After India's opening match against Pakistan, MS Dhoni
had said that bowling sides were resorting to short of a length in the
World Cup and challenging batsmen to play big strokes. At their full
training session in the afternoon at Junction Oval in St Kilda in
suburban Melbourne, two days before their second World Cup group game
against South Africa, his team worked that plan into the routine: the
India quick bowlers tried mostly back of a length or full length in the
nets, and their batsmen tried to attack them as often as they could.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has had ankle issues on this tour and did not play against Pakistan, did not bowl in the nets, and was confined to catching practice and sending down a few from a standing position to Mohit Sharma. Stuart Binny and Umesh Yadav began proceedings and had extended bowling stints on the centre pitch. They started against Shikhar Dhawan, who was given plenty of back-of-a-length deliveries, which he repeatedly punched through the off side. Umesh bowled some quite full ones, too.
It was Ravindra Jadeja's turn to bat next and he, too, had a decent hit while Dhawan headed to the side nets to face shortish throwdowns from the sidearm device. Jadeja joined him there after some time.
Ambati Rayudu kept wicket against Binny and Umesh, with coach Duncan Fletcher and Dhoni keeping a watch from close quarters.
Virat Kohli then came to bat as the fast bowlers switched to the other end, and were joined by Mohit. Kohli solidly drove and lofted pitched-up deliveries on the off side.
Ajinkya Rahane went after shortish deliveries outside off, as he punched and upper-cut them.
Both batsmen and bowlers need to get more comfortable with the short of a length stuff, as Dhoni has flagged it as the favoured option in the tournament in these conditions against attacking batting.
"If you have a partnership going, if you have wickets in hand, and if somebody starts to middle the deliveries, it becomes quite hard to contain the batsmen because of the pace of the wicket and also with that extra fielder inside. A lot of times you feel, okay, where to really bowl so we can contain the batsmen," Dhoni had said. "Most of the teams are just bowling back of the length and asking the batsmen to clear the boundaries, and irrespective of how good a batsman you are, that's one strategy that almost all the teams have deployed, and it is working.
"In some games you'll see somebody really middling the shots, and if it goes outside the boundary, then they'll have to fall back to their other plan of bowling yorkers."
Dhoni himself batted against the fuller lengths expected at the death and powered deliveries in the air, on one occasion almost lofting one straight into the giant scoreboard around wide long-off. He was similarly aggressive against the spinners as well and stepped out regularly to them.
Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma had some fielding and catching practice first before having a hit. Raina had to run to touch one of three-four plastic markers placed around him, turn around, sprint to field a ball and aim at one of two sets of stumps.
While Axar Patel and Jadeja had a bowl, R Ashwin was not seen sending down his offspin, although he did play a game of football along with the others at the start of training and belted a few with the bat late in the session.
Team director Ravi Shastri and Kohli had a chat at the edge of the boundary after the conclusion of training with Raina and manager Arshad Ayub sitting nearby.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has had ankle issues on this tour and did not play against Pakistan, did not bowl in the nets, and was confined to catching practice and sending down a few from a standing position to Mohit Sharma. Stuart Binny and Umesh Yadav began proceedings and had extended bowling stints on the centre pitch. They started against Shikhar Dhawan, who was given plenty of back-of-a-length deliveries, which he repeatedly punched through the off side. Umesh bowled some quite full ones, too.
It was Ravindra Jadeja's turn to bat next and he, too, had a decent hit while Dhawan headed to the side nets to face shortish throwdowns from the sidearm device. Jadeja joined him there after some time.
Ambati Rayudu kept wicket against Binny and Umesh, with coach Duncan Fletcher and Dhoni keeping a watch from close quarters.
Virat Kohli then came to bat as the fast bowlers switched to the other end, and were joined by Mohit. Kohli solidly drove and lofted pitched-up deliveries on the off side.
Ajinkya Rahane went after shortish deliveries outside off, as he punched and upper-cut them.
Both batsmen and bowlers need to get more comfortable with the short of a length stuff, as Dhoni has flagged it as the favoured option in the tournament in these conditions against attacking batting.
"If you have a partnership going, if you have wickets in hand, and if somebody starts to middle the deliveries, it becomes quite hard to contain the batsmen because of the pace of the wicket and also with that extra fielder inside. A lot of times you feel, okay, where to really bowl so we can contain the batsmen," Dhoni had said. "Most of the teams are just bowling back of the length and asking the batsmen to clear the boundaries, and irrespective of how good a batsman you are, that's one strategy that almost all the teams have deployed, and it is working.
"In some games you'll see somebody really middling the shots, and if it goes outside the boundary, then they'll have to fall back to their other plan of bowling yorkers."
Dhoni himself batted against the fuller lengths expected at the death and powered deliveries in the air, on one occasion almost lofting one straight into the giant scoreboard around wide long-off. He was similarly aggressive against the spinners as well and stepped out regularly to them.
Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma had some fielding and catching practice first before having a hit. Raina had to run to touch one of three-four plastic markers placed around him, turn around, sprint to field a ball and aim at one of two sets of stumps.
While Axar Patel and Jadeja had a bowl, R Ashwin was not seen sending down his offspin, although he did play a game of football along with the others at the start of training and belted a few with the bat late in the session.
Team director Ravi Shastri and Kohli had a chat at the edge of the boundary after the conclusion of training with Raina and manager Arshad Ayub sitting nearby.
