After a well-deserved break, India entered the Asia Cup as favourites. Predicatbly, they failed miserably. India always do better when they start as underdogs or as equal competitors than when they start as favourites. A singular victory over Sri Lanka by the narrowest of margins in a game in which the opposition had nothing to prove allowed India to sneak into the finals. But they could not chase an eminently gettable total on a slow Premadassa wicket under lights. How predictable !!! Tendulkar top scored. How predictable!!! He could not carry India home. How predictable!!!
Things went from bad to worse. India did not make it to the finals in an absolutely meaningless tri-series in Holland, lost to England, who were then an extremely ordinary One Day unit themselves 1-2; and for the first time failed to reach the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy. Tendulkar suffered one of his worst injuries and missed all the action - and the young guns Yuvraj and Sehwag failed miserably throughout.
Against this backdrop, India geared up to defend the final frontier against Adam Gilchrist's Australia. For 35 years, the Aussies had tried and failed. Would they succeed now ? India held some hope. So what if Tendulkar did not play ?? It was the Dravids and the Laxmans; the Kumbles and the Harbhajans whom the Ausies feared the most: after all, despite a terrible ODI season India were expected to hold their own in Test matches.
A host of factors contributed to ensure that that did not happen. One, the Aussies were better prepared than ever before. They gave up on the idea of mental disintegration to the extent that they took fairplay to new and at times excessive levels (what with the walking and all that); they gave up on their attack at all costs approach; bided their time well, set defensive fields and squeezed the life out of India at Bangalore and at Nagpur. Unfortunately the law of averages caught up with Rahul and Laxman just at the wrong time and the best efforts of Harbhajan and Kumble proved insufficient.
Also luck finally smiled upon the Aussies and turned its back completely on India. An extremely gettable run-chase on the last day at Chennai was washed out - a match which India dominated. When India went on to clinch a thriller on a minefield in Mumbai thanks to the efforts of the spin trio and an extremely rare masterpiece of 55 from a returning Tendulkar; that day in Chennai gained all the more significance. It could easily have been 2-2 and that would have been a fantastic result for India. As it happened, India lost only their second series in the last 30 months (the other was in New Zealand 2003). Still nothing to be ashamed of. The frontier was defended well for 35 years and finally won over by worthy opponents.
It looked as if the light at the end of the tunnel was becoming visible slowly but surely. However India had to endure a most boring draw at the hands of a most boring South African team in Kanpur before the tide finally turned - and rightly, it turned at the greatest Cricket theatre in the World - the magnificent Eden Gardens. Harbhajan Sehwag Dravid all finally fired together to power India to an expected but much needed morale-boosting series win.
And then there was a 2-0 hammering of Bangladesh where predictably Tendulkar came to the party with 248*. Pathan came into his own and Bangladesh were beaten comprehensively. But just when you thought that order had been restored there was another surprise in the waiting. Resting several top players, most notably Dravid and Tendulkar, India lost an ODI to Bangladesh - only their second win over a nation of any note - and though they came back emphatically to win the series 2-1 it clearly confirmed that India finish 2004 as one of the top Test teams but one of the worst One Day teams and that there is a lot of work to do.
There were several memorable performances from the players, many records set - much more on that coming soon ...
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1 comment:
Highly biased article, criticizing Tendulkar unnecessarily and trying to give a feel that Dravid is a better player than Tendulakr. How predictable!!!
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