Defensive cricket :-(

Whether it is 10 for 2 or whether it is 200 for 2, when Sachin and Dravid are in the crease one thing is certain to happen i.e game becomes drab when they both compete who scores lesser runs or who leaves more balls to the wicket-keeper. It is such a miracle how these guys have done this time-and-again i.e to kill the spirit of the game.

1999 India in Australia - First Test in Adelaide - the infamous test in which Sachin got out lbw to a McGrath bouncer(which sadly did not bounce). When Laxman got out after a quick 35 runs in which he was freely pulling/cutting/driving McGrath and other Aussie fast-bowlers (Laxman was kind of hinting to us all on what he is going to do in the next tests(he scored 167* in Sydney then) and in all the future matches against Australia), Sachin and Dravid started their patnership. The next hour or two probably saw the worst defensive batting one can ever see in international-matches when Sachin and Dravid were competing each other as to who is a better leaver of the ball. Once Aussies knew these guys are playing a drab innings they nailed us and India never lifted its head all through the series including the one-dayers. Imagine what other batsman in the dressing room will infer if Sachin gets to play such a pathetic knock in a pitch like that of Adelaide(which historically is kind of similar to India pitches i.e conducive for batting)!

Both these guys did it again in the recent series in South Africa when they needlessly went for another hugely irritating defensive tactic while setting a total for SA for the 4th innings. SA attacked and India kind of went kneeling from then on. What a shame, at one end we had Kumble/Sreeshanth/Zaheer struggling very hard playing attacking cricket high-priests of Indian cricket Sachin and Dravid spoiled the party.

Sachin did something similar in 1998 test against Pakistan in Chennai too i.e when he and Nayan Mongia played atrocious defensive cricket against bowlers of the calibre of Nadeem Khan(who is like a Mr.Nobody in international cricket) or Shahid Afridi. Though a good thing about that test is when, Sachin suddenly let loose and went on to play a memorable attacking shorts of Saqlain, though sadly we lost that test by a whisker.

Sachin has this rather irritating habit of looking at the pitch when he gets out to a ball which did not bounce as much as he had anticipated, and my god you have to see the commentators reaction when Sachin does this glare on the pitch immediately one gets to hear some mumbling by Gavaskar/Shastri(and other Sachin-crony commentators) as to pitch not conducive for test cricket and all that blah. The worst part is the kind of signals Sachin sends to other players in the dressing room who are bound to get psyched with all this and will stop playing attacking cricket.

But it s such a surprise how Sachin ups his game from nowhere for World Cup series alone. One has to look his World Cup average to realise how much of a big-match series this player is. Hopefully he does some justice to that reputation this world cup.