Rahul Mankad is a good listener. The son of former all-rounder late Vinoo Mankad and the brother of Ashok Mankad, Rahul believes that the current commentators in South Africa are totally bias.
by BIPIN DANI
“The SA commentators, Kepler Wessels, Mike Haysman and Robin Jackman in particular, kept on suggesting that the Indian batsmen succumbed to pace”, said Rahul Mankad. “Fair enough, one or two did show some weakness, but the fact is ALL batsmen struggle against genuine pace and India are no exception”.
“India were chasing daunting targets”, he continued. “300-plus in the first game and 280-plus in the second.
“Indian batsmen had to take risks and hoped that the percentages would work in their favour as it did in case to De Kok and Amla (who had lots of inner edges, french cuts and lucky shots in the early stages).
“Unfortunately for India, their shots..good as well as injudicious ones went to the fielders and they were out caught”, added the man who played 47 first-class matches. “Raina was unfairly criticized, particularly in the second match as he just seems to get into awkward positions (mainly due to indecision about whether to hook, duck or leave - NOT due to fear, in my opinion, as the SA commentators were alluding.
“How else does one chase 8-plus runs required in an over and I thought Raina acquitted himself well in the second match”.
“ALL teams generally perform better in ‘home’ conditions, including India and South Africa”, he further added. “Commentators love to point out the fact that it is ONLY India that does not perform well away from home.
“Is batting against pace the ONLY criterion for good batsmanship?”, Mankad asks. “It would be fair and just to suggest that just as a batsman is generally judged on how he bats against pace, pace bowlers ought to be judged on how they bowl on batsman-friendly wickets. Both cases are strong to confirm who are ‘backyard bullies’….be it batsmen from South Asia or pace bowlers from SA/Australia”, he argued.
“Finally, I just feel that the tone and language used to describe the Indian performance smacks of a patronising and condescending attitude by the SA commentators and it smacks of arrogance”, Mankad concluded.
Bipin Dani
He has toured UAE, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Malaysia, to name a few, and contributes to a large number of newspapers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
His twitter bio reads: Eat cricket stories, drink cricket stories, sleep cricket stories.
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