Familar Territory and familiar result !! Abject surrender

Rain provided the odd optimist some relief but nothing could prevent the SA march and it was a sad end to another series that India lost shamelessly. Dravid has to take the blame for being naive in several areas - he neither read the wicket before the match, during the match or after the match. India should have bowled out SA for less than 150 in both innings, provided he had Bhajji (in place of the unfit Munaf) or he had bowled the otherwise umimpressive Sachin, much earlier. We all know Kumble; he can be effective only in certain pitches and with such a big patch outside the leg stump (where a bowler like Warne would have walked away with 15 wickets), he dished out some absolutely common place stuff and it is a no brainer that he can not bowl from round the wicket.
Between spells of rain and another wicket to the credit of Pak umpire (Kallis being given not out - at the worst, it would have made the match interesting), SA marched on thanks to the decision to promote Pollack (I always wonder, how such decisions made by Indians never work but again we are talking about a mindless team with NIL strategy and a sleep walking, energy less spent bunch). Prince was a thorn as usual and India lost it all in no time.

So, it was a tame end from India's point of view. The only positives were Sreesanth's bowling and Dinesh Karthik's energetic keeping and effective batting. The rest were a horrible let down and that includes Sachin. He has to gracefully retire now and move out.

In a shortwhile, India will play another series at home and there might be an odd bright spot but the maladies look deep rooted and the scars have penetrated too far for the confidence to return.