If truth be told, I do not want to analyze India's CB Series triumph. I just want to enjoy it. I want to write an ode to my favorite cricketer - Sachin Tendulkar. I have waited for a long time since that fateful sand-storm in Sharjah to boast the fact that Sachin does deliver when it matters. I have argued many a hour with fellow cricket crazies that Sachin does not seem to score when it matters because "whenever he scores cricket seems to be too simple a game to matter at all". However there have always been doubters and I am sure there will be a few still lingering around with stats and sarcasm waiting to pounce after Sachin's next cheap dismissal. I would request such souls to cast away their cynicism and rejoice in a true master of the art that is batsmanship.
Unfortunately, my critical urge takes over at this very moment and I need to lay aside my art appreciation and look at the crucial difference between India and Australia especially in the finals of the CB series. As I admitted in my last post, I was surprised Dhoni played Piyush Chawla at Sydney but it was a punt taken on pure cricketing logic. He deserves a lot of praise for his punt to play Chawla and open the bowling with Praveen Kumar. Brisbane threw up new challenges to Dhoni while choosing the final playing eleven. Ishant was iffy and Sachin was struggling with his groin strain. Again Dhoni made the call based on pure cricketing logic.
No captain must risk a fast bowler in an ODI. If he breaks down, the game is lost then and there. The captain loses the tactical advantage of playing 5 frontline bowlers if one of them breaks down. It does not matter if they go for runs but breaking down is a totally different story. It upsets the captain's rhythm, the team's rhythm and results in a scramble on the field to finish 50 overs. Dhoni was too smart to risk Ishant Sharma. He called up Sreesanth. Sachin was a different matter because batting is a different matter. A batsman can play at 70-80 % fitness especially when he is in form and the captain does not want to risk upsetting his top order. And if that batsman is Sachin, the captain does think twice before replacing him when he has scripted the side's last win.
The final and biggest decision Dhoni had to make and the one that eventually was the difference between the two captains was Piyush Chawla's inclusion. There was a lot of talk about the bounce and carry at the Gabba and Ponting fell for it. He replaced Hogg with Clark and 2 overs into the Indian batting, I remarked to my friend that it was a wrong move. The first two overs proved the slow nature of the wicket as well as the low bounce. Eventually, Ponting must have realised his error when he used Michael Clarke and Symonds to bowl more than 10 overs between them. When Yuvraj got going, Ponting must have definitely been ruing the fact that he hadn't given Hogg his last hurrah at the Gabba. Again, Dhoni proved the smarter captain. He made the call to play the leggie especially since the Gabba is a venue where Warne has enjoyed a lot of success in ODI's. This fact makes Ponting look more stupid leaving out Hogg who is a wrist spinner too.
One needn't look too far to see why Dhoni has been making the right calls on team selection than Ponting. The reason is Dhoni is a captain in form. He is at the top of his own game which allows him the clear head to make calls before and during the game. Ponting on the other hand has struggled for form throughout the summer. It has affected his captaincy and it has had a telling effect on the result of the ODI series. In the past I have seen Australia win a few series just because their captain was in top form. He seemed to magically pull them out of trouble from his pivotal number three position. Now, we can look back and realize how important a captain's form is to his captaincy.
Dhoni has always down-played the value of good captaincy. He has always maintained that captains are made to look good when their charges return the trust the captain places in them. However, when you contrast the captains' decisions in the finals of the CB series, you do realize that a captain does make some sound choices and some unsound ones irrespective of how these choices pan out. Moreover, the soundness of a captain's choices are mirrored in the captain's own performance and form.
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