Free sweets

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crookers

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Free sweets

I would like to hear views on giving free runs in close matches as we saw in tonights test and has become an accepted practice.

I for one dont like it and believe it actually releases the pressure on the primary partner and allows him to score at ease. I can understand the process in one day games but in test match cricket on a 5th day wearing pitch I believe the best and worst batsmen are subject to that unplayable delivery.

I dont have replay technology but would be interested to know how many runs were given to India? To give VVS runs for nothing is a joke in my opinion and I question all that support this approach(coaching staff included) in test cricket.

Would appreciate your input.

GC
 
Re: Free sweets

I can understand your point; however, this tactic is widespread in international cricket, and nearly all the captains use it. It has been this way for years, I can remember Steve Waugh using it in 1999.

If used correctly I think it can save a lot of runs, and still allow you to attack both batsmen.

The theory is that if you leave the field up for the regulation batsmen, especially with runs at a premium, then a few 4's can quickly eat up the requried runs. Dropping a few fielders back to stop the 4's, while keeping a few attacking fieldsmen in place ideally allows a balance to be met.

A lot of former captains are against this tactic, but as I said, it is widespread so if it was no good then surely all the captains wouldn't keep doing it.

The trick is to leave a few attacking fieldsmen up in the ring, and drop a few back.

We lost the game, Ponting should have been at 2nd/3rd slip when Laxman got a loopy edge that went for 4 instead of short backward square leg. That was early on in Laxman's innings. But, the captain puts himself where he thinks he can get a wicket, or for a set plan, so sometimes things don't go your way.

Losing Bollinger was a big blow, at the end of the day, we had our chances and we failed to take them.

Lets move on, to the next match starting Saturday.
 
Re: Free sweets

crookers;409896 said:
I would like to hear views on giving free runs in close matches as we saw in tonights test and has become an accepted practice.

I for one dont like it and believe it actually releases the pressure on the primary partner and allows him to score at ease. I can understand the process in one day games but in test match cricket on a 5th day wearing pitch I believe the best and worst batsmen are subject to that unplayable delivery.

I dont have replay technology but would be interested to know how many runs were given to India? To give VVS runs for nothing is a joke in my opinion and I question all that support this approach(coaching staff included) in test cricket.

Would appreciate your input.

GC
Click to expand...

I always get annoyed when I see captains doing this, but I think in the end it's probably the best way to do things.

The one thing I don't get, though, is the situation Australia was in last Test. There was no time restriction whatsoever, so in the end, four singles in an over is just as dangerous as one 4 or two 4s. Sure you could hit two fours every over but it's not a certainty and you may get out trying. But you could stay in and comfortably work around singles, and get 8 runs off two overs instead of one.

It's fine in One Day cricket because time is of the essence, but in that situation I would have liked to have seen a heavily protected off side and have one bowler (maybe Hilfy) bowl a line wide of off stump and make Laxman play into the off side. If you have fielders close in and back on the boundary you can pretty much let through a single at max, but often make sure they are dots. Keep bowling wide of off and he hasn't got a choice but to play unconventionally to score more quickly. Laxman practically got a run a ball by working it around for singles with the occasional 4.

I would then have changed the field completely for Sharma, very attacking and having Johnson especially going in for the kill. Johnson beat the bat so many times and had it chipped up just short of cover, edge just short of slip and bouncer come off the glove just wide of bat-pad. If the field was slightly more attacking them maybe, just maybe, one of those would have gone to hand.

Sharma would also have been looking to play a bit more for runs seeing the spaces in the field to hit, and let's be honest, he's a number 10 batsman... he's not going to give up that opportunity :D

I know it's used widely, but when you still have 90 runs to get, setting a field that gives away potentially a single every ball to the in form, set batsman isn't a good thing when the guy at the other end can stonewall.
 
Re: Free sweets

Agree entirely with your comments and think the pressure value of the dot ball/maiden has been lost at this level.
 
As a further endorsement of the containment approach in this last test,I would suggest that given that Laxman was suffering from severe back spasms would it not have been sensible to keep him at the crease for as long as possible??? Not a great deal of thought went into this IMO.
 
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