May 30, 2017 by admin

India beware! Pitches are flat, but rain is always round the corner…

London, May 30
Luke Ronchi, the New Zealand blaster, with an expression of bemusement remembers how England got 408 against them at Birmingham in 2015. “England made 400 against us and really, we didn’t think they’d make 400,” he says.
No one thought England would make 400 in a One-day match ever. England’s conditions discourage risk. The ball swings in the air and darts off the track. Stodginess is valued more than adventurism. There always were more Boycotts and Athertons than the Bothams and Morgans in English cricket.
Safer to drive
But, suddenly, over the last few years, it became safer to play attacking shots in England. The pitches became easier to bat on. Batsmen found that they could play powerful drives through the line of the ball without much worry.
On June 9, 2015, in the match Ronchi was talking about, England got 400 in an ODI for the first time; three days later, New Zealand made 398 and England got to 365; five days further on, England chased down New Zealand’s 349 in just 44 overs. Then, last year against Pakistan, England piled up 444 against Pakistan at Nottingham.
These are seriously huge scores. They would never have been achieved in the old England pitches, with the old England tactics. These batting feats were made possible by tracks that had had the sting taken out of them, and batsmen who were fearless.
After England were knocked out of the 2015 World Cup in the group stage, they decided to change. Stodginess was discarded, adventurism embraced. For this to work, the pitches had to be made flatter, dryer, more bereft of grass. Since the World Cup, there have been 25 300-plus scores in England. This is a massive change from old England.
Nasty surprises
All this would sound like music to Indian ears — India’s batsmen, after all, are reared on the kind of wickets which England is preparing these days. But there’s a catch — a variable that is wild and volatile. It’s the English weather. Its famous unpredictability can’t be controlled. A spell of dry weather raises the temperatures and makes it easier to bat; the first drops of rain, the moisture in the air, can change the conditions in a flash.
“Anything is possible,” says Ronchi. “It depends on the wickets, the conditions. It might start raining a little bit, it might remain dry. For instance, you don’t want to be chasing against India if the wicket is dry,” he adds. But if there’s been a spell of rain, they’d not mind anything at all, for New Zealand possess very good pacemen.
Conditions change
Today, early during the Indian nets session, when the pitch had some juice, the ball moved and beat the batsmen on occasion. But when, after some sun, the wicket dried, the batsmen were much more comfortable —they were able to drive without fear.
At one time, Mahendra Singh Dhoni slashed very hard at the ball — off his bat, it flew at a catchable height through the second slip area. To egg on the bowler, a club cricketer from London, Dhoni said: “Oh, that was a catch, it would have carried to someone in the slips!”
But the bowler knew Dhoni said this only to encourage him to bowl with greater energy and strength. “How often do you see men in the slips in One-day cricket?” laughed the bowler, Gursharan Singh Gulshan, later. Not too often, but don’t rule them out completely. The fans want batting fireworks, the pitch curators have dried up the wickets, leading to a torrent of runs. But one spell of rain and their best laid plans would go awry.
Tape-ball cricket at Indian nets
London: The Indians used both white and red balls at practice today. Only white balls are going to be used in the Champions Trophy. But these balls have a less-prominent seam, have greater lacquer covering and are relatively smoother and harder — due to these factors, white balls behave differently than the red balls. There are often conflicting claims about how they behave: some cricketers believe the white ball swings more, many others say the red one swings more. Most manufacturers say there’s no real difference between them, apart from the colour.
Today the Indians had brought along red balls, one side covered with tape. This made that side heavier, leading to weight imbalance and greater than usual swing. Batting coach Sanjay Bangar sent down throw-downs to the batsmen with these balls. “We bowled with the regular white balls, which are hard and weren’t swinging much,” said a nets bowler. “The taped balls, of course, were swinging much more.” Swing, clearly, is on the mind of the Indian batting unit. They don’t wish to be caught unprepared.