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T20 World Cup: India misread the conditions and waited for things to happen
England captain Jos Buttler read the conditions superbly and cleverly changed his tactics accordingly
Indian captain Rohit Sharma (left) shakes hands with England' skipper Jos Buttler after the game. — AFP
The second T20 World Cup semifinal turned out to be a stunning anti-climax. India stepped on to the Adelaide ground as marginal favourites, and walked off crestfallen, battered, bruised, defeated.
The toss didn’t play a crucial role, as many have suggested. England captain Jos Buttler called correctly, but this was a small advantage — if at all. Rohit Sharma said before the Indian innings started that he would have opted to bat in any case.
So, why did India flop?
Buttler read the conditions superbly and cleverly changed his tactics accordingly. The pitch was full of runs he had sensed. Seeing the apprehensive approach of the Indian top-order batsmen, he squeezed in crucial overs from spinners Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone early, put pressure on the batsmen, with rapid changes and a semi-attacking field, throwing the gauntlet at batsmen to take risks.They didn’t and the Powerplay went in England’s favour.
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After losing KL Rahul early, and with Rohit struggling for timing and touch, the pressure started building up on India. Kohli settled in smartly, looking in fine nick but Suryakumar Yadav’s cheap dismissal put the batting under duress again.
The partnership between Kohli and Pandya rescued the innings from the doldrums. But as the innings reached completion, it was clear that India had misread the conditions and miscalculated their game plan. The pitch was flat and worth 190-200 runs if the approach had been appropriately positive from the start. India, in keeping with the trend of the tournament rather than how conditions were in Adelaide on Thursday, looked like they wanted to somehow get 160-170 to put England to test.
The flaw in such thinking became evident when England batted. In complete contrast to India, Buttler and Alex Hales shunned the conservative approach, both going hammer and tongs from the start. Scoring at 10 runs an over, England had more than a third of the runs needed, and lost no wickets when the Powerplay ended. By this time, the Indian team were in total disarray, with skipper Rohit looking hapless, turning to one bowler then the next for a breakthrough which never came.
Bottomline:
> England had shown more dynamic tactics, adapted skill sets to the conditions and match situations better, shown greater desire.
> India were bereft of strategy and energy, waiting for things to happen, rather than make them happen and were left to gather the pieces of a campaign which began in rousing style but sadly ended in disaster.
Ayaz Memon is an Indian sports writer and commentator
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