India working too hard on their fielding: Robin

[coverpoint]

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/engvind/content/current/story/308912.html England v India, 4th ODI, Old Trafford Flintoff's return will add to India's miseries The Preview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at Old Trafford August 29, 2007 Andrew Flintoff will probably return to support the good start by James Anderson and Stuart Broad © Getty Images A month ago Old Trafford was swinging to the Arctic Monkeys, an English rock band. But, while they thrilled the crowd with numbers like "I bet you look good on the dancefloor", the outfield at the Stretford Road End of the ground was turning messy. So devoid of grass was one corner of the ground that the opening day of Lancashire's home fixture against Hampshire last week was called off. The patches continue to pose a worry but Andrew Flintoff, a Lancashire local, felt there had been a considerable improvement. Flintoff arrived at the nets with a sense of purpose, something that was missing in his pre-match routine at Edgbaston. Not only did he bound in with the ball and flay his bat but he imparted a genuine joie de vivre. So well did England play at Edgbaston that it would be a tough to drop anyone - Flintoff's "hopefully I'll get a go" wasn't out of place - but it's almost certain that he would be in. "You don't want to miss out at any venue but this one more so than any," Flintoff said about the ground he's been visiting since he was nine years old. He has taken part in only four one-dayers here, the last one being in 2003. "I've not done a great deal of it [play at Old Trafford] so obviously I am keen to play tomorrow and hopefully I'll come through. I fully expect to run in and bowl. A few runs wouldn't go amiss. I feel I am close, but a bit of time in the middle and a score would be ideal." Coming on as a third seamer in the two games he's played this series, Flintoff has continued the good starts that James Anderson and Stuart Broad have provided, and he's taken pleasure in watching the two work in tandem. "When Stuart got the wicket the other night, you saw Jimmy at mid-off running around, leaping around. I think that's a theme throughout the camp as well. Everyone is enjoying playing, enjoying each other's company and that's for all to see out there." Flintoff's return and England's growing confidence as a one-day unit is bad news for India but the 'Arctic' outfield might be the bigger concern. Chandu Borde, their manager, and Venkatesh Prasad, their bowling coach, have admitted that their fielding effort at Edgbaston wasn't up to international standard while Robin Singh, the fielding coach, felt it was a case of being over-eager. "Sometimes people get over-anxious, rather than being safe and doing the right things," Singh said candidly. "We have to make sure they're relaxed on the field. Sometimes when you try too hard, things go wrong. I find some of the boys trying too hard rather than relaxing much more. It's like going out to bat. You can't hit every ball for six. You need that control. We can only instil as coaches, it's up to the players to execute it out in the middle." That the pitch at Old Trafford is one of the quickest in the country could prompt India to play the extra batsman. Considering the makeshift, low-lying floodlights, the teams might prefer to bat first, put up a total and pile on the pressure in the evening. Visiting football teams rarely leave the other Old Trafford with a smile. India have had two famous triumphs on this ground - the semi-final win over England in the 1983 World Cup and a victory against Pakistan in the 1999 edition - and will want to leave with the series all level. England (likely) 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Matt Prior (wk), 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood (capt), 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Ravi Bopara, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Chris Tremlett, 10 James Anderson, 11 Monty Panesar. India (likely) 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 Dinesh Karthik, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rahul Dravid (capt), 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 7 Ajit Agarkar, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Ramesh Powar, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 RP Singh. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is assistant editor of Cricinfo © Cricinfo ------------------------------------------------- Wow, so they are actually trying too hard ? Wonder how much worse t hey would be if they tried less. Does Robin get paid for being stupid Or is he just sucking up to the slow fielders like Ganguly?

[Dravid]

Does Robin get paid for being stupid Or is he just sucking up to the slow fielders like Ganguly?

:two_thumbs_up:

[Chaos]

this is rubbish, the way munaf and rp singh fielded, boy it will give nightmares for the captain, WORST FIELDING side in the world, btw some idiots posting here saying sachin sucks at fielding, he our fielder with yuvi

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Guest dada_rocks]

You expected Robin to come out with a statement like "Our fielders are beyond repair lets pack up and go home " ?

:haha::haha::haha: Yes what's wrong in saying that

[coverpoint]

You expected Robin to come out with a statement like "Our fielders are beyond repair lets pack up and go home " ?

Actually no. But I would expect him to say that we need to work harder on our fielding and X, Y and Z are the steps we are going to take. If he is going to say we are working too hard ... that tells me they need to take more chai breaks between t heir chai breaks!!! Kitne Rasgulle and Samose khayenge yeh?

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Mandrake]

Poor Robin Singh...looks like our players are back to playing their natural game-cant bat,cant bowl,and definitely cant field.

[Chandan]

Chandu Borde' date=' their manager, and Venkatesh Prasad, their bowling coach, have admitted that their fielding effort at Edgbaston wasn't up to international standard [b']while Robin Singh, the fielding coach, felt it was a case of being over-eager. "Sometimes people get over-anxious, rather than being safe and doing the right things," Singh said candidly. "We have to make sure they're relaxed on the field. Sometimes when you try too hard, things go wrong. I find some of the boys trying too hard rather than relaxing much more. It's like going out to bat. You can't hit every ball for six. You need that control. We can only instil as coaches, it's up to the players to execute it out in the middle."

He must be referring to dropped catches and missed run outs here. Also many a times we saw the fielder fielding the ball and then messing up the throw in an attempt to put pressure on the batsmen who kind of, knew that that the fielder would mess up and hence fearlessly took off for an extra run!! Ground-fielding, chasing the ball and such things are at a disgraceful level at the moment. And I can't remember India dropping as many catches in any series before!