Saturday, November 24, 2007

Shielding The Tail

In the First Test against Pakistan, Misbah showed the benefits of shielding tail enders by taking wonderful singles off the last ball and Pakistan lasted much longer due to this approach by Misbah. I have seen this ability in a lot of players worldwide like Bevan, Cullinan, Steve Waugh, Pieterson etc.

However, the Indians lack this ability or attitude or god-knows-what but it seems like a common sense to me. Time and again, continuously over last 4 -5 decades, the Indian batsmen have not shielded their tail enders and India has lost the cause. Be it Gavaskar, Kapil, Sachin, Rahul, Sourav or any other main batsman. They always exposed the tail instead of shielding and Indian innings always ended with a batsman stranded alone. This time too, while playing a wonderfully stoic knock, VVS rotated the strike and exposed the tailenders and the Indian team lost the plot and could manage only a lead of 45 runs leaving VVS stranded.

This is where a coach (?) , Captain and mature batsman like VVS should have understood the gravity and importance of a first innings lead on a crumbling Kotla wicket and shielded the tail by hook or crook.

9 comments:

Cuckoo said...

I totally agree with you. We need to learn this trick. This is not the time to show one's ability to rotate batting. Shielding the tail-enders should have been be taken more seriously.

I don't think anybody would have complained about VVS not playing for the team & concentrating on his own score.

Anonymous said...

By the way....where does our tail start? Middle order has always been good on paper but after Gavaskar left the scene ( and even he changed several partners. Chetan Chauhan was steady for a while)our openers also have been unable to give the sort of start Gangools and tendlya gave in ODIs.

Now back to the test. At lunch we are 3 for 1 and Ranjeet u said we will not get a look in before tea. It was quite a bold guess I thought but in support was the fact that Pakistani batters got themselves out...our bowlers did not do much. Nearly everybody got good starts and today morning barring Akmal everyone again threw their wicket. We will take that but now we have a game on.
The wall still can't read Tanvir...and unlike our morons( Zaheer and Munaf) he is bowling further up this pitch. Also Akhtar knows it takes only one express delivery to get the batsman out. He got two of them out last series he played in India with such deliveries to turn the match. And ....the way out batters got out in the first innings must play on theiur mind....Dravid and Gangooly would be afraid of deliveries in line of the stumps...Tendulkar will be wondering what new way can I loose my wicket (and still come up with one ..he is a genius after all)..Jaffa must be worried sick about the dropped catch...Dhoni must be feeling like the Pakistani captain...brave outside soft inside...Kumble has seen it all.....our batting collapses quite a few times....and Laxativeman ...well he must feel that he has done enough to go to Australia!!!

P.S: Harbhajan, Zaheer and Munaf....I shudder to think what will happen to them in Australia if they are going to lead the Indian attack with this kind of bowling. If India wins the match people will say ...wow... what a great performance by the entire team..everybody contributed. Expect some rational/balanced comments from you in any case.

Game on as Rameez said!
cheers,
Sanjeev

Anonymous said...

OK our batsmen defeated their ghosts and those of their supporters to reach a position from where only one result is possible.
Poor bowling by Pakistan...no support to Shoaib Akhtar...and as expected only the wicket to wicket balls troubled our batters. Having said that had Rahul been given out an earlier appeal for LBW who knows what Sami would have done next..thankfully he did not fire and Kaneria reminded me of Raju Kulkarni's funny fall in Australia...in fact that was the end of him in test cricket.

Funny how mind dwelves on Australia all the time...something tells me that not just Indians but the rest of the cricket playing world will be watching, hoping and praying that our lads do well down under and maybe teach them the word 'humility'...because only then (when they couple their performance with humility)will they be accepted as the champions of the world that they already are!

Still not comfortable with Tendlya (his record hardly matters to him or to us...the media is excited).....Gangools redeemed himself..but overall nothing on display gives me the heart to predict a semblence of a battle when me meet the creeps down under.

cheers,
Sanjeev

Ranjeet said...

Cuckoo: Thanks for your comment. Let us hope that someday, some Indian will understand the importance of shielding tails.

Ranjeet said...

Sanju: Thanks for your extremely emotional yet rational comments as usual! Always bring a smile on my face. Would love to see a match with you at Wankhede one day.
OK, about this match, an inspired spell from Shaoib can still wreck havoc and change the result. All that chap needs is some steroids and he will have the stamina to couple with his speed for tomorrow. He is awesome, isnt he? I still remember how he got Dravid andTendlya bowled through the gates at Calcutta some years back and even today what a beauty to get Dravid out!!! All said and done about his action stuff, he is a treat to watch!!! Auot other Pakistan bowlers, yes they matched the lifeless Indian bowlers except the evergreen Kumble at Kotla! You are right that Pakistan actually lost the match today morning when they simply threw away their wickets and gave Indians a chance to win this match easily. Jaffer played well and it bothers me because although he is technically sound and leaves most of the deliveries outside the off stump, I reckon he will fail badly at Australia - well the question is who won't fail? I predict a similar result as the earlier tours down under where Indians lose heavily but the series will have a couple of exceptional performances (solitary ones from Tendlya or Ganguly or Laxman or Yuvi)- I would love to see Dhoni play down under and hope that he clicks this time.

ABout their arrogance, the lesser said the better, but they make it up for it by super performance each and every time they come out on the ground!!! They truly rule thisera and no team except the proteas can come close to them really in terms of talent and consistency.

Yes, I too saw that tendlya has become the second highest run getter and yawned as media got overexcited abt it. I think today, while Tendlya batted sensibly, we came this close to victory because of Ganguly's runs and the pace of scoring them.

I would love to see Shoaib run through India tomorrow and Dhoni / Kumble holding one end up to hit the winning runs :-)

abhijit said...

What was the last time when Laxman protected the tailenders?

Good article.

abhijit said...

What was the last time when Laxman protected the tailenders?

Good article.

Anonymous said...

Ranjeet: Balanced ... I am at a loss to make people understand... I cannot be emotional and be balanced at the same time I believe...or can I ?

Here's Kumble's reaction http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2007/nov/26kumble.htm
One might argue that it is a 'balanced' reaction coming from the cpatain of the winning side. But you tell me ...is it really so?? I mean where would you rate this performance by teams and individuals in terms of a contest?? This ' Everybody contributed' line is a diplomatic fart which eliminates the possibility of any thought, relation or reflection that is needed if we are to progress and compete with the best. To further articulate what I want to say - 'Kartik did play a major role in getting Misbah out' is one extreme and the other extreme is 'dump Kartik in the Bay of Bengal and get Gambhir to open @ Kolkatta'

Now show me the middle ground if their is such a place!

Ranjeet said...

Abhijit: THanks for your comment. When are you goign to update Anabhishikt next?

Sanjeev: Kumble has to be diplomatic since he has finally got the Captain's job after a logn wait and he cannot afford to rub anyone wrong way - not that he is capable of in the first place. And 'be diplomatic' is the way for a lot of leaders worldwide.

Regarding middle ground, i personally think it is all a matter of perspectives.

Especialy regarding Kartik, I almost fell down while driving the car when someone from Jharkhand asked the comentrators on AIR why should we persist with Karthik and the commentrator said that times are tough for 'Murali' Kartik!!! But honestly, what everyone misses so easily is that he is the leading run scorer for India in tests in this year!!!

Anyways, all's well that ends well for India - so let us be happy with our victory over Pakistan and good performances from some individuals from both sides therein.