The Hindu : Sport : Robin Singh pleased

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Friday, Sep 07, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Robin Singh pleased

S. Dinakar

London: Team India, after finishing at the right end of a high-voltage thriller at The Oval, had a day off practice on Thursday. Some of the cricketers relaxed at the team hotel, others went for shopping.

The Indian fielding coach Robin Singh was a pleased man. “We turned in a much better performance in the field in the sixth game,” he told The Hindu.

The Indian fielding has been under scrutiny in the NatWest series and the players have been under immense pressure on the arena. Robin believes the Indian cricketers are finally getting their act together.

“We created more chances, put more heat on them. We have been improving in small steps. Fielding is all about doing the job under pressure. We fielded better than England at The Oval,” said Robin.

There were three run-out dismissals in the England innings.

Robin Uthappa scored a direct hit from mid-wicket to send back Luke Wright and Sourav Ganguly and substitute Dinesh Karthik got rid of the ball quickly to signal the end of Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood.

Said Robin: “the support staff have put in a lot of work. We fielded much better in the circle and this is an area we have been working on. If you look back at Wednesday’s game, you will find that we stopped quite a few boundaries in the circle.”

New experiment

The Indian think-tank has been working on the strengths and weaknesses of the England batsmen, using video analysis, and specific field placings for specific batsmen have been put in place. “We had the fielders in the right areas, keeping in mind the batsman taking strike. They were put under more stress, and took chances with singles and twos. The run-outs of Collingwood and Pietersen are examples.”

Robin added, “Even someone like Ramesh Powar has shown some improvement, has lifted his game. Yuvi (Yuvraj) has been brilliant. Robin (Uthappa) was good. Gautam (Gambhir) has been useful. I have been stressing safe and not flashy fielding. The seniors chipped in. We need to get to a level before we take it to the next stage.”

Robin said – “The spirit in the camp has been tremendous and the boys are raring to go.”

Fielding could prove decisive in Saturday’s big game at Lord’s.

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