26th November 2006 and 10th February 2008. Two ODIs. Both played in the southern hemisphere. Both featuring India.
Our bowling line up then
Zaheer Khan
Ajit Agarkar
Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble
Harbhajan Singh
Sachin Tendulkar
Our bowling now
Sreesath
Ishant Sharma
Irfan Pathan
Harbhajan Singh
Virender Sehwag
Yuvraj Singh
Sachin Tendulkar
Our opponents then - South Africa
Our opponents now - Australia
Then, South Africa were 76/6 in the 20th over. Now, Australia were 92/6 in 25.2 overs.
Then, South Africa ended up at 274/7. Now, Australia were all out for 159.
The difference? The captaincy.
Yes, the bowlers bowled well and yes, we held on to our catches.But in the end, it was the captaincy that stood out - MS Dhoni's reading of the game was spot on.
Yes, he may have bowled Sehwag for one over too many and maybe he could have pulled in his field instead of having 3 in the deep when the spinners came on, but his field placings and his bowling rotation was brilliant.
If India go on to win here at Melbourne, the ghost of the Newlands ODI will finally be laid to rest.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A tale of two ODIs
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10 comments:
I'm not so sure about the captaincy itself in this specific context, Homer, though that has a role to play besides the men concerned. I thought Dhoni missed a trick at 91/6 by opting for Harbhajan at one end and a part-timer at the other when he should have kept at least one of Sree/Ishant (ok he had along spell) or Pathan on.
My attendant, a typical rustic Haryanavi jaatt, also felt similarly (in fact he brought the news to me) and was positively fuming at the "mercy" shown when the opposition wa down.
its bowling yaar. sree and ish way better then zaheer and agakar . of course if zaheer comes back to this team we would have a very good attack
it could also be that this IS indeed an aging Australian side. Many have retired, Ponting and Hussey are finding out that sustaining their streaks is a difficult task. Ans maybe the pitch was diffrent?
Don't know about the captaincy (I am not smart enough to figure that out), but for sure Ishant seems better than Agarkar (I remember getting scared everytime Ajit used to bowl a good over - I used to be thinking about the next one. No personal offense though, I quite like him).
And oh yeah - there is no more Guru Greg either. LOL.
SB,
I would have played it the way Dhoni did, except I would have gotten Yuvraj on the moment Lee began sweeping Sehwag ( overs 3 and 4).
Here is the thing - between overs 20 and 40, even in normal circumstances, teams are looking to consolidate. With the situation Australia found themselves in, there was even greater reason to believe that they were in no position to counterattack.
Now, as the bowling captain, with one bowler short,this would be the best period for me to get atleast half the quota of the non regular bowlers through because I do not want to nd up in a situation where the opposition sits on the splice waiting for my frontline bowlers to get thru their quotas and then attack my part timers. And overs 35 on are meant for attack anyways - bowling with my part timers at that stage would mean all the difference between winning and losing.
So yeah, MSD did that pretty well and unlike Dravid, did not wait till the game was well and truly out of control to get the strike bowlers in - as soon as the ball change happened, the frontline bowlers were in the game.
Cheers
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments.
It indeed is the bowling - and at present, we have amongst the top three bowling line ups in the world in terms of pace and variety.
Cheers
Naresh,
Aging side or not, this is the best Australian outfit there is - this bunch won themselves the World Cup 3 times on the trot and have been untouchable for a while.
As regards Guru Greg, whole different discussion altogether :)
Cheers
Guys,
The difference in that games was Pathan at his worst bowling form, Harbhajan being the wrothless bowler that he still is and Zak being profligate as usual after his first spell. Agarkar wasn't the only factor. But, Dhoni has definitely proven to be a better captain than Dravid in ODIs.
But above all, I think the reason we are winning is because I was wearing my India cap yesterday. I bought this during the Perth test and when I wear it, India wins the session or day or match. I forgot to wear it on the last two days of the Adelaided test and that's why we couldn't win that test.
Prabu,
So the next time India loses, I know whose effigy I am going to burn :)
Cheers
I didn't know effigies came with an identity tag Homer. I thought they are mass produced in one shape and when you want to call it someone's effigy, you basically tell the newsman whose effigy it is or put a name board on the effigy and burn it. Then the newscaster can announce whose effigy was. That's the best way to mass produce them as well....
:)
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