So India managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory at Manchester. Losing seven wickets in first 25 overs with only 114 runs on the board, the match was almost over for England. Inexplicably skipper Rahul Dravid preferred to play safe rather than go for a kill, removed pacers and employed spinners in tandem. This tactical blunder from Dravid changed the direction of the game altogether.
As the following table will show you, it was pacers who had done most of the damage till that time. English batsmen looked completely out of sort in dealing with the short ball particularly against Ajit Agarkar. The introduction of spinners from both the ends allowed both Bopara and Broad to settle down. The earlier assault by top-order had already ensured that the asking rate was never going to be too much and the two batsmen could play the waiting game. Neither Powar nor Chawla were able to extract any exceptional assistance from the surface, the pair of Bopara and Broad had no problem in defending most of the balls and making use of occasional bad deliveries. As runs started to come in ones and twos, Indian fielders wilted under pressure doing what they know best - fumbling and overthrowing at every possible opportunity, which in turn led to the bowlers getting panicky and soon there was chaos all around in Indian camp.
England at the time of losing seventh wicket
As the following table will show you, it was pacers who had done most of the damage till that time. English batsmen looked completely out of sort in dealing with the short ball particularly against Ajit Agarkar. The introduction of spinners from both the ends allowed both Bopara and Broad to settle down. The earlier assault by top-order had already ensured that the asking rate was never going to be too much and the two batsmen could play the waiting game. Neither Powar nor Chawla were able to extract any exceptional assistance from the surface, the pair of Bopara and Broad had no problem in defending most of the balls and making use of occasional bad deliveries. As runs started to come in ones and twos, Indian fielders wilted under pressure doing what they know best - fumbling and overthrowing at every possible opportunity, which in turn led to the bowlers getting panicky and soon there was chaos all around in Indian camp.
England at the time of losing seventh wicket
Balls Runs Wkts Batsmen out of control
vs Pacers 109 93 5 22 (20%)
vs Spinners 35 17 1 5 (14%)
Dravid’s error becomes even more glaring considering the fact that the pacers had 12 more overs to bowl at that stage - seven for RP Singh, four for Zaheer Khan and one for Ajit Agarkar. Not only Dravid used spinners from both the ends, he also used part-timers like Tendulkar and Yuvraj even at the expense of RP Singh, who was grossly underbowled. This complete lack of faith in your frontline bowlers is just baffling particularly after they had dismissed six top-order batsmen in just 18 overs.
One more wicket at that stage and the series would have been levelled at 2-2 as neither James Anderson nor Monty Panesar has any credentials with the bat. But Dravid’s uninspiring and defensive captaincy drifted the game away from India.
One wonders if Dravid is the right kind of captain for India. He is simply too conventional - more like a captain of 1980s as Kapil Dev observed - always preferring ‘not losing’ to ‘winning’. This approach robbed Indians of a certain win at the Oval. At Manchester it turned the game on its head.
