Well before the Mumbai Test started it was obvious that the pitch will be a rank-turner and the spinners will get the purchase right from the start. Both teams were quite vocal about their preparations going into the second Test. The Indian team made it very clear about the role of the spinners in the coming Tests and England team said that they have it in them to negotiate Indian spinners even after the Ahmedabad debacle.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni went to the extent that he does not want a pitch like Ahmedabad and want the pitch to turn from the first day so that the toss becomes irrelevant. He was criticised by some people but the general feeling was that there is nothing wrong in exploiting home conditions.

Dhoni got what he wanted and on top of that he won the toss, the reaction of Alastair Cook after losing the toss explained how deeply he wanted to bat first. The stage was set for the Indian team for another riot, but it all changed and the end result was very embarrassing for India.

England defeated the home team by ten wickets and made a solid comeback into the series. Indian team failed in the conditions tailor-made for them. Dhoni after the match blamed his spinners for the loss and indeed it was a poor performance by the Indian trio. England spinners were better than the Indian spinners and that turned the game England’s way.

Now let’s discuss the reasons why England spinners were such a force in comparison to Indian spinners.

English bowlers bowled at a right pace: England team management made a correct choice by picking Monty Panesar in the side. Monty over the years has been criticised for the pace he bowls and the lack of flight he gives, but this worked in his favour on the Mumbai pitch. He bowled at the perfect pace, his average speed was in the 90s and he got rewarded for that. Dhoni himself admitted that the pace at which Monty bowled gave Indian batsmen problems. Indian bowlers even after seeing Monty bowl, stuck to their style and were ineffective. In the final innings they tried bowling a lot quicker but that a little t0o late.

English spinners forced the batsmen come on the front foot a lot more: The biggest difference between Indian spinners and England spinners was the length that they bowled. English spinners were a lot fuller and were duely rewarded. In the first innings, Sehwag, Sachin, Kohli, Dhoni were all dragged on the front foot and that lead to their dismissal. Same happened in the second innings with the dismissals of Sehwag, Dhoni, Pujara, Yuvraj among others. Indian spinners were a bit reluctant to pitch the ball up and stayed to a good length, they shortened their length even further when Pietersen and Cook started playing attacking shots.

England spinners bowled a better line: Both Panesar and Swann bowled a far better line, Panesar bowled at middle and leg stump line to a right-hander and forced the batsmen to play most of the delivery. In comparison, Ojha bowled a bit wider allowing the batsmen to free their hands. Swann being an off-spinner bowled outside off-stump and looked dangerous bringing the ball back in. Both Harbhajan and Ashwin bowled at an off and middle line helping the batsmen to hit them through the leg side.

Indian spinners bowled far too many lose deliveries: The difference was not only in the wickets column but also with the pace with they gave away runs. In the firs innings, Ojha’s economy was 3.5, Ashwin’s was 3.4 and Harbhajan went for 3.5 runs an over. In comparison, Panesar went for 2.7 and Swann’s economy rate was 2. It is essential for spinners to keep batsmen in check and English spinners were successful doing that.




By Indian Sports News Network