Mar 24, 2007 04:15 PM
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I was planning to buy a Tata Sky or Dish TV DTH connection before the Super-8s start but thanks to Team India, I have postponed it indefinitely. I hope team India plays as well as it did yesterday and keeps on making me postpone this purchase forever!
Poor chaps, they can't even hide anywhere now. Faced with mounting criticism, coach Chappell had only one thing to say, "We haven't played well enough." Thats all! Hiding behind the issue of Bob Woolmer's death, he says that the time isn't ripe to comment on the issues surrounding Indian Cricket. Australian diplomacy?
So, where did the team go wrong? For a start, the selection itself was wrong. Sehwag was already a big issue but he saved his nose by making 48 valuable runs yesterday. He will survive in the'new' Indian team that will be rebuilt in the aftermath of this result.
The big 3 didn't do much. By the time I started watching the Indian innings yesterday, Ganguly had been dismissed for a painfully made 7 off 23 balls. In fact he didn't look in touch even against Bangladesh and Bermuda. It was like being back to the old days when Ganguly wasn't producing the results. The thing that went in his favor in the old days was that he was the captain and the team he was leading was yielding good results. This time however, it is not the same case.
Moments later, Dilhara Fernando came steaming in, and bowled a ball at close to 90 miles per hour and Mr. Tendulkar get an inside edge and the leg stump goes bang! Tendulkar goes, on a duck, off 3 balls.
I had a nagging feeling at the back of my mind since early yesterday morning that Tendulkar will flop in this all too important match. He didn't disappoint me. It is kinda funny how he never fails to disappoint me. Many a times I have wished that he make runs and he does and then many a times I fear that he will fail and he does! Is it telepathy? No, because I have seen Tendulkar long enough to know that he has a habit of failing in the most crucial match for his team. His 14000+ ODI runs will come to naught now that he and his team have failed to win the World Cup, despite the fact that he has represented his team in 5 editions.
Dravid has been given the nicknames of'Mr. Dependable' and'The Wall'. He may be the wall but he should know that a wall too can develop some cracks which eventually surface at the most eventful time. 60 off 82 doesn't look bad but he did not need to play the kind of shot he played to step up the tempo. How could he forget that he was batting with the tail and another close to 100 runs were needed. And then he goes on to say that the target of 255 was achievable.
With 2 of the big 3 gone, who is left? Ah! Yuvraj and Dhoni. So what does Yuvraj do when he sees the batsman nudge the ball behind his legs straight to a fielder? He runs, and runs like he is catching a flight back home. And then he realizes that he has missed the bus! So he runs back to his end, only to be run out. How irresponsible!
What about Dhoni? Nah, I won't call him poor chap! I'd call him a case of far too many chances without the right results. This dude has a style statement in each commercial he appears in but unfortunately he can't bat in style against a good bowling attack.
What next? My guess is that its sayonara time for Mr. Chappell. His experiments have gone too far for our liking. He is said to have initiated a'process' of building a team, way back in mid-2005, when he took up coaching India. Hello? What do u need to build on? Mr. Chappell, the team that you inherited from the reigns of John Wright was already a good team. Your experiments have ruined the good work done by Wright in 2002-04.
Just compare the team of 2007 to 2003. The team of 2003 had a bad start to the World Cup. An unconvincing victory over Netherlands in the opening match was followed up by a mauling at the hands of the Australians in the second. The team came back strongly, to win the next 4 matches and storm into the Super-6s, semis and then the final. They were always charged up. Tendulkar was hitting 6s like the boundary never existed. Zaheer and co. were bowling as if they were the best in the world. And Yuvraj and co. were fielding like an incarnation of Jonty Rhodes.
The team of 2007 is a dejected lot, even when the results in the games leading up to the Cup were encouraging. The body language says it all. They are lethargic, and more importantly, they look like playing against each other rather than together. Above all, the sense of pride is missing in them.
Yes, players like this deserve to be losers.
As for me, yeah I am a happy man. No longer will I stay awake long into the night and no longer will I crave for a DTH connection. Ah! Its a brand new day. Lets get on with our lives:)
