Morons running and ruining the game

The fourth day of the Mohali test between India & England got underway at 11 am IST today, after fog caused a delay of two hours.

India wrapped up England's lower order in quick time and at the time of writing, have a lead of 160 runs. There's no doubt that the aim would be to score at least 150-180 more runs by end of day today, and preferably bowl at least 3-4 overs at England.

That said, India may (unnecessarily) decide to play it a little safer. Remember that until a week ago, even 387, let alone 414 was considered nearly impossible to chase.

By the way, did anyone notice that West Indies' chase of 418 against Australia in 2003 had a debutant (Omari Banks) batting when the game was won, and yesterday, South Africa had Jean-Paul Duminy hitting the winning runs? It seems to me that South Africa's lower order batting is at its weakest since they came back to international cricket in 1992. They've always had chaps who could bat down the order. But they got blown away by Mitchell Johnson in the first innings. Since 1992, their #9, #10 & #11 have typically averaged 15-20 runs per wicket, but in the last 2 years its down to 12 & 9!

What was Ricky Ponting doing as captain? His main spinner was leaking 4.5 runs an over. Yet he didn't even bring on Symonds or Katich to try and do something different? I'm having evil thoughts now about why Ponting did nothing!

With Kevin Pietersen in such form in the test, there's a very high chance that India will end up batting all day and declaring only tomorrow morning after a couple of overs. Speaking of him, he has 15 test hundreds in just 3.5 years of test cricket. He has 4000 runs in that period, from just 45 tests. He's 28, and could really play for at least another 8 years. If England continue to play more tests than most other teams and he keeps going with his batting, he could end up with at least 12000 runs and 30+ centuries. In fact, I think he may go past Tendulkar and Ponting (if & when he gets there) in the centuries and runs tallies.

How amazing is that? I think he's a prick, but I have a lot more respect for him than someone like Hayden (I just love the scrutiny Hayden is facing having made 282 runs in his last 13 innings). Pietersen hits some amazing shots, and showed us the reverse hit yesterday. Until his innings yesterday, he only had 221 runs from 8 innings in India. I hope he doesn't get any more!

Coming back to the Mohali game and why I started this post, isn't it so f#@king stupid that when the light is good enough for play, the umpires decide to take lunch? This, when they've spent the last 2 hours trying to establish when play can start! Spectators and audiences (TV, radio, mobile phones, internet, etc.) get shortchanged due to such stupidity. Yet, the ICC ostrich continues to tell us that cricket is in good shape and its Chief Executives announce, after pointless meetings, that "There was also a general discussion on the issue of Test cricket with Members acknowledging the need to find ways in which this format of the game can be protected and promoted.". There's nonsense happening pretty much on a series-by-series basis, and yet the members keep acknowledging the need to find ways to protect & promote test cricket.

Speaking of the ICC, has it relaxed the rules on 'public criticism of, or inappropriate comment on a match related incident or match official' which is normally categorized as a level 1 offense? In the past week, there have been two players who've spoken out in the press conferences about the umpiring decision that ruled them out - Sehwag at Chennai and Pietersen at Mohali have both said that they reckoned the decisions should have gone their way.

Since there has been no action from the ICC against both players (especially considering Sehwag's statement was a week ago), can we assume that the ICC has decided to allow players a little more leeway in expressing their dissatisfaction with the umpiring? If so, why can't they just announce it officially so everyone can do the same without fear of being pulled up?

Labels: bad light, eng v ind 2008, england, icc, india, lunch, match referee, mohali, pietersen, playing conditions, rules

Thus spake Jagadish @ 3:08 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Bizarre decision-making from India at Mohali

At lunch on the second day at Mohali, India had England by the proverbials (normally used only in an Aussie context). India were 302/1, having added 123 runs in 33 overs (run rate of 3.7). Even if they didn't bother accelerating over the next session and a half, they could have got to 460, and with some acceleration, to 500 leaving England's tired openers & other batsmen an hour before stumps to survive the new ball and a few overs of spin.

After lunch, the intent was there - to speed it up. But the wrong batsman was entrusted with the job. Gambhir can easily, almost at will, speed up his scoring rate. Dravid is, in current form, incapable of doing so. The instructions should have been for Dravid to try and get the quick runs while Gambhir's aim should have been to bat through the innings. But it all went haywire. First, Gambhir got out slogging, then Dravid. If India were really serious about trying to win, they should have sent out Yuvraj, if not after Gambhir's dismissal then at least after Dravid was out. But we saw Laxman come in and he pottered around for nearly 30 balls without scoring. In the meantime, Tendulkar had got out.

Then, Yuvraj and Dhoni put on 40 runs in 19 overs. Yes, you read it right. With India on 339/5, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, those mighty hitters, scored at just 2 an over when the situation demanded something like 4 an over to totally demoralize England. India scored 54 runs in 28 overs in the 2nd session, something similar to England's crawl in the 2nd session on day four at Chepauk last Sunday. England's batting that evening cost them the test. Could India suffer this time around? I certainly believe so - perhaps not to the extent of losing the test but ending up with a draw rather than a win.

Harbhajan's arrival at the crease sparked some urgency, and then there was a brief flurry during the partnership between Zaheer and Mishra. At that stage, there were around 15 overs left to be bowled and if India had declared then, England would have had to face something like 12-13 overs ideally, and light permitting, at least 5 overs. If India had managed to get a wicket or two (since a nightwatchman, Ian Bell?, may have been sent), then that'd have put so much pressure on England's batsmen on day 3.

But no, a pointless 10th wicket partnership followed where Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma put on 7 runs in 4 overs, with Ishant exhibiting his defensive skills (1 off 16). I had to get my wife to pick up my jaw from the floor when that partnership was going on, because it was jaw-droppingly insanely defensive stuff.

What was the point of that partnership? Were the instructions to bat out until end of day's play so that the next day India could opt for the heavy roller in the morning before start of play? Given that only 80 overs are going to be bowled each day during the game, time to bowl England out twice should have been the main consideration. India should have declared as soon as Zaheer was out. What's the big difference between 446 and 453, or even 460 for the matter? How likely is it that the margin in the test would be less than 20 runs?

As it turned out, England had to face something like 9 overs, but the umpires ruled that the light had deteriorated and that was exactly what England wanted. In fact, if England's bowlers had bowled a little sensibly (way outside off stump for example), they could have dragged on the charade for a few overs more to totally remove all possibility of their openers having to come out to bat today.

The play in the last 2 sessions today was totally unexpected and inexplicable. It isn't something you expect from a team that is 1-0 up, and basically has done everything right in the test. It's certainly not what you expect from a team that's led by MS Dhoni or one that aims to be a #1 side in the near future.

Down under at the WACA, South Africa are chasing 414, and India could be demoted to #5 on the list of top 4th innings chases. They need 186 more with 7 wickets in hand. It works out to just 2 an over, but we're talking of South Africa and the great b@st#rds. I think the key wicket will be Mark Boucher. But first, Kallis & de Villiers need to put on at least 100 more. That'll give Boucher some space to bat with an inexperienced lower order. But I'm still predicting that South Africa will fall around 100 short.

Labels: eng v ind 2008, india, mohali, positive intent

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:28 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Too much of a fuss about the pitch and the captain

Leading in to the second test at Mohali, I think there's just far too much unnecessary focus on how the pitch will behave, and who India's captain for the game will be.

Australia have confirmed that Stuart Clark will not play because of an injured elbow and Peter Siddle will debut. In contrast, India seem like in a fair amount of chaos. It isn't immediately apparent if Anil Kumble, who struggled in Australia's second innings (and was off the field for a fair amount of time), will play.

The question then arises if he is good enough to play, given that the Mohali pitch has historically tended to favour fast bowlers. So, will India be better off picking Munaf Patel, with the obvious implication (assuming that none of the batsmen will can be dropped) that Kumble will be 'rested'?

My gut feeling is that Kumble isn't the sort of chap who's going to sit out a test match against Australia, with the series at 0-0 and 3 more tests to go. Unless he has a cast on, he will announce himself fit, and we should respect his judgement.

After all, if he could bowl, and get Lara out, bandaged, broken jaw and all, then he will definitely play at Mohali.

I know he hasn't had a poor year so far, but the best part about Kumble is when people write him off, he's back with a bang. Even if he doesn't turn up at Mohali, I fully expect him to take back the captaincy at Delhi and do well.

There's a lot of talk by Indian commentators as well as Australians about Kumble's performance. The worst part was the NDTV reporter continuously prodding Ricky Ponting about what he thought of Kumble's performance at Bangalore and if the non-performance by a captain would impact the team. It almost sounded as though this was a case of embedded journalism. Perhaps Ponting had marked out for the reporter that questions that he wanted her to ask!

Ponting then added fuel to the fire by offering to pick India's XI, including Harbhajan and dropping Kumble.

Maybe this is a good time to point out that after his one-legged century at 'The Oval' in the 2001 Ashes, Steve Waugh averaged 29.3 with one century over the next 16 tests. In fact during those 16 tests, before he scored a century at Sharjah against Pakistan, he averaged 21.6 in 11 tests over a year! He then scored that century in the Sydney Ashes test, where he also got past 10,000 runs. After that, until the end of his career, he averaged 76.6, if you include Bangladesh & Zimbabwe, and 54.6 if you don't!

In any case, Steve Waugh hasn't been the only Australian captain to have been given a bit of a leeway by the selectors. Over a period of 1.5 years and 10 tests between January 1996 and June 1997, Mark Taylor averaged 18.2, with the bat. Obviously the selectors kept persisting with him, knowing that he was good enough to come out of his bad patch.

As for the pitch, even if it is the 'traditional' Mohali wicket (explain why a nice bouncy pitch has resulted in 4 draws from 7 tests!), it shouldn't worry India's batsmen, especially since Australia's quick bowling is further weakened by Clark's injury. India's batsmen have actually done better at the bouncier venues, in comparison with pitches where the ball 'stops' on the batsmen. This is mainly because it is difficult to play your shots, and boundaries are harder to come by.

So, just toss the coin, and let's hope for a great game!

Labels: aus v ind 2008, kumble, mohali, pitch

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:47 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]