So far in this World Cup we saw top order struggle to score runs and are not able to stay long at the crease (beyond power play)
This World Cup is played in two countries West Indies and USA. In USA they are playing in two cities Dallas and New York and both are recently build.
The Nassau County Int.Cricket Stadium in NY, is played on drop-in pitch, which is made of Kentucky grass. The Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas is natural grass.
It is true these pitches are not similar to what ‘players’ used to playing cricket. The bounce is even but it is more of a tennis ball leap which comes bit slow off the pitch.
Last year a new franchise tournament was played in America, called the Major League Cricket in where matches 19 matches were played in only 2 venues, i.e Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas and Church Street Morrisville in North Carolina.
Interestingly in 19 matches only twice teams lost all 10 wickets when batting first and only 5 times they were restricted inside 150 score!.
There were 9 instances where teams manage to score 170+ when batting first
Here is brief stats of both venues
In ongoing World Cup we have seen lack of basic technique by top order batsmen. The openers tend to lose patience when ball is moving around a bit. They would succumb to it by playing big shots and most of them get out doing that. If you are defence is strong enough then you would find a way to score runs and bat deep into the innings. The trick is to understand how you are adapting to surface and what bowler is trying to on that surface.
There is another reason I personally feel very strong about it. These players are used to playing on flat pitches for last few years that they have forgotten how to do their basics. This now has gone viral, as we see top order from associate teams employ the same batting skill!.
Now interestingly few teams have altered their batting line up to face these challenge. For instance India meticulously have used Virat Kohli to open the batting with Rohit Sharma, instead of Yashasvi Jaiswal. Virat has strong defense, greater awareness and good judge of a quick run. India against Pakistan promoted Axar Patel at No. 4 so that batsmen like Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Shiv Dube can bat late in the innings.
Now on the other hand teams like Australia, West Indies, Afghanistan and Scotland had decent start to their inning and they were able to dictate terms in powerplay. They have played all their matches in West Indies at venues which is not same as venues in NY and Dallas, yet few teams like New Zealand, few associate teams struggled to score runs!.
It seems teams dread when pitch is offering something for bowlers. They would chose to bowl and struggle to chase down small targets.
There is an interesting stat here-
So far in 21 matches when batting first, 6 times teams lost all 10 wickets scoring less than 125 runs, which is very high.
- Oman 109 v Namibia at Bridgetown
- Sri Lanka 77 v South Africa at NY
- Nepal 106 v Netherlands at Dallas
- Ireland 96 v India at NY
- PNG 77 v Uganda at Providence, Guyana
- India 119 v Pakistan at NY
As we are at halfway stage of round one, we could see teams changing their batting line-up. Here is a brief stats of partnerships in each venue.
