A few days ago, Sir Vivian Richards, probably the best one-day cricketer the world has seen, said that it was crucial for a team to have a hiccup in the preliminary rounds to get them back on the right track. The legend, who was part of two World Cup winning teams, was referring to the performance of tournament favourites, New Zealand who had a close shave against Bangladesh.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni must have taken solace from the words of the charismatic West Indian after India finished their pool encounter, narrowly beating lowly Zimbabwe by six wickets with eight balls remaining. The fancied Indian top batting order stumbled against the African challengers and it took a great effort by the Indian skipper and Suresh Raina to pull India into the sunshine with an unbeaten partnership of 196 runs – the highest stand by an Indian pair in World Cup games.
Learning from hiccups
The result of India’s final league game does not make a difference to the team standing and they will face a recharged Bangladesh at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 19. The game against Zimbabwe and the win against Ireland were not as easy as India had expected. They had to stretch their resources and, gladly for the Cup holders, the last two games can be considered hiccups, which will get the team back on track.
Apart from finishing their pool engagements on a clean slate, the good news for team India is the return to form of Suresh Raina who had looked off colour in his last two outings. India’s top order slide proved to be a boon for the southpaw who grabbed the opportunity and ended up with a match-winning century.
Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor, who played an outstanding innings of 138 runs, let the game slip away from his grasp by allowing the fifth wicket pair to consolidate their position with a defensive field setting. The pair played “smart cricket,” as mentioned by Raina in his post match interview, to bring a smile on the faces of the team management who can now feel confident that all their established batsmen have found form.
Everything has worked so far
Team India can now travel to Melbourne in a relaxed frame of mind. The strategy employed by the team management to treat each game in their pool engagements as a knockout has worked well and, with Raina finding form at the right time Bangladesh will need to pull all their rabbits out of the hat to cause an upset win over India.
What can one expect from team India from here onwards? Barring injury, the team combination is fixed; the batting juggernaut is further strengthened with an in-form Raina and the main bowlers continue to look settled. The two worries faced by the team are the patchy form of Ravindra Jadeja who looked predictable and Rohit Sharma’s sleepwalking approach.
Why spinners hold the key
One expects spinners to play a key role in the knockout stage as the wickets will be worn out and will get slower thanks to the number of games played on them. Team director Ravi Shastri and leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan played a crucial role at MCG when India won the World Championship of Cricket in 1985 – Shastri is bound to encourage the spinners to get into a similar attacking mode.
The size of the grounds in Australia will encourage the tweakers to give the ball a lot more air than they did on the smaller outfields in New Zealand. Ravichandran Ashwin has finally found the right “outside the off-stump” line which is helping him bag wickets and one that will go a long way in India’s cause to win the championship.
The team management will need to spend extra time with Rohit and Jadeja when the team trains at the MCG. If Rohit can emulate the magnificent knock of 138 runs that he scored against Australia on the same ground two months ago, India should breeze into the semi-final with consummate ease.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni must have taken solace from the words of the charismatic West Indian after India finished their pool encounter, narrowly beating lowly Zimbabwe by six wickets with eight balls remaining. The fancied Indian top batting order stumbled against the African challengers and it took a great effort by the Indian skipper and Suresh Raina to pull India into the sunshine with an unbeaten partnership of 196 runs – the highest stand by an Indian pair in World Cup games.
Learning from hiccups
The result of India’s final league game does not make a difference to the team standing and they will face a recharged Bangladesh at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 19. The game against Zimbabwe and the win against Ireland were not as easy as India had expected. They had to stretch their resources and, gladly for the Cup holders, the last two games can be considered hiccups, which will get the team back on track.
Apart from finishing their pool engagements on a clean slate, the good news for team India is the return to form of Suresh Raina who had looked off colour in his last two outings. India’s top order slide proved to be a boon for the southpaw who grabbed the opportunity and ended up with a match-winning century.
Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor, who played an outstanding innings of 138 runs, let the game slip away from his grasp by allowing the fifth wicket pair to consolidate their position with a defensive field setting. The pair played “smart cricket,” as mentioned by Raina in his post match interview, to bring a smile on the faces of the team management who can now feel confident that all their established batsmen have found form.
Everything has worked so far
Team India can now travel to Melbourne in a relaxed frame of mind. The strategy employed by the team management to treat each game in their pool engagements as a knockout has worked well and, with Raina finding form at the right time Bangladesh will need to pull all their rabbits out of the hat to cause an upset win over India.
What can one expect from team India from here onwards? Barring injury, the team combination is fixed; the batting juggernaut is further strengthened with an in-form Raina and the main bowlers continue to look settled. The two worries faced by the team are the patchy form of Ravindra Jadeja who looked predictable and Rohit Sharma’s sleepwalking approach.
Why spinners hold the key
One expects spinners to play a key role in the knockout stage as the wickets will be worn out and will get slower thanks to the number of games played on them. Team director Ravi Shastri and leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan played a crucial role at MCG when India won the World Championship of Cricket in 1985 – Shastri is bound to encourage the spinners to get into a similar attacking mode.
The size of the grounds in Australia will encourage the tweakers to give the ball a lot more air than they did on the smaller outfields in New Zealand. Ravichandran Ashwin has finally found the right “outside the off-stump” line which is helping him bag wickets and one that will go a long way in India’s cause to win the championship.
The team management will need to spend extra time with Rohit and Jadeja when the team trains at the MCG. If Rohit can emulate the magnificent knock of 138 runs that he scored against Australia on the same ground two months ago, India should breeze into the semi-final with consummate ease.
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