The most comprehensive analysis of India's strategies in the T20 WC matches.. Even the senior sports editors won’t give this analysis.. This is a captain's perspective and surely not a journo's or a mindless fan's..
India was touted as the team to look out for.. Having played the IPL and the batsmen like Raina, Rohit in form, Yusuf Pathan was in devastating form and his brother Irfan had found his swing and was batting brilliantly ( I had in my weekly updates of IPL named Pathan of the week), RP was the leading wicket taker of IPL2, Ojha and Bhajji had been the best slow bowlers along with Jakati and MURALI KARTIK..
There's another side to this Raina had become a slogger, Rohit had lost his timing and grace that he had shown in CB series final batting alongside Sachin and become a slogger who had to bat routinely at 5 or 6 for the chargers.. We cherished his big hitting ability, the boy who was collecting BMW stickers had become the man collecting BMWs.. CSK who were playing with Murali Vijay as opener had resorted to Parthiv in the latter stages primarily because MSD had complained of stress in lower back..
Take note: MSD complains of low back pain..
RP the main wicket taker for the chargers went at 7 RPO, Bhajji and Anil kumble went for 5.8 RPO.. And Murali Kartik's efforts went un-noticed largely because he was part of a team that lost consistently.. Dint pick up wickets but went at 5.9 RPO.. He was the 3rd best bowler in terms of economy rate.. The next best was Ravi Jadeja who went at 6.47... He caught the attention of the national selectors with his strong all-round showing in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy - 42 wickets and 739 run.. In T20s,
Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 4s | 6s |
Twenty20 | 35 | 29 | 5 | 540 | 42 | 22.50 | 114.40 | 40 | 14 |
Take note: he can hit sixes.. !!
Zak, Viru were injured during IPL and did not take part in many games.. Viru returned for 2 matches only to see his sides lose.. So, the injuries weren't out of the blue.. Gautam Gambhir was in poor form right throughout the tournament.. The selectors could have included Nehra, that was only the bone of contention..
The WC begins..
Warm up match-1, India loses to NZ..
Take note: RP gave 37 runs in 3 overs..
RP Singh 1-0-10-0 RP Singh 2-0-21-0 RP Singh 3-0-37-1 (thats consistently getting hit).
I.Pathan 0 for 31 in 3.. Saving grace Bhajji 1 for 22 in 4.. Ishanth best 4 for 25..
Rohit played brilliantly for 36..
Warm up match-2, India thrashes Pakistan..
Take note: RP yet again 0 for 33 in 3.. Ishanth 1 for 11 in 3..
Rohit's spectacular knock and Gambhir knocking pretty well seals an Indian victory..
"Both against New Zealand and Pakistan, R P Singh proved particularly expensive towards the end as India bled some late boundaries in both the matches." - Headlines Today....
The match against Bangladesh..
Any cricket fan would have by now made up his mind that RP wont fit into playing11, if a cricket fan can decide that WHY NOT THE CAPTAIN.... RP SINGH CANNOT FIGURE IN PLAYING 11..
This answers Headlines Today, a news channel's stupid question of why RP was not played in all matches.. Dig your face into dirt u sports analysts.. Ishant takes 2 for 34 and Ojha 4 for 21.. Rohit performs well yet again..
So, the team stays the same for the next match, shouldn't it ?
vs Ireland
Zak takes a 4-for, hailed.. Zak is back.. Rohit performs well yet again.. Ojha and Bhajji again perform well..
vs West Indies
There are still no non-performers in the side.. Lord's, London.. The pitch doesn't take spin, Ojha is hammered.. MSD's fear comes true. Bowling at the death.. Found out technically.. India again play the bouncers poorly... That leads us to the question, has Rohit not played a single bouncer in Australia ? Hasn't he received fast bouncers in CB series in Australia or in IPL2, SA ?
The reason: As mentioned above, the technically sound player has transformed into a slogger.. An arrogant state when you think you can smash sixes of good balls too,( constantly hailed by all commentators and Gavaskar too that Rohit's best ability is to hit boundaries of good balls too)..
vs England
The do or die match.. The match under big scanner.. Takes a deeper analysis.. Lord's again.. So, playing Ojha again may not be that sensible.. Short boundaries square of the wicket poses threat to getting hit.. RP comes in.. Irfan has been less than impressive, dint swing.. Dint take wickets up front and was little too slow to experiment under a must win situation.. So makes way for Jadeja who can bat and bowl.. We have seen him in IPL and the stats shown above showes he CAN hit big sixes.. RP bowled well 3 overs for 13 runs.. Zak got hit for runs.. Bhajji and Jadeja were instrumental in getting the match to tilt in India's favor.. 2 for 26 in 4 overs from jadeja was exceptional.. Bhajji is undisputably the beat T20 bowler in India.. so 8 overs are out.. RP has done with 3, Yuvi 2 (to irritate KP basically).. 14th over was bowled by Ishanth, take a look at the commentary.
I Sharma 2-0-20-0
13.1 | I Sharma to Mascarenhas, no run, chopped to point - good stop |
13.2 | I Sharma to Mascarenhas, no run, defended out to the off side and he roars "no" |
13.3 | I Sharma to Mascarenhas, 1 run, pulled, and pulled powerfully, but straight to the fielder |
13.4 | I Sharma to Shah, 1 run, a bouncer - good thinking by Sharma - and it's nudged off his chest |
13.5 | I Sharma to Mascarenhas, no run, pushed out to the off side |
13.6 | I Sharma to Mascarenhas, 2 runs, an ugly shovel. Tried to drive through cover but his bottom hand came off the bat and the ball worked its devilish way through the leg side |
England 96/3 I Sharma 3-0-24-0 |
Ishanth has troubled the batsmen and gave just 4 runs away.. Jadeja gives away 4 runs in the 15th over.. If anybody has played cricket and is sensible enough will not think of RP now ahead of Ishanth.. So giving 16th over to him is absolutely justified.. Realistically, who had RP in mind to bowl 16th over ahead of Ishanth, leave alone RP not bowling 4 overs.. It was Ishanth's 4th coincidentally.. Now, how on earth is MSD supposed to give RP the over when Ishanth has bowled his previous over so well.. His confidence was on a high and had the batsmen in trouble, psychological advantage too.. It was only his young age that got the worse out of him sprayed the ball and Mascarenhas got the better of him..
3 overs for 18 and 2 wickets too, got the yorkers in and it was difficult for the batsmen to get away.. Give him the 4th over or not ?? Anybody who has captained at any level would give him the 4th.. Zak coming back ahead of RP has to go with Zak's yorkers at the death and thats what he has bowled for a long time.. This actually was the 50-50 call, not RP vs Ishanth.. Zak's experience vs RP's brilliance.. Rp was not so good at the death on many a match in IPL, though he did perform well on the other occasions..
Come batting, India once again bounced out.. Irresponsible batting from RS and Raina.. The ball was seaming around and the English were pumped up.., Yuvi always a circumspect against 3 S- swing, seam, spin.. It was risky to lose Yuvi at that time (if at all he gets out to the bowlers then).. MSD was a good option but true to his character he sent Jadeja in.. Dont forget, that when a player bowls well and then comes to bat and performs well we always say the player has carried the confidence from the bowling into batting and vice versa (bat first and bowl next).. Which means sending Jadeja is not a bad option.. Dint we hail MSD when he gave Joginder Sharma the last over and very famously said - "its your moment to glory, perform well and you are the hero but if you dont I will be blamed, give your 100% ".. Its the same thing here, Jadeja carried confidence through to batting.. The mistake was the kid did not get going initially and succumbed to pressure, he should have remembered Warnie then and how well he had performed to reach to this level.. Bad luck.. Yuvi was padded up ever since and the poor kid did not hit and neither got out.. Ill timing of events i must say.. MSD and Yusuf were left too much to do though they scored 63 of the last 6.. India lost and were sent packing out of the WC..
The news channels then made MSD the villain, the foolish followers who know nothing beyond cricket being a game played with bat and ball start burning effigies.. This makes our ever popular media talk to all former captains who finally were happy to see MSD fail as it would make him more human and not a guy who turns whatever he touches to gold.. How can these people ever accept someone performing better than them!! And that too a player with no grace or technique, just an ordinary guy with immense confidence in himself and faith in his team, a player with the right positive attitude, a player who doesn't mind calling a spade a spade, a player who thinks intuitively and not by the rule books or go by what the laptop says, a player who could get the best out of all youngsters, a player who along with Yuvi and Dravid scripted many a successful run chases ( 17 consecutively), a player hailed by all senior Indian players in Sachin, Sourav, Kumble; the aussies, south africans and many more for having a cool head on the shoulders and being aggressive on the field with tactics...
This report from Headlines today was little too ridiculous to ignore :
"T20 WC: Team India's big lie nailed Suman Ray
It is not just Virender Sehwag who lied about his fitness, but the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni himself was not fit enough.
Headlines Today has exclusive access to the official fitness report of Team India given to the BCCI before the tournament began.
And the report says that not just Zaheer and Sehwag but even Dhoni, Yuvi and RP Singh were carrying injuries into the tournament."
Are these anything new ? We knew of Viru's injury.. We know Yuvi is carrying a knww injury and has been playing with a strap around it for ages.. We have not seen him field at point or backward point for a long time now.. Have we forgotten the 100 he got against ENG in the 1st ODI in India after suffering from back spasms and playing with a runner and a belt around his hips ? MSD has been complaining of lower back pain for a looooooooong time now, he even requested for the inclusion of a 2nd wicketkeepr for the WC only to be unheard of.. Aren't we unaware of Zak's fitness? It now actually becomes a better spirited performance from India dispite all these injuries.. Dont the media dare call them CHEATS or question their intent.. Its ridiculous..
There are a number of fans who blindly follow the game and do not know a thing or two of captaincy and call MSD's successes as "LUCK" , celebrate his downfall and seem to put on a show of not being disappointed at India's loss (owing to MSD alone).. Learn cricket, have leadership qualities, think on your own and then you will understand what captaincy is.. Once you know that, you will know how good MSD is.. Until then CUT the crap and stop advicing MSD on what he should have done, and that too after a defeat...This holds good even if you are from a tier 2 city and not played cricket enough to comment or even if you are a former captain or player..
