Monday 25 / November / 2024
FOR a very brief period of time Steve Smith and George Bailey looked like simple, shaky guys doing their bit wearily, cumbrously to get their team as close as they could to the 300-plus target and Barinder Balbirsingh Sran seemed to have put the smile on the faces of millions of Indian fans who watched in awe the rookie fast bowler snaring two quick wickets in the second and third over of his international debut.
That was when Australia lost both their big-hitting openers inside the first five overs, and almost lost a third wicket when Bailey’ leg-side glance off Sran landed in the hands of MS Dhoni to which the umpire had different, disappointing view, with just 21 runs on the scoreboard.
What happened after that was simple, smooth and uncomplicated. A bit boring, though.
After watching Rohit Sharma posting the highest individual ODI score against Australia in Australia, which lifted India to a seemingly secure position in the first match of the series, a hot, hurried Australian pursuit of the target was what one would have normally expected.
What we got in reality was not something we used to witness in high-scoring matches. Smith and Bailey went about their business like robots programmed to do a murder in the slowest, sedate, relaxed way ever.
What Smith and Bailey did at Perth was just the opposite of what Martin Guptill and Colin Munro unveiled at Auckland a few days ago. The New Zealanders chased the 143-run target in the second T20 match at the Eden Park with brute power and the Sri Lankans were humiliated inside 10 overs. That was one way of doing the mighty, doughty thing to snub and crush the rivals.
The other way, the one taken by the Australians, was not just as pleasing or popular in terms of the thrill quotient, but just as effective in sending out the message to the opposition clearly and confidently that ‘we don’t give a damn about you’.
Now that a 300-plus score was proved to be damn little to put the fear in the minds of Smith and his mates, it’s interesting to look at the options Dhoni has as India get ready for their second game at the Gabba tomorrow.
One of the preferred ways forward for Dhoni in ODI games has been to win the toss, bat first, post a huge total and hope for the panic factor to work against the opposition, but after the Perth setback the MS recipe for success requires a bit of messing up. Unfortunately, the Indian skipper got very little under his disposal to spice up the curry.
One of the surprise elements in Dhoni’s armory was Sran who obviously had a good debut, but why was the wicket-taker held back for such a long time at Perth? Sran had an impressive first spell of six overs that earned him two wickets, and when he came back for his second spell Smith and Bailey were well set scoring centuries and Australia required just 68 runs from 11 overs.
Sran may not have put the brakes on the Australian innings even if he was brought on earlier than the 40th over, but that’s not the point. The point is: you needed to back your guy of the moment. The point is: it made no sense to toss the ball to Rohit Sharma as early as the 12th over, and to trust Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to do the impossible even when Smith and Bailey kept moving the scoreboard without getting adventurous.
Spinners are a built-in part of the Indian plan, all right, but two of them are too many on Australian pitches. A four-one strategy, plus an additional guy for emergency by way of getting Gurkeerat Singh Mann in in place of Manish Pandey, may be a good way to go about at the Gabba.
(The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman)
