SJS
Hall of Fame Member
I almost started a new thread on CC titled "Cut the crap . . . shall we?" That starting post was bitterly sarcastic towards the reaction to the very justified criticism of Dhoni's batting in yesterday's game against England. But I didn't. I am in my 70th year and I need to chill 
The reason I was writing that sarcastic thread opener was this.
I saw an article by the Editor in Chief of ESPNCricinfo, Sambit Bal, which was titled "Don't blame Dhoni or the boundary, the better side won".
It had me fuming. Et tu Sambit ?
"Come on Sambit. Being the Editor in Chief of the leading cricket site in our country if not the world, you need to be more circumspect." is what I wanted to write in response to his post. Unfortunately, comments are not allowed on Mr Bal's articles on Cricinfo so let me address him here.
First of all. Its not about blaming Dhoni for the loss. Dhoni never was the God to guarantee a win in every chase for India. Now he is not even the batsman he once was. He was captain "cool cucumber" which added to his once formidable assessment of the pace of the game and his own capability to meet the task at hand is what has seen him see us through so many tough chase situations. But he is not the player he once was and his big hits have clearly deserted him. Not in this World Cup but from some time back. You don't have to argue about it here, just go over his stats for the last couple of years and see the runs scored in over boundaries.
But we digress.
India were clearly chasing a formidable score and it was always going to be tough. Failing to successfully chase 238 would have been disappointing but not a failure difficult to explain and acknowledge. The issue is not that India lost but the manner in which they went about trying to achieve the target.
Fortunately for those who feel Dhoni played in an inexplicable manner, West Indies were today faced with a target almost identical to India's - 338 against 337. West Indies's spirited reply is a stunning rebuke of those who tried to support Dhoni's strange tactics. I can use stronger terms that 'strange' here but its not needed.
I wrote somewhere on CC many long years ago about how stats , particularly cricket stats, can be used and abused in many a way and the same match's stats (or the same cricketers career stats) can be used to prove two completely opposing viewpoints. Stats alone are dangerous in cricket but they are the regular cricket fans main weapon.
So let me put some simple stats here.
Before that a few points made by people about India's innings. It was a bad start. Rohit has to take the blame for he played too slow to start with and it was difficult to catch up despite Dhoni's terrific efforts . . so on and so forth. I am now just going to put stats here and draw your own conclusions.
These are two simple tables of the two run chases - first India chasing 338 and then Windies chasing 339. The situation at the end of every ten overs is given here - the runs remaining to be scored, number of overs remaining, the required run rate and the wickets in hand - all at the end of the 10th, 20th, 30th, 39th and 47th overs.
I use 39th instead of 40th because something else happened at the end of the 39th over - India lost a wicket off the first ball of the 40th over and Dhoni then came into bat. So to be fair to Dhoni I have separated the period before and after his arrival at the crease.
And can be seen, despite the hundreds of protestations to the contrary, the runs remaining to be scored remain more or less the same between the stats for India's chase and that of the Windies. The difference between the required run rate at the end of the first four periods is merely 0.2, NIL, 0.3 and then 0.7 at the end of the 39th over.
The very slight advantage (if one can call it that) in favor of the Windies is blown away by the fact that at every stage they have lost more wickets than India making their task more difficult as the match went on. This is precisely what happened finally. They lost the 8th wicket and suddenly the task became too much for the tail.
But we go ahead of ourselves.
So the situation as for runs scored is very closely aligned but Windies have lost more wickets (6 against India's 3) when Dhoni comes in to bat.
Over the next eight overs (39th to 47th) Windies score 74 runs in 8 overs while India scores merely 55. We now stand at 281 for 5 while Windies have reached 308 for 7.
They now need, in the last three overs, 32 to win at 10.7 while we need a whopping 57 at 19 runs per over. In those eight overs India lost the commanding position they held before Pant got out and Dhoni replaced him.
The only thing in India's favor was they still had 5 wickets in hand. Windies had the tail creeping in. With Dhoni walked in the gap of mere 7 runs that separated India from what Windies managed had climbed to 24 and there were ONLY 3 more overs to go. THAT 24 runs difference meant India now needed a run rate eight per over more than they did at the same stage.
Of course they were into the tail so the moment the next wicket fell, early in the 48th over their cause was doomed. India had blown away their commanding situation at the time of the fall of the 4th wicket.
BUT it does not end here.
Needing a near impossible 19 an over, India still needed to go hell and leather to hit 4's and 6's to get closer.
20-25 an over in a limited overs game is not unheard of. One such over of the next three would mean the other two needed to yield 11 each or so per over. Dhoni might have scored a few runs in those three overs to get close to the score of the batsman who replaced him in the batting order but it was never a desperate do or die batting performance even at that stage.
Of course it was a very tough task at that stage but who was responsible for it?
No Mr Bal, it was not the wicket, not the shorter or longer boundaries, not Rahul and not Rohit. It was the man we have always expected miracles from at this stage even though he is clearly past the use by date.
That is what hurts Indian fans including those who were walking out of the stadium even when two overs were left.
It was a not a loss that caused a 70 years old to feel resentful. It was the manner in which, 'Captain Cool' performed.
The reason I was writing that sarcastic thread opener was this.
I saw an article by the Editor in Chief of ESPNCricinfo, Sambit Bal, which was titled "Don't blame Dhoni or the boundary, the better side won".
It had me fuming. Et tu Sambit ?
"Come on Sambit. Being the Editor in Chief of the leading cricket site in our country if not the world, you need to be more circumspect." is what I wanted to write in response to his post. Unfortunately, comments are not allowed on Mr Bal's articles on Cricinfo so let me address him here.
First of all. Its not about blaming Dhoni for the loss. Dhoni never was the God to guarantee a win in every chase for India. Now he is not even the batsman he once was. He was captain "cool cucumber" which added to his once formidable assessment of the pace of the game and his own capability to meet the task at hand is what has seen him see us through so many tough chase situations. But he is not the player he once was and his big hits have clearly deserted him. Not in this World Cup but from some time back. You don't have to argue about it here, just go over his stats for the last couple of years and see the runs scored in over boundaries.
But we digress.
India were clearly chasing a formidable score and it was always going to be tough. Failing to successfully chase 238 would have been disappointing but not a failure difficult to explain and acknowledge. The issue is not that India lost but the manner in which they went about trying to achieve the target.
Fortunately for those who feel Dhoni played in an inexplicable manner, West Indies were today faced with a target almost identical to India's - 338 against 337. West Indies's spirited reply is a stunning rebuke of those who tried to support Dhoni's strange tactics. I can use stronger terms that 'strange' here but its not needed.
I wrote somewhere on CC many long years ago about how stats , particularly cricket stats, can be used and abused in many a way and the same match's stats (or the same cricketers career stats) can be used to prove two completely opposing viewpoints. Stats alone are dangerous in cricket but they are the regular cricket fans main weapon.
So let me put some simple stats here.
Before that a few points made by people about India's innings. It was a bad start. Rohit has to take the blame for he played too slow to start with and it was difficult to catch up despite Dhoni's terrific efforts . . so on and so forth. I am now just going to put stats here and draw your own conclusions.
These are two simple tables of the two run chases - first India chasing 338 and then Windies chasing 339. The situation at the end of every ten overs is given here - the runs remaining to be scored, number of overs remaining, the required run rate and the wickets in hand - all at the end of the 10th, 20th, 30th, 39th and 47th overs.
I use 39th instead of 40th because something else happened at the end of the 39th over - India lost a wicket off the first ball of the 40th over and Dhoni then came into bat. So to be fair to Dhoni I have separated the period before and after his arrival at the crease.
And can be seen, despite the hundreds of protestations to the contrary, the runs remaining to be scored remain more or less the same between the stats for India's chase and that of the Windies. The difference between the required run rate at the end of the first four periods is merely 0.2, NIL, 0.3 and then 0.7 at the end of the 39th over.
The very slight advantage (if one can call it that) in favor of the Windies is blown away by the fact that at every stage they have lost more wickets than India making their task more difficult as the match went on. This is precisely what happened finally. They lost the 8th wicket and suddenly the task became too much for the tail.
But we go ahead of ourselves.
So the situation as for runs scored is very closely aligned but Windies have lost more wickets (6 against India's 3) when Dhoni comes in to bat.
Over the next eight overs (39th to 47th) Windies score 74 runs in 8 overs while India scores merely 55. We now stand at 281 for 5 while Windies have reached 308 for 7.
They now need, in the last three overs, 32 to win at 10.7 while we need a whopping 57 at 19 runs per over. In those eight overs India lost the commanding position they held before Pant got out and Dhoni replaced him.
The only thing in India's favor was they still had 5 wickets in hand. Windies had the tail creeping in. With Dhoni walked in the gap of mere 7 runs that separated India from what Windies managed had climbed to 24 and there were ONLY 3 more overs to go. THAT 24 runs difference meant India now needed a run rate eight per over more than they did at the same stage.
Of course they were into the tail so the moment the next wicket fell, early in the 48th over their cause was doomed. India had blown away their commanding situation at the time of the fall of the 4th wicket.
BUT it does not end here.
Needing a near impossible 19 an over, India still needed to go hell and leather to hit 4's and 6's to get closer.
20-25 an over in a limited overs game is not unheard of. One such over of the next three would mean the other two needed to yield 11 each or so per over. Dhoni might have scored a few runs in those three overs to get close to the score of the batsman who replaced him in the batting order but it was never a desperate do or die batting performance even at that stage.
Of course it was a very tough task at that stage but who was responsible for it?
No Mr Bal, it was not the wicket, not the shorter or longer boundaries, not Rahul and not Rohit. It was the man we have always expected miracles from at this stage even though he is clearly past the use by date.
That is what hurts Indian fans including those who were walking out of the stadium even when two overs were left.
It was a not a loss that caused a 70 years old to feel resentful. It was the manner in which, 'Captain Cool' performed.
