India won the match due to a massive 112 meter six by Dhoni followed by a no-ball by Clint McKay due to a above-waist height full toss. Once it was over, a lot of people called it all well and good... but was it just as well and good when the chase was on? My Twitter timeline at the time of the chase said that most of the viewers were having trouble understanding why Dhoni was leaving it so late. And I was with them... indeed, why so late?
The biggest question raised after Dhoni hit that monstrous six was that if one can hit such shots, why not try it earlier to ease a bit of pressure, rather than risking it all at the end. And these kind of queries were not just raised in the minds of casual viewers, but also the men in the dressing room. The Man of the Match Gautam Gambhir had this to say: "We should have finished this game in the 48th over. We shouldn't have taken this game to the 50th over, that's my personal observation."
What is the best way to plan and pace a chase? When do you attack and when do you rely on quick running? Obviously, the answers differ in different conditions, but I think certain things remain common everywhere. In my opinion, if the best finisher of the team (MS Dhoni) is coming in to bat with 92 needed of 95 balls and batsmen like Suresh Raina (batting), Jadeja and Ashwin (to follow), and the team ends up needing 13 in the final over with two of these above batsmen still batting, then the chase has been miscalculated somewhere.
And in this innings of MS Dhoni, it is quite apparent where the miscalculation occurred. His innings break up is like this - 8 runs of first 24 balls, 25 of next 31 balls, and 11 runs of the last 3 balls. He came in when 92 were needed of 95 balls, and ended up playing 30 dot balls, i.e. 52% of the total deliveries he faced. To put it in perspective, Gambhir faced 52 dot balls in his 111-ball innings, i.e. 47% of the total deliveries faced by him, despite batting through the middle overs as well!
One might well argue that since Dhoni was not doing much to get the required run rate down, Raina and Jadeja had to go for the big hits, and lose their wickets in the process. Gambhir was right when he said that it's difficult in the middle, and different people plan their chases differently, but surely, when you end up with 7 runs of 19 balls in the Batting Powerplay and play a dot ball in almost every over where you also take a 2, you are not doing a lot of good, are you?
Dhoni is usually a fabulous planner and executor of chases - stiff ones, tricky ones, easy ones and straightforward ones. He, along with Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, have made India a very competent chasing unit in limited overs cricket, and also made the World Cup runners-up captain Kumar Sangakkara remark that a team needs about 350 runs on the board to feel safe against this Indian team. But every now and again, there arises a question mark of Dhoni's strategies in such situations.
Like it arose today, it had also arisen during the first Twenty20 between India and Australia earlier on this tour. One of the earlier occasions that I can remember when a similar question had arisen in my mind was not a chase, but India setting a target for New Zealand on the tour of 2009 in the 2nd Twenty20 International, where he wasted the middle overs with 8* (18) before ending up with 28* (30). In that match too, it might be argued that Dhoni's slow approach forced Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja to play shots that shouldn't have ideally been required in those situations.
The man I have written this post about - MS Dhoni - had brilliantly executed the 161 required runs of 170 balls in the World Cup finals. The run rate required then at Wankhede Stadium was 5.68 runs per over, and here at Adelaide Oval was 5.81 runs per over. If he can do it so well there, why couldn't he do it as well here? Had this been a one-off case, I wouldn't have bothered writing this long a post, presuming it to be a mistake. But it is not a one-off case, and thus this has to be considered a strategy of some sort - and in my opinion, a miscalculated strategy!
6 comments:
Nice post and you have raised excellent points Shridhar. However, a chase is not only determined by what a batsman wants to do. The opposition needs to cooperate too. :)
I agree that MSD should have got a move on earlier but getting 8/9 RPO in the last 5-8 overs of an ODI is pretty reasonable in the modern game. Wickets in hand becomes the more crucial factor. There is validity to the point that MSD's slow pace made Raina and Jadeja to take on the long boundary and in the process lose their wickets. But what if that was the plan, after all? That, MSD would tick around and the aggression would be from the other end. If IIRC, the commentators were saying MSD wasn't probably feeling well either.
There is more than one way to skin a cat. We have seen MSD is as accomplished as anyone in the history of the ODI game in pacing the chase. Given the vast body of work, I am willing to give him the benefit of doubt.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. But for those misfields, overthrows and a timely no-ball, India would have lost.
Whatever people might say, Dhoni was wrong in the way he took it to the last over. He was often just playing dead defense that he didn't do during the test series.
I didn't watch it live all through but I feel Raina and Jadeja made it possible because they made 50 runs between them from 38 balls.
Even if they had scored run a ball, Dhoni would have required 25 from last over and that would have been 'The End' of the chase !
You have exactly echoed my thoughts !! All i can say is Dhoni has made an
artificial close encounter out of a very comfortable winning situation. I even doubt whether there are any devilsh plans involved in this by him.
@thecricketcouch,
I agree the plan may well have been for MSD to stick around and others going for their shots - it is very likely. But sticking around involves rotating the strike more than dead-batting the balls or leaving them altogether. Just 8 runs from first 24 balls suggest otherwise.
Like I have said in the post too, I agree that Dhoni is a master of chases, but does miscalculate every now and again. And for this occasion of miscalculation, I am not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Govind,
Your first sentence itself mentions how fortuitous was India's chase during the end stages. While Raina and Jadeja also deserve their due praise, but I am not willing to take the credit entirely away from Dhoni. He did it well in the last over (with fortune, admittedly) but not so well on the way to the last over! That's my opinion!
Bala,
Can you define 'devilish plans' a little more?
He did it once again, this time it costed us points. it was a tie.
Hello Shridhar, thanks a lot for blogrolling me again, will immediately return the favour. Great to see Cric-Sis still going strong!
Cheers,
Wes :)
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