NZ vs WI | Takeaways - Windies’ plan of going full and New Zealand’s converse bowling tactics

06/23/2019

Kane Williamson played another innings of supernatural class but that triumphed Carlos Brathwaite's innings of the lifetime to help the Kiwis win the thriller by five runs. Windies, meanwhile, tried to bring a change to their bowling plans but that failed to change their narrative.

Windies change their plan, but was it for good?

One of the biggest problems that Windies had to face ahead of the New Zealand encounter was to change their game plan. Earlier, against Australia and Pakistan, they were singular in their approach and bowling short balls became their default plan. Having Oshane Thomas and Sheldon Cottrell helped as the Windies removed the full balls out of their strategy altogether. However, coming to Manchester, they had a plan B in their arsenal and to complement, the fire and brimstone of the pace-bowling duo, they added Kemar Roach and Carlos Brathwaite to the side.

From the very first over itself, their plan started becoming all the more evident. The swing available due to the moisture conditions in Manchester forced both Roach and Cottrell to land the ball up and it reaped excellent dividends. With Cottrell building early pressure, both Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson were watchful in the beginning and didn’t take any undue pressure. With only 30 runs in the first 10 overs, they lost the first bout of the afternoon.

Seeing their plan bearing fruit, Windies became more single-headed and regularly dished out full balls to the duo, without even realising how good Ross Taylor is when the ball is in the zone. Once the field spread out, Taylor cautiously worked the ball on the off-side and then instead of shuffling across their plans, Windies remained stagnant. Did they miss a trick there?

What Kiwis did wrong in the middle-overs

There was a credible similarity between the way both the teams bowled today. Windies went fuller to extract the swing available on the surface while at times, they dished out short stuff in order to get those mis-hits. The effectiveness of the strategy, as discussed above, was not a linear one but New Zealand did no good to their fortunes by making silly judgemental mistakes with the ball.

Apart from Lockie Ferguson, no one was really interested in anything other than spice. When the impact of the wicket died down, there was no point putting the ball up and when Chris Gayle is at the crease, one shouldn’t dish out any short stuff as well. Ferguson honoured the logic and targeted the good length area while others didn’t despite being hit by Gayle’s brute Calypso power.

As per Cricviz, when New Zealand bowled full, West Indies were scoring at 7.09rpo, and when they bowled short, they're going at 9.15rpo - but when they hit a good length, they're going at 1.77rpo. This was a clear indictment of what needed to be done but neither Trent Boult nor Matt Henry was interested one bit. Of course, in the backend of the innings, Boult delivered and handed New Zealand an easy win but the team could have avoided Gayle bashing with a more calculated approach.

The beauty of Christopher Henry Gayle

Evin Lewis suffered a hamstring injury in the first innings, making himself unavailable to open. Thus came Shai Hope, one of Windies’ proper ODI batsmen, but once he was dismissed, the onus was on Christopher Henry Gayle to bring out his destructive avatar so as to release some pressure. So he went for sixes. This uncomplicated approach has made Gayle what he is and in extension, has made West Indies what they are.

Using boundaries to help make up the difference elsewhere is the very basic foundation of Windies’ batting in T20s and they simply tried to use the successful formula to ensure that ODIs have a similar storyline. One can not say that few could and would have played the innings Gayle did and one perhaps say no one should, but with Gayle around, it is easy to forget them altogether and indulge in little revelry.

It might seem redundant or repetitive for the number of times I have discussed the bowling strategy here, but in the context of it, I will repeat it again. Gayle was served things in platter and everyone knows Gayle’s appetite once he decides to go big. It automatically becomes another day of Gayle spectacle and no one seemed to mind.