The Rise and Fall of Circumspect Batting with observations on a one-off revival

The last few years there have been many players coming in and out of the Pakistani cricket team. Two years back, Azhar Ali was one of them, part of a possible plan to transition the middle order from the aged warriors like Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Misbal-ul-Haq. He made his debut in 2010 in the “home” series versus Australia (Home here meant the Lord’s). He made 16 and 42 with Australia winning by 150 runs. That was the test series after which Shahid Afridi was sacked as captain. Also the experiment with leaving out the three old men was over. His next captain was Salman Butt. And Mohammad Yousuf was brought in for the next series against England.

In between all the no balls and other spot fixes, that series had its share of some good performances. Notably Azhar Ali’s 92* in the first innings of the 3rd Test at the Oval which Pakistan won by 4 wickets. Ironically the player of the match was Mohammad Amir. I remember seeing that match and what I can recall was Azhar’s composure as he played the English bowlers in their home conditions. When you contrast with the way the Indians played in the last series in England, the appreciation for Azhar Ali really goes up. In the previous two tests, he was struggling to score. However, this innings truly unveiled the talent especially the calm powerful but elegant hitting during the last wicket partnership with Asif.

Then we come to the third test v Eng at Dubai. Pakistan all out for 99. The bowlers bring the game back by dismissing England for 141. What was now required was for Pakistan to bat for at least two days and put up a score which would take the game completely out of reach for England. Given that the Englishmen were in no state to take one more shot at the spinners, even a 4th innings target of 300 was an unbeatable target to set. Azhar Ali came in the 11th over with the score at 28/2. He was finally out in the 150th over with the score at 363/9. In between, in almost 9 hours and having consumed 442 balls, he had scored 157.

It was slow batting but not boring.

At times during Azhar Ali’s match-winning, second-innings 157 for Pakistan against England in Dubai there was a distinct whiff of the past. Over eight hours and 53 minutes he was a model of diligent restraint, each patiently eked-out run taking the sap out of the opposition players’ legs and painstakingly laying the foundations to set an unattainable victory target. On the third morning, after losing Younis Khan, Azhar’s stonewalling majesty became quite hypnotic, described by my colleague Rob Smyth as a knock of “deviant beauty”, but one’s appreciation was rarely blunted by the monotony of his watchful defence.

The art of risk-averse, slow batting has recently been called into service most during defiant rearguard actions to stave off defeat. Yet here was a batsman prepared to mobilise its virtues to lay a siege rather than repel one. [the guardian]

In the last one year, those of us who have been following test cricket would have noticed a) test matches finishing in 3-4 days b) Teams collapsing for less than 100 c) Teams folding up in 3 sessions or less d) Batsmen not staying in the crease for more than 20 overs. (Okay the last one is an exaggeration).

In a single innings, Azhar faced more deliveries than Alistair Cook faced in the entire series. More importantly, he batted 533 minutes, almost 9 hours, one and half days, more than the full Indian team in each of the eight innings in England and in Australia.

Azhar’s innings was another triumph of character, resilience and technique and, above all, and a satisfying reminder in the era of dizzying run rates that dead bat does not have to equal deadbeat. [the guardian]

To see such an innings given the context of the game and to see a young man just 2 years into test cricket pull it off is itself a reason to reinforce one’s belief in test cricket as the most evocative format of the game. The game needs more of such innings not just from senior pros like Younis Khan or Ricky Ponting but from the younger batsmen who have grown up playing multiple forms of the game and can be at times quite muddled about their batting approach.

 

 

 

World Cup T20 – Day 3

India outclass South Africa

Australia outclass Pakistan

Suresh Raina of course has made himself a permanent selection for the Indian team in T20 and ODI. Barring any dramatic injuries or loss of form, I would be penciling his name for the next World Cup along with MSD. His innings of 101 had three main dimensions which clearly demonstrate his class

• Quick observation of the South African bowling tactics and appropriate adjustment including his stance in the crease – predictable seam bowlers bowling just short of length, looking for bounce all of them of similar pace.
• Setting the pace of the innings and gradually increasing his strike rate thus avoiding any pressure of the run rate on himself and his partners at the other end
• Willingness to stay at the crease doing both the role of the anchor and the scorer

The Australia Pakistan game as well as the Pakistan Bangladesh game on Saturday had a key commonality. The top order scored heavily upto the 14th-15th over. Then a few wickets fell and the scoring simply stopped. Australia for example were 161 in 16 overs. They ended up with 191 scoring just 30 in the remaining 4 overs and losing about 6 wickets. Pakistan on Saturday had a similar story.

India on the other hand did the reverse. Their run rate in the first ten overs was hovering around the 6 rpo and the second half Raina, Yuvraj and Dhoni went for the runs, 75 runs in the last 6 overs.

South Africa tried a similar tactic with Kallis, Smith and DeVilliers giving it a whack in the last 5 overs. But their fire power was not good enough. At the end of the 16th over, India were 126/3 while RSA were 126/2. In the next 4 overs India scored 60 losing 2 wickets, RSA scored 46 losing 3 wickets. Clearly India’s firepower is slightly better than RSA.

One may ask whether relying on the end over firepower is a sustainable tactic. Maybe not but remember that India were without Gambhir and Vijay, a much improved batsman in this format, got out for a golden duck. Under normal circumstances, the first three of the Indian batting order have the capability to take the scoring in the first half of the innings to above 7-8 rpo.

However, South Africa would really need to open up their thinking processes. Their bowling plan, well prepared in the dressing room, was followed to the T mechanically and one must say precisely. However, the Indians kind of figured out the line and length of the bowling and were benefiting from their moving up the learning curve. Their batting was another prepared plan – with a mental target of 160-165. They thought they can follow the plan and kick up the gear in the closing overs. The extra 20 runs was considered unimportant.

Moving to today’s matches, first match for Zimbabwe and the pressure is on their opponets Sri Lanka who need to win. SLA lost out to New Zealand and thus have the stress. Zim on the other hand had a couple of wins in the warm-ups – against Australia and Pakistan no less. They even had an official T20 (or maybe an ODI, I forget) win over the West Indies very recently.  So it’s back on Mahela and Kumar Sangakkara.

England also make their first appearance with KP’s mind more occupied with the birth of his child than on the tournament. West Indies of course had a good win over Ireland but their batting was disappointing.

We are yet to see any major upsets in this tournament so far. Today is as good a day.

World Cup T20 – Day 2

India picked up a +2 NRR. Pakistan win by 21 runs.

I actually missed watching the games, except for a few snatches, as I was with some friends drowning the bad performance blues at the Landmark Quiz.

I did catch the end of the Indian chase with Vijay missing his half century and Dhoni hitting a couple of sixes to finish it off. The Afghan team were outclassed no doubt but there is no shame in this defeat. I thought they were extremely graceful and gave their all in the game. Hamid Hussain’s attempt at a skier is indicative of the passion and hard aggression that they have.

More importantly, in cricketing terms, the Indian team left out Rohit Sharma and went with Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja. I had predicted this in a chat show earlier in the week. This is India’s best XI. It gives Dhoni five highly capable spinners and three seam-swing bowlers. It also gives the batting depth right down to no 9. However, Rohit Sharma may be advised to keep a watch out for Raina.

Did not watch the game against Pakistan and so cannot make any comments. However, looking at the scoresheet it would seem that batting is not so much of a problem here in St Lucia as it was at Providence. Of course, the quality of bowling needs to be considered as well.

Finally, a small trivia piece about the Razzaqs. This is Abdur and this is Abdul.

World Cup T20 – Day 1

New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 1 ball and 2 wickets

West Indies beat Ireland by 70 runs

Three things came up as significant today

1. Ground Conditions: Slow pitches, slightly sluggish outfield, large dimensions (at least at Providence) queers the pitch towards the slower bowlers and the spinners. In fact the worst bowlers in the SLA v NZL match were the two fast bowlers Bond and Malinga. So we are likely to have

• Low scoring games i.e. 130 – 150 range
• More and more teams starting their bowling with a spinner
• Dibbly Dobbly bowlers will have their places in the team assured

It’s not as if sixes and fours are not possible. Darren Sammy and Jesse Ryder showed it is possible. Obviously, the hitting has to be done with a touch more effort than normal. Bad balls of course help as it did Sammy.

2. Classic batting: Mahela Jayawardene showed the value of class. Though he ended up in the losing side, his innings was evidence that T20 is not just slam bang stuff. Considering his partner Dilshan (3 of 19) was completely off the grid, the run rate of 6+ in the first 6 overs tells you how much Mahela contributed, without a single slog.

It also tells me that Gautam Gambhir is likely to be a key batsman for India. Technically and temperamentally, he is the best in the current Indian line-up and ideal for this kind of hybrid of aggression and attrition. The other players will have to bat around him with their 2 over blasts. After Gambhir, Dhoni has the right ability for this kind of innings but he would be coming too late in the order to be effective.

3. Fielding standards: From the crap in IPL, there’s a sea change in fielding standards, especially catching. Darren Sammy seemed to have Spiderman’s web shooters stretching out and catching everything. So that’s a big change

Watching on television, one discovered a lost art of commentary – silence. Commentators actually shut up for minutes letting the TV audience watch the game intently. And the topics of discussion were shots, strategies, form, players – not blimps, forefronts of technology, carbon kamals, certain individuals, sweat equity, etc.

Today big day for Afghanistan. Like Eliza Doolittle making her first presence in high society, the boys from Kabul enter the world stage playing their spiritual neighbours India. They promise a surprise.

In fact it is a complete sub-continent / South Asia day in West Indies. Pakistan play Bangladesh in the next match.

Cricket News This Week From Harsha

He is probably the only cricket commentator on air today for whom the mute button is not required. But he is an equally articulate and sharp writer. Harsha Bhogle writes about three big events of the cricketing week

Pakistan:

Big landlord arrives, cleans up the shed; next landlord puts the old chickens back in. The cricket lover, like RK Laxman’s common man, looks on, perplexed and neglected. To be honest, the Pakistan cricketers don’t have much sympathy around the cricket world, but what of the fans? What about the little eight-year-old who wants to wear a replica Pakistan cap and cheer for Afridi and Yousuf and Younis? What happens to him? His heroes, and those who manage his heroes, frequently seem to have less passion for the team and the country than he does. His lot is to be let down. I wonder if people blinded by egos even realise that.

Match Fixing in general (one of the allegations laid by the PCB on its players):

On that count, India have been blessed. The results will be good one day and bad the next, and fans will be delighted and frustrated in equal measure. But when the disease of match-fixing threatened to infect India, the eight-year-old (and the 30-year-old who behaved like the eight-year-old) had proud people to look up to. Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble, Laxman, Ganguly, Srinath – these were men of character. Fine cricketers they might have been but fine people they were too. Their solidity, as much as their results, took cricket through its testing years.

IPL begins:

Meanwhile the IPL, as a cricket tournament, has crept in.

IPL News Block out:

I don’t know the details of the dispute but I do know that if I took great pains to produce a product, if I licensed it to somebody and a third party used it for profit, I would be very upset.

There are some other strange events happening. West Indies are hosting Zimbabwe and in the five matches so far, a tour game, a T20 International and three ODIs, Zim have won three – the tour game, the T20 and the first ODI.  Barring the last game which WI won by 141 runs, none of the matches have seen the WI really dominate. They apparently haven’t realised that they are not playing Australia but Zimbabwe which does not even feature in the ICC rankings. Sample this, in the second ODI, WI have a small matter of 209 runs to score in 50 overs. From 44/1 they become 85/4. Sometimes you wonder where does all that talent go? It’s a rum one.

And this one from the tour match between Bangladesh A and England. BD A second innings in the 64th over 160/5 with Mohd Ashraful (imagine a former captain and a prodigy now resigned to being in the A side) gets out. Ten overs later,  the total is 362/6. Saghir Hossain retires hurt conveniently. Dolar Mahmood (66 of 19) and Shuvagato Hom (91 of 42) with 17 fours and 14 sixes make mayhem of long hops and full tosses. They were hitting 24 runs of an over. It was that crappy.

Anyway Deccan play Kolkata in a few hours time. See you then.

The tour that may be

To tour or not to tour, that is the question. Well, there’s nothing creative about this. I was reading David Hopps of the Guardian write his India-England tour diary.

He says,

If England don’t make it to Chennai because of security fears then they might like to know that I’ve played the game twice already since arriving here. I don’t often tell people about my dreams but these have been so surreal that I thought I’d share them.

Poor fellow, in an effort to make up his tour diary, he dreams of a surreal match with Lord MacLaurin as wicketkeeper and Dominic Cork bowling. David himself has been “banished to the checkouts to keep the score.”

In the end, he writes

When Mike Brearely arrives in Chennai – if, indeed, anyone ever arrives – I will show him this nonsense and ask him for a psychologist’s view. His conclusions will (well, actually “may”) be revealed in the next instalment of a tour diary that now desperately needs a tour to write about.

KP on the other hand seems to be Churchill himself – talking about being with the Indian people at this time. “We are coming back for the Indians” he says – source DNA. Thanks mate

Imran on the other hand has warned England from touring saying that terrorists were targeting westerners – source DNA. Well Imran, how come KP (or anyone else) doesn’t seem inclined to say “We are coming back for Pakistanis“?

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