Yuvraj steals the show again

The unbeaten 138 at Rajkot was pretty special, but Yuvraj Singh surpassed that with a sensational 118 at Indore. Like many of his best knocks, this one too came in a crisis, with India shipping water at 29 for 3. Such was the freedom with which he and Gautam Gambhir batted though that the scoring rate was back over five by the end of the 22nd over.

Stuart Broad had done the early damage with clever use of the seam and changes of pace, but Yuvraj drove and pulled with panache. Once again, England's bowlers were guilty of bowling too full or too short to him, and when they got it right, he improvised with the confidence of a man who's discovered that he's striking the ball as well as he ever has. To then follow up with 4 for 28 was to really stretch the boundaries of incredulity.

Gambhir contributed an invaluable 70 and was an equal partner in a vital 134-run partnership. He has now scored more than 1000 runs for the year at an average of 47 and given the team a welcome selection headache if and when Sachin Tendulkar returns from injury.

Yusuf Pathan smacked a 29-ball half-century just for good measure, including two mammoth sixes off Steve Harmison in the final over. Pathan made a name for himself with his big hitting during the IPL and English bowlers will soon learn that bowling length to him is equivalent to walking around with Flog-me plastered on the shirt. 

Given how much experience English cricketers have at the limited-overs version of the game, it's astonishing how limited and naive they continue to be against even half-decent sides. Monday's game encapsulated England's one-day woes. Like the gambler who stakes all on one turn at the Roulette wheel, England put all their faith into the Power Play that the batting side gets to choose. There was only one problem. By the time Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff signalled for it, the scoreboard was showing a dismal 124 for 3 in 32 overs, simply unacceptable when you're chasing 293 for victory.

England scored at 12 an over in that five-over stretch, with Flintoff clearing the short boundaries thrice in Harbhajan Singh's penultimate over. Even after such rousing hitting though, the required rate was well over eight, and the game turned as soon as Yuvraj returned to bowl the final over of a fine spell. Having had so much success striking the ball with the straight bat, Flintoff went for the ugly smear across the line and was plumb in front. Three balls later, Yuvraj got one past the gap between Pietersen's bat and pad. Game over, though there was still time for Virender Sehwag to redeem his batting failure with three quick wickets.

England's numbers against Yuvraj and Harbhajan offer the best insight into their travails. They played out 79 dot balls against the two, with little attempt at improvisation or cute deflections. It's surely not asking too much of international batsmen to work the part-time spinner away for four or five singles an over.

And while the opening combination of Ian Bell and Matt Prior may have some value in bowler-friendly conditions, they appear ill-equipped to career along at a run a ball, mandatory in Indian conditions when the Power Play is in place. If England are to challenge India at all, Flintoff or Pietersen has to open. A promotion for Ravi Bopara wouldn't go amiss either.

Keeping wickets in hand for a final assault might work in English conditions, and that too not all the time, but in India, the softer ball is much harder to whack away, especially when the spinners take all the pace off it. Well begun is more than half the job done, and until England realise that, this series will continue to be one-way traffic.

Comments

[rajesh]

england have only seen yuvi,very soon they will get a taste of viru, sachin, gauti, raina, mahi and pathan. i guess the time is come for india to bully england/ austratia and southafrica in the criket field. we have been hammered by these teams over the years and i am so happy to live in this generation.

[Punit]

Thanks, Dileep. Mail me KP's mobile, would you? I seem to have misplaced it. :-)

[Dileep]

Answer for Punit: Your guess is as good as mine! Best ask Moores and Pietersen. Playing Swann tomorrow will at least be a small step in the right direction.

[Punit]

Swaminathan - I guess this is where we disagree then. If anything, India's past play over-relied on individual brilliance at the cost of discipline and adherence to a game plan. You can entertain that way, but not win a series. India are getting the mix between discpline and flair right on a more consistent basis now.

Richard - Indians would not give you beef. Most of us would be offended at the thought. Sepoy mutiny - lessons from history.

Calling Yuvraj a flat track bully is pretty daft, but each to their own. We can only talk about the team selected for the current series. Tourists face additional pressures and challenges to the home team. Yuvraj may not be the guy we send on a tour to England or New Zealand, but not picking him for an Indian series wouldn't make sense. Is anyone really trying to underplay his importance in this series? Really?!

I like the fighting talk from England and I'm hoping the rest of the series is more competitive.

Question for Dileep - why is Monty not with the England team?

[Swaminathan]

Yuvraj has only played 36 test innings in 8 years and three test matches in a row once. In a packed middle order, he has struggled to find a role. During the last 8 years, he has only filled in the gap whenever one of Ganguly, Laxman or Tendulkar have not played. The good thing is he is only 27 and has gained the experience and maturity required to fill in an important position in the middle order.

[Richard]

All these Indians giving beef about being one dimensional and only suited to 1 set of conditions. It has only been in the last 3-5 years that India have been able to compete on anything other than a dust bowl in 45 degree heat. All players are obvioulsy suited to their home conditions or similar. The only places similar to India are its neighbours and we don't play there often either. Yuvraj is obvioulsy a legend on flat pitches, when you can't bounce him, with fielding restrictions and with over limits on bowlers, but his test average is 33 for a reason. He has scored 3 Test centuries, in Bangalore, Lahore and Karachi...now who's one dimensional?

[Swaminathan]

Punit - "how do you propose England's players get the experience they need to play Indian conditions if not letting them get out there and play?" Exactly .. you dont ask your best spinner to sit at home doing grocery shopping when he should be out on a cricket field for his country. I am not saying Shah, Bopara and Bell are bad players , but their games dont seem to be verstile enough to succeed under different conditions. They look like overcoached players who are looking up to the dressing room for solutions instead of working it out in the middle. The basic problem I see is the lack of flair and risk taking approach. They would rather play their designated roles and methods rather than risk being skewered by the English media and incurring the wrath of management.

[krishna]

have u seen a bigger flat track bully than yuvraj?Cant play spin,swing or seaming conditions.Boy I cant wait to see him in new zealand in the tests.

[Rob]

neilsrini:

I see you have Fred coming in at both 5 and 7 in your batting order. I LIKE your thinking ! Can we pick KP twice as well....?

[Punit]

Swaminathan - how do you propose England's players get the experience they need to play Indian conditions if not letting them get out there and play?

Plus, while I am an India fan, I think you shouldn't dismiss the threat England pose. All things being equal, India have plenty of ability to win this series, but any team can self-destruct or get side-tracked or complacent. It has often been the mental strength that fails in Indian teams of old. I hope we have overcome this, but it doesn't happen overnight.

I also think you have underestimated Shah, Bopara, Bell and Collingwood, as well as Broad. All are potential match winners. Collingwood in particular is currently out of form and I think he needs a rest. A genuine rest - not a banishment. I get the impression he's burned out. Broad is, to my mind, as promising as Ishant - and far better with the bat -- a match-winning quality. The tour may provide "tough conditions" but every tour is tough. India are on a high after beating the Aussies. England are on a low after the Stanford farce and the ECB's idiocy over the IPL.

[Swaminathan]

If only England could select Yuvraj into their eleven. In these days of auctions, maybe with the right price, BCCI might be willing to let him go. Seriously, the problem with any combination England can throw up is the absence of class and matchwinners apart from Flintoff and Pieterson. Shah, Bopara, Bell, Collingwood are good in English conditions but not versatile enough to succeed everywhere. The inability to manoevre the ball during the middle overs is a problem in Indian conditions. When you cant blast the ball out of the park, you need a plan B and the current English middle order doesnt have it.

[neilsrini]

VIJAY that side you name lacks patting power and lacks a spinner of any merit. If England are do anything they have to play Swann who can also hit a bit.

They need to get rid of Ian Bell.
1.Shah
2.Prior
3.Colly
4.KP
5.Flintoff
6.Bopara
7.Flintoff
8.Swann
9.Broad
10.Sidebottom
11.Anderson

even still there are only two men who look like they can do what they want with the Indian bowling and that is KP and Fred, the rest are just too inexperienced for this kind of level in a new country.

[Vijay K Ashok]

England might do well against India with the following line-up
1.Luke Wright
2.Ian Bell
3.KP
4.Collingwood
5.Flintoff
6.Bopara/Shah
7.Prior
8.Patel
9.Broad
10.Sidebottom
11.Anderson

Bell was the leading run-scorer in last year's 7 match one-day series between the two teams.He is ideally suited to No.3 position,i believe but England has no other choice.What do you feel,Dileep?

[neilsrini]

This is a fantastic example of how good an ODI player Yuvraj is. Awesome.

But the fact remains that we haven't seen England's two best spinners of the tour yet. They've gone and left the best spinner in England sitting at home in Yorkshire (Adil Rashid) Swann is yet to play and Panasar will join us for the tests. When/If they play together the average flat track bully that is Yuvraj Singh, will be exposed for the clueless elephant he is against spin.

This is a perfect opportunity to make Yuvraj Singh joint captain of the ODI side and give MS Dhoni a rest before he is either

a. burns out or
b. is dead

by the end of 2008. Don't forget this poor man is expected to play not only these meaningless ODI's but the even more meaningless 20:20 Champions League, followed by one day's rest and a test series. Not to forget keeping, batting and captaining. If anybody thinks that this kind of workload is acceptable for the captain of India they are fools. And if anybody thinks that the captain of India should be allowed to skip a TEST series (as he did in Sri Lanka) then they should go away and watch Major League Baseball.

Give the Kid a rest or we will suffer for it in the long run. There is a reason why the Indian captaincy is called the poison chalice.

[Punit]

I fully agree that Bopara would inflict more damage by moving up the order. However, whatever England do, I don't believe they have a team to beat India right now.