da cassino： New Zealand’s batsmen had their tactics well worked out when they came to face the Indian spinners on a fifth-day pitch
S Rajesh23-Jun-2005New Zealand’s batsmen had their tactics well worked out when they came to face the Indian spinners on a fifth-day pitch. Play off the front foot, eschew strokes on the off side – especially shots against the spin – and sweep when in doubt.As the table below demonstrates, three-quarters of the runs scored off the bat on the final day came on the leg side. The stats were most stark in the first session, when only six runs were scored on the off side, and 43 on the on. It wasn’t as if the Indian bowlers strayed on leg stump either: out of the 540 balls bowled today, 400 pitched on or outside off, from which New Zealand managed 144 runs.Where New Zealand scored their runs todayRunsThird Man14Point15Cover20Long off3Long on6Mid-wicket61Square Leg44Fine Leg40The sweep shot came in handy too: 35 of them were played in thefirst two sessions, fetching 47 runs. Craig McMillan might havebeen dismissed playing that stroke in the first innings, but thatdidn’t prevent him from favouring that stroke in the secondinnings: 25 of his 83 runs came from that shot.The New Zealand batsmen played forward almost 75% of the time -not surprising, considering the nature of the wicket – but apartfrom Lou Vincent, no-one was prepared to use their feet and comedown the pitch. Vincent did it nine times, the rest of the teamdidn’t step out even once.For India, Anil Kumble showed an encouraging return to form. Asthe graphic shows, 212 out of the 235 balls he bowled were ongood length or slightly short – that’s an impressive 90%. ForHarbhajan, the corresponding figure was a mind-boggling 95%. ThatNew Zealand held on despite such accuracy says much about thefortitude and doggedness of the batsmen.Where Kumble bowled in NZ second inningsBalls bowledRunsFull1927Good Length18847Short of Good Length248Short412