IND vs BAN | Takeaways - India’s course correction and Hardik Pandya’s Yuvraj moment

07/02/2019

Jasprit Bumrah bowled two perfect yorkers to bundle Bangladesh out for 286 and helped India reach the semifinals with one game to go. While India learnt their lessons from Sunday's heartbreak, Hardik Pandya also ensured that he is India’s silent assassin so far and is all set to continue further.

How India’s biggest problem a couple of nights ago came back to their aid

For the uninformed, the match between India and Bangladesh was played on the same surface as that of India-England and as far as the change in behaviour goes, there was hardly any marked difference. Beyond the surface mechanics, the other important factor which contributed to India’s loss in the last game was the short boundary from the Pavilion End as the wide deliveries were dispatched with effortless ease from that side.

With the wicket behaving in the exact manner as it did a couple of nights ago, Indian openers had their plans sort out and instead of their tried and tested formula of starting slow, they broke the shackle the very first moment the ball landed outside the off stump. The plan was simple as the ball could easily be smashed over extra cover from that end and if the ball was on the stump line, it became extremely difficult to slog or pull.

In the very first over, Mashrafe Mortaza bowled a short ball outside the off stump which Rohit pulled it over deep square leg. In a moment, it also seemed like Bangladesh wanted to exploit that by purposefully keeping the ball a little wide and filling the leg-side, but that went awry as Tamim Iqbal dropped a sitter to give Rohit a reprieve. In the following over, When Mohammed Saifuddin landed another delivery a little wide of the off stump, Rohit creamed it over extra cover for another six. All seemed a part of a larger plan on which India was operating but once the wicket slowed down, they found the boundaries hard to come by and understandably why!

While the openers had learnt their lesson, bowlers also made their way up as Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal, especially, ensured that he didn’t give any leeway to the Bangladeshi batsmen. Tamim Iqbal was pushed back by the bouncers and from that moment on, India didn’t give away any chance to bowl outside the off stump. Probably a kind of redemption for India.

Soumya Sarkar’s adaptability in crunch situations

Adding to the easiness of the surface during India’s batting, the Indian opening duo should also thank the stars for the way they were treated by the Bangladeshi bowlers. The lack of pace by the Bangladeshi bowlers - who relied mostly on the off-cutters and odd seaming deliveries to have some chances against India - was also a telling factor as that invariably resulted in the opening of the arms was far easier than normal. The pitch was slow and varying the pace was always going to be the key.

While Bangladesh took an eternity to understand the same, Soumya Sarkar was the only bowler who used brain to formulate his strategy. Even though Sarkar hasn’t bowled too much in the tournament, the only match in which he bowled had a brilliant undertone attached to it and that was felt against India. Against Australia, Sarkar accounted for the top three batsmen - Aaron Finch, David Warner, and Usman Khawaja - on a belter of a wicket in Nottingham by just sticking to his normal procedure of imparting pace and bowling as many cross-seam deliveries as much as he could. Today, his slow pace was a blessing in disguise for Bangladesh and Mortaza instantly called his card to roll his arm over.

The fact that Sarkar kept things very simple worked as India became unsettled on the wicket. As per Cricinfo, Sarkar landed most of his deliveries on the back of a length area and bowled into the pitch, which forced the batsmen to take risks against him. Rohit Sharma was also dismissed on a 104.1 kph delivery as he ended up playing too early and skied an easy catch to the cover fielder while trying to hit over him. Inadvertently, Mashrafe Mortaza should ask himself why he didn’t use Sarkar effectively in the past - after all, he had bowled in only 10 innings in his 50-match ODI career.

Hardik Pandya - India’s Yuvraj Singh of 2019

Just ahead of the 2011 World Cup, MS Dhoni and the entire Indian team management had to scratch their heads for a decision - should they include Yuvraj Singh or not - which in hindsight, probably changed the way teams approach their strategy in the ODIs for good. Yuvraj Singh became the heart, soul and so many more of India’s campaign in those two months across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. To say, it was the template for other teams in the evolution of ODI cricket post-IPL era is probably going too far, but the Virat Kohli-led team should be happy that they have Hardik Pandya playing with them and not against them.

It is not that Hardik has taken the world by storm in the tournament but his contribution has gone far deeper than what meets the eye. With Kuldeep Yadav failing to fire like the way he used to in the middle overs, his role has magnified with the ball and how brilliantly has he lived up to the expectations. With eight wickets so far, the Baroda all-rounder has become a force to be reckoned with and coupled with what he has done as a batsman, he has all the rights to scream over the rooftop and widen his chest in pride. After all, he has three scores of above 45 in only seven innings so far.

Today, with the ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami adopted a more cautious approach, but Pandya let himself flow and tried to go for wickets instead of containing runs. The uncomplicated approach resulted in the free flow of the runs being restricted regally and he went for the kill straight away. It worked at times - like he did today - and it didn’t at other times, but one thing is for sure that he played his cricket with a lot of heart and from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.