India must address batting collapse in slog overs

It's been a near-flawless performance by the Indian cricket team in the ongoing ICC World Cup, but there is one grey area skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the team management would quickly like to address before the side gets ready for the all-important knock-out stage of the competition.

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Victories over arch-rivals Pakistan and a formidable South Africa have apparently papered over the cracks that seemed to appear during the team's batting at the death.

Against Pakistan, from a relatively comfortable 273 for 2 in 45.2 overs, India slumped to 296 for seven in 49.2 overs, eventually managing to reach the 300-run mark. The middle and lower-order collapse effectively meant that India were 23 for five in a space of four overs.

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There was a repeat of the script against South Africa when India were cruising along at 261 for 2 in 43.3 overs before being reduced to 302 for 7 in 48.5 overs and finishing with 307 for 7.

This time it was 5 for 41 in 5.1 overs and, notably, skipper Dhoni's contribution in both matches was 18 each.

With the bowlers putting up a stupendous show, the late-over collapse in back-to-back matches did not come to the forefront, but the 20-odd runs that India missed in both matches could cost them dearly in the knock-out rounds.

Skipper Dhoni gave his side of the explanation after India's 130-run win over South Africa in Melbourne, last Sunday.

Asked if the lower-order batsmen are finding it difficult to clear the boundary, he replied: "Well, it is a difficult one. It's not only us. Most of the sides, if you see, it's not easy especially if you are on the last wicket. If you have set batsmen, they have an idea about the pace and bounce of the strip and they can score."

Dhoni defended his tail-enders, saying that if some of the better batsmen find it difficult to gauge the pace and bounce in their bid to score freely, no one can blame the players coming after that.

"If you have set batsmen, you can tell them to hit. Like when I was batting with (Ravindra) Jadeja. Until that time we were scoring at a decent pace. If it's difficult for the batsmen, we can't expect (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Mohammed) Shami to score that 8, 9 or 10 runs an over because more often than not the opposition don't allow us to score that freely. Until the batsmen were batting, I thought we were scoring at a decent pace. I don't know the stats, though," Dhoni said, making his disinterest for the numbers evident.

With four more matches in the group league stage and the only big team left to counter is the West Indies, India's captain is hopeful that batting at the death will get better with the passage of time.

"Slowly, with more games and seeing the condition, I think we'll start getting more and more runs," he said.

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