Even from a distance, the firmness of the ACA-VDCA Stadium pitch was visible. A senior grounds-staff predicted a belter — scores in excess of 300.
When India and West Indies had last played an ODI at Vizag in October 2018, the match ended in a tie, with both teams scoring 321. Virat Kohli had led India’s charge with an unbeaten 157 and Shai Hope responded with a 123 not out.
Shimron Hetmyer had bludgeoned to a 64-ball 94. On Sunday, in the first match of the ongoing series in Chennai, Hope and Hetmyer once again proved to be India’s nemeses, both scoring hundreds this time and making a stiff run chase appear like a walk in the park.
West Indies batters are strong-armed enough to dismiss any bowling on flat pitches. At Chepauk, the surface was a little two-paced to start with, which became easier for batting when evening dew arrived.
The ground-staff at Vizag informed that they haven’t watered the outfield for the last three days to keep it as dry as possible, an antidote to dew. Then again, in winter — Vizag being a coastal town, it doesn’t have a proper winter though – dew will make its presence felt after sundown at every venue in this part of the world.
Unlike Chepauk, it’s not a fresh pitch at Vizag. Some local matches have already been played here. So it’s unlikely that the ball will hold up. In fact, given the hardness of the top soil, the pitch is expected to offer decent bounce and the ball should come nicely on to the bat. On the face of it, West Indies, a side that bat deep and are heavily loaded with power-hitters, probably have an advantage.
Jasprit Bumrah, along with Prithvi Shaw, is likely to train with the Indian team at Vizag as part of his fitness assessment. Bumrah is recuperating from a stress fracture. Without him, India’s bowling in white-ball cricket, especially in death overs, becomes depleted.
Mohammed Shami didn’t bowl badly in the slog overs yesterday. But unlike Bumrah, he is not a death-overs specialist and on Sunday, when he bowled at the back-end of the West Indies innings, Shami offered at least one boundary ball every over. Deepak Chahar is relatively inexperienced at this level and although he has been pretty consistent, the seamer doesn’t have a lethal yorker. Also, at Chahar’s pace, bouncers become a tad risky at the death. Shivam Dube made his ODI debut yesterday and it turned out to be a baptism of fire for the youngster.
Between 41st and 48th over, India had conceded 59 runs in the first ODI without a wicket. And the hosts will have little margin for error at Vizag, for in a three-match series, they face a win-or-bust contest here.
Modern-day cricket sets 300 as par score in ODIs. India struggle to get there unless Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli scores big. Shikhar Dhawan deserves an honourable mention here, for when on song the left-hander has the ability to make an impact at the top.
With all due respect to Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, who batted very well under pressure at the first ODI and shared a 114-run fourth wicket partnership, they failed to take the game away from West Indies. Both got out at the wrong time, Iyer in the 37th over and Pant in the 40th over. Both had time to stretch their innings without taking too many risks. Iyer departed to a soft dismissal, flicking a back-of-a-length ball from Alzarri Joseph straight to mid-wicket. The Mumbai batsman might still get the benefit of the doubt, as the ball seemed to have stopped a bit. Pant, yet again, perished to an attempted big hit. He was playing well and going at a 100-plus strike-rate. Another few overs of him would have taken India’s total past 300. The 22-year-old also missed an opportunity to score his maiden ODI hundred.
Chief selector MSK Prasad, though, preferred to put things in perspective. “See, unfortunately what happened in T20 games, he (Pant) wasn’t getting enough deliveries. So he was trying to strike the ball from the word go. (But) he had a lot of time yesterday. He had the time to do it (build his innings). It was a wonderful opportunity for him. There’s no doubt that people must be putting pressure on him, but his knock yesterday should have really calmed his nerves. It will do a world of good to his confidence,” the chief selector told The Indian Express.
At MS Dhoni’s spiritual home, Pant probably couldn’t afford to fail. His well-compiled half-century earned the appreciation from the Chepauk crowd and kept the Twitter trollers quite. But from the team’s point of view, the southpaw needed to carry on.
West Indies have had a clear strategy for the short-form. They pack their team with batters and back themselves to chase any target, or post a big total when batting first. As far as India are concerned, the four specialist bowlers ploy probably backfired at Chepauk. It needs to be seen if the hosts bring in Yuzvendra Chahal at Vizag. It might be a touch risky to go with a specialist bowler less on this pitch.
Windies fined for slow over-rate
PTI adds from Chennai: West Indies players have been docked 80 per cent of their match fees for maintaining a slow over-rate in the first ODI against India in Chennai. ICC match referee David Boon imposed the fine after Kieron Pollard’s side was ruled to be four overs short of its target on Sunday after time allowances were taken into consideration.
“In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20% of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time. As such, the team have each been fined 80% of their match fee,” the ICC said in a statement.
There was no need for a formal hearing as West Indies skipper Pollard pleaded guilty to the offence after the end of the match and accepted the proposed sanction. On-field umpires Nitin Menon and Shaun George, third umpire Rodney Tucker and fourth umpire Anil Chaudhary leveled the charge. West Indies won the match by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Source: indianexpress.com