A Defeat with many fathers……

It is a measure of a Cricket team mired in mediocrity, that should take a contest against the very best to lift their game. Improvement hinges on survival, not on standards set for oneself. For India, this has been the case and it is basically down to the fact that they are not as good as Australia. Playing Australia results in two things:

1. Defeat.
2. An improvement in the defeated teams game.

For India, who are experiencing a version of second season blues, this defeat must surely have many fathers. They did not win and Mohali, and in terms of this individual match, it was down to the fact that nobody produced anything exceptional with either bat or ball. The core ingredients of a good performance were very much there – at least with the bat. The approach was measured, embodied by Sachin Tendulkar, who seemed to have batted with the sole intention of seeing off the new ball. He is no longer as good as he once was, and on this wicket, with an India in form, or with the Tendulkar of yore, we might have seen him going after Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee from the word go….. disturbing their length just by his intent as he did so famously in Nairobi in 2000.

The bowling, by all accounts was terrible. I was afraid that the Indians would try to test the middle of the pitch. Ian Chappell wrote about the use of the short ball in this tournament and warned that India trying this tactic against Australia’s batsmen may not be the same as Australia trying it against India’s. And so it proved. All the hard earned chips from the batting were squandered in 15 mad overs at the start of the Australian innings. From then on, it was a matter of pulling things back, just like it was against the West Indies.

They say that Victory has many fathers, but Defeat is an Orphan. This has been a defeat with many plusses, and for India to wage a realistic World Cup campaign early next year, this defeat must have many fathers. Chappell must zero in on his World Cup squad – i suspect that hes still looking for 1 batsman (to replace the disappointing Suresh Raina, Hemang Badani must be wondering what he might have achieved had he played as many games as Raina has).

India clearly has an inexperienced team right now. Indeed, the average age of the Indian squad for the Champions Trophy is 25). But experience comes from results like these, because they tell you more about a teams strengths and weaknesses than victories. India batted well yesterday. With Tendulkar failing and Yuvraj unavailable, and error of sending Raina ahead of Irfan, 250 was about as many as they would have got against this line up on any day. The bowling had a bad day.

Quality is a function of the number of bad days that a unit has. Australia are the team they are because they rarely have bad days – batting or bowling. That is what India have to aspire to. It is the sort of quality which it is possible for a team to build within them. Brilliant strokeplay and natural talent is something that is probably God’s gift, but the number of bad days are in one’s hand. This is never revealed more acutely than when a must win, sudden death game has been lost.

India’s subsequent success will depend on how many people apart from the Captain take ownership of this defeat. India are not the best gifted team in the world right now. But to change the question from “How good are we really?“, as is being asked now, to “How can we be the best?”, as was being asked last season, when success and India seemed to be firm friends, it will take responsibility – from Chappell and Vengsarkar. This can begin by making the following assertions:

1. Tendulkar is not as good as he once was. Therefore he is no longer the undisputed best batsman in the side. The logic of the best batsman getting the most overs does not therefore hold. India need to take a stand on this, to let it lie is a strategy fraught with danger. A third opening option – Gautam Gambhir would be a good selection.

2. 4 or 5 bowlers is a stand India need to take. If 5 bowlers play, then Powar and Harbhajan have to play, simply because they offer a range of options to the captain. While Irfan the batsman has been used a great deal, Dhoni the batsman has not yet been tapped. If 4 bowlers play, then India need to be sure that Tendulkar will bowl. While Sehwag, Yuvraj and Mongia are excellent part time bowlers, Tendulkar has wicket taking ability.

3. They need a settled batting order. Flexibility worked fine, when the players in the batting order were all new and had not yet settled in as a batting unit.

I would go ahead and present a batting lineup and a squad for the world cup. In batting order it would be

Gautam Gambhir, Virendra Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Mahendra Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel

The reserve players would be Kaif, Sreesanth, Mongia, VRV Singh

This is the best Indian squad right now. Part of the problem with flexibility is that after a while it descends into randomness. This is not good for allocation of responsibilities. Tasks get allocated, but not responsibilities.

Food (well… atleast Pav Bhaji, if not Poli Bhaji) for Vengsarkar and co…..!

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Dravid’s India face their biggest Test yet……

Richie Benaud’s criterion for a successful captain, is that he must be lucky to the successful. Most captaincies are defined by results in important games. Rahul Dravid has been Captain of India for more than a year now. In that year, he has achieved a great deal, in both the Test and ODI arena, with his young team (the average age of the Indian side for much of the past year has been under 25). Some important wins have been achieved, some important talent has been identified.

Currently though, the team seems to be going through classic second season blues. Ideas are not working, players are not delivering, confidence is down. All in all, team India is not a winning team at the moment. Apart from the return of Sachin Tendulkar and the superb disciplined display of skill and control by Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel, India have nothing much going for them. The Captain himself, by his standards has not enjoyed the best period in terms of runs. Since the start of the West Indies ODI series, Indias batsmen have achieved 1 ODI century between them – Tendulkar’s 141 against the West Indies.

To make matter worse, the Test they have set themselves is possibly the most difficult one in cricket today – to play Australia in a must win game on a Mohali wicket which has been a fast bowlers dream in this tournament. In the last 2 games played here, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Shane Bond, Umar Gul and Iftikar Rao Anjum have taken 18/236 in 65.3 overs. If a Test Match had seen 18 wickets fall in 65 overs, there might have been questions about the quality of the wicket. 3 out of the last 4 innings on this wicket have been worth less than 225 runs, the last one being Pakistan’s 89 all out. Runs have come as well, Sri Lanka made over 300, Bangladesh replied with 265 and New Zealand made 274 here in the Champions trophy.

I just wonder what Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey and Andy Symonds make of all this.

But most importantly, i wonder what Sachin Tendulkar makes of all that he has seen since he returned to the Indian side. In 2005-06, Tendulkar, dogged by injury watched Rahul Dravid’s India win match after match, chalking up a world record 17 consecutive successful run chase. He has returned to find the fearless winners of 2005-06, to be a shadow of their erstwhile selves – racked by doubt, starving for runs, increasingly sapped by the elusive nature of success. He sees before him an Australian side in a not dissimilar situation – in spite of their ODI success, Ponting is far from being a popular well-regarded leader. With a titanic Ashes battle looming, defeat in this game will not sit well with the Australian Cricket fraternity. Ponting’s own batting form, which is threatening to assume 2001 proportions, is another worry.

This game is crying for someone to rise above the contest, and champion a victorious effort for his side. Tendulkar is familiar with this idea. Has been for at least a dozen years now. Whats more, i am pretty certain that he is keen to make some runs against this Australian attack. The sight of Glenn McGrath at the end of his bowling mark should fire Tendulkar up. In Malaysia, their battles have lacked the professional antagonism of yore.

It is time for Tendulkar, for the umpteenth time, to lead India out of a hole. I see nobody else with the ability to put to it past the Australians. There has been nobody in the past 10 years who has done this. In 23 runs chases which Tendulkar has played in vs Australia, India have won 15, and Tendulkar averages 75 in those run chases.

Over to Sachin Tendulkar then….

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India inflict sudden death upon themselves…

West Indies beat India by 3 wickets, with 2 balls to spare at Ahmedabad to qualify for the semi-finals stage of the Champions trophy for the 3rd time in 5 editions. India have made the Semi-final twice before, and just to give you an idea of the mountain that looms before them, if they are to make the semi-final summit, the last time India beat Australia was at Brisbane in January 2004. Since then there have been 5 consecutive defeats. But wait… it gets worse, the last time India beat Australia chasing was in 1998 in Sharjah, when it would be fair to say that it was Sachin Tendulkar who beat Australia, inspite of the the rest of the Indian batting. Looking back before that, India’s wins over Australia in ODI cricket came from Tendulkar’s blade.

Indeed, in India’s wins over Australia, chasing runs, Tendulkar averages a phenomenal 75.00 in 15 games. So, for the umpteenth time, India, a nation of a billion, tatters and all (to use a brilliant phrase from one of Times of India’s columnists), will look to the pint sized champion as he walks out to open the Indian innings at Mohali. Even in todays multi-talented, multi-faceted, successful Indian squad, when it comes to Australia, this is an inescapable truth.

Right now, the national team is facing a crisis of sorts. I wrote during their victorious phase that even though India were winning, we did not seem to have a settled first team. With 2 non-performing batting assets – Raina and Sehwag, and one mercurial all-rounder – Pathan, India desperately need some champagne cricket from some of their individual match winners. A team effort is unlikely to be enough. They need some one to play a great innings or some one to get 4-5 cheap wickets.

Over to Mohali.

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New Zealand qualify for the last 4 in Fleming’s match……..

In his record 194th match as captain of New Zealand, Stephen Fleming lead New Zealand to a 51 run victory over Pakistan at Mohali. This is New Zealand’s 4th consecutive victory over Pakistan. It is not for nothing that they rank 3rd in my ODI Rankings. They have beaten South Africa and Pakistan in this tournament.

Effectively, South Africa v Pakistan is now a winner takes all, sudden death match. New Zealand with 2 wins have already qualified. Given the way Group B games have gone, only 2 teams in Group B can end up with 2 wins – New Zealand, and one out of South Africa and Pakistan.

In Group A, it is a different story. India could beat the West Indies today and still not qualify if West Indies beat England and Australia beat India. If England lose to the West Indies, then Group A is likely to be decided based on net run rates, so winning by a significant margin will be important.

Im having a particularly difficult time with my predictions….. i didn’t think New Zealand would beat Pakistan, but they have. I hope im wrong about Group A as well

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South Africa win…. Sri Lanka on a prayer….

So much for predictions. Before the tournament began, i felt that Sri Lanka would be the team to beat. So did Harsha Bhogle. Two defeats later, Sri Lanka along with England are on the verge of elimination. Englands only chance of qualification is for India to win all three games and for England to beat West Indies and somehow emerge with the best net run rate. Sri Lanka’s position is now similar. They need to pray that the only unbeaten team in their group – Pakistan wins all three matches and Sri Lanka beat New Zealand and emerge with the best net runrate.

After the well timed 2 day break, the tournament has now moved on to the business end. The people who designed the schedule for this tournament have to be congratulated. They have designed it with a keen understanding of how the stakes develop in a round robin format. With atleast 3 teams still in with a realistic chance of making in to the semifinals from each group, and with the 4th team having a slim chance, the tournament is set up perfectly.

The low scores in the tournament so far have been a matter of much discussion. I think there has been a combination of factors which has resulted in low scoring contests. For one, its still early season in India, and the wickets have not really settled down, especially in North and Western India where the monsoon has just ended. Most teams seem to have come with the expectation that they will make 300 without too much effort on Indian wickets, irrespective of how they play. Most of the wickets have fallen due to the batsmen trying to do too much.

So we enter the last 10 days of the tournament with India, West Indies, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand all having 1 win each under their belt. Even though i have been proved wrong before, i will stick my neck out and make another prediction:

The following teams swill qualify for the semifinals:

West Indies
Australia
Pakistan
South Africa

Now theres a reverse woof if there ever was one….