Life sure is funny, isn’t it? While most batsmen worry about how and when their next run is going to come from, the little champion Sachin Tendulkar is probably wondering when his next century is going to come. Six times this year, he has got in the 90s and failed to get to the three-figure mark. There has been the odd mistake by the umpires that has denied him but on other occasions, it’s he who has got himself out rather than the bowler bowling a beauty and having him dismissed.
With the computer analyst being part of the team squad and thus having a ready record of each and every ball bowled in this series as well as the past, Tendulkar will be able to see for himself what he is doing to be dismissed. While there is understandable anxiety to get to the three-figure mark, which is more to do with temperament, the little champion will also have noticed that he has got out when he is playing off the back foot and that too on the back half of his body. If one takes the nose as the center part of the body and draws an imaginary line straight down, there would be two halves of the body and any batsman who play in the back half, which in a right-hander’s case would be the right side of the nose, is not going to be in full control of the shot.
The hands will be cramped for room and the eyes will not be on top of the ball and there won’t be the control that is required to play the ball in the direction it is intended to, and so more likely, there will be an inside edge onto the stumps or an outside nick to the wicketkeeper. Rahul Dravid too, when he is in trouble, is out when he is playing in the wrong half of his body. The little champion’s game is based on the front foot, and when he is hitting it off the middle of the bat, he is playing it with his eyes on top of the ball as it is on the front half of his body. Even when he hits off the back foot, the contact with the ball is made more in the front half of the body, and that’s how the power comes through as well. He and Rahul Dravid are a delight to talk to about batting, because they know the areas where they may be making a mistake, and so they ask for specific help rather than a general talk about batting, which is more for an under-14 player than an international cricketer.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his deputy Yuvraj have been in tremendous touch, and the comfort-level that they have while batting with each other is clearly seen by the body language, which is relaxed, and there are smiles-a-plenty between them, which tells that the opposition is in trouble. The same cannot be said of this Pakistani team, for quite clearly, not everybody is pulling in the same direction.
A team that tries to show that the others in the team are making mistakes will never be a united one, and the sarcastic and ironic cheers that the Pakistani bowlers have for their teammates when there is a misfield or dropped catch, is a clear indicator that it is each one for himself. With the Test series starting within three days of the last one-dayer, India will do well to get the psychological advantage by ensuring that Pakistan are shut out in the Jaipur game too.
