Team Off the Pitch comes together to go through the journey so far for the finalists. Listen in as Sid, Umesh, and Aditya come together.
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to OTP. We are in the final stages of the World Cup. There is only one
[00:00:16] game left, the biggest game of the entire Cup. This will decide who will be called as
[00:00:22] the champion over the next four years. Well, not exactly because there's always the T20
[00:00:28] champion and the WTC champion. But every once in a while when they play one day, they will
[00:00:32] remember that the champion team is either Australia or India. My name is Aditya Mattoo
[00:00:39] and with me I have Umesh and Sid. We will be talking about, we'll be talking about
[00:00:45] Rickett. Hello everyone. Hello. We'll be talking about a very crucial stage, the most
[00:00:50] crucial stage and the final stage of the World Cup. Yes, we will be. And for
[00:00:55] this episode, first of all, it's good to be in person with all of you. Yeah. Finally we're
[00:01:00] doing this. Our commitment to the show is increasing day by day. Our commitment for sure. I don't
[00:01:06] know about our listeners commitment. Are you guys listening to this?
[00:01:10] So today's episode has been divided into two parts. Number one is how do you beat
[00:01:18] India? And number two is how do you beat Australia? So in the first half, you are the Australian
[00:01:26] think tank. You are Steve Smith if you want, you are Pat Cummins if you want. How do you
[00:01:33] stop India? Say India is batting first. Rohit Sharma, Shubhan Gillam walked out. How
[00:01:38] do you stop them? Sid. Okay. So I think what India is doing very crucially in the
[00:01:43] power play is capitalized on the power play. And Rohit Sharma is, I mean like he's making
[00:01:48] a 45-50-60 runs in your power play and like by himself and then the Shubhan Gillam catches
[00:01:54] up and which is very crucial because it makes it removes a lot of burden on the shoulders
[00:01:58] for the middle order batters. So I think if you dismiss Rohit Sharma, you're saving
[00:02:02] yourself a lot of like you reducing the run rate. Yeah. So that and of course your
[00:02:07] anchors are Kohli and Rahul who stick around and they build the ratings and they
[00:02:12] go all out like in the end. So that is one factor if they dismiss one of them. I mean
[00:02:16] you have to break that batting down. That's the only way to do it. And Australia, I mean
[00:02:23] yesterday, I mean last match we saw power play wickets from Australia which we haven't
[00:02:27] seen like as often in the World Cup which is a good thing for them. So if they manage
[00:02:32] that good for them. Spinners, I don't know like Zampa, he's not really sticking
[00:02:38] wickets in some of the matches but he's also very expensive. I think they'll allow him
[00:02:43] to be expensive as long as he takes four wickets, they'll be like go for a hundred, it's okay.
[00:02:47] Yeah, but then now you have Maxwell, Travis Head yesterday was insane. So I think your
[00:02:52] opener is a very good spinner. Maxwell is a good arm bowler like both us arm bowlers,
[00:02:56] Travis Head were getting to spin it a lot. So yeah, I think like they can just stick
[00:03:00] Stoiness or Cameron Green instead of Zampa.
[00:03:06] You are supposed to be bad comments, not like destroy bad comments. So then again yesterday's
[00:03:12] match was at Eden Gardens. This finals is at Amdabad. So there's a huge difference in the pitch as
[00:03:19] well. So I'm not too sure about the suggestions right now but how Australia could plan and
[00:03:25] defeat India. First of all, I don't think they can but if they really want to,
[00:03:32] that's what I'm saying. Timeout dude, lock the locker room. It's anyways 120 steps from
[00:03:39] stop them somewhere in between offer what about again to Roy Chenman or tackle them like rugby style
[00:03:44] while they're coming back. Australia is really good at rugby. So they could try that option to
[00:03:50] stop our batsmen or infest the field with kangaroos. That might be a bit difficult considering
[00:03:56] so getting see we already have penguins here in India kangaroos is taking it too long and cheetahs
[00:04:02] also. I mean, we've done that. So yeah, maybe exactly funny thing about this Indian batting lineup.
[00:04:09] It's scary really good. And if you had to make a list of all batters across the history of ODI Cricket
[00:04:21] who have scored minimum of 2000 runs, this is a benchmark throughout the history of cricket,
[00:04:26] ODI cricket people who have scored more than 200 runs. And if you had to place them by average
[00:04:34] Indian top five batters will be in top 15. They will of course. Yeah,
[00:04:40] Shuman Gill has the best batting average of all time. He's 60 plus number two is this guy called
[00:04:46] Kohli does he has his days whenever India plays and then there is a year then there is
[00:04:55] Rahul Rahul is like the Ringo star right now any other band he would have been the hero
[00:04:59] he is the Ringo star and finally you have Rohit Sharma at 49 points something. Yeah,
[00:05:05] but his strength lies in destroying the top. What Rohit Sharma does is he makes sure that
[00:05:10] he destroys the confidence of the top polars of the opposing team. I mean like look at what he
[00:05:15] did to trend bolts. Oh, that was brutal. I was brutal. He walked down and he didn't for a second.
[00:05:19] I may bowlers career. No, I mean, he'll just make sure that they're a
[00:05:24] arched in confidence. Now you do what you can and trend bolt couldn't do anything in the final overs
[00:05:30] also exactly. So you ruin a confidence about about Kail also see dude many of the top run getters
[00:05:38] including Virat Kohli the captain of our team right now Rohit Sharma and few other team members
[00:05:44] probably will not play the next walk up probably I don't know looking at the fitness
[00:05:48] level Virat could actually sail through yeah, I'm like look again his fitness. I don't know
[00:05:53] I mean like that's his personal call but about I was coming to Kail Raul what he's doing is
[00:05:59] he's actually making sure that he adapts to the requirement and the dedicated assignment
[00:06:07] that has been given to him by the team beat keeping full time keeping doing very good keeping
[00:06:13] he's also called as a GPS for our team. Yeah, and he's too good at it. Look at the judgments
[00:06:20] that he suggested to Rohit Sharma about the reviews. Correct. Both the times he was about
[00:06:25] a degree when he said no, don't do it. Don't do it. And he said it very calmly because everyone
[00:06:29] is so excited. He said listen, don't don't it's it's armed don't do it. So he's just doing it
[00:06:34] properly nicely. I obviously feel that he is going to be the next Indian captain if he
[00:06:40] continues with his current form of batting and if he's going to be that good at keeping
[00:06:45] which will probably keep on improving if it becomes our full time. Yeah, we get keeper
[00:06:50] probably not because few of the team members probably will retire.
[00:06:54] Punt I don't think probably will be part of T20 because see dude, Abhidho he's in recovery stage
[00:07:01] then they're going to be proper fit and to get qualified for the international cricket team.
[00:07:08] He'll play test for sure. Like he was so good in test. Yeah, he's the best. Anyways,
[00:07:13] I have one bit which about like how good this team is. The first semi-final when
[00:07:20] Kail Rahul came to bat, there were eight overs left. I was like, fuck they should have sent
[00:07:24] Surya. Same. And I was like, yeah, this is perfect tailor made for him. This is his T20
[00:07:30] moment and it's one kid. And it's one kid he knows one kid he is done with for Mumbai.
[00:07:34] He can do it and they sent Rahul and I was like, oh, he's going to like he can't do it
[00:07:39] as well as he scored at a strike rate of 200. What else can you ask for? Okay, so
[00:07:47] somehow take wickets up front. Okay, can we done like I think Stark, Hazelwood can do it,
[00:07:54] but can they control middle overs? See the last match was played in Eden Gardens
[00:07:58] and the ball was doing a lot and the ball is not going to do that much compared to Eden Gardens
[00:08:04] also like the South African batters came under a lot of pressure after Babu was wicked
[00:08:08] because they were very desperate to score. They were getting stuck when it doesn't make six
[00:08:11] six. Bahumas wicked? Yeah. Does that even matter? Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
[00:08:16] I mean, dude, that guy is something different. Sorry. I mean like I mean like I'm team Bahuma
[00:08:23] like one of the as one of the memes says zero attitude, zero tattoos, zero ego, zero jealousy,
[00:08:29] zero contribution. He just had a bad word. I mean it's like Babar Azam. He's still
[00:08:35] in some corners of the world. Bobzy Karachi. That's like dude really I mean even if he comes at number
[00:08:42] 10 it doesn't matter right now. I don't mind. Yeah, I scored an ODI this year but anyway,
[00:08:48] Spurs South Africa. Yeah, you take early wickets let's say Hazelwood Stark do it. You get Sharma,
[00:08:55] you get Shubman, maybe get Kohli, you get Lucky, but can you sustain it in the middle overs?
[00:09:00] Can Zampa, you think a Shreya Sayer who averages 90 against Spin can't take down Zampa or at least
[00:09:07] just milk Zampa? That's exactly what I'm saying. See I'll tell you Australia so far. Okay we're
[00:09:12] talking about the bowling. I don't know Pat Cummins hasn't been as effective in this World Cup
[00:09:16] as a bowler but as a batter he's been very good and that's what Australia has been very
[00:09:20] unpredictable at. They lose five six wickets but they still hold on. You should have seen
[00:09:24] the series before the World Cup started the Australian series. Sean Abbott played a very
[00:09:28] good innings. Now Glenn Maxwell then you have all your tail enders are playing much better than
[00:09:33] your first five six batters unless like the first five batters get going. So they need to have a
[00:09:40] good day basically like you need to have Mitch Marsh or someone just go all out. Actually that's
[00:09:44] a good thing about Australia. They have a lot of bowling options. They have Zampa and three
[00:09:49] bases and they have Maxwell and they have head, they have Mitchell Marsh also. Mitchell
[00:09:54] Marsh yeah. It's the proper all-rounder. Yeah also the first match that we played with Australia
[00:09:59] obviously they hardly made it like one. So 199 to 189 yeah. Shami wasn't there. Yeah that was the
[00:10:05] second thing I was coming to like what if India bowls first how do you survive that? How does
[00:10:11] Australia survive that? I don't think they'll have see I'll tell you Australia is a very good
[00:10:14] player of pace. The pitch isn't doing as much so I think they will enjoy playing there
[00:10:18] generally as like batters. Batters being batters they'll be paced ball may or may not
[00:10:22] come on to the ball but if you see the match against Pakistan was held in Ahmedabad and Indian
[00:10:26] bowlers literally squeezed wickets on that pitch. They squeezed wickets. The Baba Razum wicket,
[00:10:31] the Muhammad Rizwan wicket but you also gotta know that Shami plays for GT. Ahmedabad is kind of
[00:10:37] his home ground for the past two three years because in India nothing is your home ground
[00:10:41] until you're part of that regional team. Everyone says home ground but it's a home
[00:10:44] ground for one person but whatever. So Shubman Gill and Shami looking I'm looking
[00:10:49] for my prospects. I mean Kohli, Dorech, Sharma, Aiyar, Rahul, Aiyar very consistent batters.
[00:10:55] They're gonna play. Jadu is gonna be very interesting for me. Big ground right?
[00:10:59] Lots of areas to cover. Sanjad Duran bowling. Cool deep might be targeted because the ball
[00:11:06] isn't gonna do much but he can make anything happen. So yeah. Even in this previous game
[00:11:13] he bowled in one of the semi-final. He bowled in one of the easiest portions to bat
[00:11:20] when Mitchell and Williamson were going well but he still came under 60 runs and over like 60 runs
[00:11:26] for his spell. It requires a lot of guts. You're bowling the 44th over like I would never send
[00:11:31] a leg spinner. And again somebody against a partnership who's made like almost 200.
[00:11:37] They made above 200. Yeah. But again the match is at Narendra Modi Stadium and I feel
[00:11:44] again the Shami factor will come and play if you're bowling first even if you're bowling second
[00:11:48] because during IPL also Shami did very well at Narendra Modi Stadium. He took I think four wickets.
[00:11:55] So yeah that's what like I think how India's bowlers are working like Bumbra bowl he puts a
[00:11:59] lot of pressure on the batter. The batter started to target other players.
[00:12:03] Yeah. So you can't target Bumbra as such because he's just generally very,
[00:12:09] very consistent. He's probably one of the best bowlers and then they had to target Seraj or Shami.
[00:12:14] Now Shami in that way of targeting Shami he ends up taking a lot of wickets because you cannot
[00:12:18] target Shami. He never misses his line of length. There is this cricket fan and a stand-up comic
[00:12:25] called Andy Zoltzman. Actually him and John Oliver used to do a podcast called Bugle.
[00:12:36] He put a tweet out after India's game that day when Shami took seven said,
[00:12:42] Shami the first bowler to take four World Cup five hours which is incredible in itself.
[00:12:50] Three in six innings in this tournament. Again amazing but this is the part which sold it for me.
[00:12:57] He has taken as many five-fours in this World Cup as Bob Willis in Botham, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall,
[00:13:07] Kapil Dev, Ravi Ashwin and Shane Maughan have in their entire ODI careers combined.
[00:13:13] No way.
[00:13:14] Nine ninety-two innings where these guys haven't been able to take three, what do you say,
[00:13:20] three five-icket holes and these guys are in one World Cup.
[00:13:23] Ridiculous.
[00:13:24] Look at the names. It's Bob Willis in both Imran, Malcolm Marshall, Kapil Dev, Ravi Ashwin, Shane Maughan.
[00:13:30] And Shane Maughan.
[00:13:31] This year's World Cup best bowling figures in top five, top three are Shamis.
[00:13:37] Wow really? And I think there is a Jadu somewhere right?
[00:13:40] No, don't judge. There is three of Shamis. One is Jadeja. The other is Shain Afrid.
[00:13:47] Five-fourth, eight-t or something.
[00:13:48] Okay so now let's move to the second bit. If you are India, how do you ensure Australia does
[00:13:55] not go through? Say if you're batting, Australia is batting. David Warner, Mitch Marsh, what do
[00:14:02] you do?
[00:14:02] India's strategy is very complex because they're not always like head first, face
[00:14:07] first into the thing. They're always like they are, they know where to be cautious,
[00:14:11] they know where to be attacking. That is one thing with India so in Ahmedabad, like I don't know,
[00:14:17] obviously one of the bowlers are going to be targeted. They are aware of that.
[00:14:20] You think that's going to be Kuldeep most likely?
[00:14:23] Might be, I'm saying condition wise it's going to be Kuldeep 100% Sriraj because Sriraj is
[00:14:27] someone who targets and attacks. So if he attacks, it doesn't work. They're going to
[00:14:31] target him only like it happened last match also but he started bowling like really well.
[00:14:35] Cross-seam.
[00:14:36] India cross-seam. So yeah, it's going to be very interesting. Like I generally want to see like
[00:14:40] what approach?
[00:14:41] What do you think? Any if Australia bats first, do you think they'll do something special or do
[00:14:47] you think Indians will do something special?
[00:14:48] I genuinely think that it could be an easy win for India. I mean like not because I love India
[00:14:54] and that's there. Obviously I do love India.
[00:14:56] I hate Aussies also.
[00:14:58] You're going to be bowling.
[00:14:59] No, I do it. I mean like seriously. See there was a time when bowlers used to be scared to
[00:15:06] bowl against Australian openers, middle order. They were really tough to get wickets.
[00:15:12] Like you have to work really hard to get their wickets.
[00:15:15] Australia has come back in form. They have won eight matches in a row and all that is there.
[00:15:21] However, if Warner doesn't play, if Mitchell Marks doesn't fire,
[00:15:26] they won't reach beyond like 350.
[00:15:28] They won't because also Smethan Labushen, they take a lot of time there, anchor.
[00:15:34] By the way, can we take a moment to talk about Kotsie? Seven overspell in a semi-final and brilliant.
[00:15:42] I think probably one of the best spells has ever played.
[00:15:44] I get goosebumps. Like the spell of the tournament.
[00:15:46] You know Kotsie looks like he's from a video game. Okay with this whole headband
[00:15:49] and everything. He's like he's come from like Tekken or something and I'm like yo full
[00:15:54] rampage mode on and he was just I don't know he was magical like he was like hoodie because
[00:15:59] I don't know what he was bowling was really smart like in terms of seven overspell in India in this
[00:16:04] heat in Kolkata and pace is still there. Like he touched 150 right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He touched
[00:16:09] he was 115 on two hours almost. Nine hours no he bought nine hours. Seven on the trot.
[00:16:16] Yeah so India probably India by the way just another fun exercise that I want to do
[00:16:23] last time India Australia played in a final was of course 2003. Yeah, yeah there was terrible loss.
[00:16:29] We're talking about batting lineups right? Like how India's batting lineup is so good.
[00:16:34] Let me just take you through the Australian batting lineup for that year.
[00:16:37] Sure. Adam Gildkris number one scored a 57 of 48 118 strike rate. Okay. Matthew Hayden
[00:16:45] scored a 37 of 54 68 strike rate. Then came Ricky Ponting 140 or 121 and Damien Martin 88 of 84
[00:16:55] and they got 359. Darren Lehman didn't come to bat. Michael Bevan didn't come to bat.
[00:17:01] Andrew Simons didn't come to bat and then there was Brad Hogg, Andy Bickel,
[00:17:04] Bradley Glen Megra. So apart from Bradley and Glenn Megra everyone could hit everyone could
[00:17:10] hit a six. I have seen Andy Bickel win a World Cup game with the bat. I've seen Andy Bickel do it.
[00:17:16] He won a World Cup game with the bat against New Zealand.
[00:17:21] Imagine Andrew Simons is coming at number seven. Yeah.
[00:17:25] This guy could play test cricket proper test cricket. That's what I'm saying you know like
[00:17:29] it's a fearful batting lineup. Right now David Warner has come back in form and all that's there
[00:17:36] I mean like but I don't know. Well because our guys have played against him during IPL a lot.
[00:17:42] They know what to do. Yeah exactly and our bowlers were Zaheer, Srinath, Nehra, Arbazhan,
[00:17:48] Sahwa, Tendulkar, Dinesh Mongia, Bowl 7 overs that day. RKL is the new Rahul Dravid.
[00:17:53] Correct. Correct. And Indian batting was Sachin, Sahwa, Ganguly, the top three,
[00:17:58] Kef at number four who went third ball pick, caught Gilkris Bowl Megra. So you know how
[00:18:03] the ball was what happened. Then Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mongia. Okay India also had a
[00:18:08] decently long batting lineup. There are Harbhajan, Zaheer and Srinath and we lost by
[00:18:13] Bhayankar. 125 runs. Bhayankar had won 125. Yeah it isn't as bad but I think it was the first
[00:18:18] time our generation saw India in a final so yeah maybe that's why and plus that
[00:18:23] we could only take two wickets of Aussies. You think we can in or Indian team can inflict
[00:18:28] such scars on current Aussie teenagers? Why not? I mean like I don't have any doubt. See obviously
[00:18:35] on that day of the game whichever team plays better game will win that's there but
[00:18:41] I don't think there is any doubt in my head that we cannot beat Australia. Yeah exactly.
[00:18:46] Like it's quite clear India everything it takes as of now. Right now we have everything.
[00:18:50] Everything is there in our team. Every aspect is covered in terms of the requirement for a team
[00:18:57] to win a World Cup. Yeah if we perform that day we will win. I mean like that's about it. I think
[00:19:02] someone had said it on this show only like the only way to beat India is to make a best of the
[00:19:06] world team. Yeah see dude Dekak unfortunately he tried to hit Josh Hezelwood and like. Stark
[00:19:15] and Hezelwood were just having the yeah they were having really good times so nicely they
[00:19:20] bowled the first spell obviously then David Miller treated them very nicely. Oh wow David
[00:19:24] Miller super. I think if Australia wins it will be the end of ODI cricket everyone get tired like
[00:19:30] you won six World Cups. Yeah like like you are Brazil stay as Brazil don't cross the World Cup.
[00:19:35] If India wins it will live for four more years because star sports will not let anyone forget
[00:19:39] that India is a World Cup champion. See if India went it is going to be all about
[00:19:42] India and Kohli right? Who I shall not name it's going to be about someone else who
[00:19:47] I shall not name. Well you can name that person. No I don't want to name. He is the
[00:19:51] easiest son of someone not famous. I mean that's a lot of people in India they have sons
[00:19:55] of someone not famous like the percentage of famous people in the country are less so yeah
[00:20:01] that is there and on that note we are wrapping up this episode of OTP. Sid say bye. Bye.
[00:20:09] Ume say bye. Bye guys have a wonderful Sunday World Cup final. Yeah.
[00:20:14] And you all are rooting for India. Ajit you can shout bye. Bye. And that's all for today. See you.
[00:20:21] Thank you guys. Monday. Monday or Tuesday let's see if India wins then maybe Tuesday.
[00:20:26] If India doesn't then maybe Monday itself fair enough. All right see you and that's all for
[00:20:32] today's episode. Let's celebrate on Sunday.