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Colts must carry on the good show

England lacked a decisive gameplan, writes W.V. Raman

The Indian colts entered the semifinals of the ICC under-19 World Cup with an emphatic win over England. Given the current form of the two teams, the Indians started as the favourites but the manner in which they throttled the English colts with clinical precision was admirable.

Disciplined spell

After inserting England on a slow track, the Indians got on top of the game as the England batsmen found runs hard to come by against the highly disciplined Indian seamers, Pradeep Sangwan and Ajitesh Argal. Though they did not run through the top-order as they did against South Africa, they gave very little away. The England batsmen appeared content to pace the innings in a conventional mode by keeping wickets in hand but the execution of their plan was way off the mark

England lacked a decisive gameplan as they did not seem to have devised ways and means to conquer the Indian spinners. They started off the innings in a circumspect manner not losing wickets as well as not going after the attack which gave one the impression that their assault would come towards the latter part of the innings. However, the top-order made the cardinal mistake of getting out at the wrong time after consuming a fair amount of time and deliveries.

Taylor got it wrong

James Taylor, the opener, was guilty of playing at a snail’s pace and to make matters worse he got out just when he should have taken charge of the innings. Despite the discipline exhibited by the Indian seamers, a run-rate of just around three is too flattering by any standard given the pitch was not totally loaded in favour of the seamers.

The England middle-order batsmen were all at sea against the spinners and this frailty should have prompted the top-order batsmen to get some quick runs during the Power Plays against the seamers. This would have given the middle-order some added confidence to go after the Indian spinners.

The left-arm duo of Iqbal Abdullah and Ravindra Jadeja tied up the middle-order batsmen in knots and the collapse was inevitable. The defeat against Bangladesh would have exposed the Englishmen’s limitations against spin bowling but they somehow failed to come up with a solution to challenge the Indians. In the end they exited without giving themselves a chance as they could not set even a decent target.

Easy chase

The street smart Indian batsmen achieved the target of 147 with consummate ease even though the chase went into the 40th over. The England seamers bowled the typical back of a length that is synonymous with English cricket but the lack of lateral movement did not pose too many problems for the Indian batsmen.

Turuwar Kohli continued his good form as he negotiated the England seamers with a broad blade. He played the anchor role as wickets were falling at the other end. He along with the belligerent Sourabh Tiwary completed the formality without any fuss.

The Indians will be happy with the performance of the seamers and the team management would hope that they continue in the same vein. It is imperative that they do a good job in the upcoming games. The three-prong Indian pace attack may lack the pace but it would have learnt after the game against England that a disciplined effort is what it requires to control the proceedings.

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