shivanarine Chanderpauls... I don't know why the same Indians, who make Brian Lara and Shane Warne look ordinary, take a bow to these guys. Kaneria seems to be following Afridi up that ladder.
Time to think about the most unpredictable factor of the series, Shoaib Akhtar. He could finally be a telling difference between the 2 sides. If he gets a hammering from Sehwag and co. (Sehwag is the lead), advantage India. If Sehwag doesn't last his 1st session with the new ball, advantage Pakistan. However, if Dravid and Tendulkar cannot blunt out his spell with the old one, it could just be game-set-match Pakistan.
I am a pessimistic writer, ain't I?
On paper, I would say that both teams start neck and neck. Riding on the high of their recent home bashings, there is no shortage of winning habit. For all the might of Inzamam, Afridi (note that he is number 2 on my list), Shoaib, Kaneria and Yousuf whatever, India have gotten Dravid, Kumble, Sehwag, Dhoni and Pathan (excuse me for some notable absentees) in their ranks. And as my cricketing knowledge tells me (unlike that of some, on some pathetic websites, who can write with enormous aplomb about how Yuvraj Singh will beat the hell out of Pakistan one day and the very next day can come up with a masterpiece of immature writing about how Mohammed Asif will win it for Pakistan), it's hard to predict anything about the outcome. One thing seems certain though, whoever wins the 1st test, with due consideration for the 2 coaches who have brought in fighting spirits in their teams, will have to lose the series from there rather than being beaten. Which is exactly why teams have to be at their ruthless best right here tonight (my time).
Having been a follower of the match-fixing era of Sharjah and the post-Javed-Miandad-last-ball-six-time, I still have some apprehensions about India playing Pakistan, especially when the neighbors are close to their best. And hence my list of Indians to watch out for contains those names that I mentioned. Dravid, I think he will experience an Inzamam Ul Huq effect on his batting with the captaincy coming his way, if at all he can bat better. Kumble, the tiniest smell of blood and he will be there running in over after over after over. Probably the best ever to have bowled on subcontinental pitches (his offset away from subcontinent to that in subcontinent makes me weigh in his favor rather than Murali's), he will not be kept out of the match at any stage. The other 3 are young, talented and thankfully never been a part of the apprehension against Pakistan times. They will believe that they are better than their opponents and hence are pivotal to Team India's success.
Talk about subplots for India, and Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman come to the mind. Still formidable mind you, Sachin is past his dominating best, which is not a cause of concern at all. He will score runs, just based on his willpower and reputation, but I believe that gone are the days when he could be termed as the deadliest Indian weapon who, within a couple of sessions, would set up the test match for his side. He is in more of a stock batsman role, the role that Shaun Pollock plays for South African bowling. Laxman, well he is an enigma, and you better not predict about him. But I get the feeling that he will also play the supporting cast.
On the other hand, how dearly would Pakistan love their captain to play the way he has been doing for the last couple of years? I hope that the law of averages in deed catches on him and at least 30% of the battle will be won for India. I also hope that Greg Chappell has devised a strategy for Shahid Afridi and it works out in the middle, for it is this man who can remind the Indians of their butchering days with Ijaz Ahmed and Saeed Anwar. It's this sense of fear that made even a bowler as pathetic as Arshad Khan (only Rameez Raja, the Pakistani counterpart of somebody like Maninder Singh, has the wherewithal to spit into the mic heaps of praise for this gentleman) to eat them away during that shameful 2nd innings of Bangalore test and Afridi is well capable of pushing India into that mode. Danish Kaneria, it's a challenge for him but so far he has done extremely well against the Indians, mostly because he has gotten a reputation against them. I don't know where it sets in, but there are some players (quite a few of them Pakistanis, on another thought quite a few of them southpaws) who just fail to do badly against the Indians. The Haydens, the Andy Flowers, the Saqlain Mushtaqs, the Saeed Anwars, the Aquib Javeds, the Shivanarine Chanderpauls... I don't know why the same Indians, who make Brian Lara and Shane Warne look ordinary, take a bow to these guys. Kaneria seems to be following Afridi up that ladder.
Time to think about the most unpredictable factor of the series, Shoaib Akhtar. He could finally be a telling difference between the 2 sides. If he gets a hammering from Sehwag and co. (Sehwag is the lead), advantage India. If Sehwag doesn't last his 1st session with the new ball, advantage Pakistan. However, if Dravid and Tendulkar cannot blunt out his spell with the old one, it could just be game-set-match Pakistan.
I am a pessimistic writer, ain't I?
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