Return of "That sinking feeling " !! Srilanka trounces India !!
India ended their world cup campaign exactly at the place where they began - hopeless and clueless. Their last slim hope of survival required them to beat a good SriLankan side but as I had predicted, they were no where in this match or rather mis-match.
The team selection was again wrong and Dravid's continued trust in Agarkar to open the bowling was a disaster. Add the umpiring erros, India was starring at the gun barrel but fortunately Jayasurya got out early and Jayawardene did not click but a new, emerging, confident cricketer (who had earlier got my praise during the last series) emerged - Chamara Silva and he played a steller innings. Indian batsmen, typically stiffen up when they loose early wickets and play as if they are playing fire balls and run in hot coals but Chamara Silva knew no fear and batted freely. His partnerships with Tharanga and Dilshan ensured that the loss of Sangakara did not prove costly. Arnold and Vaas ensured that a 225 score became 255 score but the main culprit for that - Dravid and of course, the highly unimpressive, Bhajji. Harbhajan never looked like taking a wicket in the middle phase and India went to neutral, instead of creating wickets. Dravid was a complete, colossal failure in the manner he placed fielders and in the manner in which he made bowling changes but in the end, 255 was still gettable by any International side but India is not one of them. They are shortly heading to the minnow status and by next cup, I won't be surprised if they go to the qualifying tournament to play along with the likes of Malaysia, Canada, Haiti etc.
When India batted, there was still hope but one could easily observe the Ganguly of the old vintage, He has this uncanny ability to play an innings for himself - he was unable to pierce the field, rotate singles and most important converted certain 3s to a close 1 run. People who normally view proceedings with jaundiced eye, might draw comfort from all the half centuries of his - but believe me, the more I see players playing without a concern for the team, the more I will say that Indian team will go to new unheard of pits. When Uthappa fell to a reflex catch and Ganguly got out (thankfully), it was the turn of Sachin to show the world that he still counts - but Sachin has not played one important innings for several years now (If my memory is right perhaps the last world cup innings against Pak was the last time around), when it matters really - so, it was no surprise that he got out for a zero and the manner in which he got out - bowled neck and crop to Dilhara Fernando of all people- was the last straw. Tendulkar has been a non contributor in anything worthwhile for a long time and now to reward him for the ZERO he got, there are reports that he will be the next captain. Goodness me !!
The real turning point in the match was the wicket of Sehwag, who was foxed by a doosra from a revitalized Murali (It was once again great captaincy by Mahela. When Murali went for a few in the 1st over he bowled, he took him off and introduced him later at an opportune moment. Murali's enthusiastic fielding was appealing and almost infectious, when he took that catch of Saurav). When Yuvaraj got run out, it was all but over and as I had said, Dravid is not capable of playing a Miandad or a Steve Waugh kind of innings, to score this many runs, by himself. In the end, Sri Lanka exposed all the Indian weaknesses - bowling trash in the middle overs, poor fielding and running between the wickets, batsmen with bloated records against minnows and scored in useless circumstances (& patta wickets) and finally a clueless captain, bereft of strategy and execution. The Indian team's body language said it all and they looked as if they were about to be trampled.
So, what lies ahead- I hear that the lobby is out at work to make Sachin as the next captain. I do not think that it is the right step but I am willing to change my stand, if he comes back victorious from Bangladesh (I mean Bangladesh,..the very team, which was considered worst than some of the plate group sides in our Ranji teams, just a few years ago). The victory margin in each victory should be so impressive as the thrashing which West Indies gave back to India, when they toured here after the loss at 1983 WC finals. I will not be satisfied with anything less than sound thrashing but mark my words, the paper tigers, will find a way to survive and cling on to their crores. Indian cricket (and of course the poor Indian millions) will be the loosers.
The team selection was again wrong and Dravid's continued trust in Agarkar to open the bowling was a disaster. Add the umpiring erros, India was starring at the gun barrel but fortunately Jayasurya got out early and Jayawardene did not click but a new, emerging, confident cricketer (who had earlier got my praise during the last series) emerged - Chamara Silva and he played a steller innings. Indian batsmen, typically stiffen up when they loose early wickets and play as if they are playing fire balls and run in hot coals but Chamara Silva knew no fear and batted freely. His partnerships with Tharanga and Dilshan ensured that the loss of Sangakara did not prove costly. Arnold and Vaas ensured that a 225 score became 255 score but the main culprit for that - Dravid and of course, the highly unimpressive, Bhajji. Harbhajan never looked like taking a wicket in the middle phase and India went to neutral, instead of creating wickets. Dravid was a complete, colossal failure in the manner he placed fielders and in the manner in which he made bowling changes but in the end, 255 was still gettable by any International side but India is not one of them. They are shortly heading to the minnow status and by next cup, I won't be surprised if they go to the qualifying tournament to play along with the likes of Malaysia, Canada, Haiti etc.
When India batted, there was still hope but one could easily observe the Ganguly of the old vintage, He has this uncanny ability to play an innings for himself - he was unable to pierce the field, rotate singles and most important converted certain 3s to a close 1 run. People who normally view proceedings with jaundiced eye, might draw comfort from all the half centuries of his - but believe me, the more I see players playing without a concern for the team, the more I will say that Indian team will go to new unheard of pits. When Uthappa fell to a reflex catch and Ganguly got out (thankfully), it was the turn of Sachin to show the world that he still counts - but Sachin has not played one important innings for several years now (If my memory is right perhaps the last world cup innings against Pak was the last time around), when it matters really - so, it was no surprise that he got out for a zero and the manner in which he got out - bowled neck and crop to Dilhara Fernando of all people- was the last straw. Tendulkar has been a non contributor in anything worthwhile for a long time and now to reward him for the ZERO he got, there are reports that he will be the next captain. Goodness me !!
The real turning point in the match was the wicket of Sehwag, who was foxed by a doosra from a revitalized Murali (It was once again great captaincy by Mahela. When Murali went for a few in the 1st over he bowled, he took him off and introduced him later at an opportune moment. Murali's enthusiastic fielding was appealing and almost infectious, when he took that catch of Saurav). When Yuvaraj got run out, it was all but over and as I had said, Dravid is not capable of playing a Miandad or a Steve Waugh kind of innings, to score this many runs, by himself. In the end, Sri Lanka exposed all the Indian weaknesses - bowling trash in the middle overs, poor fielding and running between the wickets, batsmen with bloated records against minnows and scored in useless circumstances (& patta wickets) and finally a clueless captain, bereft of strategy and execution. The Indian team's body language said it all and they looked as if they were about to be trampled.
So, what lies ahead- I hear that the lobby is out at work to make Sachin as the next captain. I do not think that it is the right step but I am willing to change my stand, if he comes back victorious from Bangladesh (I mean Bangladesh,..the very team, which was considered worst than some of the plate group sides in our Ranji teams, just a few years ago). The victory margin in each victory should be so impressive as the thrashing which West Indies gave back to India, when they toured here after the loss at 1983 WC finals. I will not be satisfied with anything less than sound thrashing but mark my words, the paper tigers, will find a way to survive and cling on to their crores. Indian cricket (and of course the poor Indian millions) will be the loosers.
posted by Crick_Love at 10:37 PM
4 Comments:
When will India take a decission similar to the one took by South Africa after their 2003 WC campaign?
For SA it was a disaster: Even more than the current Indian team's crap as the WC was played in their home soil. They took a bold decission of replacing the Captain with a relatively new chap, Greame Smith.
After 4 years I guess that worked in the best possible way for them.
Will India ever take such a decission? Will the So-Called ex captains guild play under a relatively in-experienced fellow?
I have my doubts.
If I were in the selection meeting, I will pick Mohammad Kaif or even a Venugopal Rao as the captain and see whether that improves the over all confidence. Even a Yuvraj can be the captain for he looks to be the only complete player in the Indian ranks.
Sack Sourav, Sachin and even Bhajji. I will retain Rahul until Kaif or a Venu Rao finds his feet again in the team. Once that happens it will be a good bye to Rahul.
Thinking about Sachin as the next Captain will a step in the wrong direction. This will plunge Indian Cricket 10 years behind where they are now.
But with a storng Mumbai (read West) Lobby in the Board I doubt whether this is going to happen.
GOD save indian cricket.
There is so much inane nonsense in the cobwebs of BCCI..they can never dream up in anything like that. SA took a very bold step but such measures are rare in the annals of Indian cricket. The last time around when such a thing was done was to make Ajit Wadekar as captain or a Lala Amarnath preparing a strong Kanpur pitch that had slope on one side so as to fool the mighty Aussies. These are of course very rare and few. I had closely observed Vegsarkar over his years as batsmen. He was not an exciting player and never known for anything brave in terms of an idea. Agreed, he had a gorgeous cover drive but that is that ..nothing more. What do you expect from him?
I guess it was in the year 1996: SRT was the Indian sikpper then. We had a disastrous trip to Sharjah and I remember Md Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were run out running for a non existing run.
The media was screaming and speculating sabotage. However the next announcement from BCCI top ring was the appointment of Md Azharuddin as the Indian Captain for a tour to Bangladesh to play the Independece Cup.
As expected India won the finals by beating Pakistan, and Md Azharuddin was since made Skipper until the year 2000 when the ugly match fixing scandle cropped up.
We are in the same direction I guess.
I suspect all is not well between Rahul and Sourav. Probably some kind of division within the team.
Probably Rahul wasn't happy with Sourav's strike rate in the first 2 matches of the world cup against Bangladesh and Bermuda.
Rahul is a very thinking captain but somewhere lost the plot in the lead up to the world cup. He started up with a bang, but some what faded down probably because the team wasn't performing. And that one Sourav Ganguly returned to the Indian Colours only made matters worse.
Would you believe Sri Lanka had a similar saga as the Sourav's?
Yeah they did have with Sanat Jayasurya announcing resignation from Test Cricket. Later it was brought to light that his resignation was a forced one and when the Selection changed guard, Ashanta De Mel, the current selection committee chairman openly pledged support to Sanat.
This didn't go well with the team management.
But look at where they are. I guess they treat team more than individuals but it is the opposite with the Indians. We treat individuals more than the team.
Take the case of Marvan Atapattu. He, on any given day is a better bat than Russel Arnold. But Srilanka persists with Arnold because they believe the No 7 position is better suited for Arnold than Atapattu.
Imaging this happening in India. Say a Sourav being left out for a Raina. We, by now know what will happen in this case.
No one can save Indian Cricket. Not even Greg Chappell.
Cheers
PG
GC's revealing SMS.
Well whatz ur take on that.
I feel, GC is taking responsiblity without having enough power which is very bad.I also feel that this is a divided team. I guess the SG and RD factions are pulling team in different directions. The benificary of course the rest of cricketing world.
At the same time, the rest (read BCCI) are having power without responsiblity which is equally destructive.
I feel it is time we have football style coach for Indian Cricket. We need chaps who are accountable for their actions.
I don't know when this is going to happen in Indian cricket. Probably never
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