http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World T20 - Ruffling Raina with short deliveries in the tournament (Part 2) - Opinion
His dismissals in the T20 format have come in times when bowlers such as Fidel Edwards of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 for example, have managed to ruffle him up with short stuff before managing to elicit a poor stroke from him. Sadly for Raina, this trend of being ruffled
up has not changed. One can look back at Raina’s ICC World T20 campaigns in 2009 and 2010 to get a sneak peek into his technical failings. The quick pitches at Lords and the Kensington Oval were used with good effect by the Australian and West Indian quicks
against him, where he has often been seen fending off deliveries, instead of looking to attack them with hooks and pulls. The game against the West Indies at Lords in the 2009 tournament for example, hinted at how Raina got dismissed by looking to fending
off the disconcerting bounce of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Fidel-Henderson-Edwards-c57010 instead of attempting to play a stroke of substance.
Similarly, in Barbados a year later, he succumbed to the pace and flare of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, where once again a combination of accuracy and bounce led to his demise. Both these tournaments were disastrous affairs for the left-hander and for the Indian
side as they crashed out of the ICC World T20 in the group stages. This time around, if oppositions want to seriously cap http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750’s dynamic batting line up on Sri Lankan pitches, then pitching it short to players like Raina would be the right idea.
Indian batsmen as a whole, have historically struggled with pace and bounce and have often been seen playing unconvincing shots, ducking and fending off vicious deliveries. The irony with that fact however, is that some of the most formidable Indian batsmen,
which includes the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013, who plays India next in a
group stage fixture, should be wary over this fact.
The Poms have historically had the better of the Indians in all formats of the game, given that they have a better bowling attack, which is far better than Afghanistan’s. If they play it smart, then they could well and truly derail the flamboyance of Suresh
Raina in their Group Fixture against India. Dropping it short however, does not guarantee success, as thunderbolts need to be deployed with a considerable amount of precision and firepower. Half trackers at a regular speed could easily be deposited for boundaries
by this gifted player.
If teams with relatively more powerful bowling attacks such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 face off against Raina, if India progress to the next round, then instigating a batting implosion could well and truly start by peppering one of the Men in Blue’s classiest players
with short pitched bowling. The ability to not be able to fend off the cherry when it is pitched short can in part be attributed to the nature of the IPL, where dishing it out on flat wickets against bowlers, who lack the same venom and flare has become a
customary practice for him. At the international level however, it is a completely different ball game, and the oppositions which are playing in this year’s tournament are bound to wreak havoc on various batting line ups, let alone India’s.
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