What's new

Virat Kohli blaming the bowlers - Is it fair?

battler

ODI Debutant
Joined
Dec 8, 2012
Runs
10,243
Kohli in the post match presentation said that he thought India had enough on the board and he trusted the bowlers to do the job.
But looking at how the wicket played out I definitely don't think 320 was par here, it was a 350 wicket.
If Sri lanka are able to chase this with ease so will Australia and England.
Pretty disappointing from kohli, if this is the approach I don't see India qualifying for the semis.
Openers need to be told in no uncertain terms that they need to play more aggressively and maintain the RR above 6 at all times. There is no room for tuk tuk approach in today's flat pitches.
 
Lol at 350 is par. Never.

Just accept that your trundlers are as mediocre as it gets.
 
Kohli will never criticize his favorite Sharma :)

Sharma's innings was poor against Pakistan too but our batting more poor
 
Expect Pakistani batsmen to make trundlers look like Lee, MCGrath, Akram, WAlsh etc. So, yes against a better batting side you need 350+
 
Lol at 350 is par. Never.

Just accept that your trundlers are as mediocre as it gets.

You seen the wicket? it was one of the easiest wicket to bat i have ever seen...Hardly any swing , no reverse swing... no spin at all....Its not fair to blame bowlers here , our batting is to blame , if it was any other team like new zealand or south africa or australia, they wud have made 350 anyway..
 
Maybe he should have blamed his fielders instead. The could have saved quite a few runs. Also sometimes you've got to give to the opposition, Sri Lanka were on it. They should intent by building there innings and applying the pressure on the bowlers. The worked hard and reaped the rewards, made the Indian bowlers make mistakes and cashed in on it.
 
He just wants to defend Rohit and Yuvraj at any cost. Accepting the fact that the target was below bar would result in demand for a change in approach at top order which is not possible for tuk tuks like Rohit.
 
Did you even watch the match today?

Yes I watched it. Bowling looked toothless, just 1 wicket and they chased down 324. SL was never behind the game. It's not like they won by slogging in last 4-5 overs.
 
You seen the wicket? it was one of the easiest wicket to bat i have ever seen...Hardly any swing , no reverse swing... no spin at all....Its not fair to blame bowlers here , our batting is to blame , if it was any other team like new zealand or south africa or australia, they wud have made 350 anyway..

but when I said in the same thing in the match thread you dissaproved it saying 300 is enough for India ;)
 
Kohli will never criticize his favorite Sharma :)

Sharma's innings was poor against Pakistan too but our batting more poor

yes i agree with this. He is far too defensive. india got lucky in pakistan's match that his poor innings didnt cost us the match. he thinks of himself as superman that he will cover it all later on... There are plenty of good batters waiting for their turn in team. This man need to be dropped. Flattest wicket still scores like he is playing im minefields.
 
Its fair but that's what you expect when you chose to drop Ashwin and Shami. They are wicket taking bowlers need to be played ahead of Bumrah. Bumrah may bowl yorkers, slower balls but only works when the batsmen are going after him. He can't get wickets by imposing himself.
 
Can't blame Kohli, Bishop asked him Twice and he said 'credit needs to be given to the opposition'

India bowled well I think, Jadeja and Hardik's bowling cost them
 
but when I said in the same thing in the match thread you dissaproved it saying 300 is enough for India ;)

Yes i was wrong. Overconfident only because we were playing against our favourite team sri lanka....india batting is not up to the mark yet. they tend to take risks in last overs where it is 50-50. i wish we had sehwag or even gambhir...
 
Yes I watched it. Bowling looked toothless, just 1 wicket and they chased down 324. SL was never behind the game. It's not like they won by slogging in last 4-5 overs.

Jadeja was poor today no doubt but I thought the seamers were okay. The wicket literaly had nothing in it, zero seam movement no spin and lush green outfield. It was a batting paradise and that is why SL coasted to an easy win.
 
Sharma scored 78 of 79 balls, why blame him? Blame Yuv who scored 7 of 18 balls despite India being in great position.
 
Kohi is an amazing player but he does favoritism. He criticizes Pujara for playing slow in 'tests' but never utter a word against Sharma :)
 
Beginning to dislike Kohli now over his preference for friends like Rohit and Yuvi.
 
He is partly right coz the bowlers only took one wicket. We are told by Indian standards this is supposedly a brilliant bowling side. I am sure the all time greats must be laughing their heads off:bm!
 
Lol at 350 is par. Never.

Just accept that your trundlers are as mediocre as it gets.

They ran through us like a pack of cards.

Was a super road. Par score. India missed ashwin or a world
Class spinner badly.
 
Fair call 320 is never a walk in the park if the bowlers ball well. Sri Lanka were blown away by South Africa in a similar chase a few days ago.

Jadeja has to be one of the most overrated bowlers in history due to his good record mostly in Asia or against poor batting of spin.

India have decent pacers but should have put faith into Ashwin instead of Pandya today.
 
its their batsmens who are to be blamed. they should ave scored at-least 340
 
Indian bowling wasnt bad at all from what I saw its just sirilanka played remarkably well.
 
its their batsmens who are to be blamed. they should ave scored at-least 340

20 more runs would still have been a comfortable chase. Lanka had 7 wickets and won with an over to spare. They would have just harder an over earlier.
 
Kohli in the post match presentation said that he thought India had enough on the board and he trusted the bowlers to do the job.

Which presentation did you watch?

He said the bowlers did a decent job and that 320 was good enough. Just that the Lankans batted really well, chose their boundary spots and executed their shots well. He repeated this a couple of times - that the Lankans batted really well.

Which is pretty much the truth. Some of the shots played were outrageous and would have been dot balls :azhar2 or wicket deliveries :shezzy to lesser players.
 
Hindsight is such a wonderful thing right, guys?Anyways had they anticipated that this was going to be a better of a pitch they would have gone the ashwin route. But coz they felt that Hardik would provide a bit more with the bat and do OK with the ball. They went with the logical option. It was a bit of a catch 22 situation for the team.

The real disappointment was actually Jadeja. He couldn't provide an iota of control and Kuala Mendis actually played him really well.

Moving forward they will probably go with Ashwin and Shamil me thinks.
 
Which presentation did you watch?

He said the bowlers did a decent job and that 320 was good enough. Just that the Lankans batted really well, chose their boundary spots and executed their shots well. He repeated this a couple of times - that the Lankans batted really well.

Which is pretty much the truth. Some of the shots played were outrageous and would have been dot balls :azhar2 or wicket deliveries :shezzy to lesser players.

From CI

"We felt we had enough on the board, we trusted out bowlers, but Sri Lanka were pretty good. They kept the momentum through the innings, they picked their areas to hit and executed really well," Kohli says
 
The wicket had nothing for Jadeja and SL played him superbly in my opinion. Hardik is the easiest bowler to hit in my opinion. SL had no trouble smacking him outta the park.
 
I think, some days are just not meant to be. If it's not your day then even the most ordinary of task will become a Herculean effort. Edges were flying, 50-50 chances not going in our favour. It happens and it was indeed needed to give us a reality check of how many chinks in armour we have currently.

That being sad, one can't help to be in awe with SL batting. What fearless approach, kept our bowlers under the pump relentlessly. That sweep shot against bumrah's 144 Kph delivery was nothing but gem of a shot.
 
Blame solely goes on slow batting by openers and then on UV/MSD who failed to accelerate.

Scoring just 8 runs an over from 40th over is a crime.

Rohit should get a kick in the rear and should be firmly told that tuk tuk is not acceptable in the first 10 overs. A minimum of 5.5-6 RPO is needed at all points in the match.

Dhawan scored a selfish century. Consuming 130 balls and scoring only 125 is a crime. This is not 2000's era. This is 2017. Good batting units easily chase 300 on a patta.

Blame should go on Indian batsmen. Bowlers bowled relatively well except for Jadeja and Yadav.
 
He didn't blame the bowlers gave credit to the opposition like a class act and moved on. He was careful not to make any negative comment that would impact our bowlers. Dhoni would have tore his bowlers apart if he had been the captain.
 
Yes. The Indian bowlers were trash. Taking just a single wicket while the opposition scores 320 is utterly embarrassing. However, Kohli should make some sort of contribution to the team's cause next time, before blaming others for a defeat.
 
The same mistake..the very same mistake we did in our last tour to Australia...tuk tuk for 40odd overs nd try bang bang in last 5overs eventually felling short by 20-30runs...same mistake in t20 semis...we r xceptional in chasing but sucks to the core in setting up the winning score..dont knw when vl our thinktank fixes dis issue!!seriously disappointed wid ultra defensive opening stand..4.5 rpo in powerplay dat too on a flat pancakes..dat too frm past fricking 2years??!!!!u gotta kidding me!!!!
 
Remember when Arthur is often criticised for calling out his players in public...

;-)
 
Indiaa bowling was alright , brah and bhuvneshwer were awesome but yadav bowled a lot of tripe. Pandey and jadeja were plain parttimers yesterday.
 
Nope it isnt fair. Thats because this is their capability. When the batting supports them, they look a million dollars. But once either of Ashwin and Jadeja get taken to the cleaners, India's bowling attack falls apart under pressure. Their whole philosophy is based on batsmen racking up big scores and the spinners choking the opposition. Their pace attack has improved for sure with the introduction of Bumrah, but if you keep playing mediocre bowlers such as Umesh Yadav, it will crumble more often than not. Its amazing how much confidence the management has shown in these bowlers since the past 3-4 years, yet they continue to churn out mediocre performances. In that time, Pakistan has had a million bowling combinations, and they are on par if not slightly better.
 
India has to start better in the first 10 overs. With the batting depth they have they usually make it up in the last 20 to a par score instead of batting the opposition completely out of the game.
 
Yuvraj lost India the match single handedly,missed at least 6- Hit me for a 6 balls,that cost us the match.Bowlers did not bowl well as well but batting was 25 short
 
Kohli in the post match presentation said that he thought India had enough on the board and he trusted the bowlers to do the job.
But looking at how the wicket played out I definitely don't think 320 was par here, it was a 350 wicket.
If Sri lanka are able to chase this with ease so will Australia and England.
Pretty disappointing from kohli, if this is the approach I don't see India qualifying for the semis.
Openers need to be told in no uncertain terms that they need to play more aggressively and maintain the RR above 6 at all times. There is no room for tuk tuk approach in today's flat pitches.
The way Sri Lanka were batting, they would've chased down 350 with ease. So the fault lies in the bowling.
 
Think most Indian fans know the issue,we are carrying passengers in the team,the reason we won the last CT was it was a new team hungry for success.

Maybe the players are playing according to plan,where they thought 321 would be enough.
 
What happened to Kohli pumping his fists in the batsman's face, his send off's after the batsman gets out?

Cowardly individual who only shows his fake aggression when it suits him but shies away when the chips are down.
 
The entire Indian media and sensible people with cricketing brains are blaming the Indian batting for this loss which is correct.340 was a par score here and one never knows what kind of effect extra 20 odd runs would have made. 320 are VERY gettable in these type of wickets if someone can handle the pressure and Lanka must be congratulated for that.The fact that they got atleast 50+ bonus boundaries of mistimed and lucky escape shots did not help either.Overall people blaming the bowlers need to lea rn basics of cricket first :facepalm:
 
Their score may not be a par score, but their bowling DID let them down - rightly said by Kohli.

Their batsmen put up an competitive total regardless of the situation, you can't blame their batsmen for being undone by good bowling at stages of the innings.

On the contrary, the Indian bowlers never at any stage showed signs of winning it.
 
I have to ask here. When he blamed the bowlers?

Blaming will be a hard word here.

He criticized both the bowlers and batsman.

And criticism is OK.
 
321 seemed more than enough at the half way mark

Sri Lanka just batted beautifully, first Kusal then Mathews; it was a clinical run chase. give credit where it is due

Indian trundlers were exposed yesterday. For some reason they only do well against Pak (but Pak batting is weak right now + our players are mentally weak)

Kohli should have commended Sri Lankan batsmen rather than making excuses or blaming his bowlers
 
321 seemed more than enough at the half way mark

Sri Lanka just batted beautifully, first Kusal then Mathews; it was a clinical run chase. give credit where it is due

Indian trundlers were exposed yesterday. For some reason they only do well against Pak (but Pak batting is weak right now + our players are mentally weak)

Kohli should have commended Sri Lankan batsmen rather than making excuses or blaming his bowlers

.... And one should watch the interview before making a judgement.

He praised twice and didn't even mention the bowlers initially.

But when he was asked again and again, only then he put forwarded that bowlers were not upto the mark. But even then, he praised the Lankan batsman for a third time.

I am not sure what he should have had done else.
 
I have to ask here. When he blamed the bowlers?

Blaming will be a hard word here.

He criticized both the bowlers and batsman.

And criticism is OK.

He said he thought 320 was enough and expected the bowlers to defend it.
He off course did not blame or criticize any bowler in particular.
But with his statements you could generally make out that he held the bowlers more responsible for the loss than the batsmen
 
The only reason everyone thought 320 was par was because we were playing lanka and no one expected them to chase this down. People thought the lankans would hack a few and get out but it did not turn out that way.
I have one question if India were playing Australa or England and if India had got 320 half way through, how many would think that it was a good enough score? Not many I suspect.
On flat pitches 350 is par these days.
 
The way Sri Lanka were batting, they would've chased down 350 with ease. So the fault lies in the bowling.

The bowlers took 1 wicket in 48 overs, sure the score was below par but bowling shouldve been better

Bowlers weren't up to mark. But batting was responsible for losing match. On flat tracks one expects batsman to play out of their skin because its their territory. Bowlers can panic on such tracks. A score of 350+ would not have allowed SL to build innings like they did at initial stage of their innings. They would have gone for more shots and create more opportunities for India.
 
Bowlers weren't up to mark. But batting was responsible for losing match. On flat tracks one expects batsman to play out of their skin because its their territory. Bowlers can panic on such tracks. A score of 350+ would not have allowed SL to build innings like they did at initial stage of their innings. They would have gone for more shots and create more opportunities for India.

Of course batting was responsible, I said score was below par didn't I, we might have won with 350+ score against lanka but this bowling wouldn't have been able to defend 350+ against south africa with the effort like last night, both batting and bowling were responsible but bowling was worse than batting last night
 
Of course batting was responsible, I said score was below par didn't I, we might have won with 350+ score against lanka but this bowling wouldn't have been able to defend 350+ against south africa with the effort like last night, both batting and bowling were responsible but bowling was worse than batting last night

We may have been able to defend 350+ even against SA or Aus. A score of 350+ and bowlers know what they want to do. They have two options now: Try to restrict and let run rate climb and consequently force batsman to take risks. Or Take wickets straightaway if they have ability to do so.. With just 320 on a flat pitch taking wickets is of most importance because score is just above 300 and an acceleration by a single player at the end can get them through.. Can't say about Eng because they bat very deep.
 
Last edited:
We may have been able to defend 350+ even against SA or Aus. A score of 350+ and bowlers know what they want to do. They have two options now: Try to restrict and let run rate climb and consequently force batsman to take risks. Or Take wickets straightaway if they have ability to do so.. With just 320 on a flat pitch taking wickets is of most importance because score is just above 300 and an acceleration by a single player at the end can get them through.. Can't say about Eng because they bat very deep.

Again, we took just 1 wicket in 48 overs, the match wasn't even close, there was never any pressure on lanka, they were playing without tharanga, two wickets were gifted through runnouts, 1 batsman got retired out, lanka's lower order wasn't even required, no way were we defending 350 with the bowling effort last night, bowlers should definitely be blamed more although batting needs to pull up its socks as well
 
You have to give credit to the lankans. they were brilliant in their execution while chasing and didnt let the indian bowlers settle. They kept rotating strike unlike us and didn't play bad shots after consuming dot balls. I don't think indians played that bad to be honest. It was just lanka's day
 
Although India didn´t bowl perfectly either, but it´s so refreshing to see this thread raise a point that I´ve been mentioning again and again since 2015 with regards to India´s batting.

Let me address this point again. The way Sri Lanka yesterday chased down the total is exactly how easily 320 or below totals are chased nowadays, or can be. Nothing extraordinary required, just get a couple of batsmen to get 70s-80s at a run-rate of above five or five and a half, and then have one or two guys in the middle or lower order pull off a quickfire 30 or 40 and you´re comfortably there. Welcome to 2017!

I´m going to stick my neck out and lay the partial blame on the guy upon whom so far no one has: Dhawan. Yes, I´m not going to convince that, on that batting paradise and with seven wickets in hand, 125 off 128 by an opener was an innings as good as was needed. No way, not in 2017. I was very critical of Rohit´s 91 off 120 against Pakistan, but he wasn´t going as slow here and made 78 off 79. So you can give him the benefit of the possibility of him having upped his strike-rate further had he stayed. And please, pardon me the defence of "Had others done the hitting around Dhawan then India would´ve got a bigger total, hence it´s not his fault", because, again, Rohit made 78 off 79, Dhoni 63 off 52, and Jhadav played an increbily crucial cameo of 25 off 13 - without which India wouldn´t even have been able to drag it to the 49th over.

On a tougher pitch, against a great bowling attack, with wickets falling consistently at the other end, yes, a great innings, but yesterday.... Well, a poorly paced innings - as was Rohit´s against Pakistan.
 
Lol India Criticizing Dhawan and Sharma for SR's above 90 whereas Pakistan still has 70's and 80's SR players
 
On Sri Lanka, as I predicted and said that the true Sri Lankan spirit is to fight, and that they exactly did. What a win! A mind-numbing and stunning performance! I cannot enough express the delight at seeing their young talent find its feet at the international level. Cricket needs more and more strong teams.

I hope Pakistan learn a thing or two from them, certainly from their young batsmen, and also that young talent comes through on its own. It needs enough opportunities. You can´t be whining about the lack of new coming talent by selecting the same tried and tested failures for decades and decades. Give them chances for God´s sake!
 
Although India didn´t bowl perfectly either, but it´s so refreshing to see this thread raise a point that I´ve been mentioning again and again since 2015 with regards to India´s batting.

Let me address this point again. The way Sri Lanka yesterday chased down the total is exactly how easily 320 or below totals are chased nowadays, or can be. Nothing extraordinary required, just get a couple of batsmen to get 70s-80s at a run-rate of above five or five and a half, and then have one or two guys in the middle or lower order pull off a quickfire 30 or 40 and you´re comfortably there. Welcome to 2017!

I´m going to stick my neck out and lay the partial blame on the guy upon whom so far no one has: Dhawan. Yes, I´m not going to convince that, on that batting paradise and with seven wickets in hand, 125 off 128 by an opener was an innings as good as was needed. No way, not in 2017. I was very critical of Rohit´s 91 off 120 against Pakistan, but he wasn´t going as slow here and made 78 off 79. So you can give him the benefit of the possibility of him having upped his strike-rate further had he stayed. And please, pardon me the defence of "Had others done the hitting around Dhawan then India would´ve got a bigger total, hence it´s not his fault", because, again, Rohit made 78 off 79, Dhoni 63 off 52, and Jhadav played an increbily crucial cameo of 25 off 13 - without which India wouldn´t even have been able to drag it to the 49th over.

On a tougher pitch, against a great bowling attack, with wickets falling consistently at the other end, yes, a great innings, but yesterday.... Well, a poorly paced innings - as was Rohit´s against Pakistan.

Yes pacing the innings is very important and Indian batsmen can do this without making a drastic change in approach. If the openers want to make a cautious start then fine give them that luxury but once you survive 10 overs you need to up the scoring. This is how it could be done.
Overs 1 - 10 = 40 runs
Overs 10 -40 = 210 runs @ 7 rpo
Overs 40 - 50 = 100 runs @ 10 rpo
Total = 350
India need to take 350 as the new 300. India is such an amazingly consistent batting unit that once they adopt a particular formula of scoring they execute it 9 times out of 10.
Kohli and India make 300-320 in their sleep as their so conditioned to it. They just need to change that figure to 350 and I'm sure they will achieve it without drastically changing their approach.
 
Although India didn´t bowl perfectly either, but it´s so refreshing to see this thread raise a point that I´ve been mentioning again and again since 2015 with regards to India´s batting.

Let me address this point again. The way Sri Lanka yesterday chased down the total is exactly how easily 320 or below totals are chased nowadays, or can be. Nothing extraordinary required, just get a couple of batsmen to get 70s-80s at a run-rate of above five or five and a half, and then have one or two guys in the middle or lower order pull off a quickfire 30 or 40 and you´re comfortably there. Welcome to 2017!

I´m going to stick my neck out and lay the partial blame on the guy upon whom so far no one has: Dhawan. Yes, I´m not going to convince that, on that batting paradise and with seven wickets in hand, 125 off 128 by an opener was an innings as good as was needed. No way, not in 2017. I was very critical of Rohit´s 91 off 120 against Pakistan, but he wasn´t going as slow here and made 78 off 79. So you can give him the benefit of the possibility of him having upped his strike-rate further had he stayed. And please, pardon me the defence of "Had others done the hitting around Dhawan then India would´ve got a bigger total, hence it´s not his fault", because, again, Rohit made 78 off 79, Dhoni 63 off 52, and Jhadav played an increbily crucial cameo of 25 off 13 - without which India wouldn´t even have been able to drag it to the 49th over.

On a tougher pitch, against a great bowling attack, with wickets falling consistently at the other end, yes, a great innings, but yesterday.... Well, a poorly paced innings - as was Rohit´s against Pakistan.

Yes pacing the innings is very important and Indian batsmen can do this without making a drastic change in approach. If the openers want to make a cautious start then fine give them that luxury but once you survive 10 overs you need to up the scoring. This is how it could be done.
Overs 1 - 10 = 40 runs
Overs 10 -40 = 210 runs @ 7 rpo
Overs 40 - 50 = 100 runs @ 10 rpo
Total = 350
India need to take 350 as the new 300. India is such an amazingly consistent batting unit that once they adopt a particular formula of scoring they execute it 9 times out of 10.
Kohli and India make 300-320 in their sleep as their so conditioned to it. They just need to change that figure to 350 and I'm sure they will achieve it without drastically changing their approach.
 
Yuvraj lost India the match single handedly,missed at least 6- Hit me for a 6 balls,that cost us the match.Bowlers did not bowl well as well but batting was 25 short

Nah, 18 balls isn´t much of a sample size in ODI cricket, especially with 24 overs to go. Yuvraj wouldn´t have continued at the same strike-rate had he batted 18 balls more.

As a side note, the reason why I rate Dhoni World Cup final innings so highly is because Yuvraj, although in a sublime touch and Man of the Tournament, often has his legs stuck against Sri Lankan spinners, and is often just a walking wicket against them in multi-national tournaments - an average of 22 suggests (which I´ve check yesterday mind you, whether my six-year old observation is backed by stats or not). Had he got out to Muralitharan, the pressure on Gambhir and MS would´ve been immense with just Raina to go as a professional batsman after them - another guy with an iffy record against spin bowling.

Yes pacing the innings is very important and Indian batsmen can do this without making a drastic change in approach. If the openers want to make a cautious start then fine give them that luxury but once you survive 10 overs you need to up the scoring. This is how it could be done.
Overs 1 - 10 = 40 runs
Overs 10 -40 = 210 runs @ 7 rpo
Overs 40 - 50 = 100 runs @ 10 rpo
Total = 350
India need to take 350 as the new 300. India is such an amazingly consistent batting unit that once they adopt a particular formula of scoring they execute it 9 times out of 10.
Kohli and India make 300-320 in their sleep as their so conditioned to it. They just need to change that figure to 350 and I'm sure they will achieve it without drastically changing their approach.

Although the Indian batting as whole isn´t up to the level required nowadays to win tournaments as most of them are incapable of cameos (with the exception of Yuvraj and Hardik, and maybe Jadhav), but I must still add something very important here. The problem is not necessarily what they´re not capable, rather instead what they choose to do despite being capable. To elaborate more on my point, Yuvraj is playing since 2000, MS since 2005 and Kohli since 2008. The two of these at least have played through an era where there was still some balance between bat and ball and pitches didn´t use to be as flat, and neither is Kohli as new as the likes of Maxwell, Finch, Roy or Buttler, but go and do a research on their careers and tell me how many times you´ve seen them bat 128 or 120 balls and get 125 or 91 runs respectively, especially without wickets falling at the other end, and batting first.

I hope you get my point.
 
Irrespective of whether 350 was par or not, whether India, given their position, should have gone on to score more or not; 320 is a substantial amount of runs - the bowlers have to shoulder the blame here.
 
Kohli has a weird obsession with Sharma . Never puts him under any pressure, even when hanging other players out to dry,
 
No his batsman should have slogged a few more rather than taking dozens of deliveries to settle
 
Well he is not helping his cause by dropping Umesh and playing two spinners. All 4 of Shami/Umesh/Bhuvi/Bumrah had to play if the bowling was to click as a unit. No place for pandya either.
 
Nah, 18 balls isn´t much of a sample size in ODI cricket, especially with 24 overs to go. Yuvraj wouldn´t have continued at the same strike-rate had he batted 18 balls more.

As a side note, the reason why I rate Dhoni World Cup final innings so highly is because Yuvraj, although in a sublime touch and Man of the Tournament, often has his legs stuck against Sri Lankan spinners, and is often just a walking wicket against them in multi-national tournaments - an average of 22 suggests (which I´ve check yesterday mind you, whether my six-year old observation is backed by stats or not). Had he got out to Muralitharan, the pressure on Gambhir and MS would´ve been immense with just Raina to go as a professional batsman after them - another guy with an iffy record against spin bowling.



Although the Indian batting as whole isn´t up to the level required nowadays to win tournaments as most of them are incapable of cameos (with the exception of Yuvraj and Hardik, and maybe Jadhav), but I must still add something very important here. The problem is not necessarily what they´re not capable, rather instead what they choose to do despite being capable. To elaborate more on my point, Yuvraj is playing since 2000, MS since 2005 and Kohli since 2008. The two of these at least have played through an era where there was still some balance between bat and ball and pitches didn´t use to be as flat, and neither is Kohli as new as the likes of Maxwell, Finch, Roy or Buttler, but go and do a research on their careers and tell me how many times you´ve seen them bat 128 or 120 balls and get 125 or 91 runs respectively, especially without wickets falling at the other end, and batting first.

I hope you get my point.

I'm not sure I understood that correctly.Can you give me links to check that?
 
I'm not sure I understood that correctly.Can you give me links to check that?

This isn´t meant as a disrespect to Yuvraj. All players, even the best, have weaknesses and often can´t quite crack it against certain oppositions or bowlers. So this is not to demean him, but as a die-hard fan of the Indian batsmen (hence their team) during all those years, Yuvraj never quite convinced me as a fan of having looked comfortable against Muraltharan and the company. Would always look shaky even if he would get runs. Going to the final, and during the interval with that huge total, I was constantly concerned about Yuvraj not being able to play the Sri Lankan spinners as well as he does against most of the other teams.

As for my comment about backing my thought with stats, in both ODIs and T20Is, in non-bilateral series, Yuvraj averages 28.55 against them (although it goes up to 30.03 in ODIs alone).

However, what I was actually specifically referring to by "Multi-national tournaments" were the ICC events and the Asia Cups (although I admit my wording wasn´t correct in the reference). There, he averages 22.70 against them in ODIs and T20Is combined (25.71 in ODIs alone).

So in a sense, my old fears with regards to my favourite batting line-up did have some statistical justification it seems.
 
Back
Top