DLF Cup - As seen through my eyes....(India -Vs- Australia played on 22-Sep-06)

After bowling out Aussies for a paltry total of 213,every one would have assumed that it would be a cakewalk for the Indians. I guess its high time the pathetic tag be removed from the Lankans…though they deserve to be called so, but I feel Indians with there display of cricket have the full rights to be called Pathetic.

I wont go into the detail of the Aussies innings, though would give credit to the innings of Matthew Hayden, who was looking ominous for more runs. He was fluent as ever and was striking the ball hard and clean. He was eventually run out, Indians need to than their stars and Damien Martyn (I don’t understand why are Aussies are persevering with this guy who is a misfit in this team…so is Simon Katich, I guess both cant carry for long)

Coming back to the Indian Innings, I guess sanity prevailed after a long time and our captain decided to send his deputy to open the innings. The innings began well for India, with Viru striking the ball well. It was nice and heartening to see Viru take first strike and play the way he used to. The face-off between the Master Blaster and the lanky fast bowler McGrath began in the second over of the match. The first ball bowled was short in length and the Master decide to pull the ball towards midwicket, but was early with his short and was hit on his right shoulder. The ball ballooned in the air after ricocheting with his shoulder and Haddin takes a simple catch. All appeal and the Umpire gives the Master out. Sachin shows dissatisfaction and when he was walking back towards the pavilion, the umpire see’s the replay on the giant screen and then recalls Sachin (finally a good use of the screen has been made, the first of its kind. Sachin again becoming the First Player to get the verdict, I guess).

According to Law 27.9,an umpire can alter his decision and so by the law he recalled Sachin.There was a heated verbal discussion between the umpire and Ponting, but then McGrath the bowler didn’t argue (to my surprise, I guess he has become wiser with age). Sachin played that over rather cautiously and left most of the deliveries. But the storm was to awaiting at other end. Lee was bowling superbly and was bowling FAST; I mean real FAST.I guess Sachin was not happy to continue batting as he was given out earlier and only resumed batting on a recall. My only question here is had it been Munaf Patel or any of the lesser batsman, would the recall have been made…with no fault of Sachin? As I mentioned earlier that Lee was looking dangerous and Sachin succumbed to a delivery, which was way out-side the off stump and he guided the ball to the point fielder (Hussey), who gleefully accepted the catch.

As Sachin departed, walked in Md.Kaif…now I don’t understand the thinking of our captain. He should had been there to face the music, when the bowling and weather were both hostile, but what we see is a not inform Kaif walking in. Kaif not even settled down, when Lee produced another peach of a delivery rattling the furniture of Sehwag.Sehwag being bowled too many times for his own good. Getting through the defense of an opener is the most satisfying a bowler can think of.

In came the Wall to give company to Md.Kaif. Both of them cautiously playing McGrath and Lee. McGrath was not at his best and was bowling on either side of the wickets. I guess our batter’s did not take advantage of it and were letting McGrath settle down, which is a disastrous thing to do.

Dravid was playing slowly, which didn’t help to India’s chances of winning the match. As Sunny Gavaskar most often says, if the opponents are on the mat, we should try to keep them there and not give a sniff of chance to recover. But this simple thing was not followed and The Wall fell to Clark, who was the same bowler who was hammered all around the park in the earlier matches. Things looked good for India when Raina joined Kaif, with Raina showing aggression and trying to take the attack to the opposition. He slammed a wonderful straight six. He is batsman with good promise, but I guess this new brand of cricketer’s only show promise and never deliver when the going gets tough. These players should realize that’s its no point making these 20’s and 30’s and if they are not able to convert these starts into hundred’s then there is something terribly wrong with our selection policies. That’s the reason I advocate the inclusion of a former captain into the team as he used to win you matches on his own. How many of match winners do we have in the current team barring Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj? With all due respect to Dravid, he cannot win you matches on his own and that’s a hard reality. I agree to the fact that he is the best batsman, may be in this universe, but unless you dominate attacks you cannot win one day matches.

Kaif and Raina departed in quick succession and left India reeling and staring at defeat. Mongia making a comeback into international cricket after a gap of 18 months started his innings with élan and was looking comfortable and gave an impression that he was never out of this side. His play of the back foot and some of his drives was a treat to the eyes. Meanwhile the axe man Dhoni joined Mongia and both played aggressively and everyone would have believed that these two young guns would win the day for India.Dhoni, was in his usual self and with his unique technique scored freely. He smashed a straight six and things looked better for India and not to good for the Aussies. Ponting then made his move by brining back his best bowler of the day in the form of Lee. Lee eventually removed Dhoni with a short ball outside the off stump, which Dhoni upper cut it straight to the point boundary, though the replay showed that the ball was a no ball. With Dhoni gone all the responsibility was on the shoulders of Mongia, who was playing well, but he didn’t get the support from the other end. Agarkar gone, Harbhajan given out and rest followed them to the pavilion leaving Mongia stranded on 63.Indians fell short by 18 runs and thereby do not qualify for the finals.

Kapil Dev, one of the commentator gave a good difference between a good and a great player, being that a great player would finish the match for the side where as the rest would not bother about result and give good performance. Can’t blame Mongia though, as he was on a comeback mission and he succeeded with both the ball and the bat, a good all-round performance.

Our planning was not good enough I guess. Firslty shuffling with the batting order is not helping things, as players never know which position they are expected to bat. I feel cricket is a simple game and keeping it as simple as possible would be the best thing for Indian cricket. I would like to ask what pre season condition camp conducted for the players in Bangalore and Chennai were conducted? I heard some commando training was imparted on the players, to make them tough. I don’t see any results…do you?

Aussies are on a roll and are the favorites not only for this tournament, but also for the Champions Trophy and the World Cup.

-GAG