World T20: India undone by Ashwin, Pandya no-balls

MUMBAI: What if Ajinkya Rahane had kicked off a little earlier? What if R Ashwin and Hardik Pandya had not overstepped to give Lendl Simmons, the Man of the Match, two lives? What if Ravindra Jadeja’s foot hadn’t grazed the boundary line as he caught a tough catch and parried it over to Virat Kohli? Why didn’t MS Dhoni bowl Ashwin for more than two overs? Why didn’t he continue with Kohli the bowler, after he removed Johnson Charles for 52 in an over that contained just four runs?
It would be cruel to play out a Match Ka Mujrim (‘Criminal of the Match’) type crass analysis as one Hindi news channel used to do several years ago, but questions will be asked, theories will abound, critics will harp and Twitter will buzz with a clash of anger and resentment.You cannot give a batsman hell-bent on winning a game on his own two lives, that too off front foot no-balls. You cannot bowl full tosses, beamers and half-trackers on a surface as friendly to batsmen as the Wankhede is.
India were let down by Jadeja, whose four overs cost 48; by Pandya, who bowled a big front-foot no ball and conceded 43 in his four; and by Ashwin, who gave Simmons that first reprieve. When a spinner oversteps it becomes tougher to digest, considering the slowness with which he comes to the crease.
Pandya, who many still feel was lucky to escape in Bangalore last week when Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah fell of successive deliveries when Bangladesh needed three runs in three balls, bowled too many short and short-of-length deliveries on Thursday to West Indies' trigger-happy batsmen. First Charles and then Andre Russell smote him into the stands with glee. The free hit that followed Pandya’s no-ball to Simmons disappeared into the stands, and was the shot that really snapped India’s spirit. The 22-year-old has a lot to learn about bowling at the international level, as a T20I economy rate of 8.08 suggests.
As he later admitted, Dhoni felt India were good except for the times Ashwin and Pandya overstepped to give Simmons lives on 18 and 50.
“The only thing I’m disappointed about are the two no-balls. Other than that we tried our best and even if the conditions were not in favour of the spinners, whatever resources we had we tried our best in the game,” he said. “Frankly, you have to take into account that nobody wants to bowl a no-ball but it is just that on tracks like these when it is so difficult. If you bowl a no-ball and get a wicket off that no-ball then there is no one else to blame because also one of the catches was brilliant that was taken off the no-ball. What it does is that it gives you a free-hit and the batsmen gets a chance to get into some kind of a momentum. So I feel that the point at which the no-balls were bowled were quite crucial."
"If we had got those wickets, we would have got the opportunity to bowl at one or two overs of spin and get away with them without giving too many runs,” he added. “Nobody wants to bowl a no-ball so I don’t want to be too tough on them but when there is pressure you have to be at your best. No-ball is something that can be avoided, especially the front foot no-ball. You practice more and you practice more. The only thing is that if you don’t want to bowl a no-ball you should never bowl a no-ball.”
According to Dhoni, the dew factor made it tough for Ashwin and Jadeja to bowl. "You know, 30 more would have been really nice, but you have to realise it was a half an hour early start, a bad toss to lose, so when they started batting the first few overs were fine, but after that there was a considerable amount of dew which meant the spinners couldn’t bowl how they would have liked to. It was coming on nicely and the ball was getting wet, so that was the difference between the first innings and second innings,” he reasoned.
“As the dew comes in it becomes difficult for them [spinners] to turn the ball. The seam gets wet and the surface becomes a bit greasy so it comes onto the bat nicely. I feel we have seen that our spinners do struggle in conditions like these. If you remember, in one of the T20 World Cups we were knocked out because of one bad game and in that game there was a bit of dew … or I don’t remember, maybe it was rain that got the ball wet … so that's where our spinners find it difficult. It was quite evident. Ash [Ashwin] only bowled two overs, Jadeja was forced to bowl the last quota of his overs otherwise he would have only bowled three overs."
Which makes it somewhat odd that Dhoni removed Kohli after one superb over, the 14th of West Indies’ chase. Dhoni said that he had held back from bowling Ashwin because of “Andre Russell and the big hitters and the amount of purchase there was on offer”. He is not a spinner, and the lack of pace he offered at the time proved a masterstroke. Dhoni’s legend is built in part on such decisions, but in hindsight he may have preferred continuing with Kohli for another over. Instead he swapped Kohli for Pandya, and the over went for 18 with the no-ball and free hit working wonders for Simmons.
These are decisions that can be debated and pontificated over endlessly. The fact is, India were beaten by the hungrier side on a batting surface that assists chasing. It was here that Chris Gayle’s 48-ball 100* powered West Indies to a six-wicket chase of 183 with 11 balls remaining and England chased 230 with two wickets and two balls to spare. There are lessons to be learnt from this defeat to West Indies, and with several months before India’s next T20I assignment, there is enough room for Dhoni’s team to assess where a stirring campaign came undone.
Practicing on keeping the front foot inside the line would be a good place to start.