The return of Boycott’s Mum.
By Gaurav Sethi
If there’s one thing Geoffrey Boycott cannot resist, it is to mock top order batsmen with his pet taunt, “My Mum can play a better shot than that”. And now it has come to pass that not only Boycott’s mother but the whole lot of them tailenders look like they’re going to outperform top order batsmen. Can bowl? Will have a blast with the bat.
How come? Has the bowling lost its teeth? Or is being a bowler not enough to earn a team cap? Going by trends that multi-skilled and ambidextrous cricketers will soon rule the roost, why aren’t more batsmen augmenting their bowling skills and taking five-fors? It’s a confusing business – one that goes back to the old adage that batsmen run the game. Isn’t that why more and more batsmen end up as captains to leisurely stand in the slips, while the good old-fashioned earnest quickies toll over after over after over?
Earlier this year, Jason Gillespie scored an unbeaten double hundred, albeit against Bangladesh. Where as, Kiwi tailender, James Franklin made an unbeaten hundred against South Africa. Daniel Vettori has been making them forever. Irfan Pathan looks good for a few and Bret Lee should think so too. As would Shane Warne with a test best of 99. In the recent Eng-Lanka series, Sri Lankan No. 9 batsman Nuwan Kulasekara made a fifty, battling over three hours, with Chaminda Vaas, in a match saving innings against England. And Kulasekara was playing in only his 4th test match.
The growing demands of one-day-cricket have shaken, stirred and made James Bonds of many a tailender. ODI cricket has done the unthinkable - roused many a bowler to take batting more seriously. As if bowling 30 over spells on flatbeds wasn’t bad enough.
Gone are the days when Courtney Walsh used to shoulder arms as if he were taking fencing lessons. Today, No. 9, 10 and 11 not only save games but also set up wins. Brett Lee showed uncommon skill and extraordinary temperament throughout the 2005-06 Ashes series. And Gillespie and Hoggard’s dead bats have tormented Indian spinners on crumbling 5th day Indian wickets on a regular basis.
Many moons ago, promoting Javagal Srinath to No.3 as a pinchhitter, transformed a tailender into a batsman of sorts – and though Srinath had plenty of ability to start off, a few body blows softened him up, robbing him of the dare a devil slogger desperately needs. Srinath the slogger perished, and was banished to the lower order once again. But Srinath too had his brush with fame as a batsman in Bangalore; when he and Anil Kumble won an ODI with the bat – the very day India got acquainted with Kumble’s nervy ma and grandma praying in the stands. That was a red-letter day in Indian cricket – when two lower-order batsmen won a game. As was the case, some light years’ back when Kirti Azaad single handled tonked Pakistan at the JNS under lights – few watched that game after India all but lost most of the team, only to be taken totally unawares by the morning newspaper headlines. Those big days in Indian cricket were few and far between – when a lower order batsmen won a game. But now it seems like par for the course. With all these crazy promotions, the lower order batsman is a misnomer of sorts. Irfan Pathan has had reasonable success up the order, and barring the debacle in the recent ODIs he continues to stroke the ball beautifully in the V, a lot better than most top order bats in the side.
Harbhajan Singh, though highly unorthodox, has had some success (high strike rate of 80 plus in ODIs), and even helped India win a few times. Kumble has a few test fifties. Agarkar, though not called an all-rounder anymore, has the fastest fifty by an Indian, albeit against Zimbabwe, and a test hundred to boot (in a lost cause). Even young Sreesanth appears to have the right attitude when padded up – as was evident in the first innings at Antigua.
Often, the lack of pressure makes it easier for tailenders to swing and score fearlessly, as did Monty Panesar in a futile run chase against Lanka; Kevin Pietersen when asked if the English top order could have been more positive (like Monty), put things in perspective stating that tailenders can afford to play a lot more freely - and the press may not have been so kind had he swung and held out at 45.
And though there are still 8 months till the World Cup, the one-day series in the West Indies had some useful pointers – the slower wickets that offer less bounce and seam movement won’t intimidate tailenders. If anything, crafty variations in pace were the undoing of many top order Indian batsmen in the ODI series. The close encounters also showed that games could be won with crucial support from the lower order. It’s time for Bajji, Pathan, Sreesanth and whoever else makes it to the ‘07 World Cup to start playing like 007s. That sure would make Mom proud, right Boycs?
June 08, 2006
June 02, 2006
Abyss to Antigua!
Can India do a West Indies in the first test?
By Gaurav Sethi
Antigua! Brian Lara’s world beating test scores. Antigua! Viv Richards’ fastest test hundred. Antigua! Eight hundreds in a match. Antigua! The highest score to win a test match.
In spite of of the abysmal past decade in West Indies’ cricket, Antigua has invariably been a big time high for the home team. Rewind: The Windies lost 2-0 to South Africa. Before which they were rammed by Australia and England. But hang on, there’s always the dead rubber test at Antigua – where Brian Charles Lara gets 400 versus the Pommies (game drawn, surprise! surprise!), where over 400 is made to beat Oz (blame the Aussies for always losing the last test, a la Mumbai v/s India), where four Windies’ batsmen score hundreds v/s the Proteas, including Dwayne Bravo’s first and Chris Gayle’s 317. The same Gayle who didn’t make it to double figures in that entire series.
Going into Antigua this time, however, most of the West Indies’ batting is already firing – Sarwan, Gayle, Bravo, all appear to be on top of their game. Chanderpaul has always been prolific against India, and Lara as captain, has inspired a bunch of losers, who were barely better than Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Where as India is wrought with misfired experiments, communication breakdowns (what else do you attribute all those run-outs to?), loss of form and self belief – it’s a team beaten into the ground, game after game after game after game. In a way they resemble the great Australian team that nearly lost the first test in Bangladesh recently. The Aussies had four bad days at the office, winning the match on the fifth. India goes to Antigua winning one and losing four ODIs. So, what does that Aussie team have in common with this India outfit? They’re both running on fumes – to borrow Brett Lee’s quote.
Even though the likes of Kapil pajji and Modi saab have tersely commented on the burnout issue, (‘let them rest if they can’t play’ or something to that effect) the truth is out there – the ODI team in the West Indies was India’s best available side. And it wasn’t too dissimilar from the one that beat Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka (superior in rankings, ability and morale than the West Indies).
Ironically, in India’s previous two one-day series’ wins, against Pakistan and England, the side was fresh from defeats in their last tests – in Karachi v/s Pak, and in Mumbai v/s England. Then it was the young guns - Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina and Pathan that pulled the winning punches in the one-day games. This time they fell woefully short of expectations. Don’t need a face reader to tell us they look pooped.
So, what better place to overcome your exhaustion and low scores than Antigua?
- Going by past matches, the ground works like a spa for quick scoring batsmen – Sehwag and Yuvraj must look to emulate Lara and Gayle’s mega innings here. And while both sides have one lesser-established opener (Daren Ganga, W.I. and Wasim Jaffer, Ind.), they also share similar strengths in batting – India have Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Yuvraj, the Windies have the likes of Lara, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Gayle.
While India have in M.S. Dhoni an all-rounder keeper, the opposition has Bravo, overshooting Pathan, as the man with the Midas touch. In bowling, both teams have insipid attacks; though with one-day regulars, Corey Collymore and Ian Bradshaw, the Windies may have a more disciplined, albeit boring attack. With Anil Kumble’s arrival, India too will add to the monotony of consistency, and bring back crazy memories from the last tour when head all bandaged up, Anil bhai bowled like a man possessed. Eeeks!
What India must realise is that Fidel Edwards (assuming the erratic Jerome Taylor doesn’t play) is the only tear away quickie in the enemy’s arsenal – and while the Bravo slower balls were effective in the one-dayers they should not be that potent in tests. Also, unless India wants to make Warnies and Muralis out of wannabe Windies’ spinners (non-spinners?), there is no way that spin should be a threat either.
If anything, Lara will be at his creative best as leader– and his experiments will be rivaled only by Chappell’s batting order shuffles. The part-timers Gayle, Samuels, and Sarwan should be played like slow medium pacers and neutralized completely. There are truckloads of runs and records to be had in Antigua. And neither team, at this point, has the ammo to bowl the other out twice. The ODI series is over. Let the real test er...run fest begin.
Can India do a West Indies in the first test?
By Gaurav Sethi
Antigua! Brian Lara’s world beating test scores. Antigua! Viv Richards’ fastest test hundred. Antigua! Eight hundreds in a match. Antigua! The highest score to win a test match.
In spite of of the abysmal past decade in West Indies’ cricket, Antigua has invariably been a big time high for the home team. Rewind: The Windies lost 2-0 to South Africa. Before which they were rammed by Australia and England. But hang on, there’s always the dead rubber test at Antigua – where Brian Charles Lara gets 400 versus the Pommies (game drawn, surprise! surprise!), where over 400 is made to beat Oz (blame the Aussies for always losing the last test, a la Mumbai v/s India), where four Windies’ batsmen score hundreds v/s the Proteas, including Dwayne Bravo’s first and Chris Gayle’s 317. The same Gayle who didn’t make it to double figures in that entire series.
Going into Antigua this time, however, most of the West Indies’ batting is already firing – Sarwan, Gayle, Bravo, all appear to be on top of their game. Chanderpaul has always been prolific against India, and Lara as captain, has inspired a bunch of losers, who were barely better than Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Where as India is wrought with misfired experiments, communication breakdowns (what else do you attribute all those run-outs to?), loss of form and self belief – it’s a team beaten into the ground, game after game after game after game. In a way they resemble the great Australian team that nearly lost the first test in Bangladesh recently. The Aussies had four bad days at the office, winning the match on the fifth. India goes to Antigua winning one and losing four ODIs. So, what does that Aussie team have in common with this India outfit? They’re both running on fumes – to borrow Brett Lee’s quote.
Even though the likes of Kapil pajji and Modi saab have tersely commented on the burnout issue, (‘let them rest if they can’t play’ or something to that effect) the truth is out there – the ODI team in the West Indies was India’s best available side. And it wasn’t too dissimilar from the one that beat Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka (superior in rankings, ability and morale than the West Indies).
Ironically, in India’s previous two one-day series’ wins, against Pakistan and England, the side was fresh from defeats in their last tests – in Karachi v/s Pak, and in Mumbai v/s England. Then it was the young guns - Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina and Pathan that pulled the winning punches in the one-day games. This time they fell woefully short of expectations. Don’t need a face reader to tell us they look pooped.
So, what better place to overcome your exhaustion and low scores than Antigua?
- Going by past matches, the ground works like a spa for quick scoring batsmen – Sehwag and Yuvraj must look to emulate Lara and Gayle’s mega innings here. And while both sides have one lesser-established opener (Daren Ganga, W.I. and Wasim Jaffer, Ind.), they also share similar strengths in batting – India have Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Yuvraj, the Windies have the likes of Lara, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Gayle.
While India have in M.S. Dhoni an all-rounder keeper, the opposition has Bravo, overshooting Pathan, as the man with the Midas touch. In bowling, both teams have insipid attacks; though with one-day regulars, Corey Collymore and Ian Bradshaw, the Windies may have a more disciplined, albeit boring attack. With Anil Kumble’s arrival, India too will add to the monotony of consistency, and bring back crazy memories from the last tour when head all bandaged up, Anil bhai bowled like a man possessed. Eeeks!
What India must realise is that Fidel Edwards (assuming the erratic Jerome Taylor doesn’t play) is the only tear away quickie in the enemy’s arsenal – and while the Bravo slower balls were effective in the one-dayers they should not be that potent in tests. Also, unless India wants to make Warnies and Muralis out of wannabe Windies’ spinners (non-spinners?), there is no way that spin should be a threat either.
If anything, Lara will be at his creative best as leader– and his experiments will be rivaled only by Chappell’s batting order shuffles. The part-timers Gayle, Samuels, and Sarwan should be played like slow medium pacers and neutralized completely. There are truckloads of runs and records to be had in Antigua. And neither team, at this point, has the ammo to bowl the other out twice. The ODI series is over. Let the real test er...run fest begin.
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