The Post Mortem: Back to school; No more parties; Sack Dhoni

Have we left out anything?

Let’s have a blow by blow account of the post mortem

From the team:

MS Dhoni:

After the loss to West Indies, he basically said we can’t play short pitched stuff.

“We have prepared well,” Dhoni insisted. “We knew they would use short-pitched deliveries, we practiced against short-pitched deliveries in the net sessions but until you don’t face it in a game you are not match-aware of what is needed in that situation. You can do hundreds of things but when it comes to adaptation you have to be out in the middle and work it out, get a single, keep alternating the strike. If you keep backing off and keep playing the pull shot and people get out, it gets very difficult.”

And after the official exit, he spoke about the night life.

“I’ve had no setbacks because of the IPL but at the same time players need to be smart because IPL is not only about cricket,” he said. “You have to respect your body and if you don’t do that then IPL is draining. If you play late games and go to the parties and travel the next day it takes a toll. But if you take care of yourself 45 days of cricket shouldn’t affect you because we play 200 or more in a year.”

Gary Kirsten:

Gary Kirsten, incidentally, did talk about IPL fatigue last time round. This year, he added issues like fitness and commitment. Re commitment, he questioned whether India’s really serious about T20 cricket unlike the no.1 ranking in tests and the no.2 ranking in ODIs.

After a six-week-long IPL, India got a five-day break before their first match in the world Twenty20. Yuvraj, coming back from a wrist injury, played all 14 of Kings XI Punjab’s matches. Zaheer sat out of two of India’s five matches in the World Twenty20. Zaheer, Gambhir and Nehra missed matches at various stages of the IPL, and Nehra was picked for India even before he had returned to full fitness for Delhi Daredevils.

Former Players:

Sourav Ganguly

The only person to actually call a spade a spade, in this case Yuvraj Singh. In fact, he actually puts the gun on the head of the seniors with the line of “lot of opportunities but have not delivered“. And one must question whether the Indian players can really recognise or identify what is world standard. Their performances in IPL are worth zilch.  Just like in the old days, and even now, scoring lots of runs in the Ranji Trophy meant nothing at the test level.

“The IPL is a domestic tournament and the standard is much lower than a world event where you are up against quality batsmen and bowlers. You don’t expect to go to World Cup semi-finals if you play the way the team has played in the Caribbean. Yuvraj has to look at his game. If he doesn’t perform for long periods, the selectors will not play him just on the basis of his reputation. Some of the players have got a lot of opportunities, but have not delivered. They have been around for quite a while and the entire country wants performances from them.”

Azharuddin

Played it safe like most times:

“Obviously if you stay up the whole night, it would affect you. Players should be responsible enough. The game is more important than the parties. Excuses like these cannot be given after you lose. For a player, cricket should come first and everything else is secondary.”

Sunil Gavaskar

He is basically telling them to go back to school

“The guys who have been found to be uncomfortable against the short ball should be sent to the NCA, where they will be able to practice against the short ball, either through a bowling machine or maybe with some of the younger bowlers bowling to them from say 18 to 16 yards,”

Well, Sunny, maybe they can do all this as and when you release them from your IPL / international / inter-corporate / etc etc schedules.

The analysts

Harsha Bhogle

One of two no nonsense commentators keeps it brief and precise – zilch from the new ball, fielding locked in the dark ages, no response to short rising deliveries.

There is no point blaming the pitches and the bowlers in domestic cricket for the inability to play short-pitched bowling. Gavaskar emerged from the same school, as did Tendulkar, Dravid and even Laxman. Abhinav Bindra and Saina Nehwal are products of such a system. Azharuddin emerged as one of the world’s finest fielders. Greatness lies in rising beyond the system. It isn’t the system, therefore, but work ethic that lies at the heart of success. I’m not saying India’s cricketers don’t possess it, it’s just that they don’t display it often enough.

[...]

From here on, India’s young cricketers need to ask themselves whether they want to be rich also-rans or want a place in history. It is a choice they must make. Currently they are not good enough, but pelting abuse, and the odd stone, at them will not solve the issue, only point fingers at ourselves.

On hindsight, it is quite a blessing that people like Pujara are still untouched by this filth

Prem Panicker

The second of the two no-nonsense commentators asks for people to go deeper than just the issues that are being raised at the surface level. He also tries to invoke the BCCI to re-look at the game from the point of view of developing talent and a competitive team and keep the money making, which seems to be in a self-sustaining mode, on the side burner for the moment.

What I’d like to submit, though, is this: we seem set to do with the national team what we have done or are doing with the IPL. To wit, when something doesn’t work, quickly find a scapegoat, skin him in the media and hang him in public gaze, and quickly get back to business as usual.

[...]

So here’s something the board needs to think about: If you are going to bask in the glory when the team goes out and wins you trophies, shouldn’t you be as proactive in accepting at least a part of the blame when it loses? More to the point, isn’t it your responsibility to do everything possible to create a team that is competitive at the international level?

And finally just to give a perspective about “fatigue”, “commitment”, “intensity”, “work ethic” etc.:

Unable to take a flight due to volcanic ash, Vishwanathan Anand drove 40 hours across Europe to reach Sofia one day before the World Championship match started. He had requested a postponement by a couple of days but was refused. The Sofia rules preventing quick draws (which is very much Vishy’s style) meant long matches (a bit like Indian cricketers used to slow pitches and short fast outfields suddenly landing up in Barbados). 11 tiring games later, it was 5.5 points each in the last game playing black with the possibility of the tie break rapid games (where Vishy definitely holds the edge over Topalov). And he pulls off a victory and retains the World Champion title.

To quote Amit Varma from his column on Yahoo:

This week he successfully defended his World Championship title against Veselin Topalov. His achievements, which I do not need to summarise, are greater than they would have been if they belonged to a Russian or East European player. They are beyond stupendous. In the context of where he came from, it’s like a guy takes a Maruti 800 into a Formula 1 race and wins the championship. That guy, frankly, is more than just the best driver in the world.

On the same day as an “unfit and low commitment” India exited the World Cup T20. Get lost buggers.

Tale of Two Teams – India and South Africa

At the end of the Super 8s, two teams are confronted with “hard questions”.

For South Africa, just 1 ICC Champions Trophy in 1998 from an overall attendance at 14 ICC tournaments, it has become a national trait. Barring their first world cup in 1992 when they got chucked out of the semi final due to a dubious rain rule, their subsequent exits have always been completely against the run of play, to use a common cliche.

Take the 1996 World Cup. Five wins in five matches to top their group. In the quarterfinals, they play West Indies who lost to Kenya in their group games, forfeited two points for not playing their game against Sri Lanka in Colombo and to most observers were mostly write offs. On March 11, 1996, the favourites South Africa led by Hansie Cronje faced Richie Richardson’s West Indies in Karachi. They thought it was a simple thing. Three things happened to them

1. Brian Lara, who till then had an average tournament, pulled out a stunner scoring 111 off 94 balls and helped WI set a target of 265. (WI 264/8 in 50 overs). I remember snatches of that game and Lara showed why he would become one of the best batsmen in contemporary cricket.

2. RSA started badly losing Gary Kirsten for 21 but then Hudson, Cullinan and Cronje played peacefull and RSA were comfortable at 180 / 3.

3. Roger Harper and Jimmy Adams took 5 wickets (7 overall) to bring RSA from 180 / 3 to 228 / 7 leaving Pat Symcox, Craig Matthews and Paul Adams to score the balance in the end overs. They did not.

The best team were out. RSA had no answer. They played WI the way they played UAE and Netherlands and other teams in their group. There was a sense of being shell shocked with the Lara century and then as wickets fell to offies and chinamen, they simply gave up.

This T20 World Cup, RSA came in with some of the best T20 players of world (Incidentally, they have maximum players in the IPL after India and almost all of them are part of their world cup squad). Ostensibly, the best team. And they are out.

The introspection into what may well become a national trait has begun:

“We again could not cope with the pressure,” Van Zyl told www.sport24.com. “The question has to be asked why we could not manage it and why it happens repeatedly. Is it our approach to batting? Is it our general approach? Or are we maybe too tentative? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself.

Coming to India, will save my breadth and instead borrow words from Prem.

That is the statistic that caught the eye — but what remains in the mind the afternoon after the defeat is a series of impressions. Of an ‘attack’ without a strike bowler [Harbhajan Singh, who had to play that role in a side where Zaheer Khan was way under par, ended the tournament without a single wicket to his name. He is bowling "beautifully", commentators repeatedly told us -- but whatever the artistic merits of his bowling, the central fact is that he could never strike]. Of a team that seemed to have been picked from a home for the walking wounded — a clearly unfit Gambhir, a Zaheer Khan who seems to be suffering from some mysterious injury that comes and goes, a Praveen Kumar who had to leave the tournament halfway through, to join the long list of Indian ‘pace bowlers’ in various stages of injury and rehabilitation, a Yuvraj Singh whose tournament and indeed recent form was best encapsulated by that moment, in the early part of the Lankan innings, when he let a ball pass through his palms, and between his legs… Add to that the ‘form’ of that fearsome finisher, Yusuf Pathan; the presence in the side of Ravindra Jadeja, whose preparation for this tournament consisted of practicing in the backyard with his brother; the lack of clarity about Rohit Sharma’s presence in, and utility to, the side… India has stumbled badly before — actually, thrice in world level competitions in the past 12 months alone — but rarely has the team under MS Dhoni looked quite so shambolic.

The contrast between the grit and resolution of V Anand, defending world champion, and the spiritless sojourn of MSD’s team, former world champions, is simply bizarre, if not hilarious.

In defense of Ravindra Jadeja

While Ravindra Jadeja is not exactly the next Sachin Tendulkar and has definitely had a bad performance, the reason for standing up for his defence is three fold

1. I don’t like witchhunts

There is a witch hunt on here with the poor lad being fried by all and sundry, like the heretics persecuted by the Catholic Church in the middle ages (also known as the dark ages)

2. The witch hunt diverts attention from real issues

The issue of our premier batsmen unable to play really good fast bowling. India were 50/7 in 10.3 overs against Australia and 38/3 in 7 overs to significantly dent any chances of chasing totals in excess of 8.5 runs per over.

3. It’s a team game and you can’t attribute defeat to one person (bar the captain)

Harbhajan has an Econ rate of 5.5 so far but is yet to take a wicket in the world cup. Nehra is going at 7.00 and Pathan, Chawla, Zak and Jadeja are all doing 9+ rpo.

There is no need to get this emotional and stone one poor kid as the fall guy. Just move on.

BTW, India is still not out of the world cup. The way Australia is playing, WI will have to work hard to win. India need to beat SLA by just 20 runs. And the matches are in St Lucia where India (and SLA) will be quite comfortable.

World Cup T20 – Days 6,7, 8 – Barbados and Super 8

Making up for the past couple of days in one single post.

There were no untoward incidents in the preliminary round (viz. upsets by minnows) though the 65/6 by Australia and the pedestrian batting of South Africa were more disappointing than the lack of any major impact by the bottom four of world cricket.

More importantly, the world cup moved to the third venue – the classic Kensington Oval, Barbados. More than Lord’s or Eden Gardens, the stands of the newly renovated (renovated for the 2007 World Cup) collectively have the power to overwhelm the players. Bowlers have to choose between the Joel Garner End or the Malcolm Marshall End. When the batsmen look up they cannot avoid looking straight at the Sir Garfield Sobers Pavilion, the Greenidge and Haynes Stand, the 3 W’s Stand, the Hewitt and Innis Stand or avoid being missed by the hawks sitting in the Tony Cozier Media Centre.

Contrary to the warm ups which were played on slow pitches, the pitches on offer for the three days so far (India playing Australia right now with WI v Sri Lanka to follow) have been bouncy, fast and true. Even bowlers like Mashrafe Mortaza had Shane Watson playing late and mistiming his pull to be out.

Bounce helps spinners as well and left spinners specially seemed to be having fun – Shakib ul Hasan v Australia and Micheal Yardy v Pakistan. However Ravindra Jadeja was pathetic today bowling half tracks to Warner and Watson.

The two groups in the Super 8s provide an interesting split. Group E has the unpredictable Pakistan along with old pros South Africa, England and New Zealand. Group F on the other hand has four teams with four different styles of play – India, Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies. Expect to see standard county cricket style strategies and plays in Group E. Expect to see street smartness, flair, passion and a lot of ingenuity in Group F.

Right India 17-3 in 4 overs chasing 183. And Rohit Sharma playing his first match, gets a big chase to pilot. (update @ 21:50 – 69 runs to win from 26 balls. At one time it looked as if India would be all out for 69)

Yesterday, before the Super 8s began, my picks for the semis were India, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa. Australia and South Africa seem to be going fine so far.

World Cup T20 – Day 5 with special notes on Duckworth Lewis Method

Guyana is slowly becoming the home of the Duckworth-Lewis Method.  While Zimbabwe imploded making the rain-caused abandonment a welcome cover for their embarrassing performance. England were definitely lucky. 120/8 against Ireland, under the D-L method, Ireland needed about 27 in 5 overs and they were already 14 in 3.3. overs.

So more than Mahela’s batting and Darren Sammy’s virtuoso performances, it is the maths pair about whom there is much discussion. So let’s spend a few words about the method.

There are a number of fundamental axioms when adjusting a score for a match interrupted by rain

• It has to be fair to both teams i.e. the team chasing the score must feel it is within their reach while the team bowling should feel it is defendable
• There should be change in the balance of the game – i.e. if one team has complete dominance of the game, then that state of the match should continue.

The D-L method was adopted in 1999. Until then there was no standard rule. Every tournament or series had its own version of the rules. There were some which were highly bizarre (what was even more bizarre was that captains actually agreed to play under the rules). Like the 1992 World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa. Incidentally, the target of 22 in 1 ball under the D-L method would have been 5 runs in 1 ball (4 runs to tie).

The basic logic of the D-L method is summarised below

• Based on a set of historical with appropriate weightages on recency, status of teams (e.g. test playing nations, associate nations, etc) and other factors, a table of par scores for 50 over games and 20 over games is created. This table is regularly updated as scoresheets of new matches come in.
• A multiplication table comprising of the D-L formula – % combined resources and the likely score they can make is prepared. Combined resources include wickets and overs with some weightages.

Here are the ICC rules on application of the D-L Method.

The D-L method sets revised targets in rain-interrupted limited-overs matches in accordance with the relative run scoring resources which are at the disposal of the two sides.

These are not in direct proportion to the number of overs available to be faced, as with the average run rate method of correction. Instead they depend on how many overs are to go and how many wickets are down when the interruptions occur.

To calculate the revised targets, you need to know the resources available at the stage of the match when suspensions and resumption of play occur. All possible values of resources have been pre-calculated and these are listed in the accompanying table.

Actually, the demand for simplicity is basically about application. With the appropriate formulas and calculators given to the umpires, I guess there is no problem whatsoever. Commentators may say many things out of ignorance but a little digging and studying the method helps.

Having said that, looking at all the matches where D-L has been applied, I would say there has not been any loss of fairness or balance. One has to also note that it is the umpires who decide on the number of overs.

I will close this post here. I will spend some more time reading up on D-L and write about it in a subsequent post.

World Cup T20 – Day 4

It was raining, maan. M/s Duckworth and Lewis decided the fortunes of Zimbabwe and England in contrasting fashion.

But rain apart, three significant points about yesterday.

There’s Mahela playing in Guyana and there’s the rest of the Sri Lankan team who are still in Colombo. The most tragic of them is Dilshan whose only big shot in the two matches he played was the one he mistimed yesterday. And let’s not even bother about Jayasuriya coming at number 8.

West Indies entered the field dropping their fastest bowler Roach and taking in left armer Benn – a full circle from where Clive Lloyd chucked the spinners in 1975-76 and went for his famous all pace strategy.

And England had their best batting performance in all of T20 – courtesy two South Africans, an Irishman and a 25 year old from Grantham, Lancashire. Do they even speak English in the dressing room.

Leaving you with this entry from the West Indies score card:

Kieron Pollard   st. Craig Keiswetter b. Swann 0    0   0   0   0

Pollard got out without facing a ball. Not a run out mind you but a stumping off a wide. Hence this anomalous scoreboard entry.

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.

Selections and Form

Midway through the IPL many countries announced their 15 member squads for the ICC T20 World Cup. And as things usually happen, the guys who didn’t get selected suddenly found the middle of their bat or their bowling rhythm. The effect of this is that on many cricket portals and forums, these standard questions get raised:

“Why no Uthappa in the Indian team?“

When you have Raina, Rohit Sharma, Gambhir, Sehwag (at that time), Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj (inspite of his pot belly), where’s the space?

“Why Chawla and not Ojha?“

Probably the only valid question. And still unanswered.

“Why no Murali Vijay?“

One question that has been deactivated so to speak. But the Uthappa question became even more shriller.

“Why Vijay and not Uthappa?“

The questions were not just about the Indian team.

“Why didn’t Australia pick Bollinger?“

I guess they didn’t see him good enough. Or, given that it is the Australian team, the ones who have been selected are better. Having said that, with Brett Lee’s injury, Bollinger was in with the chance of getting a call up. Unfortunately for him, it’s Harris who’s in.

Tomorrow onwards, this question is going to be top of the charts.