Cricket: From the Far End

We always knew that India-Pak games put a lot of pressure on the players, but used to think that it was only India that it used to affect as Pakistanis seemed to always up their game while playing against India where Indians used to always play below their best. But this is the first time I see comments from a Pakistani player after a defeat that it was pressure that caused it. (http://cricket.expressindia.com/fulleistory.php?content_id=63002). Younis Khan, unless these pieces are ghostwritten, seems to have a very different, more spontaneous writing style. Just why the players are under pressure is clearly evident with the media reaction to the result. Already a lot of ex-players are pointing out some long term problems with the captain and the coach forgetting that it was with these problems that Pakistan still won a lot of games this season.It’s already known that Tendulkar and Irphan Pathan will sit out. It will be interesting to see whether Dravid will still opt to chase if he wins the toss. India has now successfully chased scores for 12 times. Not having seen any of those live, it will interesting to see the body language etc in a chase. We remember all those failed chases before where, if you are chasing 300, the first five would be back in some 10-15 overs and you see tailenders scrambling around with no hope. Even smallers chases worked fine till a point where invariably it would collapse for no reason, the most recent example that comes to mind is the chase in that tournament final earlier this year in Sri Lanka.(http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/OD_TOURNEYS/IOC/SCORECARDS/IND_SL_IOC_ODI-FINAL_09AUG2005.html)

India are 2-1 up as the long Pak series is coming to an end. Let’s see whether India prevents Pak from bouncing back heavily in the last two games. The list of injured players is growing from both sides - Shoaib, now Afridi, Harbhajan, Sehwag. For India, after this ODI series gets over on 19th, in just about two weeks another high profile test series begins with England. And imagine there was a whole Asia cup in between these two - before the new administration stepped in, postponed it and adjusted Pak tour dates. (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/228465.html). It would have been aweful to subject players to those matches between these two major test series.

The first match would have turned out a real thriller if India had bowled all their overs. This is one big hangover from Ganguly era - slow over rates. But considering that Pakistan did come very close to winning it outright, what score India will be looking at if they bat first in the next game? Pakistan’s scores against India in last 10 ODIs read as 311/7, 308/7, 252/5, 319/7, 319/9, 298, 194, 293/4, 201/7, 192/6 and 300/9. Even the low scores above, except one, have come chasing India’s modest totals or have been defended successfully by Pak. Indian bowling has not been able to restrict Pakistan on the subcontinent, and when they were, the batting has collapsed. If we can’t figure out ways to not let their batting make 300+, our batting will always be under tremendous pressure to score much more than that to ensure a win. Unless the pitches for the next games are any different, it looks like an ugly run fest with 50 slog overs. In general Pakistan are better chasers than Indians and so the results are likely to be in Pakistan’s favor, unless their form starts declining or Indian batsmen consistently score 350 or bowlers take some cheap wickets.

One of the big hurdles for India has been Shoaib Malik, coming in to open or at no 3. His string of scores in last few games against India: 90, 72, 41, 65, 75, 12, 4, 61, 5, 68, 143. India hasn’t been able to get him quickly on most occasions.

It’s good that Tendulkar is back in form, but the important point for India now on is what more can he deliver in the remaining four games? With Sehwag not really delivering in ODIs the opening pair looks shaky for India in the remaining games. The “next” innings scores of Tendulkar following the century innings are not very encouraging, the last 10 being 1, 0, 45, 68, 50, 14, 19, 17, 38, 0, averaging 25.2.