Slaughter of Innocents !!

Dravid had at last something to smile about when the Indian team went to amaze a new record high score against of a bunch of amateur cricketers from Bermuda. I will start with the positives (for once) - The margin of victory was not bad and almost every batsmen, except Uthappa had some good net practice. Does this mean that, Viru had redeemed himself - I doubt it; at the minimum, he did not embarrass himself & Dravid any further. To be fair, the bowling was quite friendly, laced with a liberal doze of wides and in general, the match had an air of club level cricket.
India would not have reached the 413 score, if the 3rd umpire had not got into a benevolent mood by declaring Yuvaraj not out, when he his foot was clearly on the line, in a stumping attempt. Yuvi's 6s over midwicket ensured that the amount of dot balls wasted by Ganguly (what is the matter with him - in the last 2 matches, he is scoring way too slowly and simply unable to rotate the strike) did not prove costly. Sachin played a decent innings and the 413 score looked daunting enough for everyone Dravid to go out and do an all out attack.
But alas, Dravid somehow had this notion that Bermuda will copy South Africa and chase this 413. He employed conservative field and asked listless Agarkar to open the bowling (whereas Munaf should have opened and knocked the stuffing out of Bermuda or Sreesanth should have played instead of unimpressive Agarkar. Against minnows, all you need is a fast delivery on the stumps, rather than the wasted outside the stumps deliveries of Agarkar at medium pace). Dravid also failed to attack through field placement and at times did not even have a slip. He left the game to linger around, whereas with a bit of proactive captaincy, Bermuda should have got folded for a sub 100 score.
All this may not matter in the end, since India still have got to beat Srilanka and if they have to do that, here are my tips :

• Contain Jayasurya. Give him no width at all outside the offstump.
• Be wary of a fightback from the likes of Sangakara/Chamara Silva and lower order bats like Arnold. Dilshan and even Maharoof.
• Knock the stuffing out of Malinga in the 1st spell. His 2nd spell can be lethal since he has got the ability to bowl toe crushing yorkers and lower order can not handle it at all. He is a genuine wicket taker, especially against Indian tail, which has had no practice at all and has not contributed to anything worthwhile for a long long time.
• Vass has to be hit for runs and Ganguly should target him without getting bogged down, the way he has been in the last 2 matches. It is worth pursuing Uthappa and he has to take care of Malinga's short ball offerings and keep out the yorkers.
  
• Finally, keep Murali out but at the same time, milk him for a safe 5 an over.
• If India gets to bat first, they must score nothing less than 275+ and if they have to bowl first, they should see that, they do not chase anything beyond 215.
  

A lot can go wrong but at the minimum, India has lived to fight for another day.