Indian batsmen troubled by short balls even in Sri Lanka

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The vulnerability against short balls of the young Indian batsmen, who have scored heavily on their home turfs where the bounce generally is on the lower side, has been brought to light once more during the just concluded ODI series in Sri Lanka.

Although India emerged triumphant 4-1 in the five-match series and regained their second position in the ICC rankings, the cause of concern to them must have been the continuous failure of their young guns while tackling the short-pitched stuff. 

Speedster Lasith Malinga’s spell in the batting powerplay overs during the fifth and final ODI at a time when the Indians were pushing along very nicely exposed their shortcomings rather brutally once more. 

Manoj Tiwary, having done all the hard work of rotating the strike for the last 20 overs or so, was looking set for his second ODI hundred when he took eyes off the ball when it was dug in short by Malinga. It looked like schoolboy stuff. It wasn’t a cracking or unplayable delivery that rose awkwardly.

It was just am ordinary well directed bouncer which he could have easy hooked or pulled. Tiwary passed the impression that he was just not prepared for such a ball which looked ridiculous. 

In the end he played a nothing shot and the resulting edge was plucked at short third man. Even worse was to follow on the very next ball, if you were an Indian supporter. 

Suresh Raina, with three match-winning half-centuries in the series under his belt, could not have arrived at the crease at a more appropriate time with the field restrictions of powerplay overs encouraging him to go over the top from the outset. 

Knowing the left-hander Raina’s weaknesses against short and rising deliveries, the caretaker Sri Lankan captain, Angelo Matthews, brought in a fielder to the first slip position. Malinga fired in a half-tracker and Raina obliged by guiding it straight into the hands of the slip fieldsman. Raina’s movement suggested that he was indeed expecting a short ball first-up but he was found wanting in tackling it once more.

 

Two wickets in as many balls, Malinga, having leaked far too many runs in the previous games against India when keeping his length full most of the time, had his tails up when he steamed in for the hat-trick delivery which was to be faced by the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. 

It was yet another rising delivery which Dhoni negotiated very well by coming into line instead of moving sideways. 

Malinga tested him again with a bouncer and this time he had even Dhoni clueless about the ball which raced to the boundary off his helmet for four leg-byes. One Malinga over said it all. The pitch had some bounce and he possessed the pace and skills to test the batsmen. 

If the likes of Tiwary and Raina are blown like this then the future of the Indian batting looks in doubt. Raina has proved himself an outstanding batsman for limited-overs cricket but he has not been able to overcome his problems against balls gaining some height. 

Every fast bowler or even a medium-pacer is encouraged to pitch the ball short whenever he’s at the crease. On lively pitches he gets himself into trouble more often than not.

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India’s rare triumph in battle of young brigade

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

It didn’t look like a true Australia-India game with both the countries packing their sides with an eye on the future rather on present. I don’t agree to the theory of both the nations having fielded a second eleven with the World Cup 2011, to be played in the sub-continent, in just a few months time.

The Indians have had this habit of obliging the visitors by not picking their strongest available side but the Australians have not been known for giving away caps cheaply. Therefore I was little surprised when they chose to enter the second ODI in Visakhapatnam with three inexperienced fast bowlers.

That seemed one of the reasons why the Indians got away with it this time round. Otherwise their young sides have often fared miserably with the disaster in Zimbabwe having taken place just a few months ago.

The Aussies proved too fragile themselves to contain the flamboyant duo of Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina while defending a total of 289. Stand-in captain Michael Clarke didn’t have the ammunition to come good on the flattest of tracks.

I was under the impression that the match had gone Australia’s way once they had plundered 84 runs in the last five overs of the innings. Cameroon White continued to be India’s nemesis and the experienced Clarke had no problems in milking the bowling.

Australia, having been jolted at the start of the innings by the seasoned left-arm quickie, Ashish Nehra, seemed to have done a great job by setting target of 290 in the end because at no point one foresaw them crossing the barrier of 250.

As we have become accustomed to watching over the years the Indian bowlers were taken for far too many runs in the final overs after having exercised control in the earlier part of the innings.

But there was an unusual story when India began the chase. Having depended heavily on the tried and trusted trio of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir for kickstarting their innings they had three new faces with two of them, Murali Vijay and Shikar Dawan, failing not unexpectedly.

The third one, Kohli, turned it around with the knock of his life yet. His magnificent century lifted the home side and his productive partnerships with Yuvraj Singh and Raina settled the issue decisively.

It was one of the rare occasions when the youngsters had done it on their own for the home side who were prone to crashing in the absence of their star performers. Kohli proved many critics wrong with his technique and temperament.

There was not much element of surprise in the half-century of Yuvraj, having had to struggle for form and fitness for the past many months, but the knock of Kohli was something of a sensation.

Raina’s onslaught took the pressure off the limping Kohli, who celebrated his ton with a series of boundaries to seal the fate of the game. Ideally he would have liked to stay until the end but he was caught in the deep once more while attempting to clear the fence. We have seen him so many times getting dismissed in such a manner.

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Raina grabs opportunity with both hands

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Not for the first time the injury or illness to a key player paved the way for someone waiting in the wings for quite sometime and the opportunity was grabbed with both hands. Suresh Raina was certainly not in the scheme of things when the Indian think-tank sat together to field their strongest possible outfit in the second Test to prevent hosts Sri Lanka from running away with the series.

Yuvraj Singh was the obvious choice for the number six slot despite having failed in both the outings of the first Test after that fluent century in the only warm-up game. As the luck would have it the experienced but enigmatic left-hander was declared unfit and Raina was handed over the Test cap finally.

Yes it had been a long wait for the enterprising Raina whose exceptional talent had made him a permanent member of Indian limited overs team for the past few years. In fact he had already played in 98 One-day Internationals and would have certainly played many more before his Test debut if Yuvraj had not been ruled out at the eleventh hour.

Raina had to spend the first couple of days in the Test arena doing leather chasing as the Sri Lankans scored heaps of runs after winning the toss. Although the ever-brutal Virender Sehwag had got off to a cracking start the Indians had a mountain to climb in order to save the game.

As we have become used to watching it there was a batting collapse after the fall of Sehwag for 99 and all of a sudden the batting paradise of SSC Colombo had started to look a favoured strip for the home bowlers.

The Indians, having been hammered in the previous Test, were in danger of yet another crushing defeat when debutant Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar, who had witnessed the cheap dismissals of the big guns Rahun Dravid and VVS Laxman at the other end.

Raina didn’t show any sign of nerves apparently while tackling the young Sri Lankans spinners who were dominating the seasoned Indian batsmen yet again. With Tendulkar as assured as ever at the other end he had the opportunity of discussing the strategy in the middle overs.

The presence of Tendulkar and the experience of 98 ODIs must have played a huge part in Raina remaining cool and calm throughout the length of his innings which turned it around for his side.

A century for him was very much on the cards on the fourth day and he didn’t let go the opportunity. He was consistently attacked with the short-pitched stuff but he did show the resilience to negotiate everything with confidence.

He was up to the task whenever the ball was pitched to him and he was not afraid to drive them gracefully towards the fence. He took his chances when the spinners tested him with flight and his couple of sixes reflected him being in total control.

Raina’s century on Test debut provides another worthy option for the Indian middle-order that does need someone as dashing as him at number six. He would obviously be needed to prove his mettle on the bouncy pitches abroad before he could be permanently slotted there.

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