Sport - Cricket

Faulty composition cost India the title

Dhaka: There were lessons for India from the defeat in a Cup final. Pakistan displayed greater clarity of thought in the business end of the Kitply ODI tri-series.

The Indians will look back at the final as an opportunity lost. Faulty composition of the eleven eventually cost the side the title.

India will only have to glimpse at recent history to realise where it went wrong. In the two finals of the Australian tri-series, India picked five bowlers.

The three pacemen were supported by Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla. In fact, the selection of leg-spinner Piyush was seen as a master-stroke. India had variety in bowling; it was harder for the batsmen to settle down.

When spearhead Ishant Sharma was injured for the second final, India continued to think positively. S. Sreesanth was picked and he made a difference.

In the summit clash at Dhaka, India played one batsman too many. After the tense duel, skipper M.S. Dhoni acknowledged that he should have walked in earlier.

By opting for a bowler less, India shot itself on the foot. Exemplary opening spells from Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma meant Pakistan struggled for runs.

Then, the match slipped out of India’s grasp with Piyush Chawla and the part-time spinners bowling in the crucial middle overs. Salman Butt and Younis Khan, hardly under stress to preserve wickets, consolidated.

If Yusuf Pathan was picked as an all-rounder, then Dhoni should have shown more faith in him than hand him just two overs. Yusuf had a ten-wicket match haul for Vadodara against Bengal in the Ranji Trophy last year and his fastish variety of off-spin from a high-arm action can be handy.

Spinners are essentially confidence bowlers, who require the backing of the captain.

The lack of support at the other meant Piyush’s bowling also suffered. Bowlers work in combinations; there has to be pressure from both ends. If Dhoni had little faith in Yusuf’s bowling, then left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha could have been given an opportunity.

It is a matter of concern that young batsmen like Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are following the Twenty20 way in the ODIs. The dynamics of batting are different in the one-dayers. Here there are occasions, when a batsman needs to graft and consolidate.

Finally, India owed much of its historic ODI triumph down under to the two gems from Sachin Tendulkar in the finals. While youth and exuberance have their place, a maestro such as Tendulkar is bound to be missed.

India requires this legendary batsman for the Champions Trophy.

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