Indians having 'field' days

A problem with Indian teams of the past used to be the number of singles they gave away, thus easing the pressure on a chasing side.

It owed to a combination of deep-set fields, and unathletic fielders unused to running in with the bowlers.

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At the time of writing this, the chasing side is 4/106 after 29.5 overs, with the rain coming down to stop play. Zimbabwe, needing 150 off 121 balls, is behind the eight ball with four batsmen out, and a fifth hurt and unable to come back and do duty.

It is a good position for the fielding side to be in – and it owes almost entirely to some very good field setting, and some very athletic ground fielding.

Indian captains in the past have tended to set the field on the rim of the circle – a position from where you can neither stop singles effectively, especially if the batsmen have the savvy to play with soft hands, or block fours.

Noticeably, in this VB Series, the field is being drawn much further in, with at least four, and often five, fielders in a position to stop singles. India used this net to put pressure on Australia the other day; it is doing the same, and even better, to choke Zimbabwe today.

The figures tell the story. At the 15 over mark, as the field restrictions went off, Zimbabwe were well placed on 0/65, needing 191 to get off 210 balls at just over five an over.

Thanks to tight bowling (Nehra, Pathan, Balaji), the Indians had reworked the equation in their favour in the next five overs – at the 20 over mark, Zimbabwe was 3/75, needing 181 off 180 deliveries at a tick over 6 an over. And those three wickets were taken as much by sheer pressure as by good bowling – at that point, Nehra had bowled 22 dot balls in 33 deliveries sent down; Pathan, 24 dot balls in 30 deliveries and Balaji, 22 dot balls in 30 deliveries.

That pressure caused Grant Flower to come down the track looking for a big shot, only to hole out to sweeper cover; it caused the promotion, and rapid demise, of Andy Blignaut; and earlier, it caused Friend to try and scramble a single that would have been on against earlier Indian sides, but ended in a run out because here, Ganguly was well inside the circle at mid on and in a position to get to the ball early.

Having used pressure to get breakthroughs, the Indians kept squeezing. At the 25 over mark, Pathan, Kumble and Ganguly had between them reduced Zimbabwe to 4/87, and lifted the ask to 169/150. In the process, Ganguly with an off cutter took out Heath Streak.

And at 29.5 overs, with rain stopping play, that equation had been driven even further upward to 150 needed off just 121.

John Wright has been working on the theory that bowling dot balls is the key to winning ODIs; today, his bowlers have delivered in spades. At the 29.5 over mark, the tally stands at Nehra 30 dot balls off 42 bowled; Pathan, a superb 30 dot balls off just 36 bowled; Balaji, 31 dot balls off 42 bowled; Kumble, 22 off 35; and Ganguly, 11 dot balls off 24 deliveries bowled.

Cumulatively, of 179 deliveries bowled, the Indians have sent down 124 dot balls, and given away just 35 singles (and only seven fours – again indicative of the tightness of line and length).

Tighter field setting has been one obvious reason; the other is the athleticism the younger members have brought to the side. With Yuvraj at point, Gavaskar in the covers, Badani either at square leg or midwicket and Dravid at mid on/mid off, the team has put four sharp fielders in key run-saving positions, and their efforts have contributed to what, thus far, has been a very good defense of a relatively modest total.

This is an area the team has – deservedly – drawn flak for in earlier years; given that, it comes as welcome news to see marked improvement in a long-neglected aspect of India's one-day grammar.

PostScript: Is it just me, or do you guys too get the feeling that when this tour is over and the pluses and minuses are totted up, Irfan Pathan will come across as the single greatest find?