Escape to victory

A seemingly innocuous exercise of setting the field often reveals a great deal about a team’s psyche.

In the first innings of the MCG Test, Team Australia found itself in a pickle at 214 for 6. Yet it managed 333. The second time around, their batting collapsed again at 27 for 4. Yet they scored 240. In short, India engineered Australia’s escape to victory. 

Clearly, India’s defeat was a tactical failure. Captain MS Dhoni committed two cardinal sins: First, he didn’t set an attacking field when the Aussies were on the mat at 214 for 6. Second, he chose to follow the flawed logic of not attacking the set batsman. Worst still, he repeated the mistakes in the second innings. Defeat was inevitable.

Australia is a mystery continent where proceedings often inexplicably deviate from the script. After starting impressively in the first session of Day-1, Indian speedsters (Ishant and Umesh clocked 150 plus kmph) got their length wrong in the post-lunch session. They bowled short and wide. Dhoni’s lack of intent in choking singles showed up glaringly with fielders at deep point, deep square leg and not-so-close mid-off and mid-on. It allowed the new batsman (Aus were 46 for 2), Ricky Ponting, who was rattled when the first ball crashed into his helmet grill, to settle down into a nice rhythm. What followed was a crucial 113-run partnership between debutant Ed Cowan and Ponting.

Zaheer Khan and Ravichandran Ashwin brought India back in the third session when three wickets fell in three overs; Australia crashed to 214 for 6. Logically, Dhoni should have gone for the kill. The focus should have been on an attacking field and squeezing the flow of runs. It would have forced the lower-order batsmen to make mistakes. Instead, a defensive field continued and it undid the good work of the bowlers. Result: Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle forged a 72-run partnership; worst still they were allowed to hang on for 23.5 overs. Obviously, Dhoni never resorted to any course correction and Australia’s last four wickets added 119 runs.

In the second innings, when the home team was on the mat at 27 for 4 in the second session of Day-3, the Indian skipper, quite shockingly, continued with the same two slip, gully, deep point and deep square leg for the fast bowlers. He could have easily fortified his field to four slip, gully, point, straighter mid-off and mid-on and forward short leg. It would have spurred the fast bowlers to go for the jugular. And that was not all. Dhoni chose not to attack the set batsmen, Ponting and even Michael Hussey, who was under tremendous pressure having failed in the earlier innings. The duo counterattacked and produced the game-changing partnership of 115-runs. The last four wickets scored 92 runs and lasted for 33.2 overs.

In contrast, the Aussie captain, Michael Clarke, often attacked with three slip, gully, point and mid-off. When the highest scorer (73) of the first innings, Sachin, walked in to bat, Clarke employed three slip, gully, extra cover and mid-off to prevent him from unleashing those gorgeous drives, which got him lot of runs in the earlier innings.

With a target of 292 runs, the Australian pacers attacked relentlessly and fielders never conceded an inch, let alone easy singles. The pressure of chasing close to 300 runs in the fourth innings on the MCG track, which India had underestimated (Sehwag had said the night before that anything less than 300 can be chased), finally got to the famous batting line-up. And it wilted.

I don’t want to commit a blasphemy by telling the fabulous four (Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid and Laxman) how to bat but I wish their bat had come down straighter, at least for the first half an hour.

What, perhaps, saddened the millions of fans was the way India embraced defeat — without a fight. 

NB: Here’s wishing all my readers a Great New Year!