Plaudits for India’s win over Netherlands at the Kotla on Wednesday night were muted, and rightly so. The effort was laboured and uninspiring, even if the margin of victory was seemingly huge. What’s that Mark Twain said about lies, damned lies and statistics?
That said, I don’t think the DDCA did themselves credit by providing a pitch that was sluggish and hardly conducive to strokeplay. Barring the hurri cane partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag when the ball was new and hard, batting emerged as the most cumbersome chore on this pitch.
Indeed, by the end of the match, the ball was literally ‘dying’ on the batsman. It is not my case that pitches should be so skewed in favour of batsmen that bowlers would wish they were on vacation instead.
Indeed, a pitch that affords some help to bowlers too makes for a more exciting contest because good batsmen can also succeed on these. But something with little pace or bounce and slow turn does diminish a limited-overs contest.
In a sense, the new Kotla pitch was in stark contrast to the spiteful flier on which India played Sri Lanka over a year ago, which earned the DDCA a one-year ban from the ICC. In trying to safeguard against another censure, the DDCA may have overcompensated and robbed Thursday’s match of some excitement for the huge crowd that had turned out. I won’t spend more time discussing the pitch because that would become an excuse for India’s tepid show. The pitch in fact was only a small factor in the struggle of the batsmen, which seemed largely to stem from some confusion in tactics.
Against Ireland at Bangalore, for instance, India had batted with almost exaggerated caution in chasing down 208 runs, intent on getting the two points for victory; against Netherlands, for a similarly low target (190) and on a pitch perhaps slower than the one at Bangalore, the Indians tried to finish the match in double quick time and landed themselves in a tight spot.
Tendulkar and Sehwag were almost devil-may-care in their approach. This looked a lot of fun as long as the ball was hard, but once the first wicket fell, it soon developed into a crisis of sorts. From 69 for no loss it became 99 for four, and suddenly an upset did not look so improbable.
It can be argued that India bat so deep and pack so much experience that such crises can be tided over. Sure, as Yuvraj and Dhoni were to show once again. But this may not be the smartest way to achieve the task of winning a match against more accomplished opponents.
I was particularly disappointed with the failures of Yusuf Pathan and Virat Kohli, both dismissed playing very loose shots. Yusuf muffed up the privilege of batting higher up the order by trying to hit the big shots very early, without coming to terms with the pace and bounce of the pitch.
There is a role he has to perform when he comes in with three or four overs remaining, and a different sort of role when he is batting number three or four. Yusuf needs to guard against the perils of trying to live up the stereotype of Mr Six-Hit in every situation.
Kohli, on the other hand, must learn to respect good form while it lasts — simply because it does not last forever. He has been India’s outstanding one-day batsman — along with Tendulkar — in the past year or so, but there is a difference in batting with authority and being casual or cavalier.
Heading into the last two league matches, Piyush Chawla's form has also shown an upswing, though I wonder how long R Ashwin can be kept out of the side. Ashish Nehra’s return was a good sign in the sense that Dhoni at least has an extra option now, but Harbhajan’s lack of wickets must concern him.
Clearly there are crinkles and wrinkles – in batting and bowling – which need ironing out. But all said and done, India are at the top of their group and still unbeaten in the tournament. That’s a good thought to carry to Nagpur for the match against South Africa.
