Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Disappointment at Durban !! History repeats itself?

We have seen this shambolic show too many times in the past and hence I doubt very much whether the average Indian cricket fan will bother too much. After some miracle victory, they will come back and promptly hand over the advantage to the opposition and this time was no different.
If one looks carefully through the trend, right from one dayers, the batting has been a let down (for both the sides) and bowlers were made to look good. India won the 1st test primarily due to one afternoon collapse of SA batting and not due to their own batting skills.
India's lack of solidity at the top against genuine pace and its inability to take wickets at vital stages did them in again for the umpteenth time. It was disappointing to see India go down without a fight. They should have easily drawn the game in the last day, given all the deductions in time due to bad light etc. The top order caved in again and it is time to pack Viru. VVS promised much in the 1st and even in the 2nd but did not carry on to make it decisive effort. As far as the rest, the less said the better. Finally, between umpiring mistakes, bad light and horror show by top order (Viru, Dravid, Jaffer - what was he thinking,playing that pull in 2nd innings, SG and of course Sachin), India lost another test and went into history books as one country which is almost sure to loose the next test, after winning one.
The scene shifts to Cape Town, which is not that bad of a wicket when it comes to aiding spinners and the bounce will not be as bad as the traditional Durban wicket. Kumble will have to take some thing like 6 or 8 wickets in each innings, for India to have semblance of a winning possibility. The SA batsmen (Price and Kallis in particular) hopefully will get out quickly and not repeat their acts of past.

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