Indian batting in need of the knockout punch

After leading India to their third straight win in the World Cup against UAE, MS Dhoni said that as the knockouts came closer, his team would have to keep making incremental improvements despite having done superbly so far. To whatever extent possible, India were able to test their bowling first against UAE, without the comfort of a massive total backing them unlike their previous two matches. The top order led by Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli has set up games against Pakistan and South Africa. Suresh Raina and Ajinkya Rahane have contributed a vital, accelerating knock each. The other batsman in the top five, Rohit Sharma, too spent some time in the middle and remained unbeaten against UAE. What remains now for the batting line-up to sort out is the finishing in the last five overs.

Against Pakistan, India were 273 for 2 going into the final five. They managed another 27 for 5. Against South Africa, India were 271 for 4 going into the final five. They managed another 36 for 3, not as bad as the Pakistan finish but not too good either. Against UAE, their chase was completed in 18.5 overs, just enough time for only the top order to have a hit.

It may seem as nitpicking at a set of batsmen who have reached 300 or more in successive innings against top-quality attacks in a world event. The margin of the victories - 76 and 130 - is evidence that India had already got too many regardless of what happened in the last stretch of their innings. Also, the Pakistan fast bowlers were terrific that evening at the death, and it is difficult to take 15-run overs off the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

But viewed in isolation, it is indeed an area requiring the fine-tuning Dhoni spoke about with an eye on the knockouts. India would not want a repeat of that wobble against Pakistan in the scenario of a close quarter-final, for instance.

Admittedly, it is hard to find too much fault with the batsmen at that stage given the way those innings panned out. Deciding when to accelerate when batting first is not as straightforward as doing it while chasing, where the sight of a target dictates the flow of the innings. And India have batted first both against Pakistan and South Africa.

In both games, a dominating century partnership was broken late. Kohli went second ball off the 46th over against Pakistan. Dhawan departed fourth ball of the 44th against South Africa. Both were batting on hundreds, Dhawan on a big one. Their partners, Raina and Rahane, also followed soon. That sucks almost all the momentum from an innings at both ends, and at that late stage, it is extremely difficult for the incoming batsmen to walk in and start connecting.

Dhoni has been constantly practicing the power hits in the nets during the tournament. But he is a batsman who likes to give himself a few deliveries to size up things before opening up. He did make 18 off 13 and 18 off 11 against Pakistan and South Africa, but arriving in the 46th and 45th overs, he just did not have any time to find his bearings. He fell with five and seven deliveries left respectively. That can easily be a difference of three sixes each for someone of Dhoni's capabilities.

After the South Africa match, Dhoni had indicated that it was not easy for new batsmen at the death in these conditions. The boundaries are deep in Australia, there is bounce, and teams are using short of a good length and asking batsmen to clear the rope, knowing that mis-hits won't sail for six.

Ideally, the power-hitters such as Dhoni should probably be in by around the 40th over so that they can take a couple of overs to get in and then get going. At the same time, India would also want the top order to continue firing, and not lose their way earlier in the middle overs or even in the batting Powerplay.

With three wins out of three in the bag, India have three relatively low-pressure matches remaining to get their batting machine humming even better than it has in the first half of the group stage.