Y'day I spoke about a telling statistic:
Gambhir Out at 4.2 Ov, Score= 3-29
Dhoni Out at 12.1 Ov, Score= 4-66
1 wicket for 37 runs.
Final score = 153.
Today a similar thing happened:
Redmond Out at 4.2 Ov, Score = 2-33
Styris Out at 12.3 Ov, Score = 5-73
3 wicket for 40 runs.
Final score = 99.
Reader TG, to his credit, first mentioned the importance of consolidation.
The Pak bowling was SUPERB and deserves its own post.
Later.
Taking Stock
1 hour ago
20 Maidens bowled!!:
1.No mention of the two additional wickets that fell before Styris got out.
2.Pakistan bowling being way better than that of the Windies.
3.Dhoni 11 off 23. Styris 22 off 29.
4.Yuvraj Singh+Yusuf Pathan>>Peter McGlashan+Nathan McCullum+James Franklin+Daniel Vettori+Kyle Mills+Ian Butler
You do realise you don't have to take criticism of Dhoni personally, don't you? :)
Mahek,
Clearly its a different game.
I know the bowling is much better.
The pitch, the batsmen, the fielding...
I understand those differences.
And every match is different.
:-)
But 153 was defendible. And while Dhoni's SR was bad, some of the bowling was miserable, as were the bowling changes.
Lol. I am not taking it personally. I get irritated when I view something as clearly unfair.
of course, I am willing to accept that what I view as unfair might be considered as biased by some others!
P.S. Perhaps I need a break.
Mahek,
Oops! Forgot to add, I did mention the 2 additional wickets falling before Styris fell.. actually the point of my post-that 3 wickets feel and the score ended at 99. (Again bowling was much better.. I accept.)
While in India's case, 1 wkt only fell.
Again diff bowling, and diff batsman (Yuvi).
But at the risk of repeating ad nauseum, 153 shd have been defended.
Dhoni was responsible for two of the three things you mentioned, but that's not the point here. As captain it's he who should put his hand up and admit he had a stinker.
As for the bad bowling, there's nothing he can do about it. That is for the bowling coach and the bowlers to work out.
Tomorrow is a must-win game for us. Hopefully the match ke mujrim will step up :D
PS: You do need a break. Go to the beach and relax.
Of course 153 was defensible, any score is. Especially when the opposition needs 39 off the last 4 overs.
Leela
First up - maybe it's best for your health to stop supporting MSD :-) Like I commented yesterday, MSD is the modern SRT.
Or are you more made of the kind where in criticism of MSD is like water of a duck's back ?? :-)
And evidently my ' comment' ( tks for linking to it) is just adding fuel to the fire !
I still will not budge from the statement - it's the bowling that lost the game last night for India.
39 in 4 overs - and 3 overs later match done ! And to think the 3 overs were bowled by the three main bowlers.
Anyways - tomorrow such things shouldn't matter. England is so poor, if India play to 75 % of it's potential would be a easy win.
Then the match against S Af may/may not be a must win depending on the Eng - WI.
Mahek
At least from some of your comments it does seem that you have a sort of ' beef' against MSD for the fact that he didn't own up to having a stinker !
Not sure I follow your point though - he DID mention during the post match talk that he failed ( or words to that effect).
I'm no big fan of the Indian team - but MSD in his stint of captaincy thus far is like a breath of fresh air.
None of the bland bs that emanted from the likes of Azhar, Sachin, Sourav and Dravid. He ( and do correct me if I'm wrong)hasn't blown this trumpet or even claimed to be the difference for India performing well.
So why all this bile and deep rooted irritation for the innings he played last night ? If he hadn't stayed that long, 153 was a pipe dream. Yusuf and the rest wouldn't/couldn't stay more than 5-6 overs.
I guess me saying "I'm disappointed he didn't own up" gave it away, didn't it?
Yeah, I don't like captains not taking responsibility for a loss. Sometimes you do it because you're the leader, even if you had a good day.
What Dhoni said was he failed by getting out. Err, the failure was in the lead-up to him getting out when he couldn't even pinch singles.
Lastly, it's not just one factor that contributes to a loss. I already said we could've won the game inspite of Dhoni's innings, but one can also look at it this way: The bowlers would have had a bigger score to defend had Dhoni not batted so badly.
I have absolutely no problem with Dhoni leading the side. He can even be okay with the bat, provided he bats lower down the order and is solid behind the stumps. What I don't get is why any player should be inscrutable, be it Dhoni, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Yuvraj, or anyone who plays any sport.
24 balls 39 runs is not easy to defend in t20. Basically, dhoni apologisers are trying to deflect the blame from absymal batting by him(whoich looks like a difficult problem to solve for him) to questionable captaincy(while they are mildly criticising the inbility to defend 39 runs in 4 overs, they know that it is a lesser crime compared to a batting screw up, which might be a droppable offence if it comtinues. Whereas if you criticise for captaincy, you can come back and claim credit when the talented lineup wins more matches for him, possibly by winning this very trophy.it is this devious plans of dhoni fans that irritates his detractors.
Abd he is not admitting failures aas mahek pointed out. Yet dhoni fans are saying he has admitted failures whereas he was just not owning up to inability to maintain even run a ball.this attempt to buildup a honest man image for dhoni pisses off me when he is clearly devious
And Raj comes in from the other end of the spectrum :)
It sure was superb!
But this is defending Dhoni's 11 off 23 isn't it?
Raj,
...is this devious plans of dhoni fans
You have every right to disagree with me and state your opinions.
However, I would prefer if you do not make this personal.
This blog is a reflection of how I read the game, my assessment.
I am not making "devious plans."
Q,
No. Please go back and read. I am constantly stating that the SR is bad. And Dhoni seems clearly out of touch.
What I said was that after seeing today's game I realized the score could have been defended with:
1. Better death bowling.
-- We don't have bowlers who can bowl yorkers like Malinga or Gul.
2. Bad bowling changes.
-- Here I am saying the blame lies with Dhoni.
In my first post on this match I stated that the bowling has been bad since the start of the tournament (practice matches included) hence the onus always lies with the batsmen to post big totals and then defend; unless they can fix the bowling overnight.
Congrats again!
Leela,
Ur right abt that, BUT in hindsight, had Dhoni not pushed around for 23 deliveries (4 overs), India could have been bundled out for much less than 153.. maybe somewhere close to NZ's score?
Truth be told, there's not much batting in the Indian line up after number 5.. I mean YP can hit them around but will u trust him to bat for 6-7 overs? Or even IP? And after that, there's no one. So maybe Dhoni had no choice but to grind it out.
@Raj, has Dhoni been asked what he thinks abt his batting? Why should he out his hand up and say that he's failing? I don't think he'll deny that he hasn't been at his best if asked.
Secondly, now I think its clear that the strategy was that if Gambhir falls, Dhoni comes at 3, if Rohit falls, Raina comes at 3. This again makes sense to have a dasher and an accumulator at opposite ends; Gambhir kept falling 1st so Dhoni kept coming in.
Q,
Wait... I re-read what you are saying.. so we actually agree!
:-)
OK lemme re-state.
Dhoni's SR was bad and he seems out of touch. But he was solely not responsible for losing the match.
And seeing the NZ-PAK match, I realized his consolidation, while painful to watch, did help in the end.
Yup, hindsight is 20-20 (pun intended) indeed!
"hindsight is 20-20" - Headline material!
Exactly Leela, I agree :-) ..
TG,
Forgot to post a response to you...
I wish I was like that duck.
:-)
England is so poor, if India play to 75 % of it's potential would be a easy win.
Oh I hope so!
OK now I better go and sleep.
Leela, Ok, I get I got riled up. But I still think the captaincy was fine. The bowlers werent capable enough. It is the batting that let India down. #3 or #5 or #7, we dont need a poor accumulator like Dhoni. There are guys who can do that job better. If you remove Dhoni, the rest are capable of batting through 20 overs with a good score, for God's sake. Even Irfan Pathan can last 10 overs at run-a-ball, thank you.
You are justifying Dhoni's batting retrospectively, in the context of an abysmla NZ batting lineup which pisses in pants against good spin. That is what I'm saying is apologising for Dhoni. If Dhoni had fallen early at #5 yesterday, it is equallly likely that Yusuf, Irfan, Zaheer, Harbhajan might have taken India to a decent score close to 150. To compare them with the stupid NZ lineup which cant play skin and say that even India would have crashed for less than 100 or close to 100 is just not on. Only a Dhoni fan looking to justify his idol would do so
Oops, Guess India did play to 75 % of it's potential. But England have been 100 % and that means bye bye India.
Once again MSD's batting order comes into question :-)
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