In the end, it was a 93-run win for India. The total of 251 proved more than enough against this West Indies team which has offered less of a challenge than a bunch of kids playing gully cricket on any given day at the alleys of Mumbai, for instance.
So how does one analyse that batting performance by India?
The pitch in Antigua was not an easy one to bat on by any means. With torrential rain on the previous day, the pitch was moist, offered steep bounce for the fast bowlers and the spinners were difficult to put away. The in-form Shikhar Dhawan failed. The imperious Virat Kohli struggled. And despite all that, Ajinkya Rahane battled through and MS Dhoni applied the finishing touches like only he can.
Rahane and Dhoni. Two Indian batsmen who had questions to answer when this series began. Two Indian batsmen who had a point to prove. At the end of the match though, only one of them reiterated their importance to this Indian team and it was not Rahane.
Yes, it seems churlish to nit-pick on the batsman who has made 62, 106 and 72 so far in the three innings he has played in the series. Yes, it seems lenient to say Dhoni, with one good innings, did more to silence critics than Rahane, with a hat-trick of 50-plus scores.
But it’s in the contrast of how the two batsmen made their runs, lies the story.
Rahane was fully justified in taking his time at the top, with both Dhawan and Kohli back in the hut. His fifty came off 83 balls in the 30th over. For an opening batsman to score his 50 that late in the innings is not normal but given the circumstances, understandable. He took his time to adjust to the pitch, read the conditions, recalibrate what a good target was.
Dhoni was no different. It’s no secret that he takes his time to get going, when he comes into bat. That’s the Mahi way – spend time at the crease, get a read of the conditions, get the singles and twos, play many dot balls without the pressure of accelerating getting to your head and then go ‘wham, bham, thank you ma’am’ at the end. That’s how he has played for most of his ODI career.
But where Dhoni succeeded and Rahane failed was making a slow start count towards the end.
Contrast this: The difference between runs scored and balls faced constantly kept increasing for Rahane. 31 off 50 balls. 50 off 83. 60 off 96. And eventually, 72 off 112. An opener getting out in the 43rd over with that sort of statistics is a rarity in cricket these days, the nature of the pitch notwithstanding.
Dhoni, on the other hand, took 35 balls for his first 15 runs. And then he went to 41 off 60 balls, 50 off 60 balls, and eventually 78 off 79 balls. His last 44 balls brought him 63 runs.
This is not to say Rahane should have pulled a Dhoni. The former captain and finisher extraordinaire has, after all, mastered the art of accelerating towards the end of the innings. That’s his Modus Operandi. Few do it better than him.
But Rahane, who’s strike rate in ODIs has often come under criticism, did not do himself any favours towards the end of the innings. He continued to find the fielders in the deep, his perfectly-timed, text-book cricket shots did not bring him frequent boundaries. Except for a magnificent pull shot to six after reaching his 50, Rahane sturggled to break the shackles and did not manage to play catch-up with his strike rate.
That’s where Rohit Sharma has made a name for himself as an opener. Start slow, go big. Kohli does it remarkably well too, as he showed against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy and even during the second ODI in this series. The ability to shift gears is utterly crucial in white-ball cricket and that’s been Rahane’s undoing far too often.
Dhoni, for his part, struggled more than every other Indian batsman on that dual-paced Antigua wicket. He should have been out twice in one Devendra Bishoo over, as he tried to slog his way out. But ultimately he made his start count. He showed he still has it in him to go big, when the situation demands it.
That’s where it becomes tough to analyse Rahane’s form this series. On the one hand: runs and lots of them. On the other hand, he has shown us nothing we didn’t already know. He can graft, build, look classy doing it. But can he play the aggressor, when needed? The jury is still very much out on that.
While Dhoni showed there is merit to sticking with him despite the infrequency of such special knocks, Rahane showed why – with Rohit, Rahul and Dhawan firing – his limited-overs career might, perhaps, not go anywhere.
