Mystery of small targets

By John Cheeran
Chasing small targets is never easy, that's the conventional wisdom.
India realised that the hard way against England in Jaipur on Sunday.
Rattling off 126 runs should have been a stroll in the park for any international side and for India, enjoying the home advantage and with Sachin Tendulkar back in fine touch, the task should have been all the more easier.
But that was not the case.
Why?
The popular theory is that a small target makes run chasers complacent. They assume that the match is already won and are likely, not to show the determination needed to stay there and work hard for runs.
A couple of big hits and it is a custom to leave the job of overhauling the rival score to others till tail enders gasp for breath all of a sudden.
Also it is assumed that the fielding side would be more charged up than usual and fight for every wicket and deny batsmen easy runs.
Everytime a one-day match witnesses the misery and mystery of small targets, such thoughts come to prominence. But I tend to disagree. It is not the mind thing.
The villain in such cases must be the pitch.
If you pause to consider why the team batting first could not manage a big total, you will realise that conditions were not favourable for stroke making. What is good for Team A should be good for Team B too in this case.
Pitch conditions do not alter drastically with in the course of a single day and especially when the team batting first is all out in 40 overs, more than a great bowling effort, it is the uneven bounce and vagaries of the pitch that authors the nail-biting moments.
Small targets, necessarily, do not mean easy wins.
It only means that run making is going to be really difficult out there and anything is possible. Even a total, lower than the target.
So it is not easy, it is tough..