Laboured win over Ireland proves all is NOT well with India

India may have won Sunday’s match, but Ireland garnered the greater honours for their spunky performance. While the scorebook reveals a facile five-wicket victory with more than four overs to spare, what it doesn’t tell is how much India huffed and puffed to get over the finish line.



One can’t be overly critical of a winning team. It must also be borne in mind that the two points against Ireland were crucial for India, who could hardly afford the kind of mishap England had experienced a few days earlier. A cautious approach, therefore, was understandable. But on introspection, even Mahendra Singh Dhoni would agree that the victory was more laboured than it need have been.

The Indian captain was perhaps a trifle too effusive when he called Ireland a ‘powerful team’ in his postmatch assessment. It can be said without fear of contradiction that Ireland are a very doughty side with a future that should be brighter than the past, but they are still a long-way from being labelled anything more than a robust, competitive side.

What Dhoni probably meant was that Ireland put up a meaner fight than the he might have expected. Not too many people expected a repeat of the sensational performance against England. Ireland just didn’t seem to have the resources or the experience to make it two in a row. But Dhoni will vouch that India were run very, very close.

Even without Trent Johnson, who left the field after claiming two wickets, the Irish attack seemed more disciplined and probing than India’s. Among spinners 18-year-old Dockrell, who was born after Tendulkar began his international career, was brave enough to seduce batsmen into mistakes by giving the ball generous loop. The bowlers were backed up by such superb support in the field that the runs literally had to be squeezed out.

A score of 207, even accounting for the sluggish pitch, was modest at best. But India appeared to approach the task as if on tenterhooks.

Ultimately, the greater experience of the Indian batsmen proved invaluable: Tendulkar, Kohli, Dhoni and Yuvraj all spent enough time in the middle to ensure that there was no great panic, but not long enough to remove all uncertainty about the result.

It was not till Yusuf Pathan arrived to hit some lusty sixes that India were in the clear. Against opponents as inexperienced and as short of quality talent as Ireland, it may have been possible to win a low-scoring match by such a margin; against more accomplished opponents, it could be problematic.

SO MUCH of the struggle, however, was of India’s own making. The fielding, starting with a dropped catch in the first over, continues to be error-prone despite the superb run-out of Niall O’Brien by Kohli- Dhoni. At least two other possible chances went abegging and the ground fielding was short of being even smart, leave aside spectacular.

Nevertheless, it is the bowling which will rankle the Indian captain greater. He had read the pitch right, called right at the toss, chosen the right combination by any reckoning (though many had argued for the inclusion of a fifth specialist bowler) and did the right thing by fielding first. What went wrong was Piyush Chawla’s nervousness leading to such awry control as become an embarrassment – and that too on a bowlerfriendly wicket. No-balls, wides, overpitched stuff and long hops punctuated the young leg-spinners efforts, which reduced the pressure brought about by Zaheer Khan’s superb opening spell.

Chawla will have shot himself in the foot with this performance and in the process aggravated Dhoni’s worries. He now has two bowlers – Sreesanth being the other – whom he has meagre faith in, and Ashish Nehra who is taking an eternity to recover. This effectively reduces the bowling to three tried and tested bowlers, of whom Harbhajan still has to get into wicket-taking mode.

Yuvraj Singh’s fine all-round performance was the big gain from the match, particularly his five-wicket haul which kept Ireland under check. This vindicated Dhoni’s trust in his part-time bowler as also his tactic of playing seven batsmen and four bowlers. But the Indian captain heads to Delhi concerned that everything’s still not right as yet.

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