IND vs WI | Takeaways - Jason Holder’s amazing spell of lethality and MS Dhoni’s “weird” innings
On the back of yet another stunning display by the bowling unit, India got the better of West Indies by 125 runs and closed themselves to a semifinal spot. While Jason Holder bowled a spell of grit and class, MS Dhoni’s innings was not a classic Dhoni by any means and left a lot to be desired for.
Holder, the amazing Holding bowler
Watching cricket, at the heart of it, is still about random vocation and celebrating talents. True that the narratives that underdog victories give us or intelligence of certain cricketers make for a great story, but there is nothing closer to the sport's intrinsic appeal than the spectacle of watching the talented cricketers living up to their billing. It is the ultimate platonic ideal and Jason Holder’s first spell epitomises the brilliance he brings to this Windies line-up.
I will go a little back to understand Holder’s first spell in the truest sense. Ahead of the match against New Zealand, Windies bowlers had set themselves for a “short ball” strategy and seeing that going awry after the Australia game, they finally bought to the idea of pitching the ball up which reaped rich dividends - all thanks to Sheldon Cottrell and Jason Holder. However, today, in the game against India at Old Trafford - no matter the devastating spell by Kemar Roach - the first 30 balls unleashed by the Windies skipper stood out for more reasons than one.Â
Even though India’s strategy revolves around starting slow, Holder’s first two overs were maidens today. So much so that, his first five overs yielded only five runs and the only logical reason that could be attributed for the same is he landed most of the balls on the good length and didn’t deviate from the fourth stump line. Considering the ball was moving in more often than not, he denied the Indian batting duo any room for comfort.Â
At the end of his spell, he had both Rahul and Kohli in his bag with the simple plan of letting the ball move in a bit and confusing the batsman to either drive or defend. Kohli’s dismissal also attributed to a simple change in plan as Holder kept it short and imparted pretty less bounce which resulted in the pull not being in control. One will take a spell of 2/33 in 10 overs any day and Holder should be proud of what he contributed to the team’s cause.
Understanding MS Dhoni’s innings
Of course, the 56-run stay had the classic Dhoni finish, with a six sailing over the square leg on the last delivery of India’s innings, but the way it was accumulated left many scratching their heads. Was it actually an innings good in the context of the game? Or did the strategy cost India a 300-run base after being wonderfully set up for it by Virat Kohli and KL Rahul?Â
The answer can never be definite but the approach can have a serious debate. It is understandable that Dhoni is not the same batsman who took Muttiah Muralitharan to cleaners or was having a field day against Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, but extra cautious approach against the spinners like Fabien Allen defies logic. If he would have thought, on a two-paced wicket, the slow left-armer was a threat, then why was he holding back against Carlos Brathwaite Sheldon Cottrell and Kemar Roach? Let’s be honest - they were not being as threatening with their last spells as they were in the beginning.
The former Indian skipper, for sure, could have accelerated a bit early and when Hardik Pandya was going strong at the other end, his responsibility should have been to hit a few by himself. Then again, sitting on the fence, one can say it was his strategy and he had an obvious target in his mind, but how much of it was right, could never be answered.Â
Windies' "Hopes" fade away
With all due respect to Chris Gayle’s 10,000-plus ODI runs, Shai Hope is probably the most complete ODI batsman in the Windies side and the way he constructs an innings is quite anti-Caribbean. His strike rotation has always been problematic, otherwise, how would you defend a 75.53 SR in the time of slam-bang cricket. To go with his inability to cut loose, Hope has also curbed his instinct of scoring ugly runs for the team, which meant either there is a fifty or a one-digit score to his name.
Another problem that has encrypted into Hope’s repotiere is inconsistency. Consider this World Cup alone, and you will have a brief idea of how inconsistent his batting performances have been. In the seven matches so far, he has a 96 and a 68, but apart from those two innings, he's combined to score a total of 28 runs. With Chris Gayle blowing hot and cold, this has definitely not helped the cause.Â
His mode of dismissals throughout the tournament also brought in a familiar problem to the fore. Hope, a brilliant player to watch when driving off the front foot, has suffered a lot of problems against balls that dart back into him after pitching and Shami exploited that perfectly. After bowling three short of a good length delivery, Shami bowled a fuller delivery that, according to Cricviz, deviated 2.2° off the pitch and snuck through Hope's defences. By exposing his weakness in such a way, Hope is only bringing more problems to his batting for future games.