It’s vital to seize control early in T20

[1]

One of my coaching heroes and mentors was Brian Clough, the well known English football manager.

Back in the late 70’s, Clough took both his main teams, Derby County and Nottingham Forest from the 2nd and 3rd divisions to win the 1st division (now called the Premiership).

Not to be content with that he then proceeded to win 2 European Cups with Nottingham Forest — an amazing achievement for an English Club that had once languished in the lower divisions.

Not a man to mince words, he loved to play the game of squash and when a waiting journalist enquired if he had had a good game, he replied ‘yes son, I pretended the ball was your head’. In his autobiography titled “Cloughie” there is a chapter on how to manage a football team.

He contended for any side to be successful you needed outstanding players and performances in at least 3 critical positions.

As he used to say ‘there is no point in scoring 3 if we are letting in 3’. There are key positions in any side where real talent is vital.

If we were to simplistically apply Clough’s model to a T20 cricket team, it is my view that good sides will need at least 5 key players in critical positions.

The first 3 being your 2 openers and your number 3 in the batting order along with 2 opening bowlers, whether they be spin or pace.

In every game you start from scratch. In T20 you need to consistently win the first 7-10 overs and seize control early in the match to give yourself the best chance.

Otherwise you are always playing catch up. When you are selecting your team then, I would make very sure that I picked those 5 key players.

If you were to look at the score card of India’s annihilation of England the other day, Irfan Pathan was elevated to open with little success but India’s top 3 batsman all contributed from the top of the order.

At 3-119 after 10.3 overs, India were well ahead in the game. In England’s innings, only Dernbach with 35 got a start.

Pathan got two early wickets for India and Harbhajan did the rest.

So with bat and ball, India’s key players succeeded. At 2-18, batting second — England were always chasing the game.