on why bhajji will hit six again than taking easy singles...

shared by straight point on Sunday, June 20, 2010



"Bhajji has always been a super hero, a larger than life figure. Whether it is Test match or one-dayers, Bhajji has always contributed runs whenever needed," Dhoni said. "But I think we should not call an allrounder and put pressure on him, and let him be the way that he is and allow him to contribute with the bat."

when the captain is happy with a chance win than a professional performance... when the captain (and a friend) wants bhajji to be like hitting sixes when the task could have been achieved by taking easy singles without unwanted frills... bhajii will keep on looking for a chance to become hero... sorry... super hero...

17 comments:

Soulberry said...

Balajhi raised the same point in response to my post. It is not a coincidence that both you and Balajhi are/were opening batsmen!

You chaps are thinking like top order batsmen unlike lower-middle order and lower order bats like us! :)

Let me show how a lower order/lower middle order mind works -

When Bhajji went in, he must have just gone in with one thought - "I've got to stay and do it."

Mind you, Bhajji is a lower orderite who has the ability to belt it.

being a lower orderite, he espies juice and can't help swish because his mind tells him, "this has got to go."

He misses...guilt screws up the mind. It hammers in the fact that I have screwed my team and I have to get my team out of this.

tries to make amends next ball by handing over the strike to higher orderite...as he should have done before. Only, the higher orderite finds himself short for there wasn't any real run unless both were primed.

Then the lower orderite with a limited ability is determined to take his team home.

In walks a further lower orderite who is probably thinking "boss, Bahjji paaji will tonk it...I just got to get it to him."

Understand that Bhajji could have done the same with Raina if unfortunately his limited but definite ability with the bat wasn't an impediment. The ability to hit intervenes and says "you must share the responsibility."

And that's drilled into lower orderites in team talks and by coaches.

I would look at it this way - Bhajji realized the akwardness he caused but didn't succumb to the despair of it and get out. He cleared his mind - with all that chatter going on must have been tough - and sought a solution to the problem he and India had landed in.

He looked for the solutions, found them, and latched upon them.

I think there are some appreciable qualities in that after conceding some to the thought process of lower orderites with some ability to bat.

If higher order batsmen were doing such a thing, I'd be sternly critical of them for making it close first and trying to be heroes. In fact i almost posted an update when Dhoni and Rohit let their partnership cruise just a few over longer without unfurling the mainsails to catch more wind and sequentially reduce the asking rate. They thought they'd be there at the end and didn't account for "what if we are out?"

As it turned out both were dismissed and we were presented with the situation into which Bhajji stepped in to change.

Please go easy on Bhajji and lower orderites SP :) I'm sure you must have faced the same situation n number of times in your club and tried to change their batting and thinking habits. :)

I sincerely doubt if the main aim with which he stepped into the ground yesterday was to be a "Hero". I could be wrong because only he can tell us. All he must have been thinking must have been "hame yeh har halat mein jeetna hai." That's better than nothing or being afraid to be the "villian".

straight point said...

that is why i blamed dhoni (or team thinking) sb... ;-)

we give far less credit to tailender brains then we should... just being bowler who can bat a bit... or just being a lower order bat does not mean they are empty upstairs...

the clear brief to bhajji would have been to give strike to raina who was going great guns... and the game would have been as good as over before the penultimate over...

it was not as if bhajji was at great pains against bowling... infact he looked far more relaxed and composed than even raina... but for the itch to be a hero... hence the crucial deliveries were missed and task become more urgent than it should have been...

infact this can become second installment of your "Things that will puncture India's 2011 World Cup hopes" post... :D

Mahek said...

3 off 9 balls if you take out the two sixes. No captain would criticise a player in public for almost blowing it and one can only speculate on what was said behind closed doors.

straight point said...

are you talking about same dhoni who have had publicly criticised rohit for run out just to give you one instance amongst many...?

tho i agree in principal that no captain would blow his player publicly... but what dhoni said went beyond praising... its like giving encouragement for the next occurrence...

Balajhi said...

"we give far less credit to tailender brains then we should... just being bowler who can bat a bit... or just being a lower order bat does not mean they are empty upstairs...

the clear brief to bhajji would have been to give strike to raina who was going great guns... and the game would have been as good as over before the penultimate over... "

I totally agree with you SP. May be Jadeja playing above him didn't go well with him. Only way to up your case to show some heroism. Now he is a hero, if not a super one.

Mahek said...

I don't know which run out you're referring to, you'll have to remind me of what game it was. I doubt it was a game against Pakistan Nohit won for us, which is what Harbhajan seemingly did yesterday.

His whole approach to batting suggests he can't think like a batsman and that is why I will never consider him an allrounder. That and the fact that he averages less than 20 and doesn't have a single ODI fifty to his name after so many innings.

I don't understand why people think it's OKAY to bat brainlessly just because you're a lower order batsman. Andy Bichel combined brilliantly with Michael Bevan twice in the 2003 World Cup and he was batting lower than Harbhajan. Look around world cricket and most teams have lower order batsmen who don't suffer from brain cramps.

We won this game because Aamer bowled badly but just a few months ago we botched two close run chases against Australia. Heck we went almost a decade (1998 to 2007) without successfully chasing against the Aussies.

straight point said...

what an irony balajhi... :)

straight point said...

i was right off my memory so even i have to dig it out mahek... :)

you have put it more aptly than me mahek and needless to say i totally agree with your assessment...

i remember many of our chases that ended up as a loss by close margin coz tailenders just came and hoiked acorss the line to midwicket with closed eyes rather than putting ball to bat somehow and give strike to more accomplished batsman at other end...

Mahek said...

Just like 1999 when we lost 3 wickets in an over with Kumble (Yeah he used to be good back in the day) stuck at the other end.

straight point said...

mahek... i wish i had the elephantic memory like you... :)

Prabu said...

SP,

I could agree with you if HS tried to hit every single ball out of the park.

It depends on how you want to look at what he did. He hit a six against Akhtar, it came off and he didn't try again and played percentage. He didn't go for a wild swipe even when he couldn't score runs against him. It's not like his dot balls came against a dibbly dobbler with him playing ugle shots. I would think that it merits a "well done" rather than condemnation.

2 balls and 3 runs to go - why is it wrong for Bhajji to back himself and hit that shot? It's easy to sit outside and comment on what he could have done, but ultimately it comes to a battle of wits between the bowler and the batsman in this situation and in this case Bhajji guessed right. Like SB says, you could fault Bhajji if he were a frontline batsman but he isn't one. His strength lies in playing by instinct and he backed himself to do it and he did it.

Prabu said...

Mahek,

It is simply naive to pick one game that Bichel played and compare against Bhajji's approach in one game. Do you have proof that Bichel did that in every game or Bhajji has played like this in every game? You can pick and choose what you want to glorify or denigrate someone easily.

I have seen tonnes of games when Indian tailenders committed hara kiri trying to win close games by running mindless singles and with that in mind, it is easy to applaud Bhajji's approach.

Mahek said...

I don't know what game you were watching Prabu, he tried ugly heaves to the last two deliveries of Shoaib's over. We needed 7 off 8 at that time.

And what's with this excuse of him being a lower order batsman? This isn't the bloody eighties when lower order batsmen weren't expected to contribute. It seems people are okay with a batsman/bowler if he does his primary job and is rubbish otherwise. No wonder we're a shit fielding side.

Mahek said...

Bichel did it in two games in the world cup. That's two more than what Harbhajan has managed in his career. His was just an example.

Harbhajan's approach yesterday was no different from what it's been in games we've lost. The difference was only in the result thanks to Aamer bowling a terrible ball.

straight point said...

prabhu... i don't have problem with him hitting six when we needed 3 off 2... his is no fault if that ball connected well... my problem with him was what he did in previous over where we could and should have closed the game...

as i said bhajji was not as if he was struggling against good bowling and was not able to put bat on ball... on contrary all those dot balls were the making of his own...

now that we have won this can be dismissed as a hypothetical situation (ifs and buts)... but had bhajji got out on the same shot and we lost the game we would have been ruining the run-out of raina as the turning point of the game when he was forced to do what he did coz bhajji was mindlessly heaving one shot after another when the actual requirement was to just give strike back to raina who was in supreme touch...

and my another problem is with dhoni who comes and hails him as super hero who is larger than life... almost encouraging and inviting him to do the same next time...

Som said...

I still feel Aamer erred in length and sent down a bad ball and Harbhajan dealt with it in the only possible way. Recall the ball, where it pitched and you know it was there just to be hit.

straight point said...

som... no doubt the ball was there to be hit... and to his credit he hit it the way it meant to be...

but as i said during above comments... its what he did before that over was erratic to me...

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