For the teams looking to knock India off their World Cup perch, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that Ireland – the “European champions”, according to a picture that went viral after England’s disastrous exit – were the first team to score more than 250 against them in five group games. On the flip side, India chased down the 260 with ridiculous ease. Shikhar Dhawan hit an 84-ball hundred, and the first-wicket partnership of 174 with Rohit Sharma killed off the contest even before half the innings was over. In the viewing area, Duncan Fletcher, the coach, and Ravi Shastri, the team director, were not poring over data.
Shastri was part of the last India side to win five straight ODIs in Australasia. On that occasion, at the World Championship of Cricket in March 1985, India’s much-maligned medium-pace attack – supplemented by Shastri’s left-arm spin and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan’s delightful leg spin – bowled out the opposition in four straight games. Pakistan, their opponents in the final, were kept to 176 for nine.
Just as it would be unfair to ignore the influence that Fletcher has had on some of these young batsmen, it’s impossible to overstate the impact of Shastri.
When Shastri, whose relentless positivity can grate on television commentary, was asked to chip in during the tour of England last summer, Indian cricket was going nowhere. In late 2013, they had lost 2-0 in an ODI series in South Africa. In New Zealand a few months later, they were beaten 4-0. When they failed to win a match in the Tri-Series that also featured Australia and England, the alarm bells were as shrill as could be. One man, though, remained completely unperturbed.
Shastri is one of the game’s great thinkers and possibly the best captain India never had. He is, however, not someone prone to overthinking or worry. Whenever you asked him about the team’s form in the lead-up to the tournament, the answer would invariably be the same – something on the lines of “it’ll be all right on the night”.
So, while fans and journalists alike discussed exhaustively the team’s failings in the Tri-Series – even England beat them twice – Shastri and the team had used it to give fringe players opportunities, while key individuals such as Ravichandran Ashwin were rested for some games. As England and Australia played the final in Perth, India headed to Adelaide, which would host their World Cup opener against Pakistan. The players had a week off, with Shastri and Virat Kohli, the captain, checking into a spa for several days.
Afterwards, Shastri didn’t even bother to hide his contempt for the whole Tri-Series exercise. “The boys needed to recharge their batteries and freshen up for the World Cup,” he said in an interview with the Press Trust of India. “The break from cricket did them a world of good as they came all guns blazing when it was required. And frankly speaking, I believe that the Tri‑Series that we played was a sheer waste of time and energy.”
On Tuesday, India ticked every box. On a placid pitch at the small Seddon Park in Hamilton, Ireland raced to 89 at a run a ball. With the pacemen not getting much joy, MS Dhoni promptly turned to his slow bowlers. With Ravindra Jadeja being taken for 45 in his seven overs, the surprise package was Suresh Raina, whose bustling off‑spin cost just 40 and fetched the vital wicket of Ed Joyce, a centurion against Zimbabwe.
Ashwin, bowling as well as he has ever done in coloured clothes, was superb, first dismissing Paul Stirling to end the dangerous first-wicket partnership and then tempting Andy Balbirnie into a sweep that caused Ireland to lose whatever momentum they had gained in the batting power play. Balbirnie and Niall O’Brien, who batted with panache and poise for his run-a-ball 75, had added 61 in just 46 balls but it was a steep slide thereafter.
Shami, who returned to dismiss both O’Brien siblings, has now taken 12 wickets at 11.75 from four matches. Ashwin has 11 and has gone at less than four an over. Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Jadeja have seven each. Not a single frontline bowler has gone for more than five an over (Lasith Malinga’s economy rate for Sri Lanka is 5.79) and jokes about Indian bowling have been conspicuous by their absence.
Knowing Shastri, he’ll be having a glass or two of New Zealand’s finest tonight. Most likely, it will be Bangladesh that line up against India in the quarter-final in Melbourne. The way India are playing, Peter Moores and company should probably just be grateful that they were spared being tarred and feathered in front of 90,000.
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