India blundered in choosing three seamers

In the anguish over the defeat at Nagpur, South Africa's sterling fightback from a near-impossible situation to win the match cannot be undermined

India blundered in choosing three seamers

In the anguish over the defeat at Nagpur, South Africa's sterling fightback from a near-impossible situation to win the match cannot be undermined. But with the benefit of hindsight, there were some areas where India's tactics were suspect.

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. pic/getty images

Composition of the team
The VCA pitch was not the belter it may have appeared when Sachin Tendulkar and Viru Sehwag were putting on 142 runs at almost eight runs an over. As the day progressed, the track got slower, which made spinners more useful than fast bowlers ufffd barring the redoubtable Dale Steyn and Zaheer Khan.

Choosing three seamers instead of two-pacers and two spinners was flawed on more than one count. The South Africans are known as better players of fast-medium than slow bowling, and Smith must have heaved a sigh of relief that Dhoni kept R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla out of the playing XI.

Moreover, in playing both Nehra and Munaf in conditions not entirely suited to pace bowling means handicapping the team's fielding standards. Neither of these two bowlers is known for athleticism, and in a tight match like this, even 10-12 runs make the difference between victory and defeat.

Ironically, South Africa went in with two specialist spinners in Johan Botha and Robin Peterson. Though Steyn was the destroyer-in-chief, he could only be effective because Botha and Co had put the brakes on India's rampaging run rate, compelling the senseless hitting in which nine wickets fell for 29 runs. The South African captain had clearly read the pitch better than Dhoni.

Muffing up the batting Power Plays
Most teams have still to come to terms with how best to exploit the batting Power Plays, but India perhaps have been the worst. The only tactic they have shown yet is reckless and wanton hitting, which has boomeranged on them.

This was the second time in the tournament when the team fell short of the expected total because the batsmen simply did not approach the Power Play with any sense, nor were quick-witted enough to correct the course quickly when things started going awry.

Against England in the tied match too, India folded up in double quick time for 338 when it seemed at one stage that 360 was distinctly possible. Against South Africa even 400 seemed possible till the openers were batting, but surely 350 even when Tendulkar and Gambhir were reined in by the South African spinners.

As it happened, in trying to reach 375, India not only failed to reach 300, but didn't modify strategy when the wickets of Pathan, Yuvraj and Kohli fell to aim for 320-325. Had the remaining overs been played out sensibly for a modest quota of runs, India could still have put the match beyond their opponents.

Dhoni advised his batsmen after the match that it was more important to play for the country than the crowds. Alas, that came too late.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
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Choosing Nehra over Harbhajan for final over
Dhoni chose convention over immediate form when the match reached its heady climax. With 13 runs needed from the last over, he ignored Harbhajan, his second best bowler on the day after Zaheer, and settled for Nehra, whose track record is not bad at all, but had looked loose in this match. By contrast Harbhajan, who had had a very modest tournament as yet, had come into his own, picking up three wickets. His confidence restored, the situation begged for him to be thrown the ball for the final over.u00a0

Remember that the pitch was 99 overs old showing wear, tear and turn, and the batsman on strike was a left-hander, Robin Peterson, for whom the difficulty quotient in playing an off-spinner ufffd given the bowlers' footmarks ufffd would have been greater.

Intriguingly, in this World Cup captains have readily opened the bowling with slow bowlers, but have been reluctant to bowl them in the death overs ufffd more particularly the last two or three of the innings. The mauling that Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal received at the hands of Mike Hussey bowling the last over in a recent one-day game could perhaps be haunting international captains.

Dhoni, renowned for being a risk-taker, went conservative and perhaps paid the price.