The Excitement of Dashers vs. the Glory of Logical Thinkers

The Champions Trophy has shown us that one thing remains constant - one-sided games can be as dull as watching paint dry for hours. Despite this, matches like Afghanistan versus England and England versus Australia have provided plenty of excitement and memorable moments for fans to reflect on.

After having seen all three formats now for a length of time, I believe if you’re looking for batting excellence, 50-overs cricket is not the place to look for it unless in some exceptional cases.

Like Josh Inglis versus England, a truly great CT innings, and a partnership with Alex Carey the kind we used to enjoy in the past. Where runs are being scored in third gear but it’s still walking on a tight rope. A wickets falls and the match is over and there’s so much to lose considering the short sharp nature of the tournament one of its highlights, actually.

In run chases of such kinds, you see batting excellence not when you are batting first and reaching scores of 250-300, that’s when a batter is not pushed to dig deep or the bowler to get wickets. That’s when excellence takes a back seat.

A chase of this kind, when a batter almost single-handedly runs down a big target, that’s true great batting, it’s more mental fortitude than skills and power. Anything apart from this is just a good performance, not great.

Success in ODIs for batters does not mean a great deal for this reason, for bowlers are not desperately trying to stop you from getting a hundred, they are focused on the team run rate. There have been many hundreds in ODIs scored in a way that has actually helped the bowling team win.

Joe Root almost played a great one-day innings in that run chase against Afghanistan; it was a single-handed effort to try and take his team over the line with a lot hinging on the game.

One big story for me has been Afghanistan, a team that’s making crazy progress at the international level. The shorter the format, easier it is for weaker teams to challenge the stronger teams, isn’t it?

Afghanistan have beaten England twice in ICC tournaments in a longer format. This shows their amazing growth, especially their batters who are now getting the big hundreds, like the 177 by Najeeb Zadran v England.

That ICC tournaments of late have been played in India, US, the West Indies, and now Pakistan has helped Afghanistan on the conditions front. Their real test will come when the ICC events move to places like South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand.

They will find those conditions unsuitable for their natural style of playing cricket. But they must be given continuous exposure and that will get them to be proficient in all conditions to reach the final rounds wherever the event is held, especially when senior teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies are on the decline.

By the way, what’s happened to England?

It was like watching a team playing in Zombieland. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching England in Tests under the leadership of Ben Stokes. When they came to India recently and lost the series… the scoreline does not reveal how often they got under India’s skin during the course of the series.

Bazball is a smart idea in Test cricket with the field set to get a batter out and not to prevent him from hitting boundaries. So, when a batter counterattacks, it sets the cat among the pigeons.

In limited overs cricket, the bowlers are intent on stopping a batter from scoring quickly so Bazball is not an out-of-the-box idea that will work.

After watching this CT, I have realised that the template of common sense is the best one to adopt for consistent success. It frustrates me to see batters trying to hit every ball for a boundary when the target is only 250, when 4-5 singles will do with the odd unexpected boundary. Why gift your wicket away trying to hit a six and offer the bowling team a chance to come back into the game?

The team that plays in the template of common sense will win this CT and the next World Cup, not the team that’s committed to playing dashing cricket. It’s only for this reason that MS Dhoni has two 50 overs world titles to his name. The sooner the world catches up to this better it is for them.

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