After a powerful display at Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth, India now enter their last two Group matches in another country and in another set of conditions. Top that with a draining travel schedule, no time to acclimatize and playing on grounds where the swing is as pronounced in the middle as it is on those scary AJ Hackett bungee jumping drops that New Zealand is so famous for, and team India may have a task at hand.
Grounds here are small and the ball swings quite a bit as South Africa found with a disastrous result the other day against Pakistan. India, however, would be facing much lower ranked teams Ireland and Zimbabwe, even though Ireland have made a bid to enter the quarter-finals of this tournament. Dhoni and his team reached Hamilton past midnight on March 7-8 after 14 hours of travel from Perth. They would be training for just one day at the Seddon Park before playing Ireland the very next day and then moving on to Auckland for a March 14 clash against Zimbabwe.
The two matches in New Zealand are significant only to the extent of keeping India on top and in momentum. But the sticky situation that India were taken out of by skipper Dhoni’s tenacity with the bat at Perth against the West Indies exposed some niggles that the team needs to address, especially now that the business end of the tournament is knocking its dressing room.
Despite all the talk of partnerships by skipper Dhoni, India’s opening pair has not quite followed the instructions. It may not really matter where the partnerships are coming from till the time they are saving the match for a team, but ideally they are slotted for the opening pair. India have been lacking in this area. The Shikhar Dhawan-Rohit Sharma pair has not clicked with Sharma having cheap outings in three of the four matches he has played till now.
Against Pakistan, he lofted a needless catch when he was on 15, at MCG against South Africa, he slipped mid-pitch and got run out when he was only 6 runs old, against UAE he did make 57 but Shikhar did not and against the West Indies, he walked for 7. One-down Kohli has stitched one with Shikhar and another with Ajinkya Rahane but Sharma needs to find a way to stability and longevity again.
So far, Dhoni has been supportive. “You don’t get two double hundreds just because you know how to bat,” he said about Sharma, defending his run thus far. But, like Jadeja who has been slim on the crease frustrating Dhoni, Sharma too would need to give results before the skipper gets justifiably restless, especially with the knockouts knocking the door.
As for Dhawan, who has an impressive 210 runs in games against Pakistan and South Africa, WACA was no good with him falling at 14 against minnows UAE and 9 against the Windies. The task for Dhawan-Sharma pair is to put a good total on board and give a platform to the middle and lower-order to play without fear. People like Jadeja, Dhoni says, need such platforms to play their big shots.
Not just that, the bowling department which has stolen the folklore from the batters, needs a good total to defend and that largely depends on the opening pair. As Dhoni said: “A lot will depend on what kind of cricket you play on that day. All teams are nicely matched. All have the right combination and have clicked. It’s a really balanced World Cup. We just need to keep doing what we are doing right, and we’ll take one game at a time.”
At the WACA, meanwhile, the Indians dropped too many catches, as many as four which Dhoni admitted could have changed the complexion of the game completely. All the four, two sitters including, were dropped in the outfield. Call it luck that despite most of these dropped ones giving lives to someone as uncontrollable as Chris Gayle — he still got out cheaply, falling to a fifth time lob that found the Indian hand finally. The catches were dropped by Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and also the otherwise agile Ravindra Jadeja. But for once, skipper Dhoni said he was willing to overlook the blunders this time round.
“It was slightly tough (to hold catches) because of the wind factor. Everybody, almost all 11 to some extent, dropped catches, even the best of fielders. There must be something really that must be bothering them, and most of them said it was the wind that was moving the ball away a bit. They were also finding it difficult to keep their eyes open due to the sun. So, better wear glasses so the brightness is also not there, and you don’t really blink too much,” Dhoni said after the match.
One really hopes this was a one-off lapse, not carried forward to the knockout stages. And Dhoni agrees. “Overall it’s looking very complete, the performance so far, but again we dropped quite a few catches in this game… you have to take the catch, especially if players play the big shots. Somebody like Chris Gayle or Andre Russell only needs one chance, and all of a sudden the scoreboard starts to tick. If they would have scored 230 or 240 runs (at WACA), the situation would have been very different,” the skipper admitted.
The bowlers, though the story of the tournament, gave away too many extras at WACA. The joke going around was that Suresh Raina made lesser runs than the extras bowled! At WACA, the wind flies and so does the ball. The extras are often an eventuality of even the most disciplined of bowling attacks. However, there were way too many extras to seek pardon, more so when it came to West Indies quicks! A total of 44 was it — wides, byes and no ballsIJ That’s more than the score of three Windies batsmen put together and four Indians. The Indian extras includes 1 bye, 3 leg-byes, 3 no balls and 19 wides!
Going into a different zone of conditions in New Zealand, such niggles need to be kept at bay. “When we were in New Zealand last, we didn’t win a single game there. But I felt the players were learning about what really needs to be done. At times people get too obsessed with winning. It’s more important for the bowlers and the batsmen to learn how to deal with the conditions, so that they can consistently win outside (India). I feel after the difficult phase that we all went through, players are taking responsibility,” he said.
‘Batting strip for India, Ireland match’
Hamilton: Another run fest is on the cards as India prepares to take on Ireland in a Pool B match of the ICC cricket World Cup at the Seddon Park here on Monday, according to curator Karl Johnson.
While this small ground in Hamilton is known for aiding seam and swing bowling, Johnson, who likes to be known as the ‘Turf Manager’ has toed the ICC line and followed the governing body’s diktat of producing batting friendly strips. “We’re instructed by the ICC to prepare good batting tracks with negligible seam movement and less turn. So far the ICC has been happy with how the pitch has played in the two matches. (In the South Africa versus Zimbabwe game, a total of 616 runs were scored).
“Basically, we’ve tried to keep the surface hard and ensure that there’s even bounce and carry,” said Johnson, who has worked at the Sahara Stadium in Pune during the last edition of IPl.
While the ground being open from three sides might bring about joy for the fast bowlers, the track won’t have much for them as it is devoid of any grass. “To prepare the World Cup wicket, it took me about 14 days. We have laid nine strips. All the three matches including two completed matches and the coming India game was or will be played on different strips but of same nature,” Johnson said.
Shami best among Indian pacers: Aaqib
Hamilton: Former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed feels that Mohammed Shami is the best Indian paceman on view and his performance has been key to India’s good show in the ongoing World Cup. Shami has been the pick of India’s pace attack taking 9 wickets from three matches and his opening spell has proved to be crucial in India maintaining their stronghold in the group league stage.
“For me the best bowler in this Indian line-up is Mohammed Shami. He has every ingredient of a good fast bowler and is an asset to the Indian team. I’m also impressed by young Mohit Sharma and believe that he would turn out to be a good weapon for India in future,” Aaqib, who is currently the UAE coach, said.
“The first thing that one looks for in a fast bowler is pace and Shami has the ability to work up brisk pace. Also what made the difference is the length that he has hit consistently in the past few games. Against Pakistan, his length and the channel at which he bowled has been exceptional. Australia is one country where you need a pace bowler to bend his back and hit the deck hard. Shami can hit the deck hard at the correct length. If he can continue this form in the knockout stages, India will be a difficult country to beat,” said Aaqib.
‘India would not lower their guard’
Hamilton: Fighting to stay in contention for the World Cup quarter-finals, Ireland captain William Porterfield said his giant-slaying team does not expect to be taken lightly by India despite the buzz that the already-through defending champions might rest key players. Ireland, having beaten West Indies and Zimbabwe so far, are in the hunt for a last-eight spot and will face India in Hamilton on Tuesday. “No, I don’t think their guard will ever be down. They’re a squad of 15, so whatever they decide to do, they decide to do. It’s a long tournament, and they’re not going to look to lose any momentum from their point of view,” Porterfield said after win over Zimbabwe here. Agencies