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Captains who made things happen


DesiChap

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S. Dinakar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A good captain has an alternative plan to fall back on Captains have more to think about since the introduction of Power Plays -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One-day cricket poses its own set of challenges for the captain. How does the skipper manage his overs? How does he cope with the pressures at the death? How does he set his field within the purview of the field restrictions? How does he shuffle his batting order? And how does he read the game vis-?-vis the toss and the conditions? A mediocre captain plays the routine. Here, the bowling changes and the field setting are pre-programmed and there is no alternative plan. A good captain may have a style that is patterned, but reacts better to situations. He has alternatives. A brilliant captain makes things happen. In contemporary cricket, New Zealand's Stephen Fleming and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene are two such men. Element of surprise A captain needs to surprise the opposition. When Martin Crowe opened the bowling with off-spinner Dipak Patel in the '92 World Cup down under, he had caught his adversary unawares. The field restrictions were on, but Crowe was giving the invitation to batsmen to go over the top. Pakistan and Imran Khan triumphed from the brink in `92. Imran's most important, although not widely recognised, move was to promote himself to the No. 3 slot in the decisive stages of the tournament. Imran's solidity prevented the stroke-makers in the middle from facing the new ball. The dynamics of the game have changed since. Now we have the Power Play overs. CLEVER TACTICIAN: Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, with the 1996 World Cup, had his spinners bowling to a single-saving field. Let's first glimpse at the field restrictions in the first ten overs and the two five-over blocks. In the first ten, seven fielders in the circle, two of them in catching positions, are a must. In the five-over chunks, seven in the circle are compulsory, but not the two in catching positions. When does a captain take his Power Play overs? When does he bring his spinners on? The result of a contest may hinge on these decisions. A skipper with foresight need not use either one or two blocks of the Power Play overs if he believes he can bowl out the opposition, inside 40 or 45 overs. The spinners can be used as attacking options; after all, the best way to check the run-rate is by striking. Master moves Sometimes, the entire strategy can revolve on conditions. On the sub-continental pitches in '96, Arjuna Ranatunga, the grandmaster, had Muttiah Muralitharan & Co. bowling to a single-saving cordon even in the middle overs. The discipline in the Lankan bowling ? the batsmen were stifled ? enabled Ranatunga's ploy to succeed. A clever captain does not allow the game to drift in the middle overs, both in bowling and batting. He is pro-active. In the '96 semifinal at Mohali, the manner in which Australia's Mark Taylor brought in Shane Warne in the end overs against the West Indies reflected his cricketing nous; in the quarterfinal at Chepauk, he, intelligently, sent in Warne as a pinch-hitter to disrupt the Kiwi rhythm. A thinking captain also gets the team balance right, makes the most of his resources even if he does not have a specialist fifth bowler. Whether it was Steve Waugh using Tom Moody in 1999, or Kapil Dev utilising Mohinder Amarnath and Kirti Azad in 1983, winning captains have successfully hidden chinks in bowling. But then, Waugh, Kapil, Clive Lloyd and Allan Border were more inspirational leaders of men than outstanding captains. Of course, Border struck a deadly blow with his left-arm spin in the '87 final at the Eden Gardens and used Steve Waugh's change of pace well in the end overs, but that was a campaign where influential coach Bob Simpson had a large say.

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Re: Captains who made things happen Beat England in England... in ODIs...I think... Though that is something that Gangs did too... Actually I do see a brief mention of Kapil there at the end... but really the FAWNING over mediocre Fleming and decent but nothing spectacular Jayawardane does seem excessive...

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Re: Captains who made things happen guys, mahela is a good captain, probably the best to come out of sl since ranatunga retired.. i wouldnt go so far as to call him great and compare him with the players mentioned above.. maybe in another 5-6 years.. if he lasts till then ganguly was a good captain too, he instilled a lot of hunger in the indian team.. the "hota hai, chalta hai" attitude was banished, and he deserves plaudits for that.

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Re: Captains who made things happen

guys, mahela is a good captain, probably the best to come out of sl since ranatunga retired.. i wouldnt go so far as to call him great and compare him with the players mentioned above.. maybe in another 5-6 years.. if he lasts till then ganguly was a good captain too, he instilled a lot of hunger in the indian team.. the "hota hai, chalta hai" attitude was banished, and he deserves plaudits for that.
Lets write articles on Mahela in 5-6 years where he is actually proven good. No need to go overboard right now. Fleming too is overrated.
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Re: Captains who made things happen wtf...dada's name is not in the list ! I dont say this only because Im a die hard dada fan. But it was solely dada's aggressive leadership which brought out the best of all the youngsters and that too in the time when team was struggling. I think his stats as a captain speak for himself.

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Guest dada_rocks

Re: Captains who made things happen So dada is missing.. YUvraj dropped from the team gets the cll of dada the moment he hits a century in ranji and gives some pe talk...... how many captains care so much about their soldiers.... crap article I am not reading it

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Re: Captains who made things happen I think the purpose of the article is to show how important pro-active captaincy is, especially in tournaments like WC. Every time a captain has thought like that, he has tasted success. And Jayawardane has few good results to back him up. He white-washed England 5-0 in the ODIs in England, drew with NZ in NZ. So obviously he must be doing something right.

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Re: Captains who made things happen Come on, you cynical folks, Jayawardane, Fleming & Vaughan havent scored much with their own bat for a while. Doesnt that alone make them great captains ? What are u guys bitchin about ? And its understandable, why dada doesnt figure in the list. He has started scoring runs.

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Re: Captains who made things happen

Come on, you cynical folks, Jayawardane, Fleming & Vaughan havent scored much with their own bat for a while. Doesnt that alone make them great captains ? What are u guys bitchin about ? And its understandable, why dada doesnt figure in the list. He has started scoring runs.
:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
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