Raina far better bet than Yusuf

Raina far better bet than Yusuf

By Murali Venkatesan

There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience – Archibald MacLeish .

India’s loss to South Africa left me rueful on a beautiful California weekend. However, as I sit down to write this blog I am quite cheerful. Victories, however shaky, do not underline strategic errors as effectively as a defeat – there is no way to ignore the implications of this defeat.

I do not believe that India’s batting collapse, which began with the batting Powerplay, was the sole cause of the defeat. In my opinion, this collapse is simply a symptom of poor strategy in a couple of areas. Similarly, I believe that our ineffective bowling was also related to strategic errors rather than tactical execution.

Before I go much further in this column, let me be clear that I think Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a brilliant captain, much better than any we have had in at least the last 20 years. He is not parochial, stands up for his convictions, backs his players, and has an excellent read of the game. It is obvious that his team looks up to him and rallies around him. With all this said, I lay the defeat squarely at captain Dhoni’s door.

When India took the batting Powerplay in the 38^th over, India was sitting pretty at 253 for one. Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir were in full flow. In fact in the 37^th over, Mornie Morkel had just conceded 10 runs even with the field spread out – taking the Powerplay seemed like an obvious choice. As expected Graeme Smith turned to his champion bowler Dale Steyn. The first 10 balls of the Powerplay had yielded 14 runs. In an attempt accelerate further, Tendulkar played his first non-cricketing shot and fell.

It was at this point that India made its first strategic mistake – sending Yusuf Pathan in at No 4. This was move that had double jeopardy written all over it. It put Pathan in with the fast bowlers in full flow and simultaneously relegated the in-form Virat Kohli to the unfamiliar No 7 slot.

Pathan’s World Cup outings, with the exception of the bludgeoning of the 18-year old left-arm spinner George Dockrell, have been unspectacular. Pathan plays as batting all-rounder and he is never relied upon to deliver his full quota of overs. In subcontinental conditions, Suresh Raina is a far better bet as compared to Pathan in the batting all-rounder slot at No 7.

Soon after, Gambhir fell to an ugly hoick. Given that he was the batsman with his eye in and was inching towards a strike rate of 100, I was hoping that he would play out the Powerplay as any other passage of play by punishing the loose balls and rotating the strike responsibly. Pathan followed in quick succession. With the exception of Yuvraj Singh, who was caught in the deep (the shot was definitely on), the rest of the batsmen committed hara-kiri, even as Dhoni looked on.

I had recently written about the need to set meaningful goals for the batting Powerplay and use it primarily as a means of minimizing bowling options at the death. The best passage of play in this match for taking the batting Powerplay was the 16^th over. Neither Tendulkar nor Sehwag would have needed to change gears at that stage. Both Steyn and Morkel would have been tired after their none-too-inspiring initial spells. It was a lost opportunity.

On the bowling front, playing three seamers on the Nagpur track appeared counter-intuitive. While Zaheer Khan has been the standout bowler for India, the rest of the seam attack has been pedestrian. Ashish Nehra has had poor outings beginning with the New Zealand tour of India last year and has had mediocre returns for a while now.

There will be much ink spent on why Dhoni should not have tapped Nehra to bowl the last over. It has to be pointed out that Nehra could have the wicket of Robin Peterson in the first ball of the fateful last over – inside edge flew past the leg stump to the fine-leg boundary, just the luck of the draw. However, Harbhajan Singh had bowled two nerveless overs for five runs apiece previously and can fire in yorkers or low full tosses at will and would have been a better choice to bowl the final over.

Lastly, although the South Africans were a modest 66 for one after 15 overs, India could have further tightened the noose by introducing spin in the early overs. On this track, taking the pace off the new ball would have worked well. Given Graeme Smith’s bunny status vis-à-vis Zaheer, opening the bowling with Zaheer and Pathan seemed like an obvious choice.

Better still would have been the inclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin in place of either Nehra or Munaf Patel. This would have helped India both in terms of controlling the run scoring and more importantly, picking up a couple of early wickets. Dhoni’s interviews elsewhere appear to indicate that he wants to unveil Ashwin in the business end of this tournament. While it would be very gratifying to see Ashwin come into knock-out phase matches and perform well, I for one would have preferred blooding him in this match.

Peter Drucker once said, “Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.” Dhoni is a proven leader. Whether it be team selection, batting order, goals for the Powerplay, or bowling strategy – there are many lessons to learn and take forward from this match.

Life, as always, is good!!!

(Murali is a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. When he gets time off from his cricketing duties, whether it be playing or watching cricket, he attends to his duties as a husband, father, and engineering new solar technology solutions)