As written earlier in ‘The Broadsword versus the Épée’ the heavy bats used by the Indian batsmen proved to be unwieldy in the English conditions. The Indian batters could not hit the ball with the ‘sweet'-spot’ of the bat, as the ball, either:
The Indian bowlers were suddenly exposed to the English batsmen exploiting the conditions and the low scores (by India) by hold their nerve, bat through for hours, freeing their arms at loose deliveries - which showed up in the poor bowling figures.
2 months later, in Indian conditions, the tables have been turned. The lower bounce bamboozled the English who are not used to slower, lower deliveries zipping, scooting to crash into the stumps.
Since it doesn’t seam or swing as much, they found it difficult to play shots off the square. On rare opportunities when they could do so, the slower pace and the even slower outfield allowed the ball to be fielded quickly, frustrating them. They fell into the same trap which felled the Indian batters in England - playing in the ‘V’.
Then was time for the English bowlers to feel the pinch. In the absence of that one inch of seam and/or swing, the Indian batsmen could use brute force and heavy bats to loft the ball at will, without any fear or danger of mistiming the stroke. To top it, the English batsmen never amassed their bowlers enough runs for them to get hit for a few and grin about it.
In essence, the whitewashes will be the norm unless either of the teams adopts to play better at each others’ pitches.
To be fair,
So there are problems with either side and some of the problems like a 40 over country match or absence of rotation policy are not the ones which can be meaningfully tackled by the Players; They require inputs and decisions by their respective cricket boards. For the record, I have very little hope that the administration will manage to pop their collective heads out from wherever they have it buried.
:-P
- seamed just a little more in the English pitches;
- swung jut a little more in the English conditions;
- bounced a good bit on the grassy, green wickets (http://www.stadiumturf.com/cricket_pitch_performance.htm).
The Indian bowlers were suddenly exposed to the English batsmen exploiting the conditions and the low scores (by India) by hold their nerve, bat through for hours, freeing their arms at loose deliveries - which showed up in the poor bowling figures.
2 months later, in Indian conditions, the tables have been turned. The lower bounce bamboozled the English who are not used to slower, lower deliveries zipping, scooting to crash into the stumps.
Since it doesn’t seam or swing as much, they found it difficult to play shots off the square. On rare opportunities when they could do so, the slower pace and the even slower outfield allowed the ball to be fielded quickly, frustrating them. They fell into the same trap which felled the Indian batters in England - playing in the ‘V’.
Then was time for the English bowlers to feel the pinch. In the absence of that one inch of seam and/or swing, the Indian batsmen could use brute force and heavy bats to loft the ball at will, without any fear or danger of mistiming the stroke. To top it, the English batsmen never amassed their bowlers enough runs for them to get hit for a few and grin about it.
In essence, the whitewashes will be the norm unless either of the teams adopts to play better at each others’ pitches.
To be fair,
- Indians did look like winning the 1st ODI before rain played spoilsport, in their 3-0 whitewash by England.
(BTW have a look at the scorecard for that match- can you see details of match venue or date? I can’t see any!) - The English never looked good enough in their 5-0 whitewash by India.
- If there were a couple of Test matches tagged along instead of this ‘keep-TV-companies-sweet’ only ODI/T-20 matches series, the English might have salvaged some pride.
- If the English have resorted to playing the 50 over ODI like an extended 40 over county match, the Indians treat a Test match like an elongated 50 over match.
So there are problems with either side and some of the problems like a 40 over country match or absence of rotation policy are not the ones which can be meaningfully tackled by the Players; They require inputs and decisions by their respective cricket boards. For the record, I have very little hope that the administration will manage to pop their collective heads out from wherever they have it buried.
:-P
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