Against South Africa, one good turn deserves another

When Vivek Ranadive coached his daughter's school team to the final of the national junior basketball league in the mid-2000s, he coerced them into employing a non-stop full-court press for the entire duration of the match.

Even today Ranadive, a software tycoon and principal owner of the NBA franchise Sacramento Kings, narrates this coup with pride. After all, a large majority of the 12-year-olds who played in that team were not serious players.

But the Mumbai native trained them to play the game the way it was never played. And they beat much stronger teams by huge margins. Ranadive's exploits prompted Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling author and journalist, to include this story in a stirring piece for The New Yorker. It was titled 'How Davids beat Goliath — when underdogs break the rules'.

When India take on South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, the contest will not be billed as a David vs Goliath affair. It will be sold as the match-up of 'The Defending Champions vs The Aspiring Champions'.

But one thing's for sure: the Proteas will go into the game as the heavy favourites. Going by the form of their batsmen like AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, David Miller and JP Duminy, and the pedigree of their bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, only an optimist or a die-hard fan will put his money on MS Dhoni & Co. in the second round Group 'B' encounter.

It's still early days, but the World Cup is witnessing a trend: the pitches are flat and 300-plus scores are the norm. However, variables — in this case a constant — like the pitch don't matter to the likes of de Villiers and Steyn, the world's top-ranked players for some time now. Like most 22-yard strips in this country, the MCG wicket will assist pace and offer bounce yet promise to be a batting beauty.

This will prompt South Africa to play four frontline pacers in Steyn, Morkel, Vernon Philander and Farhaan Behardien. Who knows, they could even add Kyle Abbott to the mix. This is not rocket science. It's common sense: serve your opponents just what they hate. And everyone knows India are uncomfortable against genuine, quality pace.

Why, then, shouldn't the Indian team management think on similar lines? Why not drop a pacer, say Umesh Yadav, and include a third spinner in the form of Axar Patel? Perhaps, spin will be the best way to go against the South African batsmen. Do you think that de Villiers or Amla, who have been bred on pace and take on Steyn & Co. in the nets every second day, will face any trouble against India's pace attack?

In a tournament like the World Cup, Dhoni must be flexible with his selection policy. Although Australian wickets are not known to support spinners as much as the wickets in Asia, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin did a tidy job against Pakistan in Adelaide last Sunday. Yes, the wicket was dry but not a spinner's paradise.

If Ashwin returned figures of 1/41 off eight overs (including three maidens), then Jadeja bowled his quota and took 1/56. That they bowled well against a team brought up on a diet of spin bowling speaks volumes of their effectiveness. If Ashwin bowled a classical off-break to induce a sharp edge off the well-set Haris Sohail (caught by Suresh Raina at first slip), then Jadeja dismissed the dangerous Umar Akmal for a fourth-ball duck by beating the batsmen with turn. Dhoni did the rest by taking a sharp catch and reviewing the umpire's decision to turn it in his team's favour.

If Ashwin is about skill, resourcefulness and angles, then Jadeja's bowling style typifies the direction spin has taken in world cricket. Call him a dart thrower or whatever you want, but by giving the ball a flatter trajectory, he restricts the flow of runs. This builds up the pressure and gets him, or the bowler operating from the other end, success. This may not work in Test cricket, but it does in ODIs.

India should consider including Patel for Sunday's game. Not only is he a reliable batsman lower down the order, but he also bowls faster through the air, thereby shaving a few microseconds off the batsman's time. In the final of the 2011 World Cup, Dhoni didn't take too long to decide that he had to go ahead of Yuvraj Singh. Now, he has four practice sessions in as many days to try out something new. In a World Cup, that's a long time.