It was not easy to convince Ishant to bowl short, says Dhoni after historic Lord's win

July 22, 2014

Ishant Dhoni
Lord's, Jul 22: The horizontal bat shot against the rising ball is the most unpredictable stroke in cricket. The batsmen are never in control of it. To negotiate it safely, you either sway out of the way or duck underneath.

In the Lord’s Test, the England batsmen seemed to have forgotten this important lesson and paid the price. It proved to be India’s surprise weapon when the going got tough on the final day of the dramatic second Test.

Ishant Sharma employed it to telling effect, using his height to generate steeply bounce. All five of his wickets on the fifth afternoon were off the short ball. It was a master plan by Dhoni and executed to perfection by Sharma, who reaped the rewards for a career-best haul of seven for 74.

With the India team for a long time now, Sharma is finally starting to live up to his role as the spearhead. He was outstanding in New Zealand in the Tests and continued his impressive bowling at Trent Bridge. But it is the Lord’s spell that he will cherish the most.

He had burst on to the international scene with an incisive spell to dismiss Ricky Ponting at Perth in 2008, playing a crucial role in that famous win. This victory is right up there with Perth and Sharma will cherish it as much. In Australia then, it was with in-swinging deliveries that he had done the damage. Here he used his height, proof of his improving and increasing arsenal.

On Monday morning, when Joe Root and Moeen Ali were together, it had become anybody’s game. Interestingly, Sharma was reluctant to try the short stuff and it was the wicket of Ali that gave him the confidence to go all out with the strategy.

FORCED TACTIC

“To start with, it was a bit difficult to convince him to bowl the short balls. So, I just told him and turned around and set the field so that he was forced to bowl short,” skipper M S Dhoni revealed.

“It worked, and once he got Moeen’s wicket, he was eager enough to try that line for a consistent period of time. He works really hard on his fitness and on his bowling. He doesn’t shy away from bowling long spells. Whenever you ask him to bowl, and whatever the situation, he gives 100 per cent. There is no reason why he shouldn’t test this line because he has the height, so he can exploit the bounce and put pressure on batsmen.”

Ali had looked untroubled in the morning session, but proved to be a sitting duck against a short ball. It opened the floodgates and Sharma scythed through the lower order.

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News Network
March 27,2024

IPLbettingsuicide.jpg

Bengaluru: Darshan Babu is an engineer who is fond of betting on cricket matches and has been placing major bets on Indian Premier League (IPL) games since 2021. He often borrows money after losing a bet, or to place one when he is short on funds. His 23-year-old wife, tired of the constant harassment by creditors, died by suicide.

Ranjitha was found hanging at her home in Karnataka's Chitradurga on March 18. According to the family, Darshan had racked up a debt of over Rs 1 crore.

He worked as an assistant engineer in the Minor Irrigation Department at Hosadurga and had been ensnared in the realm of IPL betting from 2021 to 2023. This took a major toll on the couple's finances. Allegedly, he had borrowed over Rs 1.5 crore to place bets after his luck ran out and he lost all his money. While he managed to return Rs 1 crore, cops say that he still has a pending loan of ₹ 84 lakh.

Ranjitha married Darshan in 2020. She realised the truth about Darshan's involvement in betting in 2021, claims her father Venkatesh.

In his complaint, Venkatesh said that his daughter was extremely distressed due to the constant harassment by moneylenders and this led to her suicide. He has also named 13 men who had allegedly lent the money.

He said that his son-in-law was lured into betting with a promise of quick money.

"He (Darshan) was not willing to get into betting, but the suspects forced him saying it was an easy way to get rich. They promised to finance his betting activities against some blank cheques as security," he said.

Cops during their investigation found a suicide note, where she detailed the harassment they faced. Darshan and Ranjitha have a two-year-old son.

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