Another final ... another toss lost ... another big score conceded ... another time the batting chokes under pressure ... all too common. Nothing unexpected about it.
India went into the match with 5 bowlers. They had played with 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers all through the series to conclude that the bowling lacked firepower and that the top oder was too complacent and took things easy because of the presence of an extra batsman. Hence the decision. What happened ?? It was the bowlers that took things easy now - Zaheer Khan though economical was a pathetic trundler who looked like he was 55 years old, Pathan was up and down and never recovered from the atrocious way that increasingly annoying Mahendra Singh Dhoni kept to him, Nehra was good with three early wickets and three late ones but still conceded 6 an over. Harbhajan was tidy without threatening and Kumble was back to being his old self of 1997 where Jayasuriya (with DeSilva) would play him with disdainful contempt.
And then the batting - the start was pretty good - Sehwag for once did his job well - and the fact that we were in the hunt up until the 35th over was a pleasant surprise. But when you play with 5 bowlers we need to realize that we cannot expect ANYTHING from thwm with the bat. Yes - all 5 of them flatly refused to even reach double figures. Add to that Mahendra Dhoni's inexplicable shot to a straight ball from Chandana and it was patently evident how the 5 batsman ploy emphatically backfired. I would not like to condone Dravid and Yuvaraj here for throwing away their wickets at exactly the wrong time - but to put things in perspective such things happen - it is usually upto the lower order to shore things up - not many teams chase 280 with 2 wickets down too often - the fact that that represented India's only chance of a win itself is a disgrace. When Sri Lanka chased down 221 in the league game against India how great a support role did Chandana play in aiding Jayawardene ?? Today even after Dravid's departure Kaif was eager and willing to take the fight - but the pathetic lower order flatly refused to give him company - either that - or they are just horribly incompetent with the bat - either way it is really worrying.
Now coming to the fielding - the less said about it the better. To be brutally frank and harsh the likes of Nehra, Zaheer, Kumble and Ganguly are a disgrace to fielding anywhere in the outfield. Contrast this with how well the Lankans fielded, even when the Dravid-Yuvaraj partnership was going great guns. It was their fielding and not letting the ones being converted into twos that kept them in the game ultimately forcing Yuvaraj to play a big shot. And look at the way the Arnold-Jayawardene partnership put the pressure on the fielders. At 122/4 with Jayasuriya gone things looked rosy for India but without hitting any risky shots or even flamboyant shots the 2 kept ticking the scorecard so well - Harbhajan was the only one who displayed some sense of commitment in the outfield.
All in all, a well-deserved and expected defeat. It will be interesting to see what happens from now on. Hopefully this would have given Greg Chappell a clear-cut idea of the mess Indian cricket finds itself in. It is now that he comes into picture - what he comes up with from between now and the next triangular in Zimbabwe - there too we should reach the final comfortably but going by our record we should lose it - let's see if Chappeli can do something to avoid that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Chappelli was Greg's brother - Ian. So named because on the scoreboards, to distinguish between Ian and Greg, the scorers would append the I, for Ian, and it read Chappell I, or Chappelli. A few years later, after a run of several ducks in a row, for Greg, the joke went around that referred to him as Chappello, or Chappell 0. :-)
Post a Comment