Indias weakness in shortened contests – its become a unhappy habit………

India lost to the West Indies by Duckworth Lewis in their first game of the DLF Cup in Malaysia yesterday. They have a very poor record in shortened games this decade. Since the year 2000, India have won 54% of the their ODI games. As against this, they have won only 36% of their shortened games in this period.

Invariably, in shortened games, the side batting second seems to lose. Of these 14 games, when India have batted second, they have won 4/7. In the other 7 games they have 1 solitary win. Even so, other sides have managed good records in shortened games – as it turns out, at the cost of India and New Zealand.

The following list summarizes the success rate of sides in reduced overs contests in this decade:

India 36%
Pakistan 62%
Sri Lanka 63%
England 62%
Australia 80%
South Africa 68%
New Zealand 45%

All sides have played a similar number of reduced over contests in this decade – between 11 and 20. This seems to suggest that India have a particular weakness in this type of contest.

This is no surprise if you think about it. The weakest bowling attack usually bowling on the flattest wickets is usually vulnerable to assaults from batting sides in shortened games. India concede 5.8 runs per over in these contests as against their decadal average of 5.04.

This came to the fore yesterday as well. In ODI cricket, as in Tests, the strength and weakness of the attack is determined not by how many great bowlers are available, but by how many average to sub par international bowlers constitute this attack. Indias ODI attack has consisted of mercurial mainstays, green rookies and ordinary trundlers who wouldn’t make most Test teams.

I was also quite surprised to see India play 5 specialist bowlers in an ODI contest.

A word on Tendulkar – this was his comeback match remember? Yet, he churned out 141 not out against a competent pace attack on an iffy wicket. Call it luck, call it whatever else you may want, the runs are on the board. That has been Tendulkars greatest forte (i call it his greatest forte, because he is one batsman with many different arrows in his quiver) – the runs are invariably on the board.

When they dry up occasionally, in all these years, all that has meant has been that they are around the corner. It reminds me of something i read about Australian batting philosophy once – Australian batsmen are either hitting them well out in the middle, or hitting them well in the nets!

India have unfortunately not hit the same high notes in shortened games.

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