da betsul： Madhya Pradesh’s last pair was at the crease when the Mumbai captain Wasim Jaffer pushed back seven fielders to the deep. It set the tone for a day when Mumbai just refused to take charge.
da roleta： Abhishek Purohit at the Holkar Cricket Stadium02-Jan-2012You have the opposition on 171 for 9 in a knockout game at their homeground after having decided to bowl first. It is no exaggeration to saythat you are completely on top. Ideally you will want to get the lastwicket as soon as possible. Ideally that will reflect in your fieldsettings against the remaining batsmen, No. 8 and No. 11. Ideally you willnot have seven men in the deep against No. 8. Yes, Mumbai captain WasimJaffer had deep fielders for TP Sudhindra, who has afirst-class batting average of 16.05.Third man, deep point, long-off, long-on, deep midwicket, deep square legand fine leg made for quite a sight as Mumbai repeatedly tried shortdeliveries against Sudhindra, as if the only way to get him was to bouncehim out. The last wicket partnership consumed 40 minutes and added acrucial 21 runs in what is turning out to be a low-scoring game. Suchastonishing defensiveness characterized Mumbai’s approach on a day theyshould have thoroughly dominated after Madhya Pradesh’s batting failed.It wasn’t only against the last pair that Mumbai refused to take charge ofthe game. After having got a wicket in the first over of the match whenZafar Ali was trapped leg-before by Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaffer took men outof the slip cordon as soon as Mohnish Mishra started to attack. That didnot stop Mishra from driving at anything pitched up. It instead allowedthe surprisingly defensive but in-form Naman Ojha to score a few runsthrough where third slip would have been.Mumbai then ran into a batsman who was prepared to treat their attack forwhat it was – not exactly threatening. Dhawal Kulkarni kept dropping itshort and Udit Birla kept pulling and cutting for boundaries. MP werestill in trouble at lunch on 115 for 5 but the way Mumbai began the secondsession further revealed their state of mind. Deep point was in place notonly for Birla but also for new batsman Murtaza Ali.No wonder the same safety-first attitude characterized Mumbai’s batting.They had the opportunity to shut MP out of the match by stumps. Anuncertain opening partnership of 26 in 14 overs led to the pressurebuilding up on Mumbai instead. No doubt, MP’s new-ball attack was disciplined, but itwas clear from the manner in which the openers played that their mandatewas to bat out time.It is only for so long that modern batsmen can play the waiting game, though. After having left deliveries for an eternity outside the off stump, Onkar Gurav fell after getting too far across to work a delivery on the leg side. Even Jaffer, of all batsmen, went chasing a rare wide delivery without moving his feet.After all this, Mumbai still had time left for one more defensive move.With more than 20 minutes left for stumps after the dismissal ofSuryakumar Yadav, they sent in a nightwatchman. That he lasted only onedelivery is a different matter.The point is that even by the conservative standards of Mumbai captains ofthe past, Jaffer’s approach bordered on the extreme. It cost them thechance to take control of the quarter-final. It may or may not cost them aplace in the semi-final. And for the record, Sudhindra was finally outcaught. Not in the deep, but in the slip cordon.