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Journalism of Courage
The wicket charts at this stage of the World Cup bears an uncanny resemblance to the list of most successful bowlers in the tournaments previous subcontinental edition,15 years ago.
For Anil Kumble,leading wicket-taker in 1996,substitute Shahid Afridi,a not-too-dissimilar purveyor of fastish medium-paced inswingers with the odd leg break thrown in. The 96 top ten included three others,more orthodox leg spinners in Paul Strang,Shane Warne and Mushtaq Ahmed.
Major influence
In 96,the spinners continued to wield a major influence into the knockout rounds. Each of the quarterfinals was won by the team with the better spin attack. Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Dharmasena kept England in check; Harper and Jimmy Adams strangled South Africa; Kumble and Venkatapathy Raju pulled things back for India after a blazing start by the Pakistan openers. In the high-scoring encounter at Chennai ,Australia had Shane Warne,who took two for 52,while New Zealands lead spinner was Shane Thomson,who went for 57 in eight overs.
The two best captains in the tournament backed their spinners to the hilt. Arjuna Ranatunga often used his spinners in pressure situations 8211; for example,after 13 expensive overs from his seamers in the final,he never went back to them,and trusted his four tweakers to get through the death overs. The batting all-rounders played a crucial role 8211; India had no clue against Sanath Jayasuriyas round-arm darts in the semifinal,while the Aussies lost three wickets to Aravinda de Silvas loopy off breaks.
For Mark Taylor,Warne was the go-to man,and nowhere was this better illustrated than in the semifinal at Mohali,where the blond Victorian ran through the West Indies middle order when they were on the verge of cruising through. Had dew not played such a big role under lights at Lahore ,Warne might have made it a closer final.
Cautious captains
With history in mind,teams would do well to attack with spin as the tournament wears on.
Far too often,short boundaries and clear-your-front-leg techniques tend to weigh more in a captains mind than his lead spinners ability in crunch situations. Harbhajan Singh,for instance,is often criticised for bowling too defensively,but a spinner is sometimes only as attacking as his captain lets him be.
And through this tournament,MS Dhoni has shown a tendency to retreat when his slow men have the ball his spread-out fields against England,his decision to give Ashish Nehra and not Harbhajan the final over against South Africa despite the spinner having taken three wickets at that point and the seamer none,and possibly his reluctance to field R Ashwin earlier.
Other teams have been similarly cautious 8211; Pakistan have preferred Abdur Rehmans steadiness to Saeed Ajmals guile,Sri Lanka have looked reluctant to field Ajantha Mendis,and Englands selectors opted for the pedestrian Michael Yardy as their spin-bowling all-rounder instead of Samit Patel,who is palpably overweight but boasts an ODI five-for against South Africa.
Refreshingly,the hitherto pace-obsessed Proteas have not just a variety of spinning options but also a captain prepared to use them imaginatively.
Graeme Smith handed Johan Botha the new ball against Chris Gayle and did the same with Robin Peterson against Kevin Pietersen the idea was to attack the oppositions most dangerous batsmen with the ball turning away from the bat,and it succeeded both times.
Imran Tahir has been encouraged to toss it up,and let dip and drift do their thing. Its almost as if Smith,in his final one-day assignment,has become the new Arjuna Ranatunga.
