``The presence of Sehwag and Dhoni batting on our small grounds is a scary thought,” said Daniel Vettori. That was the old humble approach, another aspect of the mind game. Obviously the New Zealand captain has scored over the Indian off spinner going by events in the two Twenty20 internationals.
It was always on the cards that the Indian team, despite being on a roll, would find the going rather rough in New Zealand, a country in which they have an unenviable record.
But riding on the fact that they are the world champions in the Twenty20 format, they would have fancied their chances in the two games with the hope of tackling the ODIs and the Tests later. However defeats in both the matches must have dented their confidence and it is hoped that this will be a wake-up call for Dhoni and his men.
Small grounds, like small targets, can pose a tricky situation. The temptation is there for the batsmen to try and hit every ball for a four or six. And in the Indian side there are many who are naturally attacking batsmen, who play the lofted shots freely. The flip side of this is that the batsmen can get carried away for such adventurous batting always carries an element of risk especially in swinging, swirling conditions. It is one thing to adopt such tactics in the sub continent, quite another in New Zealand. There is always scope for the miscued hit and this is what happened at Christchurch and Wellington.
Just consider what happened in Christchurch. Ten sixes in the first ten overs make for great dramatic effect but not when the scoreboard reads 82 for five.
At Wellington the Indian batsmen seemed confused as to what strategy to adopt and fared even worse. Totals of 162 and 149 were always going to be difficult, if not impossible, to defend. It is to the credit of the bowlers that they kept interest in the first match alive for some time and maintained the interest in the second match till the last over.
Here again, interestingly enough it is the spinners who have kept India in the fight and not the seam bowlers. Harbhajan Singh has been marvelous as successive figures of 4-0-19-1 and 4-0-15-1 will testify. Rookie left armer Ravindra Jadeja also troubled the Kiwi batsmen at Wellington.
But the pace bowling department with the exception of Zaheer Khan has been a major disappointment. Irfan Pathan in particular seems low on confidence, his double strike at Wellington notwithstanding. The New Zealanders had just to play out the few overs of spin carefully and then there were runs aplenty to be had against the pace bowlers.
Certainly the home team’s batsmen have shown a more methodical approach than the Indians, getting the singles and twos as much as the fours and sixes and in Brendon McCullum they have a proven match winner. Mix-and-match is always a better strategy than mindless heaves. The bowling too has been steady and easy runs cannot be had off them as the Indian batsmen have discovered much to their dismay.
Daniel Vettori besides leading his team admirably has been New Zealand’s answer to Harbhajan Singh even to the point that their figures are almost similar.
As I said if these defeats serve as a wake-up call, India could still do well in the sterner tests ahead. But much more hard work, dedication and determination must be shown against opponents whose confidence level must be high even as the Indians must be sorely disappointed.
