Duncan Fletcher Winning The Battle Of The Coaches

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

India on the Brink

 

July 21^st 2014

 

Once again England have had their chances in this game. Once again they have been allowed to slip away. When India set England 319 to win, the chances of victory looked slim at best. There have been only 27 successful 4^th innings chases of 300+ in 2130 Tests and, over nearly a century and a half of Test cricket, the odds show that just once in every thirteen attempts when a side is set 300+ to win do they manage it, while more than 60% of the time the chasing side slips to defeat.

England’s one chance is to get through to lunch without losing a wicket and for one of the two not out batsmen to score a century. It is a tall order.

England have been out-thought and out-fought by a side led by the man who left England under a cloud in 2007, but who had set English cricket on its feet and got it expecting success once again after two decades of mediocrity: it was that expectation of success that was his undoing as a return to more modest returns put him under massive pressure before, finally cracking.

Like English fans, Indians are not the most patient in the world and Duncan Fletcher has had to cope with some intense criticism although, in India, the role of coach/manager is far more in the background than in England or Australia. Duncan Fletcher though has not missed a trick in this series and, if India win this Test – and with it, surely the series – much will be down to the way that India have ground down the English attack. At Trent Bridge, knowing that the seamers had a lot of overs in their legs from the series against Sri Lanka, he kept England in the field for 284 overs. No declaration on the last day when everyone expected one: even if England bowled part-timers most of the afternoon, weary limbs were being hauled around the field, knowing that they would get only three days of rest.

When England made a breakthrough, the bowlers were too tired to exploit it, hence the tail-end partnerships that are winning the series for India. It is the Duncan Fletcher, “hang on, do not let go, grind them down mentality”. It is no coincidence that the seminal moment in the 2005 Ashes came when Gary Pratt ran out Ricky Ponting in the 4^th Test and Ponting cracked. Here, India have seen an opportunity to cut down to size a player who has irritated them (and other sides) more than a little over the last few years and, with it, destabilise the opposition. It is the sort of opportunity that Duncan Fletcher excels in to get into the oppositions’ minds and win a few brownie points. India have brought much better sides to England but, sometimes, the sum of the parts is much greater than the whole and this side is more ruthless than any recent Indian outfit.