Flawed thinking of both captains
Posted on Sep 02, 2007 at 18:52 | Updated Sep 03, 2007 at 10:39
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New Delhi: The first 30 overs of the match at Headingley showed that Rahul Dravid and Paul Collingwood are not exactly the kind of inspirational captains who will really set the stage on fire with their adventurous approach. Their defensive mindset takes precedence too often and that is just not good enough in testing situations.
India’s Batting Order:
It was a tremendous progress for India after a sluggish first five overs, when they were trying to gauge the pitch and the bowling.
From 1st to the 5th Over India made seven runs (Strike Rate 23.3)
From 6th to 10th Over, India added 50 runs (Strike rate 166.6)
From 11 to 15th Over, India added 21 runs (Strike Rate 70.0)
From 16th to 20th Over, India made 38 runs (Strike Rate of 126.6)
So at 116 for one after 20, the stage was perfect for acceleration. The 15 overs starting from the sixth till Tendulkar’s dismissal had fetched India 109 runs at a strike-rate of 124. Instead, India sent a struggling Gambhir ahead of Yuvraj or Dhoni and the next ten overs fetched India just 48 runs at a strike-rate of 80.
In normal circumstances, a rate of 4 runs for every five balls should be very healthy going, but considering the position India were in when Tendulkar fell, some valuable runs were lost. Though Gambhir does deserve all the credit for his gutsy half-century, sending him at number three did rob India off initiative for some time.
Collingwood’s mistakes
In this series, Collingwood has repeatedly refused to employ a slip fielder when Indian batsmen got going. As a result, bowlers of ordinary pace like Lewis have been forced to bowl too straight at a batsman of Tendulkar’s caliber. They have also not been able to keep it full and invite drives on the offside traps, as edges invariably find the thirdman boundary in the absence of a slip.
This is suicidal as was seen in Tendulkar’s play on Sunday. England bowlers bowling too straight and little short meant as many as 23 runs came off mid-wicket and square-leg areas, nearly 32 per cent of all the runs scored by Tendulkar. He was the boss of the on-side on Sunday, managing to score 47 runs from the on-side, two-third off all the runs scored by him.
The second big mistake was not to delay the 2nd power play period for more than one over. The one over, the eleventh of the innings when the England captain delayed the 2nd power play, got India just one run. It should have been clue enough. But Collingwood chose not to delay it further and paid heavy penalty. The next ten overs of 2nd and 3rd powerplays got India 66 runs, and went on to put them in the driver’s seat.
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Total Comments: 4
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Posted By amandeep
Collingwood made a blunder when he opted to field in 5th ODI at headingly. It was clear in the 3rd
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Posted By SUJIT
Dravid is defensive captain and makes a lot of mistakes are known to whole world. But in this match, english
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Posted By Vidhushak !
THE CAPTAINCY WAS AT ITS WORST--OF BOTH THE CAPTAINS .. THEY WERE NEITHER OF THE SO-CALLED CLASSIC MOULD NOR OF
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Posted By harjit
So typical of a critic. If it works then call the captain a genius and attribute all sorts of strategic
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