Flawed Strategy

Wed, Apr 11, '07

by DANIEL SINGH

It would be grossly unfair to lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of captain Brian Lara for the West Indies poor showing in the Super Eights segment of the 2007 World Cup.

But there is no doubt that his captaincy leaves more questions than answers. And following the West Indies most recent defeat against South Africa, cricinfo.com, in its report on the match, puts it this way:

"The game will also be remembered for some surprising choices from Brian Lara. Jerome Taylor continued to miss out, Marlon Samuels warmed the bench and Kieron Pollard made his ODI debut in a high-stakes game. Devon Smith, the local boy, got his first match of the tournament. If those changes didn't stump you, then the fact that Ian Bradshaw, who has bowled so well with the new ball in the recent past, was kept for the death, and believe it or not, the third powerplay was taken from overs 45-49."

Add that to decisions such as bringing back Dwayne Bravo for two overs (which went for more than 20) at the death against Sri Lanka when he could have turned to Jerome Taylor who at the time had 8 overs for 32 runs; and to not trying Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels in games when runs were being scored freely, then using Smith with the new ball in another game, and a picture of flawed team strategy starts to form.

Even more significantly during this World Cup is that something seems to have gotten into the minds of Benneth King, Lara and company to make them think that the West Indies could win the toss, send the opposition in and chase successfully.

Their most significant win so far in the tournament came in the opening match against Pakistan, in which they batted first after being sent in. They probably would have sent in Pakistan had they wont the toss.

One could argue that they won their next two games in the preliminary round against Zimbabwe and Ireland batting last in both instances. But against Zimbabwe, when the West Indies had won the toss and sent them in, they were shakily positioned at 129 for 4 at one stage chasing 205 for victory.

The West Indies have now surrendered all four of their games so far in the Super Eights. But the one match standing out among those losses is against New Zealand, when they were sent in, made only 177, but were able to peg the Kiwis back at 36 for 2 and then 77 for 3.

One would have thought that after defending so well against Pakistan, losing wickets in the chase against Zimbabwe, bowling well despite losing against New Zealand, and knowing the slowness of the pitches in the second innings, the West Indies would have generally wanted to bat first whenever they win the toss.

Or at least, they would have wanted to try something different by batting first to see if they would fare better.

Yet, with all these signs of vulnerability batting second, the West Indies have continued to send in the opposition after winning the toss––an obvious indication that King and company still believe their strength is in chasing.

So far in the tournament, the West Indies have not batted first by choice at any time. And the one time they have chased comfortably was against Ireland, who had won the toss and batted.

Teams that depend on chasing to win games in One Day Internationals tend to shorten their tail and lengthen their batting. But the West Indies have mostly been choosing to go with just five frontline batsmen, the wicketkeeper and five seamers.

That is, except for two games, when Lendl Simmons was chosen against New Zealand and Kieron Pollard was used against South Africa, both of whom are unproven as batsmen at this level.

In the South Africa game, bringing in Devon Smith did not lengthen the batting, as Marlon Samuels was left out.

Prior to the South Africa game, the averages of the West Indies line-up from number six onwards were 24.10 (Dwayne Bravo), 25.11 (Denesh Ramdin), 15.32 (Dwayne Smith), 7.57 (Jerome Taylor), 2.66 (Darren Powell), and 5.35 (Corey Colleymore) or 12.13 Ian Bradshaw.

The West Indies number six position in Bravo therefore compares rather inferior to most of the other test teams. England’s Andrew Flintoff (32.61) and Australia’s Mike Hussey (58.63), both of whom have been out of form recently, are just two examples

The number 7 in Dwayne Smith needs no comparison with averages. And why he continues to bat ahead of Denesh Ramdin is mysterious, despite the fact that Ramdin has been dismissed softly in his last few innings.

With the five seamers, the West Indies were clearly sending a message that the part time spin of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan will only be used if necessary.

That seems to suggest there was more flexibility in the bowling than in the batting, and that the logical choice should have been to bat first when possible.

Of course a game is not decided on by the toss alone, and sending in the opposition in no way vindicates the batsmen who did not do their job. But the West Indies appear to have fared better in the tournament batting first.

By now, flawed thinking and strategy have become a feature of the dispensation of King and his team. And whatever was the basis for these West Indies strategists to think that their strength was in chasing should now be explained.

But whether or not he will be called to provide an answer is anyone's guess.