The shower surprise

Sidharth Monga in Wellington
March 6, 2009


Blame it on the rain: The repeated shower interruptions have given the captains plenty to think about

India 188 for 4 (Tendulkar 61, Sehwag 54) v New Zealand
So one-day cricket has become predictable, eh? It's not the same old formulaic stuff when there's rain around. With constant rain intervals, as at the Westpac Stadium tonight, teams have to keep thinking on their feet. Equations and circumstances keep changing with every drop that hits the green.

Take a look at this scenario. Before the rain arrived the first time, India were 130 for 1 and looking at a 300-plus score. After two brief stints and three rain breaks, if the game had started, India would have had to defend 165 in 20 overs. On a pitch that Daniel Vettori said was much better than the one for the Twenty20 last week, with a wet outfield and ten wickets in hand, New Zealand would have fancied a win. So from being the favourites at one stage, India would be forgiven if they thought they escaped tonight. Such are the shenanigans of the Duckworth-Lewis system.

It is always tricky to bat after a rain interval. All of a sudden the overs are reduced, the batsmen have to think of a target that is safe, and they have to change their style. Let's not forget that they have to play themselves in before they can go for the big hits. Not to take the credit away from Vettori and Kyle Mills, but India came out a little distracted after the first rain break, and lost two wickets for 21 runs in five overs before rain struck again.

The strategising for games when rain is forecast - and the forecasts in New Zealand have been fairly good so far - begins at the toss itself. Does a team want the runs on the board? Or does it want to chase a target? It is often tempting to go for the latter, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked at the other side of it before he chose to bat.

"If it rains for the amount that you lose eight, 10 or 15 overs, the side which has batted first has a bit of advantage," said Dhoni said, "but in the same way for the side batting, if they are given a target in 20 overs, it becomes very easy. For New Zealand today, if it was a 20-over game, they would have required around 166-odd runs, but if it was a 28-over game they would have needed about 217-odd runs."

Also the side batting first stands to gain in terms of Powerplays from a situation when the game has been reduced. Today India got 15 overs of Powerplays before the rain interval, and with the game reduced to 34 overs, got three more overs of batting Powerplay. Had the rain not intervened, New Zealand would have got only 13 overs of fielding restrictions as opposed to India's 18. It will be one complex system that takes all this into account and then reworks the target. In a similar scenario late last year, India got 18 overs of Powerplays as opposed to England's nine, in the Bangalore ODI that had to be reduced to 22 overs a side.

Generally the shorter the match, the more it favours the fielding side. But like Dhoni said, who can predict how much it will rain? It helps, though, to have a Virender Sehwag at the top of the order to take the pressure that the duo of Duckworth and Lewis put on a batting side.

India knew it would rain in Napier and they knew it would rain in Wellington. Both times they decided to bat, so it seems like a policy decision. "It's like a gamble because you don't know how much it would rain," said Dhoni. "That's a gamble you take more often, and we are a good batting side so we back ourselves on that. If we get a good start we can get a decent score if the amount of overs are reduced by 15 or 20. And definitely, in 30 overs the opposition will get a big target to chase."

Vettori would have batted too if he had won the toss, but for a different reason. "The wicket was a lot better than it was for the Twenty20 game, so we wanted to make sure we could put a score on the board," he said. "And in a way, try and put the pressure back on India because they have done so well with batting at the start."

India's tour of New Zealand so far has been shorn of mind games and quotable quotes, but the rain breaks have added an interesting twist to both off-field planning and on-field implementation, especially when dealing with factors beyond one's control. It is not always fair, but like the batting Powerplays they add a whole new dimension.

Everybody is hoping that the next three matches will go the full distance, but you can be sure contingency plans for rain intervals will be discussed in team meetings.

India 273 for 4 (Dhoni 84*, Sehwag 77, Raina 66) beat New Zealand 162 for 9 (Guptill 64, Harbhajan 3-27) by 53 runs by D/L Method

Mahendra Singh Dhoni promoted himself to No.3 and top scored with an unbeaten 84 Virender Sehwag set the tone with a typical fire-starting innings, and fine hands from Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were also instrumental as India eased to a comfortable 53-run victory [by Duckworth-Lewis] in a match twice interrupted by rain.

India piled up a mammoth 273 for 4 from their 38 overs and then reduced New Zealand to 111 for 4 before further rain left them the near-impossible task of scoring 105 from 43 balls. Harbhajan Singh then picked up three wickets in four balls as the match fizzled out and apart from Martin Guptill's accomplished 64, there was little for New Zealand to take from McLean Park.

After a small mid-innings wobble, Raina and Dhoni added 110 from just 12.2 overs to wrest the initiative. Daniel Vettori had brought about a lull in the proceedings after Ross Taylor's stunning catch to send back Sehwag, but once 40 came from the three overs of the batting Powerplay, there was no holding the Indians back.

New Zealand had reason to rue some poor bowling, with Kyle Mills, returning from injury, especially culpable. Raina was in superb touch, and full tosses from Mills were ruthlessly dealt with, usually with cleaves of the bat that sent the ball soaring over midwicket for six. When the bowlers tried to curb him by bowling wide of the stumps, Raina improvised to squeeze-steer the ball backward of point for fours. With Dhoni rotating the strike cleverly at the other end, New Zealand had no answer.

It wasn't as though Dhoni was only the supporting act though. He pulled powerfully on occasion, paddle-swept cleverly and also played one majestic wristy flick through midwicket off Ian Butler. With the regular bowlers powerless to stop the onslaught, Vettori turned to Grant Elliott. It worked, with Raina miscuing another big hit. But by then, the run-rate was hovering around seven an over, and it went beyond that as Yusuf Pathan (20 from just 10 balls) and Dhoni finished strongly.

Sehwag had started the day with a clutch off fours off the wayward Mills, but the players were back inside the dressing rooms within 20 minutes as the rain came down. By the time the game resumed, 24 overs in total had been lost, and India's sense of urgency was apparent. Sachin Tendulkar pulled Iain O'Brien for four, and then guided Mills through the vacant slip position, while Sehwag cut a six over point.

Things were looking bleak for New Zealand before Ian Butler came on, playing his first ODI in more than four years. It was an inspired move, with Tendulkar getting the thinnest of edges through to Brendon McCullum. That didn't stop Sehwag though. He pulled Jacob Oram for four to get to his half-century from 37 balls and then clipped one through midwicket for four more. Even Butler wasn't spared, with a cut for four and a swat through square-leg as the 100 of the innings came up in just 14 overs.

Vettori brought himself on immediately afterwards, but there was little respite. Dhoni cut one powerfully for four and then lofted one to the sightscreen, before Taylor's dramatic intervention gave New Zealand a sniff of a chance. When Yuvraj, bogged down by accurate bowling, followed soon after - a victim of his own hesitation between the wickets - India could have lost their way, but Dhoni and Raina hadn't forgotten their compasses or their range of strokes.

New Zealand never got the stroke-filled start that they needed. Zaheer Khan commenced with a maiden over, but it was Praveen Kumar who struck the crucial blow early on, having McCullum caught off the top edge at deep fine-leg. Jesse Ryder thumped him down to long-off for a four, but another attempted heave only found Sehwag inside the circle.

Only 23 runs came from the first eight overs of the Powerplay, but Taylor and Guptill then broke free with some attractive strokes. Taylor cut Munaf Patel for four, while Guptill lofted the ball sweetly down to the long-on boundary. With singles and twos being taken cleverly, the Indians were briefly rattled.

Taylor greeted Yusuf with a cut for four behind point, but a miscued slog-sweep only found Sachin Tendulkar at short fine-leg. Guptill continued to work the ball around cleverly, but with the fours drying up, the game began to drift away. And the pressure eventually told when Raina's throw from the deep found Elliott just short of his ground while going for a second run.

The rain then returned, and with 10 overs lopped off the innings, there was only time for New Zealand to go down swinging. Jacob Oram was caught behind off Yuvraj and Neil Broom stumped off Harbhajan. Guptill's resistance then ended with a fine catch by Gautam Gambhir at deep midwicket. Vettori ensured that his team wouldn't be bowled out, but that was little consolation on a day when New Zealand were second-best by a distance.