Cricket 2014
India Losing the Art of Batting for a Draw
August 19th 2014
Yesterday I pointed out two sets of statistics that show how the nature of England v India Test series has changed in the last 4 years compared to the previous decade:
·
Between 2002
and 2008/9, there were 16 England v India Tests, in 5 series. India won 5 of
the games, England 2, with 9 drawn. What is more, England failed to win any of
the series, losing 3 and sharing 2.
o
56% of draws
·
Since 2011,
the power balance has tipped completely in the opposite direction, with England
winning 9 and drawing 2 of the 13 Tests and winning all three series.
o
15% of draws
Normally the reduced percentage
of draws is attributed to the faster pace of Test cricket now, with teams
scoring at a much higher run-rate than was typical in even the recent past. While
this is a factor, it may not big as big a factor as you might think.In both 2011 and 2014, England won the final Test of the series by an innings. What was the difference?
·
In 2011, the
two Indian innings lasted a total of 185 overs.
·
In 2014, the
two Indian innings lasted a total of 90.3 overs.
Have India’s innings just moved at a faster pace now? No, actually the run rate has been significantly lower.
·
In the final
Test of 2011, India scored at 3.15 per over.
·
In the final
Test of 2014, India scored at 2.67 per over.
The main difference is that Indian batsmen seem to be losing the capability to bat for a long time to try to save a match. This though was a key element of Duncan Fletcher’s strategy to move England from the bottom of the Test rankings in 1999 to be #1 (although England only reached that ranking finally under Andy Flower in 2011): play to avoid defeat and try to spring a victory from a position of safety.
Even though they lost the final Test in 2011 by an innings, the Indian batsmen took the match deep into the final afternoon and, at 262-3, even looked set to save the Test, before the loss of Mishra and Tendulkar in the space of four balls induced a collapse. In the corresponding match of 2014 the innings lasted the equivalent of less than a session and there was never any suggestion that India might be capable of saving the game, or even planting significant resistance in the hope that the weather might intervene and give a helping hand. What is more, the batsmen have been scoring significantly more slowly against a much less experienced and less potent attack, lacking a front-line spinner (for all his success, Moeen Ali is no Graeme Swann) and with back-up seamers who have just nine Tests between them, than they faced in 2011.
Whereas all logic suggested that the England attack, particularly Broad and Anderson, should be nearing exhaustion after seven Tests in two and a half months, including several back-to-back Tests, it was the Indian attack, with its much lighter load, that seemed to fade rapidly under the strain despite a preparation that seemed designed to ensure that the bowlers were peaking by the 3rd or 4th Test. Both Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad bowled more overs than any of the Indian attack and had also bowled almost 100 overs each against Sri Lanka, yet it was the England seamers who seemed fresher at the end of the series.
The proposed solution from some Indian fans? Only play short series in the future because Indian bowlers cannot be expected to last a 4 or 5-match series! The level of denial is astonishing: the alternative, to play a few fewer T20s and hone skills playing, for example, some County cricket in England, is not even deemed worthy of consideration. A generation of English cricket fans remember watching Bishan Bedi play for Northants, or Farokh Engineer for Lancashire, legends of the game who were immensely popular with the fans yet, then as now, although many Pakistanis have and still do come to England to play, Indians are few and far between and, when they do come, as Kapil Dev, or Sachin Tendulkar did, it has usually been short-term. Even so, many of the young generation or Indian players could learn a lot even in a single season of county cricket, quite apart from being great ambassadors for their country as the aforementioned players were.
Speaking of County cricket, today served-up one of the best finishes that a County match has seen for a long time. With Northants all but relegated mathematically with four games still to go (even four big wins might well not be enough to reach safety), the battle is on to avoid the second relegation position. The two sides that are second and third from bottom – Lancashire and Durham – fought out an epic battle. Lancashire knew that defeat would leave them in an almost unrecoverable position, while victory would pull them out of the relegation zone and pull Middlesex firmly into the battle for survival. After 3 days the draw looked a strong favourite until Durham collapsed horribly around lunch, from 73-1 to 187ao. Needing 107 to win in 36 overs, Lancashire seemed red-hot favourites until a Durham fightback of epic proportions reduced them to 36-5 and then 90-9. Listeners to the BBC County cricket commentaries had a treat as Martin Emerson and Scott Read gave a storming performance, bringing to life an agonising finale, with Lancashire scrambling a win with two balls to spare.
The BBC commentaries are brilliant and are producing a generation of passionate, articulate and knowledgeable commentators who bring the game to life and who know that they have a little more licence to be partisan than normal in sporting commentary and so get the fans involved too. Some of the best commentators on the county circuit make no attempt to hide their affiliation, while being scrupulously fair at the same time. The result is a service that is helping to bring County cricket to a far wider audience, who are finding it great entertainment.
With the Lancashire win, however agonic, ten points separate Durham from Middlesex, with Lancashire in between, four points behind Middlesex, but with a game more played. Here though is the rub. Durham have a home game to come against Northants that they will expect to win, potentially leapfrogging both Lancashire and Middlesex as a result. Middlesex play both Durham and Lancashire in their run in, finishing with a game at Old Trafford that is a potential relegation decider. A defeat to either Durham or, especially, Lancashire could see Middlesex go from topping the table after six games, to final day relegation. The final rounds of games are going to be very exciting indeed for the fans and fiercely contested. Three proud, passionate sides will be fighting for their cricketing lives and their BBC commentators will be bringing it to life with their usual skill and enthusiasm .
No comments:
Post a Comment