The folly of shielding the tail

[The Outsider]

only 5 times has he added more than 50 runs with those 2 tailender.

Scoring 50 almost half the number of times batting with the likes of Gillespie and McGrath is amazing I would say.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[praveenj]

A batsman should be rated good at playing with the tail when he makes them play well. We can see Laxman keeping confidence in Harbhajan and Zaheer. We also saw Sourav doing such act in the Jo'burg test. Taking singles in the first half of the over doesn't mean that you are not doing well playing with the tail. Cricket is a one-ball game. If a tail-end batsman is good enough to keep one ball off, he should be able to keep another one off too....

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Bumper]

Good stats Boss. Thats an impressive no. of times Waugh has piled up runs with the tail. Wonder what the tailenders contributed ? But unlike Shwetabh, i'd put that down to the typical Aussie spirit & commitment shown by their tailenders. Indian tailenders arent as good as Gillespie or Warne. Hence more initiative is reqd from the set top order bat.

[The Outsider]

But is that enough sample size to declare Waugh as the ultimate batsmen when it comes to batting with tailenders ?

It's not just about Waugh. It's about the entire concept of entrusting and strengthening the tail. At Sydney, when Gillespie walked in, Katich immediately rolled over the strike to him against Pathan, who was bowling really well at that time. The increase in average of all of their tail/lower order batsmen ie. Warne, Gillespie, and McGrath after Waugh took over points to a change in concept rather than just Waugh being able to stitch partnerships with the tail. Anyhow, 7 35+ score with the likes of McGrath and Gillespie in 13 attempts is outstanding.

[The Outsider]

Good stats Boss. Thats an impressive no. of times Waugh has piled up runs with the tail. Wonder what the tailenders contributed ? But unlike Shwetabh, i'd put that down to the typical Aussie spirit & commitment shown by their tailenders. Indian tailenders arent as good as Gillespie or Warne. Hence more initiative is reqd from the set top order bat.

The same tailenders were not as good before Waugh took over as a captain. Everyone's average increased by 4-5 runs after Waugh. Everyone one of them played many superb situation defying innings. The only one from our lower order who consistently puts up a fight is Kumble and look back over the last 15 years, you will see many important Kumble partnerships where he was not shielded. Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sreesanth, and RP Singh are at least as capable as Gillespie and Munaf at least as capable as McGrath. Just look at the Lords' test and how RP Singh literally threw his wicket away and Sreesanth showed a fight. Or how at Barbados 5 years back our tail kept on playing rash shot after rash shot and it rained 10 minutes after our innings ended. If Sreesanth had played like RP Singh, we would have lost at Lords too with drizzle setting in 5 minutes after the match ended. The same Sreesanth also added 50 runs with the vilified Laxman without being shielded.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[The Outsider]

heres our own Sai Baba's record ...(Excluding yesterdays Test) where he put on more than 50 with the tail ...

And guess what, he also follows the Waugh school of thought and gets criticized despite this impressive record for being selfish and playing for his average.

[praveenj]

some special stats there... many of them led to victorious situations in low-scoring games...

[Bumper]

The same tailenders were not as good before Waugh took over as a captain. Everyone's average increased by 4-5 runs after Waugh. Everyone one of them played many superb situation defying innings. The only one from our lower order who consistently puts up a fight is Kumble and look back over the last 15 years' date=' you will see many important Kumble partnerships where he was not shielded. Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sreesanth, and RP Singh are at least as capable as Gillespie and Munaf at least as capable as McGrath. Just look at the Lords' test and how RP Singh literally threw his wicket away and Sreesanth showed a fight. Or how at Barbados 5 years back our tail kept on playing rash shot after rash shot and it rained 10 minutes after our innings ended. If Sreesanth had played like RP Singh, we would have lost at Lords too with drizzle setting in 5 minutes after the match ended. The same Sreesanth also added 50 runs with the vilified Laxman without being shielded.[/quote'] Moot point tho. Laxman is not our captain nor our strategist to make such long term decisions in a real match. Such improvement initiatives must start in the nets, not in a real match. Besides, even if such experiments were run in a real match, it has to be blessed by the think tank. Laxman cannot decide all this by himself. Inspite of all that, Laxman could have still attempted atleast ONE boundary. Not even one aggressive stroke when he batted alongside 3 tailenders (after Kumble) is hard to justify

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Bumper]

And guess what' date=' he also follows the Waugh school of thought and gets criticized despite this impressive record for being selfish and playing for his average.[/quote'] :haha::haha::haha:, nice googly there! Heres my wrong'un. Following Waugh's examples isnt good afterall. Even a good record becomes tainted, when Sir Waugh's footsteps is followed.

[praveenj]

this was probably the most reasonable argument that Laxman never tried to score aggressively during that period, but we have to agree he had his part in taking India to considerable lead.

[The Outsider]

Moot point tho. Laxman is not our captain nor our strategist to make such long term decisions in a real match. Such improvement initiatives must start in the nets, not in a real match. Besides, even if such experiments were run in a real match, it has to be blessed by the think tank. Laxman cannot decide all this by himself.

Huh? How do you know it's not a think tank decision. It has to be, for Laxman would have dropped by now for repeatedly playing like that and Ganguly also played like that with the tail in South Africa. What makes you think Laxman decided this on his own. And just look at the stats above to see how successful Laxman's strategy has been.

[The Outsider]

Yeah but lets see if we can "Sell" VVS Baba as a better exponent of batting with Tail than Waugh .... oooooh No cant do .... hai na ?

He might be a better exponent but in modern cricket the idea is Waugh's brainchild. So Waugh gets the credit for making this change and Laxman for executing it.

[Bumper]

Huh? How do you know it's not a think tank decision. It has to be' date=' for Laxman would have dropped by now for repeatedly playing like that and Ganguly also played like that with the tail in South Africa. What makes you think Laxman decided this on his own. And just look at the stats above to see how successful Laxman's strategy has been.[/quote'] Right. Thats why Bhajji shuffled across & got bowled the first ball. Zaheer went over the top twice in a row & Munaf played a sweep off the first ball. Some think tank that, which just spoke to Laxman, but forgot about the tailenders:haha:

[Bumper]

Boss, is it possible to post what exactly Laxman contributed in that partnership ? Laxman was there at the other end yesterday for a good 48 runs. But he scored only 15. The figure 48 is misleading!

[The Outsider]

Right. Thats why Bhajji shuffled across & got bowled the first ball. Zaheer went over the top twice in a row & Munaf played a sweep off the first ball. Some think tank that' date=' which just spoke to Laxman, but forgot about the tailenders:haha:[/quote'] And you think the instructions to them were to throw their bats around at anything and everything?:hysterical:

[praveenj]

that decision could have been from Laxman rather than the mgmt, 'coz he was the one playing there for sometime and would know it was easy for kumble to bat it out... he might have told the three to slog themselves out of hardships and they might have done that immediately :P