Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Sachin out of ODI series and India needs a miracle on 5th day

First things first. Sachin, who has been way below par for several matches (kind of understatement; in fact, below par for several years now) suddenly announced that he needs to have shoulder operation and was promptly out of the ODI team. The obvious question is - Does this have any connection with the booing, he received in his own back yard. My initial guess is YES since he has been fielding in the deep through out the series, which defies logic - if you accept that his shoulder is dodgy. Any way, India has to learn be with out Sachin's physical presence (they have been coping with out him firing for a long while). For now, let me leave it at that since any further comment will be purely based on guess work.
England went into a shell and strangely things have been very, very slow on the 4th day. Freddie got his usual 50 with 3 usual lives. In all about 15 catches were grassed by India and England limped to 190 odd.
I wish Pathan had not got out since he is one player who could have gone for the shots on 5th day morning. But, now AK and WJ have to guard themselves first and this is going to put some pressure on scoring pace later. India can still fancy their chances but the odds and history favor England.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home