The men in blue have done it again, one may well be forgiven for thinking that the Indian batsmen would have learnt a lesson from their abject failure to optimally utilise the batting power play to their advantage against the Englishmen, well our team did one better against the Proteas and lost four wickets for 22 runs in the batting power play that was inexplicably taken between overs 38 and 43 when both the pitch and pace of the ball off the pitch are at their slowest and run getting more often than not becomes a dicey proposition unless you have two set batsmen at the crease who are going all guns blazing.
One wonders why Messrs Dhoni,Kirsten and the other supposedly wise men did not opt for the bating power play between overs 16 and 20 when the Indian openers had the Protean bowling attack by the scruff of the neck and were literally toying with it, one is sure of the fact that Sehwag would have certainly put the South African bowling to the sword and notched up a further 35-40 runs in the power play that would have made the difference between victory and defeat in the ultimate analysis.
The utter spinelessness,lack of imagination, absence of common cricketing sense and profligacy displayed by the middle and lower middle order Indian batsmen has cedrtainly put paid to the sterling efforts of the top three batsmen Sehwag Tendulkar and Gambhir who not only set up a platform on which the remaining batsmen should have raised an edifice of atleast 370-375 runs but also got their runs at a fair clip thereby ensuring that the rest of the Indian batsmen had both adequate time and overs to tee off and amass a mammoth score that would have taken the wind out of the South African sails.
What can one say about a certain Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, here is a man who has been donning the Indian colours with distinction for the last two decades and more, practically holds every batting record that is worth holding and more, is just one century away from notching up the dream distinction of 100 international hundreds after his sterling exploits of 111 of 103 balls studded with 8 fours and 3 massive sixes against the so called best bowling attack in the world, but one may be forgiven for thinking that the rest of the Indian batsmen apart from Sachin,Sehwag and Gambhir have handed the match on a platter to the South Africans who were baying for blood after their comic batting collapse against the English lions in their last outing.
The only thing that can be said with a degree of certainity is the fact that India have ended up atleast 60 runs short of where they should have been as they had no business collapsing from an imposing score of 267/2 when Tendulkar was dismissed after his imperious knock to a miserable total of 296 all out ,what compounds India's misery is the dubious distinction acahieved by this team of losing their last eight wickets for a paltry 29 runs and their utter failure to use up all the 300 balls at their disposal at the beginning of their innings, their less than sterling bowling and fielding exploits leave little room for hope that this indian team would be able to pull out a rabbit from the hat and record another victory against the marauding South African batsmen at Nagpur's Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
Well incorrigible optimists may say that stranger things have happened in cricket and all is not over until the fat lady sings, the fat lady has already begun clearing her vocal chords as far as I am concerned and may well begun singing with gusto after the twentieth over of the South African innings as the first twenty overs should well be a precursor to India's ultimate fate in this clash that will certainly determine which team will top group B, todays' display has once agin undermined India's potential champions claim and utterly exposed the fraility and spinelessness of the Indian batting line up.
One shudders to think of team India's fate if they run into the mighty Aussies or mercurial Pakistanis at the quarter final stage,will it be a case of Bye!Bye! India thanks for coming, one would certainly hope not if only for the sake of millions of Indian cricket fans who would be desolate,heartbroken and wallowing in the depths of misery if the men in blue were to ignonimously exit the World Cup at the quarter final stage.
Sundeep Chopra.
One wonders why Messrs Dhoni,Kirsten and the other supposedly wise men did not opt for the bating power play between overs 16 and 20 when the Indian openers had the Protean bowling attack by the scruff of the neck and were literally toying with it, one is sure of the fact that Sehwag would have certainly put the South African bowling to the sword and notched up a further 35-40 runs in the power play that would have made the difference between victory and defeat in the ultimate analysis.
The utter spinelessness,lack of imagination, absence of common cricketing sense and profligacy displayed by the middle and lower middle order Indian batsmen has cedrtainly put paid to the sterling efforts of the top three batsmen Sehwag Tendulkar and Gambhir who not only set up a platform on which the remaining batsmen should have raised an edifice of atleast 370-375 runs but also got their runs at a fair clip thereby ensuring that the rest of the Indian batsmen had both adequate time and overs to tee off and amass a mammoth score that would have taken the wind out of the South African sails.
What can one say about a certain Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, here is a man who has been donning the Indian colours with distinction for the last two decades and more, practically holds every batting record that is worth holding and more, is just one century away from notching up the dream distinction of 100 international hundreds after his sterling exploits of 111 of 103 balls studded with 8 fours and 3 massive sixes against the so called best bowling attack in the world, but one may be forgiven for thinking that the rest of the Indian batsmen apart from Sachin,Sehwag and Gambhir have handed the match on a platter to the South Africans who were baying for blood after their comic batting collapse against the English lions in their last outing.
The only thing that can be said with a degree of certainity is the fact that India have ended up atleast 60 runs short of where they should have been as they had no business collapsing from an imposing score of 267/2 when Tendulkar was dismissed after his imperious knock to a miserable total of 296 all out ,what compounds India's misery is the dubious distinction acahieved by this team of losing their last eight wickets for a paltry 29 runs and their utter failure to use up all the 300 balls at their disposal at the beginning of their innings, their less than sterling bowling and fielding exploits leave little room for hope that this indian team would be able to pull out a rabbit from the hat and record another victory against the marauding South African batsmen at Nagpur's Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
Well incorrigible optimists may say that stranger things have happened in cricket and all is not over until the fat lady sings, the fat lady has already begun clearing her vocal chords as far as I am concerned and may well begun singing with gusto after the twentieth over of the South African innings as the first twenty overs should well be a precursor to India's ultimate fate in this clash that will certainly determine which team will top group B, todays' display has once agin undermined India's potential champions claim and utterly exposed the fraility and spinelessness of the Indian batting line up.
One shudders to think of team India's fate if they run into the mighty Aussies or mercurial Pakistanis at the quarter final stage,will it be a case of Bye!Bye! India thanks for coming, one would certainly hope not if only for the sake of millions of Indian cricket fans who would be desolate,heartbroken and wallowing in the depths of misery if the men in blue were to ignonimously exit the World Cup at the quarter final stage.
Sundeep Chopra.
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