Well played Sanju Samson! You saved India the blushes

One of the advantages of the present system of holding "super eight" matches in international championships in cricket is that it allows a team that has an occasional bad day in office an opportunity to recover and stage a comeback. The conventional system of having knock-out matches at the quarterfinal stages does not allow the participating teams this element of luxury, as one single poor performance at this stage invariably seals their fate. Hence, it is only fair that the four best teams in the championship made their way to the last four stage of the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup, presently underway in India, despite the occasional hiccups suffered by them.

Amongst the four, though South Africa and England reached the semifinals, topping their respective pools, the former had managed this without losing a match to date, while the latter had suffered a defeat at the hands of West Indies in the group stage. South Africa had a scare in their second match, against Afghanistan, which went into two "super overs" before they could prevail. But after that, the side has settled down well, and all departments are functioning in full steam and in complete unison. They made mincemeat of Canada, the UAE and New Zealand at the group stage. But it was their trouncing of India by 76 runs in the first super eight fixture, followed by the nine-wicket win against West Indies and the five-wicket victory over Zimbabwe, that has made them the favourites on current form to reach the finals.

A look at the performance of the side shows that all their top batsmen- Aiden Markram, Quinton deKock, Ryan Rickleton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller and Tristan Stubbs have been amongst the runs. They have a perfectly balanced bowling attack of three fast bowlers- Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi- who are supported by the spin pair of Keshav Maharaj and Corbin Bosch. Skipper Aiden Markram has been leading the side brilliantly, besides turning over a few overs of useful off-spin. Further, their fielding standards have remained superb throughout the championship. Hence, as things stand now, only an extremely poor day on the field or an attack of nerves, which is not unknown to them, can stand between this side and the trophy.

England too got off to a shaky start in the championship, with a close match against Nepal and a defeat at the hands of the West Indies in the pool stage. However, they recovered well after this, and full credit should go to skipper Harry Brook for charting this amazing turnaround in the fortunes of his side. It was his brilliant 100 off 51 balls that anchored the side during the crucial game against Pakistan and piloted them to the last four stage. Jos Butler is currently going through a bad patch, while Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell and Tom Banton have been patchy in their output with the willow. In these circumstances, Brook's decision to promote himself in the batting order and take upon himself the onus of anchoring the innings and pushing the score at a strike rate of close to 200 was nothing short of remarkable.

It is a fact that more support has come to Brook from all rounders Sam Curran and Will Jacks than from his recognised batsmen. In fact, it is England's bowlers who have led this campaign from the front, through a series of consistent performances. The spin bowling duo of Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson and Will Jacks have been splendid with the ball, choking the flow of runs besides picking up crucial wickets. Such has been their faith in spinners that England even tried Rehan Ahmed, the leg break bowler in the last match against New Zealand and he also justified his inclusion by coming up with an inspired performance. Their fast bowlers- Jofra Archer, Jamie Overton and Sam Curran- have been relegated to playing a supporting role, which they have performed well.

New Zealand was fortunate to make it to the semifinal stage and could do so only because Sri Lanka put up a lionhearted show and came close to defeating Pakistan in the last game. Pakistan showed flashes of brilliance but were unable to lift their game at critical phases, which resulted in defeat against England, after running them close, and a victory by a margin of 5 runs against Sri Lanka, when they should have won by a huge margin. The Kiwis too have relied on their spin bowlers- Michell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, Ish Sodhi and Glen Philips- to lead the charge, during the super eight stage. Though the reliance on spinners has pushed them to the sidelines, fast bowlers Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson have chipped in with the occasional wicket or two. However, their worry line is their batting, as their top and middle order have not fired consistently.

This brings one to the fortunes of the host, which took a beating due to the heavy loss suffered in the game against South Africa. Followers of the game have been disappointed with the performance of the home side, who started the championship as the firm favourites but slipped up badly when facing the first major hurdle. Though the team picked up steam in the matches against Zimbabwe and West Indies, the faultlines that appeared in the side are far from solved.

India has to thank Sanju Samson for the magnificent performance that carried the side to the last four stage. Sanju has been on the sidelines for too long despite his obvious talent and experience in this version of the game. A poor patch during the series against New Zealand prior to this championship had pushed him out of the playing eleven, till a set of fortuitous circumstances paved the path for his return. He grabbed this opportunity with both hands and played a scintillating innings, which will be remembered for long by the followers of the game in this country.

The main reasons for the lacklustre performance are the wooden approach of team management and the strange lack of efficiency that has plagued the spin bowling department. The Indian top order of Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma have a fantastic record in T20 format, with recent performances to back them up. But their inability to fire together and gel as a team should have raised alarm bells for the team management even during the early phases of this tournament. Their collective failure resulted in the side being forced onto the back foot even during the power play. The shortcoming inherent in the strategy of packing the top order with left handers was exposed as the opposing teams invariably chose to open the bowling with an off-spinner, who provided the early breakthrough. It was only when Sanju Samson was drafted into the playing eleven in the last two matches in the super eight that this pattern could be reversed. Team management appeared to have forgotten the basic dictum in team sports that it is the best combination that wins matches, rather than individual superstars. They made it worse by clinging to the fallacious approach despite repeated failures, thus creating a crisis of confidence amongst the players involved in the last match of the super eight stage against. When good sense finally prevst West Indies, the results were there for all to see.

A mere look at the bowling performances of the other three sides that reached the last four stage will show the important role played by spinners in winning matches for them. Unfortunately for India, Varun Chakravarthy, their lead spinner, hit a trough in the matches at the super eight stage, a phenomenon that can happen occasionally to even the best of the bowlers. Unfortunately, the effect of this was compounded as the team management decided not to play Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, two experienced spinners with a known track record in T20 cricket. This left India short of spinners in key matches, with the result that runs were leaked against even mediocre sides. The over reliance shown by the team management on all rounders- Hardik Pandya, and Shivam Dube- probably with the intention to prop up the batting, had the effect of rendering the side weak in the spin department. One hopes that the team management has learnt from these mistakes and will adopt a more flexible and positive approach during the remaining stages of the championship.

Well played Sanju Samson! You saved India the blushes with a magnificent innings!

Best wishes to skipper Suryakumar Yadav and the team as they start the knockout stage of the championship!