India Erred In Strategy

Shahid Afridi has acted decisively twice in thisseries. In the Bangalore Test, his bat first set up the game for Pakistan and hefollowed it up with key wickets on the final afternoon. Now he has flattenedIndia in Green Park, Kanpur. He is the man who has made sure Pakistan wouldreturn home undefeated.

When a storm blows, it is difficult to stay on yourfeet. That's what happened with the Indian bowlers. It's not the first time theybowled to Afridi nor was it a rare occasion when he chased them around the parklike a terrier. So what did they learn from the past hidings? Nothing.

Afridi's aerial routes are predictable. He prefers themid-wicket-square leg area, there is this mighty blow over mid-off and he alsocrashes past the cover region. To have third man and fine leg against him issuch a flawed field. If India had learnt anything from the past, these twofielders would have been up in the circle.

In their places, two men should have patrolled the mid-wicket and long-offfence. If he still cleared you, bad luck. At least you would be satisfied youhad a game plan against him.

It is a batsman's mindset that he eyes the free areasin the field. Who knows with the third man and fine leg up in the circle, agambler in Afridi might have taken a chance in those regions. It would havecalled for delicate shots which, let's be fair, is not exactly the way Afridiapproaches his batting.

Another way to bowl to Afridi -- so brilliantly, ifbriefly, illustrated by Zaheer Khan -- is to mix up the pace of your deliveries.A short-pitched ball is also a better option against him. On Friday, if theIndian bowlers did so, at least I didn't see it. I wonder if all those analystsand men with laptops in the dressing room are up to it. Or it is just thatplayers forget their lessons the moment they step on to the field.

Till Afridi kicked up his storm, India might havesensed themselves in the game. They recovered from a poor start throughadmirable Rahul Dravid and hard-working Mohammad Kaif. It wasn't a bad pitch butthe first hour wasn't easy for the batsmen. It was two-paced because of earlymoisture. Sachin Tendulkar got a good ball but the rest didn't have thetechnique to cope up with the conditions.

From a cricketing point of view, Virender Sehwag, M.S.Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh are similar in the way they approach their batting. Theirshots carry enormous power but their footwork is limited. It serves them wellwhen the wicket is flat. It shows them up when the ball is darting around in theair and off the pitch.

If your technique is good, as is the case with Dravid, you would come good inmost conditions. Otherwise, a lot of equations have to fall in your favour foryou to succeed. In our times, we used to call such batsmen 'three-to-five' metreplayers. If you can stop them from coming forward or going back, you would havethem in a bind. And that's essentially because their footwork is absent.

Despite Afridi's heroics, Pakistan still made heavyweather of the target. The way Shoaib Malik and Yousuf Youhana departed, heavinghigh up in the air on the off-side, you cringed with discomfort in your chair.

They must learn to value their runs. If they want toknow how difficult it is to score in international cricket, they just have towalk up and ask Saurav Ganguly! Nobody gives you spare runs. This was the momentwhen they could have completely swamped India. Instead, they showed unnecessarynerves. It doesn't matter which field you are in, it's important that you loveyour work, your craft. You must value it.

I might be old-fashioned but this is the way I viewthis beautiful game. It is not enough that you have won. It is also importantfor you to know how you should have won. For therein lies the seeds of yourimprovement. It is good for you, your team, country and the people who arewatching it.

People ask me how the present Australian team can bebeaten. My answer is simple: you have to bat, bowl and field better than them.That's what a sporting contest is: you have to be better than the other team.

India at the moment is rapidly conceding the ground toPakistan. The ground is slipping fast underneath their feet. In the final hoursof the tour, they are in danger of being submerged by the tide which Afridi andhis ilk have unleashed.

PTI